Obama to expand overtime pay for five million workers
President Barack Obama has announced a plan that will require businesses to extend overtime pay to five million American workers who are currently excluded under federal law.
"Too many Americans are working long days for less pay than they deserve," Obama said Monday night in a blog post on The Huffington Post.
He said his proposal would help assure that "hard work is rewarded."
"That’s how America should do business," the president wrote. "In this country, a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. That’s at the heart of what it means to be middle class in America."
In 2014, Obama announced his intention to make overtime reforms, but he has kept secret the details of the scheme up until this week.
He will discuss the proposal later this week during a visit in La Crosse, Wisconsin on Thursday. The new regulations will be subject to a public comment period and may take effect in 2016.
Obama said that the new rules are "good for workers who want fair pay, and it's good for business owners who are already paying their employees what they deserve -- since those who are doing right by their employees are undercut by competitors who aren't."
According to the new plan, salaried workers who earn less than approximately $50,400 per year would be guaranteed time-and-a-half pay if they work over 40 hours in a week.
However, under the current rules, salaried workers now must earn less than $23,660 per year in order to be automatically eligible for overtime pay.
Business groups and Republicans in Congress, though, expressed their opposition to the new rules. GOP members of the House Education and Workforce Committee criticized the change during a hearing earlier this month.
Obama is being supported by Democrats and labor unions, who have called on him to raise the overtime threshold as high as possible.
AT/AGB
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