Kathryn Brown – UpdateED

What Schools Should Know About Hairstyle Anti-Discrimination Laws

With school back in session, one of the many topics for schools and school districts to keep top of mind is the expanding reach of the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (“CROWN”) Act.

The CROWN Act recognizes that hair texture and hairstyle have racial, ethnic and cultural significance. While efforts to pass the CROWN Act on a federal level have stalled, more and more states are passing laws to ban hairstyle discrimination in school, work and public settings. As a result of these state legislative efforts, a growing number of schools must abide legal restrictions designed to ensure that a student’s hairstyle choice does not impede their educational experience.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced on April 23, 2024 a significant expansion to overtime eligibility via the Final Rule: Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees. The Final Rule increases the minimum salary level applicable to the overtime exemptions for executive, administrative and professional (EAP) employees for federal law purposes under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), but does not change the salary basis or duties components of exempt status.

The Final Rule largely tracks the changes announced in the DOL’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on September 8, 2023. This post focuses on the impact of the Final Rule to the education sector. For a more comprehensive analysis of the Final Rule as applicable to employers in all sectors, including assessment of the potential for legal challenges to the Final Rule, see the Alert Duane Morris published. Continue reading “DOL Raises the Threshold Salary for Exempt Status Under the FLSA: What the Overtime Expansion Means for the Education Sector”

Tag: Kathryn Brown

The CROWN Act in the Classroom:

DOL Raises the Threshold Salary for Exempt Status Under the FLSA: What the Overtime Expansion Means for the Education Sector