As anyone involved in litigation will tell you, violations of labor laws have never been cheap. But they are now more expensive than ever. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently increased penalties for a variety of violations, which became effective on January 2, 2018.

The Obama Administration issued new regulations about overtime that were to take effect on December 1, 2016. Just before they were to take effect, a U.S. district court in Texas enjoined the regulations. So since about December 1, 2016, employers have been in legal limbo about what’s going to happen.

In 2016, the Obama administration issued a new overtime rule. The rule was set to take effect on December 1, 2016. But in November 2016, a Federal district judge enjoined the enforcement of the rule. In December, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) appealed the district judge’s injunction to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

On May 2, 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow employees to be compensated for overtime with compensatory time, more often referred to as “comp time.” The bill was introduced by Representative Martha Roby, a Republican who represents Alabama’s second Congressional district. The second Congressional district is composed of Montgomery County and most of southeast Alabama.

On December 1, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) filed a notice of appeal in Nevada v. U.S. Department of Labor. The appeal comes as a result of a U.S. District Court in Texas issuing a nationwide injunction against the DOL’s new overtime rules that were to go into effect on December 1. The appeal was filed in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (docket number 16-41606).