President Barack Obama is expected to order a rule change this week that would require employers to pay overtime to a larger number of salaried workers, two people familiar with the matter said.
Currently, many businesses aren’t required to pay overtime to certain salaried workers if they earn more than $455 a week, a level that was set in 2004 and comes to roughly $24,000 a year. The White House is expected to direct the Labor Department to raise that salary threshold, though it is unclear by how much.
Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute, and Jared Bernstein, a former White House economist, recently proposed the limit be increased to $984 a week, or roughly $50,000 a year.
Small business and entrepreneurs are absolutely screaming at the mere thought of this one. Long hours, followed by longer hours, to get over the hump of fixed finances and uncertain sales typifies the launch of most any new startup. What Professor Wiggleroom seeks to do is more than double the salary level exempted from overtime rules.
So that salesman who had been busting his butt for 60 hours a week at $45,000 to make the company grow, is now going to cost the company thousands and thousands more. He’ll have to bust his butt even harder just for the company to stay even — and to keep him employed.
Entrenched players will pass the “savings” on to you.
Once again, Wiggleroom has discovered another novel way to protect the big guy by putting the squeeze on the little guy.
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