The White House is turning its attention this week to mid-level managers and office workers who are punching in for more than 40 hours a week, while getting short-changed by their bosses.
At the behest of the administration, the Department of Labor will propose a new rule in the coming days that would guarantee overtime pay for millions of Americans who go uncompensated for working around the clock.
Under current regulations, overtime benefits for full time salaried workers are only assured for those earning less than $23,660 a year—a sum that would put a family of four well below the poverty line. The department’s rule-making would raise that threshold to $50,440 a year.
“That’s going to give a raise to potentially five million people in the country who deserve it,” President Obama said in a joint press conference with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday.
“This proposed rule will help promote higher take-home pay and allow workers to better balance their work and family obligations,” the White House added in a statement announcing the new rule.
The administration is predicting that a majority of those who will benefit from the regulation are women and those with college degrees.
The Labor Department also noted that in 1975, 62 percent of full time salaried workers earned overtime pay, while today only eight percent do.
“For decades, industry lobbyists have bottled up efforts to keep these rules up to date, leaving millions of Americans working long hours, and taking them away from their families without the overtime pay that they have earned,” the White House said.
The rule isn’t expected to be finalized until 2016, after the completion of an open comment period hosted by the department.
