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Fran Sussner Rodgers writes in the NYT that a little-noticed change in the American workplace is about to occur when later this month the Department of Labor is expected to announce an adjustment to the Fair Labor Standards Act raising the salary threshold for overtime from $23,660 per year to at least double that theshold. In 1975, the last year the threshold was significantly raised, 60 percent of salaried workers fell within the requirement for overtime pay while today only 8 percent do, so the new requirement should be a welcome change for millions of American workers.
But the change also speaks to an issue that affects everyone, whether eligible for overtime or not - the clash between the finite amount of time employees actually have versus the desire of employers to treat time as an inexhaustible resource. Employees in the United States currently work more hours than workers in any of the world's 10 largest economies except Russia. When everything over 40 hours is free to the employer, the temptation to demand more is almost irresistible. But for most employees, the ones exempt from overtime rules, their managers have little incentive to look for ways to use their time more efficiently. "We are a tired, stressed and overworked nation, which has many negative consequences for our personal health and the care of our children. As a nation, we work harder and longer than almost all of our competitors, and much of that work is uncompensated," writes Rodgers. "Time is our personal currency. We parcel it out, hour by hour, to meet the demands placed on us. We all pay a steep price, as individuals and as a nation, when we can't meet our most important obligations."
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday June 25 2015, @04:44AM
For some reason, salaried people in the US were just about always expected to contribute extra hours in exchange for vague promises of promotion.
Its clear, just by looking at the numbers, you know there is not enough brown to cover all the available noses.
Given this (forced) bargain, its clear that the planned doubling of the threshold from $23,660 will still not bring the vast majority of salaried people into the covered group. The idea seems to be to cover the bottom couple rungr\s of the salary layer, just to prevent employers from using salary to get around hourly work regulations.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @09:30AM
How do we know that the threshold is doubling? There's no link in the submission or TFA to that info for good reason: the expected revisions have only been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for review. What's happening later this month is the proposed changes will be published in the Federal Register for public comments.
After the public comments, the Dept of Labor drafts the “final rules”, submits them for a final review by the OMB, then publishes them in the Federal Register with their "effective date" (which won't be until well into 2016).
TFA was just using these possible changes as an excuse to bang the "Americans work too much" drum.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday June 25 2015, @05:36PM
Here's a hint: Highlight "Department of Labor is expected to announce an adjustment to the Fair Labor Standards Act", right-click and search Google for it. You'll find a number of informative articles.
From CNN Money: