An additional 1.3 million Americans who work more than 40 hours a week would become eligible for overtime pay under a rule proposed Thursday by the Labor Department.
The rule would increase the annual salary threshold that generally determines who qualifies for time-and-a-half pay. It would affect workers and employers in many industries, including retail, fast food, higher education and nonprofits.
The proposed rule — which would raise the salary threshold from the current $23,660 a year to $35,308 — left many employers with a sense of relief, in part because the Trump administration’s proposal sets the threshold far below the $47,476 that President Barack Obama had hoped to institute. A federal judge in November 2016 halted that rule from being implemented.
Worker advocates criticized the proposal, saying the floor would remain too low to ensure that workers being asked to put in extra hours are fairly compensated. Under the Obama-era proposal, 4.2 million more Americans would have qualified for additional pay.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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