DOL Reportedly Lowers Proposed Overtime Threshold
The Labor Department will lower the salary threshold in its forthcoming final rule to extend overtime coverage. The new threshold under consideration is $47,000, according to sources familiar with the Labor Department’s deliberations.
The overtime salary threshold is the level at which virtually all salaried employees who earn that amount or less qualify for time-and-a-half pay if they work more than 40 hours in a week.
The threshold was $50,440 in the rule proposed in July. A $47,000 threshold would be almost exactly double the current threshold, which lies below the poverty line for a family of four. The final rule is expected in mid-May.
The DOL calculated that the overtime rule, as proposed, would extend coverage to nearly five million people, of whom 1.2 million would receive a wage hike; the rest would work fewer hours.
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, put the number of affected workers at more like 13.5 million. Lowering the rule’s threshold to $47,000, EPI calculates, would reduce the number of affected workers to 12.5 million, or 23 percent of the salaried workforce.
Source: Politico S