More than 3 million workers would be eligible for overtime pay under a rule proposed on Wednesday by the Biden administration.
Issued by the Labor Department, the proposal updates Fair Labor Standards Act rules for executive, administrative and professional employees.
Workers who make about $55,000 a year or below would be eligible for overtime under the proposal, up from the current threshold of $35,568 a year. That level was set by the Trump administration in 2019, when it was raised from $23,660.
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An extra 3.6 million workers would be eligible for overtime under the proposal, according to the Labor Department.
As the Associated Press noted, the new rule could face pushback from business groups that mounted a successful legal challenge against a similar regulation that President Joe Biden announced when he was vice president in the Obama administration. He had then sought to raise the threshold to more than $47,000.
Heidi Shierholz, president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the proposal is “a crucial step in creating a stronger, fairer economy.”
“This proposal would ensure that employers have ‘skin in the game’ when they ask these workers to work long hours,” Shierholz said in a news release.
The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal.
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