New Biden rule would make 4 million white-collar workers eligible for overtime pay
New Biden rule would make 4 million white-collar workers eligible for overtime pay
Overtime pay would cover 4 million more workers by January 1 under a new Biden administration rule that boosts the salary threshold for exemption
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a new rule that would make millions of white-collar workers newly eligible for overtime pay.
Starting July 1, the rule would increase the threshold at which executive, administrative and professional employees are exempt from overtime pay to $43,888 from the current $35,568. That change would make an additional 1 million workers eligible to receive time-and-a-half wages for each hour they put in beyond a 40-hour week.
On January 1, the threshold would rise further to $58,656, covering another 3 million workers.
“This rule will restore the promise to workers that if you work more than 40 hours in a week, you should be paid for that time,” Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said in a statement. “So often, lower-paid salaried workers are doing the same job as their hourly counterparts but are spending more time away from their families for no additional pay. This is unacceptable.”
Even more important that the one time bump is the very last line of the article:
Starting July 1, 2027, the rule requires Labor to adjust the salary threshold every three years to account for updated wage data.
Rather than having to fight for these things every few years, we need to just tie minimum wage and the overtime floor to CPI. But, that's something the GOP will fight tooth and nail.
98Or just not exempt anyone from overtime?
If you're a "manager" and making less than 100k, you're not the problem. You're likely someone who busted their ass for decades already.
But it doesn't matter who it is, if you work overtime you should be paying for it.
All means testing does, is split support for it.
21A higher paid salary has negotiating power when being asked to work over time. Want me to stay late for a couple days no problem. Want me to work overtime for a couple weeks? Then I need to be paid at least straight time for every hour worked past 40.
So far I haven’t had any issues with this approach. They either pony up or suddenly it’s not that urgent. Have yet to be fired, but I don’t get asked to work overtime unless it’s truly needed now.
3
I'm hourly, work 60 hours per week and get zero overtime.
This is entirely legal because I'm a truck driver.
Actually, I really am an office worker in a trucking company. But I occasionally, like once a month or less, run a short load if they really need me to. That makes me still exempt and is still legal for them to do.
Among other things I also get no sick leave
63I’ve been dispatching trucks for a long time and am looking for a new gig. One of my leads required a CDL and now I know the real reason why, if you need dispatchers to drive then you need better dispatchers…or it’s a tax dodge.
10Well they do have dispatchers/supervisors who are salaried, technically my position is "hourly trainer" for new drivers to this location but in reality I help dispatch.
Actually I make more than the salaried supervisors but I work 5 days/12 hours and they work alternating 3/4 days/12 hours so it comes to about the same per hour.
6
But I occasionally, like once a month or less, run a short load if they really need me to. That makes me still exempt and is still legal for them to do.
That could be illegal, depending on what state you're in. I don't think it's right that laws about this can vary so much from state to state, but the difference can be night and day.
Even if you're in a state that's better about protecting workers, you have to be ready to put up a fight. It can take years, and it's not uncommon for a company to keep doing the same thing after the case is over.
4Nope, the Department of Labor (federal) lays it out pretty clearly.
The employee’s duties must include the performance, either regularly or from time to time, of safety-affecting activities on a motor vehicle used in transportation on public highways in interstate or foreign commerce. Employees must perform such duties as a driver, driver’s helper, loader, or mechanic. Employees performing such duties meet the duties requirement of the exemption regardless of the proportion of “safety affecting activities” performed
Emphasis on "regardless of the proportion of "safety affecting activities" performed"
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/19-flsa-motor-carrier
Unfortunately I live in a VERY "pRo BuSiNeSs" state so they don't have additional requirements for overtime just the federal ones.
6
The sick leave is insidious because sick employees come in vs wasting coveted PTO. It's a self-fulfilling problem as more and more workers fall ill.
1Oh yeah I don't get PTO either, or rather, it gets paid lump sum once per year. Once a year I get an extra weeks worth of pay. Of course living month to month it's not likely I can ever save that.
2
The initial bump in the salary threshold to $43,888 that takes effect July 1 is based on a Trump administration formula that sets it at the 20th percentile of the full-time weekly earnings of salaried employees in the lowest-wage region, which is currently the South. The increase to $58, 656 on January 1 adopts a new formula that sets the threshold at the 35th percentile of those weekly earnings.
43k is nothing to celebrate, and even the 58k limit should be higher.
I just wish we stopped all this means testing shit and just did the common sense solution:
If you work more than 80 hours a pay period, you get overtime.
Swing shifts make it breaking down by week problematic. But I'd like to see even over 8 hours in a 24 hour period require overtime rates.
The only thing means testing is good for, is dividing the working class.
In some parts of the country 60k still isn't much. That's almost average for McDonald's managers...
37While I agree with you about half measures that divide the workforce/classes I am still all about "raising the basement".
Too many policies will only meaningfully impact the wealthy, so seeing lower pay bands receive specific attention is always great to see.
There are still far too many loopholes, lack of enforcement/consequences, and creative schedules that actively repress workers, but this policy sounds pretty great and it is affecting a lot of workers in less than a year which is fantastic momentum.
It's also more difficult to pass sweeping legislation when Republicans + Conservative supreme Court do absolutely everything in their power to resist any kind of improvement to American life they possibly can.
36Yeah, but this is about "management" and 58k is pretty much the average for McDonald's managers.
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/McDonald's/salaries/General-Manager
Is it better than nothing?
Absolutely.
But there's still a shit ton of management jobs under the cutoff.
I mean, it's says right there it's only the bottom 35%...
That leaves about two thirds of managers not getting overtime.
But Everytime people argue for means testing as a temporary measure, I can't help but think about that's what's been happening with universal healthcare for longer than Joe Biden has been alive.
It never works out, eventually we get just enough that there's no longer enough pressure to get it for everyone.
It's a flawed strategy, that's not an opinion, it's a factual analysis of the last century...
-9
“Small businesses will need to spend valuable time evaluating their workforce to properly adjust salaries or reclassify employees in accordance with this complicated mandate.”
Oh please. I’m a branch manager and this wouldn’t take us long to do, like less than a full day. Get the hell out of here and just do the right thing.
25Damn Biden's on a roll.
20What other note worthy announcements have come out lately? Not being sarcastic, I'm out of the loop.
8Non-compete contracts for low wage worked just got killed. That's a big one, because all it does is lower the value of the employee and make them feel like property of their employer.
4
I feel like… ok great for those people. However, I also think that we have a problem with this ‘part-time’ circus act. Where they give you just under the hours required to pay healthcare and such. That type of work is so demeaning, tiring, and under appreciated. Having to jump your schedule around like a jackrabbit sucks so much.
“Hey today you’re scheduled to a full day shift so you end late. Aaaaand we will need you back here first thing in the morning. But only 4 hours. You can sleep after that.”
13In California, a fast food minimum wage is at $20 an hr. This 43k is just a dollar or 2 above that wage.
I guess it's good for people in other areas, but you would have thought there would be some regional adjustment on federal rules that go out.2I mean even without regional adjustment it goes up Jan1 and every 3y thereafter.
3My point being that your standard for overtime payment being at McDonald's minimum wage seems wrong.
1
It would make sense since that regional adjustment system already exists that they could apply it to everything. I’m sure there are some macro economics that would affect but I’m too lazy to put that much thought into it.
2