FLSA Minimum Salary Update Effective July 1, 2024

The U.S. Department of Labor issued new rules on April 23, 2024 governing minimum salary thresholds and overtime pay for employees across the country. These revisions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will increase the minimum salary from the current amount of $35,568 to $43,888 ($844/week) starting July 1, 2024. This rate is expected to increase again to $58,656 ($1,128/week) on January 1, 2025. These changes will impact the University as well as most employers in the United States.

Officers of Instruction are generally exempt from these regulations. This change in the FLSA minimum does not affect how full-time Officers of Research are compensated since they will continue to abide by the minimum salary set by the provost, which is above the FLSA minimum. The provost website has more information on the provost salary guidelines.

The academic population impacted by the change in the FLSA minimum is the part-time Officers of Research and Officers of the Libraries who earn less than $844 per week or are currently anticipated to earn less than $43,888 annually as of July 1, 2024.

Staff from the Office of the Provost, General Counsel, Finance, Research Administration, and Human Resources are currently working to develop policies that will enable the University to remain in compliance with all wage and hour laws, including the new regulations. We currently foresee that each PI will be able to consider two paths forward in compensating each affected part-time Officer of Research:

1. Compensate the part-time Officer of Research at the FLSA minimum, which will be $43,888 ($844/week) as of July 1, 2024. The University defines part-time as working less than 18 hours per week.
2. Convert the part-time Officer of Research who earn less than $844 per week to a new employment category – Hourly Officers. Researchers in this new category will be required to submit timesheets on a bi-weekly basis. Instructions on how to manage and submit timesheets will be forthcoming.  

Hourly Officers will be converted to the bi-weekly pay cycle and will be paid every other Friday. Tentatively, this change will be effective mid-July. Individuals would receive their regular semi-monthly check on July 15th, and their first bi-weekly check on Friday, July 31, 2024.

For questions, speak first to your departmental administrator. For information about appointments, on the Morningside campus, please contact Carmen DeLeon, Associate Provost for Academic Appointments ([email protected]) or Zeid Sitnica, Associate Provost for Academic Appointments ([email protected]).

For information about appointments at CUIMC, please contact Lenny Ruiz, Senior Executive Director, CUIMC Payroll Service Center ([email protected]) or Dionida Ryce, Assistant Vice President for Academic Appointments and Professionalism ([email protected]).