WASHINGTON — The salary threshold for those entitled to overtime pay will double under a new Department of Labor rule scheduled to go into effect in December.
The regulation, which was unveiled in May by the DOL, has been finalized. It will extend overtime protections to 4.2 million workers within the first year of its implementation.
It does so by raising the salary threshold under which most white collar salaried workers are eligible to receive overtime pay from, $455 a week (or $23,660 a year) to $913 a week (or $47,476 a year).
It also strengthens overtime protections for salaried workers already entitled to overtime, and provides greater clarity for workers and employers, DOL officials said.
The Overtime Final Rule aims to more easily identify workers, via a salary level test, who are truly exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), according to officials at the Avitus Group, based in Denver.
According to the DOL, 4.2 Million U.S. white collar EAP or executive, administrative and professional workers are expected to be reclassified or receive salary increases.
They will either gain new overtime protections or get a raise to the new salary threshold.
