The Department considered several alternatives for setting the standard salary level to determine which method would work most effectively with the current duties test to effectively distinguish between overtime-eligible white collar employees and those who are bona fide EAP employees. Because the Department decided not to revise the current standard duties test, it set a salary threshold at a level reflective of employees who historically have received overtime protections from those who have not. Specifically, because the current standard duties test is substantially similar to the former "short" duties test, which before 2004 had been associated with a higher salary threshold, the Department looked at the historical ratios between the short and long test salary levels in order to assure that we restored the historical relationship between having a less rigorous duties test and an appropriately high salary threshold. The Department set the standard salary level at the 40th percentile of weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest wage Census Region (currently the South), because it was at the low end of the historical range of short test salary ratios and would be appropriate across all areas and industries. The new salary amount will be $913 per week (which is $47,476 annually for a full-year worker) when this Final Rule takes effect on December 1, 2016.   _{Your Comment}