John Stanton, one of the Washington, DC attorneys handling that case, has written a law review article covering the entire matter of discrimination under the Fair Housing Act, as amended, and the rights of disabled individuals. In 1994, Robert L. Schonfeld, Esq. and Seth P. Stein, Esq. [currently with Moritt Hock Hamroff & Horowitz LLP, Garden City, NY] writing in the Fordham Urban Law Journal, Vol. XXI, set forth one of the best analysis of the 1988 Amendments of the Federal Fair Housing Act  – particularly in how the Amendments extended its protections to the disabled as individuals and how the amendments incorporate reasonable accommodation standards. While the article was published a few months before the Supreme Court decided City of Edmonds, WA v. Oxford House, Inc., the Court’s decision is consistent with the reasoning and conclusions of Schonfeld and Stein. The charter of each Oxford House requires that an Oxford House meet certain minimum requirements of Oxford House, Inc. First of all, no Oxford House may permit individuals to remain as members if those individuals are drinking or using drugs.

A. Updating the Standard Salary Level and Total Annual Compensation Threshold

As shown in Figure 2 above, 8.1 million of the 53.5 million salaried white-collar workers are in named occupations and will not be affected by a change in the earnings requirements. The Department also estimates that of the remaining 45.4 million salaried white-collar workers, about 12.7 million earn below the Department’s new standard salary level of $1,128 per week and about 32.7 million earn above the Department’s new salary level. Thus, approximately 28 percent of salaried white-collar employees earn below the new salary level, whereas approximately 72 percent of salaried white-collar employees earn above the salary level and will have their exemption status turn on their job duties. The Department did not specifically request comment on delaying the effective date of the proposed HCE compensation threshold beyond 60 days or on making an initial update using current data and the existing HCE compensation methodology if it were to delay the effective date of the new total annual compensation threshold. The Department stated that it believed a 60-day effective date was appropriate for the proposed increase to the HCE compensation threshold because only a relatively small number of employees earning between the current and proposed HCE compensation thresholds would not meet the standard duties test and be affected by the proposed change.

Figure 10—10-Year Projected Number of Affected Workers in Small Entities, and Associated Costs and Payroll Increases

It also acts as the coordinating body to help individual houses to organize mutually supportive chapters. Through chapters individual houses are able to share their experience, strength and hope with each other to assure compliance with the Oxford House concept and its respected standardized system of operations. Failure to adhere to any of these three requirements would bring the entire Oxford House concept into question. Therefore, it is important that each Oxford House meet these minimum responsibilities in order for its charter to be continued.

• The current HCE annual compensation level is $107,432, including at least $684 per week paid on a salary or fee basis.
• Reapplying the 2019 methodology (annualized weekly earnings of the 80th percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally) to current earnings data would result in a threshold of $132,964 per year—a 24 percent increase over the current threshold of $107,432.
• The four travelled out of town to a 12-step meeting, where Kelley purchased drugs from an acquaintance.
• This was the purpose of the first Oxford House established in 1975, and this purpose is served, day by day, house after house, in each of over 2000 houses in the United States today.

Table 22—Potentially Affected and Affected Workers, by Industry, Year 1

We were not only dependent upon alcohol and/or drugs, but were also dependent on many others for continuing our alcoholic and/or drug addicted ways. For those of us who had been in institutions or half-way houses, resentments against authority were common. Initially, the structure and supervision of such facilities were acceptable because physically and mentally, we were exhausted. Later, some of us were to move into half-way houses which provided shelter, food, and supervision. As our recovery progressed, the supervision and dependency on a half-way house created dissatisfaction.

At the new standard salary level, the Department estimated that 19,900 affected EAP workers will, on average, see an hourly wage increase of $1.57, work 2.1 fewer hours per week and receive an increase in weekly earnings of $84.73 as a result of coverage by the minimum wage provisions (Table 11). The total change in weekly earnings due to the payment of the minimum wage was estimated to be $1.7 million per week ($84.73 × 19,900) or $87.5 million in Year 1. Without a higher salary short test, however, all employees who met the standard salary level were subject to the same duties test.

