4.7 Million Americans Now Eligible for Overtime Pay Under New Policy
LatestOn Tuesday morning, the Department of Labor released an overtime policy proposal that would substantially raise the base wages of workers who are classified as “managers”—and thus ineligible for time-and-a-half—despite receiving pay as low as $23,000 per year.
President Obama announced this plan on Monday night, stating his intentions to double that minimum threshold to $50,400; according to the Economic Policy Institute, this would expand the cohort of Americans eligible for overtime from 8 percent of the salaried workforce to 40 percent. Via the Washington Post, Obama had laid ground for this plan starting in 2014, when he pointed out that these overtime regulations had been set in 1975 (when 62 percent of salaried workers were eligible) and not updated since, leaving a significant portion of workers in the lurch. From today’s DOL release: