JACKSON, Miss.- Do you work way over your 40 hour work week, but receive salary so don’t see a cent in overtime pay? That could change pretty soon.
President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum Sunday directing Secretary of Labor Tom Perez to update and modernize America’s overtime pay system.
At the signing, Obama explained the importance of fixing overtime pay regulations. According to the White House Blog, President Obama said, “Today, millions of Americans aren’t getting the extra pay they deserve. That’s because an exception that was originally meant for high-paid, white-collar employees now covers workers earning as little as $23,660 a year. So if you’re making $23,000, typically, you’re not high in management. If your salary is even a dollar above the current threshold, you may not be guaranteed overtime. It doesn’t matter if what you do is mostly physical work like stocking shelves, it doesn’t matter if you’re working 50 or 60 or 70 hours a week — your employer doesn’t have to pay you a single extra dime.
And I think that’s wrong. It doesn’t make sense that in some cases this rule actually makes it possible for salaried workers to be paid less than the minimum wage. It’s not right when business owners who treat their employees fairly can be undercut by competitors who aren’t treating their employees right. If you’re working hard, you’re barely making ends meet, you should be paid overtime. Period. Because working Americans have struggled through stagnant wages for too long.”
The changes will give thousands of salaried workers in Mississippi and millions across the nation the protections of overtime pay.
The new regulations will go into effect in 2015.
