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Orlando employment attorney C. Ryan Morgan appeared on My Fox Orlando’s Good Day program this morning to discuss legislative changes proposed by President Obama that would strengthen overtime laws in favor of salaried employees who work more than 40 hours a week and currently aren’t entitled to overtime pay. The proposed new regulations, which were signed as a presidential memorandum addressed to the Labor Department by President Obama Thursday afternoon, will seek to increase the number of people who would qualify for overtime, the Washington Post reports.
In his interview, Morgan went on to dispel the myth of salaried workers having to “always be on the clock,” saying that’s not always the case with the current structure of exempt employee laws.
“There’s a federal limitation on how much salary it takes to be an exempt employee where you don’t get overtime. Currently, that level is $455 per week, which, if you multiply that out over a year, doesn’t even meet the federal poverty line,” Morgan told Good Day anchor John Brown. “So the argument is, if you’re above that number, you can be exempt and be forced to work 80 hours a week or more without extra pay.”
Although Obama’s administration has not specified how much the salary threshold will be raised, Morgan says the higher that number goes, the more workers will be affected and then eligible for overtime.
“It will affect a lot of individuals who earn five, six, $700 per week, no overtime, they now may be eligible for overtime going forward once this ruling making process plays out,” Morgan said in his interview.
Though the overtime law changes are in the proposal stage, with an official ruling not expected until the fall, according to the Post, President Obama’s focus on bridging the gap between the rising cost of living and workers’ stagnant wages is expected to remain a priority for the rest of his presidency. In using his executive powers to “revise the rules that carry out the Fair Labor Standards Act,” the New York Times wrote earlier today, the president hopes to overhaul the nation’s overtime rules as his administration goes toe-to-toe with corporations—and business lobbyists in Washington, some political analysts say—whose profits continue to grow as American workers’ wages deplete. Click here to learn more about federal overtime laws or visithttps://www.forthepeople.com/practice-areas/labor-and-employment-lawyers/overtime-attorneys/.