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.
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The rule increases the salary threshold below which most white-collar, salaried workers are entitled to overtime from the current $455 per week (or $23,660 for a full-year worker) to $913 per week (or $47,476 for a full-year worker), according to a Department of Labor media release. That would make 4.2 million salaries workers eligible for overtime pay. The rule change is expected to boost wages by $12 billion over the next decade.
Business groups argue that the rule will raise compliance costs and paperwork because companies will have to track workers’ hours more meticulously. The business in Plains Township not only has some salaried employees still below the new threshold but it’s a staffing business, so it works with other businesses that will also have to adapt to this updated federal rule. “It encourages employers to hire more people”.
Q. If I get paid a salary rather than an hourly wage, does that mean I won’t be eligible for overtime if I earn more than $47,476? She said she recently left a nonprofit job in the Atlanta area making $31,000 a year, and where she averaged about 50 hours a week without overtime. “While the threshold is lower than originally proposed, it is still high enough to impact many employees, resulting in more hourly employees and fewer salaried positions”.
The new rule could affect people like Joanna Simmons, of Scottdale, Georgia, who now works as an administrative assistant.
“I was looking into this probably upwards of a month to two months ago”, said Bern, “and had some discussions with my management team”.
“Having worked for companies and been the salaried employee that’s working 60, 70, 80 hours a week, I can fully understand. That isn’t right”, says U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. Some will see more money in their pockets… It takes effect December 1.
The new rule can be accomplished by raising the overtime salary threshold.
This is the very problem that the Obama administration has said it wants to address by updating the overtime rule.
In other words, the law will provide overtime protection to employees who earn less than the new threshold, even if they are called exempt, or salaried, workers. Some employers, though, might choose to reduce their employees’ additional hours to avoid paying overtime, thereby making the workers’ schedules more consistent.
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The Southeast will disproportionately feel the effects of the new rule because wages are lower here, Wright said.
