The Department of Labor issued the long-anticipated final overtime rule May 18 and included an exempt employee threshold of $47,476—less than the proposed rule’s $50,440 but slightly more than double the old threshold of $23,660. The impact of the increase will escalate in coming years; the rule included a hike every three years in the minimum salary for exempt employees. The automatic increase will be based on the 40th percentile of the weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage Census region, the South. Employers must comply with the new rule by Dec. 1, 2016—a much longer time to comply than the minimum 60 days required of final rules.