Sep 26, 2019, 1:45 PM
(From The New York Times) The Labor Department has just finalized a rule expanding overtime pay eligibility to up to 1.3 million workers, which is scheduled to take effect on Jan 1, 2020. Under the new rule, most salaried workers who earn less than about $35,500 per year will be eligible for time-and-a-half overtime pay, up from the current threshold of about $23,700. Additionally, salaried workers who make more than the legal threshold can also be eligible for overtime pay if they lack substantial decision-making authority.
In 2016, the Obama administration raised the threshold considerably higher in an effort to cover millions more workers, but federal judge invalidated the rule, which never took effect. A recent analysis revealed that the new Trump rule would yield workers $300 to $600 million per year in wage increases over the next decade, an average of about $1 billion per year less than the wage gains that the Obama rule would have produced, according to estimates by Heidi Shierholz, a former Labor Department chief economist. While many employers and business groups have applauded the Trump threshold, Shierholz argues it leaves behind millions of workers who would have received overtime protects under the much stronger Obama administration threshold.
More at The New York Times.
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