Just Politics

[jbsliverer]

BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION FINALIZES RULE TO INCREASE COMPENSATION THRESHOLDS FOR OVERTIME ELIGIBILITY, EXPANDING PROTECTIONS FOR MILLIONS OF WORKERS
Rule ensures salaried workers making less than $58,656 receive fair pay for long hours
https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20240423-0

WASHINGTON – The Biden-Harris administration today announced a final rule that expands overtime protections for millions of the nation’s lower-paid salaried workers by increasing the salary thresholds required to exempt a salaried bona fide executive, administrative or professional employee from federal overtime pay requirements.

Effective July 1, 2024, the salary threshold will increase to the equivalent of an annual salary of $43,888 and increase to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. The July 1 increase updates the present annual salary threshold of $35,568 based on the methodology used by the prior administration in the 2019 overtime rule update. On Jan. 1, 2025, the rule’s new methodology takes effect, resulting in the additional increase. In addition, the rule will adjust the threshold for highly compensated employees. Starting July 1, 2027, salary thresholds will update every three years, by applying up-to-date wage data to determine new salary levels.

“This rule will restore the promise to workers that if you work more than 40 hours in a week, you should be paid more for that time,” said Acting Secretary Julie Su. “Too often, lower-paid salaried workers are doing the same job as their hourly counterparts but are spending more time away from their families for no additional pay. That is unacceptable. The Biden-Harris administration is following through on our promise to raise the bar for workers who help lay the foundation for our economic prosperity.”

The department conducted extensive engagement with employers, workers, unions and other stakeholders before issuing its proposed rule in September 2023, and considered more than 33,000 comments in developing its final rule. The updated rule defines and delimits who is a bona fide executive, administrative and professional employee exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime protections.

“The Department of Labor is ensuring that lower-paid salaried workers receive their hard-earned pay or get much-deserved time back with their families,” said Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman. “This rule establishes clear, predictable guidance for employers on how to pay employees for overtime hours and provides more economic security to the millions of people working long hours without overtime pay.”

Key provisions of the final rule include the following:

Expanding overtime protections to lower-paid salaried workers.
Giving more workers pay or valuable time back with their family: By better identifying which employees are executive, administrative or professional employees who should be overtime exempt, the final rule ensures that those employees who are not exempt receive time-and-a-half pay when working more than 40 hours in a week or gain more time with their families.
Providing for regular updates to ensure predictability. The rule establishes regular updates to the salary thresholds every three years to reflect changes in earnings. This protects future erosion of overtime protections so that they do not become less effective over time.
The rule’s effective date is July 1, 2024. Learn more about the department’s efforts to restore and extend overtime protections.

Agency Wage and Hour Division
Date April 23, 2024
Release Number 24-717-NAT
Media Contact: Jake Andrejat
Phone Number 202-693-6139
Email [e-mail]

__________________________________________________________________________

The Department of Labor Just Gave Millions of Workers Overtime Pay
If you make under $58,656, you will soon be entitled to overtime.
https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/the-department-of-labor-just-gave
APR 23, 2024
By Paul Blest, More Perfect Union

Millions of U.S. workers are newly eligible to be paid time-and-a-half for working overtime under a rule finalized today by the Biden administration.

The Department of Labor’s new rule expands the threshold for mandatory overtime to all salaried workers making up to $58,656 per year who work more than 40 hours a week. Under the previous rule, employers were only required to pay overtime to certain workers making up to $35,568—well below the median U.S. salary.

The updated threshold, proposed last year, will expand overtime eligibility to more than 3.5 million more workers. Effective July 1, 2024, the salary threshold will increase to $43,888 and again to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. The rule also requires that salary thresholds be automatically updated every three years based on up-to-date wage data.

The updated rule also eliminates a loophole by covering managers and supervisors. Under the previous standard, employers could avoid paying overtime wages by giving lower-level workers fraudulent supervisorial titles like “carpet shampoo manager” or “lead shower door installer.” A study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that companies used this tactic to avoid $4 billion in overtime payments.


The Biden administration is attempting to reverse a decades-long shift away from overtime protections. As recently as 1975, more than 60 percent of the American workforce was eligible for time-and-a-half; as of 2022, that number was down to around 13 percent.

“This rule will restore the promise to workers that if you work more than 40 hours in a week, you should be paid more for that time,” Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said in a statement. “Too often, lower-paid salaried workers are doing the same job as their hourly counterparts but are spending more time away from their families for no additional pay. That is unacceptable.”

The new regulation is likely to face opposition from Republicans and business groups. In 2014, then-President Barack Obama’s Department of Labor increased the threshold to everyone making under $47,000 per year, but after a lawsuit from 21 state attorneys general and business groups, a federal judge in Texas struck that rule down in 2017.

In August, the Chamber of Commerce called the new Labor Department rule “the wrong rulemaking at the wrong time,” and said it “hopes that DOL heeds the comments and input from employers and makes significant changes to its proposal.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the ranking Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, echoed big business in a statement that called the proposal “the exact wrong time for the administration to implement such a drastic increase.”

But labor advocates have applauded the push to restore overtime protections. The AFL-CIO said in August that “for millions of families across our country, access to overtime wages would make an enormous difference.”


.