“The Labor Department’s final overtime rule is welcome news for the millions of American workers who are working longer hours, yet are still struggling to get by”, DeLauro said.
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Employers have some options: They can pay workers time-and-a-half for any time over 40 hours a week, limit an employee’s hours to 40 a week, raise an employee’s salary to above the threshold, or a combination of the above.
“If people can’t manage the hours, the cost of doing business is going to go up, and that cost is going to be past onto the consumers that use those businesses”, said David Black, president and CEO of the Harrisburg Regional Chamber and CREDC.
The Obama Administration is making sure workers get paid for the hours they work by issuing a new overtime rule.
The National Retail Federation says only about one-tenth of salaried workers who work overtime would likely receive raises high enough to lift them above the $47,500 threshold, which would exempt them from overtime pay. “Is it going to hurt anyone you know maybe as far as your tax returns or things like that, it put you in a different bracket”, ECU employee Colleen Roland said. The new policy raises that threshold to $47,476, affecting some 4.2 million people.
Mayor de Blasio also welcomed the new rules. “Many salaried workers have been reclassified to hourly and they will be kept at 40 hours”. Enzi is a cosponsor of the Protecting Workplace Advancement and Opportunity Act, S. 2707, which would stop the new overtime rule and require any future changes to be based on comprehensive economic analysis of the potential economic impact.
Officials said many workers will earn more money, an estimated total of $12 billion over the next decade, while others will work fewer hours for the same pay.
Perez explained, “For us, what it does is fortifies the basic pillars of worker protection, which is middle class jobs should pay middle class wages and when you work extra, you should be paid extra”. Some employers, though, might choose to reduce their employees’ hours to avoid paying overtime, thereby making the workers’ schedules more consistent.
“Most of the people impacted by this change will not see any additional pay”, French continued.
Black said many state workers would fall into this category.
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The change is expected to make 140,000 Ohioans eligible for overtime pay.
