Make Less Than $55,000? the DOL Wants You to Get Overtime Pay

That means there are no contentious reconciliation bills to negotiate, no filibusters to fear, and no cynical obstruction from “pro-business” lawmakers based on some long discredited neoliberal principle. President Biden can’t just raise the overtime threshold through executive order; to survive legal challenges there are strict rule-making procedures that must be followed. But if his administration acts boldly and decisively, tens of millions of overworked voters will go to the polls in this November’s mid-term elections knowing that a Democratic president just delivered them a well-earned raise. And the higher Biden raises the overtime threshold, the larger the number of Americans who would benefit. If your job fits into one of the four main exemption categories to overtime law (executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales), then you are not protected by Federal and federal overtime regulations.

All employees working for “enterprises” are then covered by the FLSA if the individual firms of the “enterprise have a revenue greater than $500,000 per year”.[34] Under the original 1938 Act, a worker whose work is in the channels of interstate commerce is covered as an individual. “Interstate commerce” is interpreted so broadly that most work is included, such as ordering, loading, or using supplies from out of state, accepting payments from customers based on credit cards issued by out-of-state banks, and so on. Drivers,
driver’s helpers, loaders and mechanics are exempt from the overtime pay
provisions of the FLSA if employed by a motor carrier, and if the employee’s duties affect
the safety of operation of the vehicles in transportation of passengers or property in
interstate or foreign commerce.

Overtime Laws and Regulations

If your employer owes you overtime pay, a Department of Labor office in your state will work with you to ensure you receive your fair wages for all hours worked. If a higher minimum wage increases the wage rates of unskilled workers above the level that would be established by market forces, the quantity of unskilled workers employed will fall. The minimum wage will price the services of the least productive (and therefore lowest-wage) workers out of the market. Some workers, most likely those whose previous wages were closest to the minimum, will enjoy higher wages. Others, particularly those with the lowest prelegislation wage rates, will be unable to find work. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was enacted to amend the FLSA and make it illegal to pay some workers lower wages than others strictly on the basis on their sex.[35][36] It is often summed up with the phrase “equal pay for equal work”.

• Just imagine how much better off the typical middle-class family would be with either a few tens of thousands of dollars a year of additional income—or a few hundreds of hours of reclaimed free time.
• Mandatory Federal posters can be found on the Federal labor law posters page, or purchased using the link below.
• Salaried workers are usually exempt from overtime pay rules that apply to hourly workers.
• It is a violation of the Act to fire or in any other manner discriminate
  against an employee for filing a complaint with an employer or the Wage and Hour Division
  or for participating in a legal proceeding under the Act.
• Under the Biden administration’s proposal, the overtime limit would automatically adjust every three years to keep pace with rising earnings.

There is a minimum wage of $12.93 per hour for seasonal and small employers who employ fewer than 6 people. Compensating time in lieu of overtime is allowed upon written request by an employee of any county, charter https://www.bookstime.com/articles/what-exactly-does-a-bookkeeper-do county, consolidated local government, or urban-county government, including an employee of a county-elected official. The Florida minimum wage is scheduled to increase to $12.00 on September 30, 2023.

Overtime Fact Sheets

The Act establishes standards for minimum wages, overtime pay,
recordkeeping, and child labor. These standards affect more than 135 million workers,
both full time and part time, in the private and public sectors. External salespeople (who often set their own hours) are also exempted from FE overtime requirements, as are some types of computer-related workers.

As a result, Americans are working longer hours at lower wages while employers and shareholders reap record profits. Executive, administrative, and professional employees are exempt from overtime provisions, as are outside salespeople, farm workers and certain seasonal employees. You can learn more about exempt employees on the minimum wage and overtime exemptions page. Workers are quitting their jobs because they know that they deserve better, and you can see this realization in the polling data.

Child Labor Regulations

From 1938 into the 1970s a robust federal overtime standard served as a kind of minimum wage for the middle class, providing both a valuable source of extra income and an invaluable shield against the imposition of exploitative working hours. At its inception the FLSA set the minimum wage at one-half the median wage and the overtime threshold at three times the minimum—an amount equal to 1.5 times the median wage, a level high enough to cover about two-thirds of salaried workers. Over the next few decades, thanks in part to these strong labor standards, real wages at all income levels broadly grew in lockstep with growth in worker productivity.

In order to determine if a job is exempt from overtime, the FLSA provides a series of tests to determine the overtime eligibility of an employee based on pay rate, working conditions, skill level, and other factors. See other fact sheets in this series for more information on the exemptions for executive, administrative, professional, computer and outside sales employees, and for more information on the salary basis requirement. The SMI can be revised semi-annually if the government’s predictions about the consumer price index are not met.

Exemptions

Premium pay not applicable to employees who request compensating time off in lieu of premium pay. Premium pay required after 52 hours in seasonal amusement or recreation minimum wage and overtime pay businesses. In restaurants and hotel restaurants, for the 7th consecutive day of work, premium pay is required at time and one half the minimum rate.

• Under the law, employers do not need to pay overtime to workers who make above the salary cutoff if they are bona fide executives or managers, meaning that their primary job is management and that they have real authority.
• Employees performing
  exempt and non-exempt duties in the same workweek are normally not exempt in that
  workweek.
• “For over 80 years, a cornerstone of workers’ rights in this country is the right to a 40-hour workweek, the promise that you get to go home after 40 hours or you get higher pay for each extra hour that you spend laboring away from your loved ones,” Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said in a statement.
• Others, particularly those with the lowest prelegislation wage rates, will be unable to find work.
• If there is no objection, the new minimum wage will then take effect from January 1.
• According to a January 2021 poll of likely voters across over 65 swing congressional districts, an overwhelming 77 percent of respondents supported raising the overtime threshold to $83,000 a year.