Overtime pay is mandatory under federal law if you work more than 40 hours in a week and are not exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). For the past few years, the Department of Labor has batted around ideas for raising the salary threshold for exempt employees. The Obama administration proposed a change from $23,000 per year to $47,476 per year as the minimum salary for exemption, but a federal court struck that down late in 2016.
The Trump administration didn’t appeal and instead, set forth their own guidelines, proposing $35,308 as a minimum salary. That number may rise slightly, as median wages have increased and this proposal is based on median wages. The Department of Labor predicts that over 1 million people will be affected by this.
Employment attorney Brian Murphy predicted, back in March, when the increase was proposed, that this increase would survive a court challenge because it follows the same formula used in 2006, “aligning it to the 20th percentile of earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage census region (then, and now, the South) and in the retail sector.”
It looks like this might actually be a reality. If you’re currently earning between $23,000 to $36,000 per year, as an exempt employee you may become eligible for overtime. Here’s what you need to know.
To keep reading, click here: If You Work More than 40 Hours a Week, This Trump Administration Change May Make Your Paycheck Bigger
It would be nice if they would build in inflation adjustments to these metrics. Rather then revisiting every decade or so and massively increasing the poverty levels, salary threshold and federal minimum wages.
Time for Congress to make like the rest of us and automate so they can get more done with less time.
Obviously this article is geared towards the part time professionals who are hired to work a position that clearly doesn’t overall need a full time employee. Any good employee will be noticed by the workplace and will be asked to stay longer than the hours scheduled because their efficiency is needed, so granted they should be paid for all time work. But this also can be negotiated in the hire package for this position.
As for this new development for salaries of exempt employees, again the hours required to work ( unless you are dealing with an unscrupulous employer and a dishonest employee) are pretty clear—an expected amount of work time is expected because the end goal is to achieve expectations, e.g. payroll paperwork, hiring paperwork,all projects that don’t involve one-to-one interaction with others, mainly background necessary projects that still need the human touch. I totally disagree with using a salary exempt position in certain jobs where the individual is expected to work beyond the hourly requirement for that salary as an excuse to not pay overtime for any employee. Companies like to pay salaries mainly for control of labor costs but that agreement for that salary is twofold. The employee knows that they have to produce work equal to the salary and the employer has to approve the time worked and job performance within the agreed contract, despite unexpected issues.
As for the salary amount, this should be evaluated to accommodate COLA at an agreed periodic time. It may or not be increased depending on circumstances.