Are you a white collar worker? Do you work in an office job? You may be due for a pay raise or your employer may have to start paying you overtime. Currently the law requires that white collar workers be paid a salary of at least $455 or more a week ($23,660 per year ) and meets the other test for exempt executive, administrative and professional employees do not get paid overtime when the work more than forty (40) hours a week. That amount is about to change.
The D.O.L. has proposed a change to the salary paid to exempt executive, administrative and professional employees by raising the standard salary level from $455 to $679 per week, or $35,308 per year.
How does this salary change affect you?
The D.O.L. estimates that this change will make a million more Americans eligible for overtime compensation. If you have been classified by your employer as an exempted executive, administrative or professional employee, you may be entitled to overtime if they don’t raise your salary to $679 per week. In reality most white collar workers who are exempted from overtime normally get paid a weekly salary that far exceeds the $455 or the proposed $679 per week pay.
If you are paid in the $16-17 hour or less range, you might be eligible for overtime. They normally work in the service industry or entry level office jobs such as assistant manager, team lead, book keeping, call support lead, shift leader, warehouse managers. Under the current rule, if you are paid a salary below $455 a week, you must be paid overtime if you work more than forty (40) hours per week. It’s going to be $679 or $16.97 hour under the new rule. If you get paid by the hour and not salaried you get paid overtime.
