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====Expansion of Overtime Eligibility====*Expected to be implemented late 2016*On March 13, 2014, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the Department of Labor to update the regulations defining which white collar workers are protected by the FLSA's minimum wage and overtime standards [http://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/nprm2015/ (DOL)]*The memorandum instructed the Department to look for ways to modernize and simplify the regulations while ensuring that the FLSA's intended overtime protections are fully implemented [http://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/nprm2015/ (DOL)]*Previously:**”Salaried workers who earn below $455 per week, or $23,660 per year, are automatically eligible for overtime pay–regardless of the nature of their job or the duties they perform.”**”Salaried workers whose earnings are $455 per week or more can be exempted from the right to receive overtime if they fall into one of three categories: professionals, proposed in July 2015administrators, and executives.”**Many white-collar workers with very low salaries (sometimes just above the overtime threshold) can be classified by their employers as professionals, administrators, or executives–and thus exempted from overtime pay*Proposed changes:*Any *New rule states that any salaried worker who earns less than $50,440 will be eligible for overtime**Currently the threshold is at $23,660**This would be a 110% increasefrom 23,660*Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, a research group partly funded by labor unions, has estimated that the higher salary threshold would expand overtime to as many as 15 million additional workers [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-29/obama-said-set-to-expand-overtime-eligibility-for-millions (Bloomberg)]
Regulations in Relation to Small Businesses (view source)
Revision as of 18:26, 10 February 2016
, 18:26, 10 February 2016no edit summary
====Greenhouse Gas Emissions====
*Final rule issued August 2015
*Require states to increase the percentage of power they generate from alternative sources, which are weaker and more epensiveexpensive
*Will this make electricity more costly for people, in particular small businesses?
*”NFIB estimates that about 40% of small businesses will have employees newly eligible for time-and-a-half overtime pay. If a business cannot afford to pay managers over $50,000 per year, the business will have to change these employees from salaried exempt to hourly nonexempt employees and prohibit overtime work.” [http://www.nfib.com/article/new-overtime-rule-add-costs-to-small-businesses-and-hurts-workers-70007/ (NFIB-OR)]
*For small businesses to avoid the overtime pay, managers would probably be moved from salaried positions to hourly jobs
**Decreased worker morale
**Fewer salaried, managerial positions → little advancement opportunities
*The proposed rule received some 270,000 comments during the 60-day period after its publication in June 2015. By comparison, the agency received 75,280 comments in response to its last proposed rule update in 2004.
