The Biden administration is being pressured again to sharply increase the overtime salary threshold for exemption from overtime pay. In a tweet on Aug. 30, Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., revived a call to increase the threshold to more than $82,000 per year. We've gathered articles on the news from SHRM Online and other outlets.
Current Threshold Described as Too Low
"The current level of the federal guarantee for overtime pay is so low that it covers only about 15 percent of full-time salaried workers—forcing millions to essentially work any hours above 40 per week for free, at a time when they cannot afford to do so," Jayapal tweeted. "As part of our Progressive Caucus Executive Action Agenda, released in March and again in a letter to Labor Secretary [Marty] Walsh in June, we asked the administration to raise the salary threshold to above $82,000 per year, which would cover 55 percent of workers at one-and-a-half times their regular pay, and give millions of people a raise."
Increase in Threshold on Horizon?
Under the current overtime rule, the maximum annualized salary rate is $35,568. Employees who make less than $684 per week are eligible for overtime pay at a rate of one and one-half times their regular rate, for any hours worked over 40 during a workweek. The Department of Labor (DOL) is feeling pressure to raise the salary rate to the level that the Obama administration tried to establish, which was $47,476.
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