The Biden Administration Is Working Overtime to Make Work Less Flexible
Workers are unlikely to get the overtime pay.
The Biden administration has been putting in extra hours to quash the burgeoning trend of employment flexibility, and its latest effort is overhauling overtime rules.
It may sound like a good deal for workers if it means they get more pay — and certainly, that’s how the administration is selling it. In reality, though, imposing an overtime-pay mandate makes it harder for employers and workers to figure out alternative arrangements that benefit them both. For example, an employee will no longer be able to put in extra hours in exchange for working from home or getting longer weekends.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) says employees must be paid time-and-a-half once they work more than 40 hours in a week. However, businesses may exempt workers from the requirement if their duties are “managerial” in nature and they also reach a certain salary threshold. The new Labor Department rule sets that salary threshold, currently $35,000 annually, to more than $44,000 starting in July and almost $59,000 starting next year, thus bringing more workers into the mandate. This, incidentally, disregards the text of the statute by avoiding the capacity in which employees are paid.
Read the full article on National Review.