The Labor Department Wednesday proposed providing overtime pay protections to workers making less than $55,068 a year, up nearly 55 percent from the current limit, as the department seeks to make it more costly for employers to avoid overtime by giving workers management duties.
Raising the salary that workers must earn to be considered exempt from federal overtime requirements would extend the protections to 3.6 million more workers, according to the department. The proposal could also be tested by a lawsuit, as a similar effort by the Obama administration was before it was rescinded by the Trump administration.
“For over 80 years, a cornerstone of workers’ rights in this country is the right to a 40-hour workweek, the promise that you get to go home after 40 hours or you get higher pay for each extra hour that you spend laboring away from your loved ones,” acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said in a statement. “I’ve heard from workers again and again about working long hours, for no extra pay, all while earning low salaries that don’t come anywhere close to compensating them for their sacrifices.”
