Obama Overtime Law

Dunham & Jones, Attorneys at Law helps employees and contractors collect unpaid overtime from their employers.

President Obama intends to change who is eligible for overtime

This week, President Obama announced that he intends to change the rules for who is eligible for overtime. Currently, if you are classified as a manager and paid a salary of at least $455 per week your employer has probably labelled you as “exempt” from the overtime requirements. That works out to less than $11.50 an hour, even less if you work more than 40 hours per week. The proposed changes could increase the minimum salary to be classified as exempt to close to $1,000 per week.

For anyone who is called a manager, and paid less than $50,000 a year, this means federal law could soon require payment of time and a half for every hour worked more than forty hours a week. In addition, President Obama has directed the Department of Labor to amend the rules that employers now use to label employees as exempt as an executive, administrative, or professional employee. While this label is often thought of applying to just managers, these changes could mean that more than managers could soon be receiving overtime.

Recent news articles claim “millions” of employees that are now called exempt because their employer considers them part of management and paid as little as $23,660 a year are not currently paid overtime but may soon be eligible. The Department of Labor should soon be writing new rules to make it tougher for employers to avoid paying overtime to people like shift managers at fast food restaurants, convenience stores, and clothing stores.