This week the Obama administration unveiled a new threshold for how much salaried workers can make and qualify for overtime pay.
The Department of Labor says that by making full time salaried employees who take home less than $47,476 eligible for time and a half overtime, they are making an additional 4.2 million American workers eligible for additional pay for working over 40 hours.
Knox County Partnership for Economic Development President Ken Springer tells WGIL that the new requirements should bring significant changes to the way businesses are operated.
“Essentially, there is going to be a larger number of American workers that are going to be required to do things like track their hours as opposed to simply working for salary,” Springer says.
According to U.S. Department of Labor data, the average yearly salary for employees in Knox County is $30,940 although it’s unknown how many of those are salaried workers who will now qualify for overtime.
The Monmouth Chamber of Commerce issued a statement on Thursday saying they are “disappointed in the excessively high salary threshold.”
Springer anticipates their could be hard costs in the form of things like software to track hours or opportunity costs in having to assign staff to make sure employees aren’t going over 40 hours a week or they are compensated if they do.
The new overtime rules are set to go into effect on December 1.
