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The Obama administration is expected to move forward soon on its plan to provide overtime pay protections to low-salaried managers who don't qualify for them.
The move could affect millions of workers. It is aimed at addressing what the White House says is an erosion of the rules that established the 40-hour workweek -- a "linchpin of the middle class."
The way it works now, companies can avoid paying OT to any full-time workers making as little as $23,660 -- or $455 a week -- by classifying them as "exempt" and paying them as salaried employees, rather than hourly.
That means when they don't get overtime pay even if they work more than 40 hours a week.
And it's not just managers in lower-paid jobs in this bucket. Exempt positions also include administrators and sales employees, among others.
The expectation amongpolicy experts is that the Department of Labor will propose raising the $23,660 income threshold, most likely to somewhere between $42,000 and $52,000. The agency may also amend how "exempt" duties are determined.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/15/pf/overtime-pay/
Overturning a decades-old exemption, the U.S. Department of Labor has extended minimum wage and overtime benefits to the mostly female and minority workforce of nearly 2 million home health-care workers.
The Fair Labor Standards Act will be extended to direct care workers, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said Tuesday on a conference call with reporters. Those affected by the rule will receive the same protections as people providing similar services in hospitals and nursing homes, effective Jan. 1, 2015
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