President Obama is set to announce an extensive change to the nation’s overtime pay law, affecting as many as five million Americans in the first year. The proposed law would increase the threshold for eligibility of overtime pay from $23,660 to $50,440, and it could be here by 2016.
“This change in the law will have an enormous impact on businesses throughout the country,” said attorney Ryan Finn of E. Stewart Jones Hacker Murphy. “Employees working more than 40 hours will have to be paid overtime, regardless of their title as ‘manager’ or ‘supervisor’ unless the company is willing to pay a fixed salary that exceeds the Federal standard. This is great news for middle class Americans.”
Although the administration has the authority to apply the regulation without Congressional approval, opponents are expected to challenge it in court and perhaps take it to congress. Conservatives and business groups against the increase argue that it would, among other things, restrict business growth and employee productivity.
Despite the critics’ public aversion to Obama’s proposal, he remains intent on passing the law by 2016, saying, “In this country, a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. That’s at the heart of what it means to be middle class in America.”
The administration will likely begin to release details on this proposal next Tuesday, and The President will officially announce this sweeping change during his Wisconsin visit next Thursday.
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