Changes

*Will this make electricity more costly for people, in particular small businesses?

*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.” [http://www.alternet.org/economy/8-questions-answered-about-obamas-new-proposed-overtime-pay-increase (Alternet)]

**New rule states that any salaried worker who earns less than $50,440 will be eligible for overtime

***This would be a 110% increase from 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)]

*”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)]