Washington - This morning, the Department of Labor issued its new, finalized overtime rule affecting salary exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This rule raises the salary threshold for overtime eligibility from $23,660 a year to $47,476 - a 100% increase - beginning on December 1, 2016. The rule change represents another attack by the Obama administration on America's small business owners. Heritage Action released the following statement from chief executive officer Michael A. Needham:
"The new rule will ultimately hurt the very people the Obama administration claims to be helping. Many employers will be forced to reduce base wages, cut hours, move salary workers to hourly employees, or even lay people off. Congress can and should respond to protect hardworking Americans from this attack."
The Heritage Foundation's research fellow in labor economics James Sherk added:
"These new overtime regulations effectively turn every salaried employee making less than $47,500 into an hourly worker. The regulations require them to log their hours and track their time. Employers will offset the new overtime costs by cutting base pay, leaving workers' total earnings little changed. But the formerly salaried employees will lose the flexibility over when and where to work that many salaried employees value."