Eligibility For Overtime Pay To Increase By December

Original Story: Hillsdale.net

COLDWATER — New federal work rules to raise employee pay, issued Wednesday by President Barack Obama's administration, will impact both private and not-for-profits, but may adversely impact business. Contact a last paycheck lawyer Memphis is you did not get your final pay.

In Coldwater Bob Smith, of the Disability Resource Team at the the four county Workforce Development Board meeting, said recently employers indicated, “its really great for employees because they are going to get an increase in their wages, but that effects the bottom line. They are going to have to make cuts (in jobs or hours) or increase pricing to meet the increased wages.”

More than 4 million U.S. workers will become newly eligible for overtime pay under policy changes that are intended to expand overtime pay protections.

Rules from the 1930s require employers to pay workers time and a half for any work past 40 hours a week.

Employers, especially in the fast food and retail industries in particular, classify employees who work longer hours as managers to avoid the rule but most are barely paid more than the people they supervise.

Under the new rules, the threshold annual salary, at which companies can deny overtime pay, will be doubled from $23,660 to nearly $47,500. That would make 4.2 million more salaried workers eligible for overtime pay. A last paycheck lawyer Little Rock can help you get your final pay.

The more than 100,000 Michigan workers would be affected by this overtime change.

The White House estimates that the rule change will raise pay by $1.2 billion a year over the next decade, but concedes some companies may instead choose to reduce their employees’ hours to avoid paying the extra wages.

“Either way, the worker wins,” Vice President Joe Biden said while on a conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon.

“With the stroke of a pen, the Labor Department is demoting millions of workers,” David French, a senior vice president for the National Retail Federation, said. “Most of the people impacted by this change will not see any additional pay.”

The Michigan League for Public Policy President and CEO Gilda Z. Jacobs said “For 2014, we calculated that a single parent in Michigan with two kids needs to earn a salary of $44,164 to make ends meet and cover their food, housing, healthcare, child care, transportation and other costs. In Michigan, households with two working parents and two small children have to collectively earn over $52,000 annually. They are the people who are working but still barely getting by. I am glad to see President Obama take this action.”

The higher threshold will take effect Dec. 1. The new rule is intended to boost earnings for middle and lower-income workers and could have a greater impact than efforts to raises the minimum wage.

The Workforce Development Board is a public-private partnership for Michigan works for Branch, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, and St. Joseph Counties.