• Once the resident gains a solid foundation, they will transition to less structured or basic sober living.
• This rule provides no differing compliance requirements and reporting requirements for small entities.
• For all future triennial updates, the Department will publish a notice with the revised salary and annual compensation thresholds not fewer than 150 days before the new thresholds are set to take effect.
• The industries with the largest transfers and costs as a percent of revenue will be education; leisure and hospitality; and professional and business services.

The Department estimated that in 2026, after three updates over 10 years, the salary level as set in the final rule (based on weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers in the South) could be approximately 2.5 percent higher than expected due to this effect. Furthermore, the Department believes its estimate is an overestimate because it assumed employers convert all Type 2 and Type 3 workers to hourly status, which, for the reasons discussed above and in section V.A.3.iii of the preamble, the Department believes is a highly unlikely outcome. The Department did not replicate this analysis for the salary level increase in the 2019 final rule, because the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic make it difficult to compare periods before and after the effective date of the 2019 final rule and isolate the effect of the rule. The Department recognizes that many commenters found the proposed methodology conservative, or overly conservative, with some commenters urging the Department to select a methodology that produces a higher salary level. Repeating the 2016 rule methodology, as some commenters requested, by setting the salary level at the 40th percentile of weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage Census Region would further reduce the impact of the move to a one-test system on lower-paid white-collar employees who perform significant amounts of nonexempt work.

• Upon consideration of the comments received, the Department is finalizing the severability provision in § 541.5 as proposed, with an additional sentence to further clarify its intent.
• These houses are even more problematic because it is almost impossible for providers to determine the health of the house.
• Repayment from those start-up loans assures the continuation of the revolving fund to enable other new houses to get started — just as repayment of loans to chapters permits the same resources to be used again and again.
• Through chapters individual houses are able to share their experience, strength and hope with each other to assure compliance with the Oxford House concept and its respected standardized system of operations.

At the same time, by setting it well below the equivalent of the short test salary level (using current data), the rule will allow employers to continue to use the exemption for many lower paid white-collar employees who were made exempt under the 2004 standard duties test. The new salary level will also more reasonably distribute between employees and their employers what the Department now understands to be the impact of the shift from a two-test to a one-test system on employees earning between the long and short test salary levels. In its three most recent part 541 rulemakings, the Department has expressed its commitment to keeping the earnings thresholds up to date to ensure that they remain effective in helping differentiate between exempt and nonexempt employees.

(4) Where the annual period covers periods during which multiple total annual compensation levels apply, the amount of total annual compensation due will be determined on a proportional basis. The Department estimates that the final rule will result in Year 1 costs to the private sector of approximately $2.7 billion, of which $1.3 billion are direct employer costs and $1.4 billion are payroll increases. Both transfers and costs will be the largest in the professional and business services industry because this industry is large and heavily composed of salaried white-collar workers (Table 23). Combined, in Year 1, these total $564.7 million and represent 19.2 percent of nationwide transfers and costs. Transfers and costs are also large in the healthcare and social services industry, at least partially due to the large size of this industry. However, transfers per affected worker will be relatively low in this industry, $229 in the first year compared with $348 nationally.

Table 32—Year 1 Small Establishment Direct Costs, Total and per Establishment, by Industry and Employer Type

Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous provided a framework for us to change physically, mentally, and spiritually. The degree to which we were able to successfully change our lives had a direct relationship to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Many of us soon learned, however, that living alone or living among our old drinking companions made it more difficult to practice the principles necessary for oxford house traditions continued sobriety. A representative of each House in the Chapter meets with the others on a monthly basis, to exchange information, to seek resolution of problems in a particular House, and to express that Chapter’s vote on larger issues. This was the purpose of the first Oxford House established in 1975, and this purpose is served, day by day, house after house, in each of over 2000 houses in the United States today.