The Department of Labor has proposed a rule that would expand the number of salaried workers eligible for overtime.
Significant proposed revisions include increasing the standard salary level to the 35th percentile of weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage Census Region (currently the South)—$1,059 per week ($55,068 annually for a full-year worker)—and increasing the highly compensated employee total annual compensation threshold to the annualized weekly earnings of the 85th percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally ($143,988).
The previous threshold was $35,568, about $20,000 lower than the newly proposed number.
The agency is also proposing to add to the regulations an automatic updating mechanism that would allow for the timely and efficient updating of all the earnings thresholds.
The DoL says the rule is meant to give overtime protections to salaried workers who work along with hourly workers but don’t get benefits of overtime.
The proposed rule is open for comment currently.
