Pub. 10 2020 Issue 1

10 AUTOMOBILE DEALER NEWS ILLINOIS www.illinoisdealers.com COUNSELOR’SCORNER New Illinois and Federal Employment-Related Laws Impacting Dealers – Make Certain to Update Company Practices and Policies By Julie A. Cardosi, Law Office of Julie A. Cardosi, P.C., I llinois welcomed the dawn of the 2020 decade with a host of new state and federal laws impacting Illinois businesses, including dealerships. Elected Illinois officials were busy last year enacting new sets of requirements effective Jan. 1, 2020 that impact Illinois dealers as employers. This is in addition to a multitude of new Illinois taxes and fee increases effective Jan. 1 impacting dealership customers in areas of registration, park- ing, gas and selling their vehicles. Apart from the doubling of the gas tax, dealership customers face fee increases for standard and electric vehicles and a $10,000 cap on tax credits for their trade- ins. In fact, for 2020, there are a reported 250 new taxes. Below is a sampling of some of these new laws. The list is not exhaustive; however, dealers are urged to consult with their private attorneys to ensure their compliance. Dealers who have not updated their employment practices and policies to address these new laws should do so posthaste. US Department of Labor Changes Overtime Exemption The number of “Executive, Administrative and Professional” employees and “Highly Compensated” employees who qualify for overtime pay changed as of Jan. 1st. Previously, certain executive, administrative, professional and computer employees (EAP employees), including managers and assistant managers, among other employees, who earned more than $455 per week ($23,660 per year) were not entitled to overtime compensation for work in excess of 40 hours per week. Under the change, EAP employees are not exempt from overtime compensation unless they earn at least $684 per week ($35,568 per year), and the overtime exemption changed for “highly compensated employees,” raising the salary threshold from $100,000 per year to $107,432 per year. Dealership pay