New overtime rules will likely make an additional 12.5 million employees eligible for overtime protections, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The new rule raises the overtime threshold from $455 per week to $913 per week (in 2015 dollars). There are 12.5 million salaried workers making at least $455 but less than $913 per week. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, workers making at or above the old threshold could have been excluded from overtime protection if their jobs were determined to be executive, administrative, or professional jobs.
The overtime rules were established to make sure that no one but workers with control over their time or tasks works overtime without getting paid for it. Rule changes in 2004 allowed employers to use a “duties tests” used to determine who does high-level work. That allowed employers to classify many lower-level workers as exempt and not eligible for overtime protection when combined slightly altered job descriptions.
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the revised rules will extend overtime protections in to the following groups:
- 6.4 million women
- 4.2 million parents
- 1.5 million African Americans
- 3.6 million workers age 25 to 34
- 4.5 million millennials
- 3.2 million workers with a high school degree but not more education
The new rules will impact the most workers in West Virginia, with 30.7 percent of the workforce now getting overtime protection, followed closely by Arkansas at 30.6 percent and South Carolina at 30.3 percent.
Occupations with the greatest share of salaried workers who will directly benefit will be office and administrative support occupations, 46.0 percent, followed by transportation and material moving occupations at 40.4 percent.
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