The Biden overtime rule was struck down. Now, some workers are losing pay raises
Source: NPR
December 16, 2024 7:00 AM ET
Imagine getting a pay raise, only to be told weeks later: Sorry, we're taking it back. That's what's happening to 306 employees at The Ohio State University now that a federal court has struck down the Biden administration's overtime rule. Finalized in April, the rule would have made some 4.3 million salaried workers nationwide newly eligible to earn 1.5 times their regular pay when they work more than 40 hours a week.
"One of the basic principles of the American workplace is that a hard day's work deserves a fair day's pay," wrote Jessica Looman, head of the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division, in a blog post explaining the rule. The rule began to be phased in on July 1, when salaried workers earning less than $43,888 a year became automatically eligible to earn overtime, a hefty increase from the previous threshold of $35,568.
The more significant jump would have come on Jan. 1, 2025, when that threshold was set to rise to $58,656, with an automatic update every three years based on current wage data. Employers across the country, it seemed, had two choices: Begin paying eligible workers overtime, or raise their pay above the new threshold.
Ohio State, with a workforce of more than 50,000, decided to do some of both: It converted some employees from "exempt" to "non-exempt" status, so they'd be eligible to earn overtime. And it gave raises to others across the institution, including people working in academia, athletics, the university's medical center and elsewhere. For the 306 people who would have become overtime-eligible on Jan. 1, those raises came early — on Nov. 1. But they were short-lived.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2024/12/16/nx-s1-5225448/overtime-rule-pay-raises-ohio-state
= new reply since forum marked as read
