A proposal from the Labor Department would make an estimated 3.6 million salaried workers newly eligible for overtime pay. It covers workers earning less than $55,000 per year.
Good. Moving workers to salary is a way to avoid paying them overtime. They should absolutely be eligible.
Many salaried managers in low-wage industries such as retail and fast food are currently exempt from earning overtime pay, even when they work long hours.
Yeah this has been a bs workaround to avoid paying overtime for awhile. Especially H1B and fresh grads. I would have loved to make 50k out of school but its just peanuts now.
The National Retail Federation says it's studying the proposed rule, but suggests the increase to a $55,000 threshold is too large.
"The proposed number is significantly higher than the rate of inflation," said David French, the federation's senior vice president of government relations.
Fucking liar, it's well below inflation if you go back far enough. And that's part of the problem, they artificially keep them down, then claim you can't raise it over inflation when you've been keeping the wage increases well below inflation AND massively below productivity increases.