Worried About Losing Your Overtime Pay: Here’s A Quiz to Check!
I found a little overtime quiz on an AFL-CIO website.
Try it and see what you come up with. Or, take some employee’s job at your organization and see what the results say. I haven’t tried it yet, so I’d appreciate knowing what results you find!
Hi Michael,
I took your challenge and ran a couple different jobs through it. Or, at least, I tried to.
The questions the AFL-CIO quiz asks are relevant and drawn directly from the overtime statutes. However, the methodology is misleading. Once you pick your income level, the screen informs you that you could lose your overtime status based on a yes answer to “any” of these questions. A glance at the actual DOL fact sheets/checklists confirms that, under every single category of employee, the employee must meet MULTIPLE criteria in order to be found exempt. It isn’t all of the criteria listed, but the net effect is far more alarmist than the actual situation.
Further, the flash animation is designed so that the minute you click on a yes answer you immeidately go to a screen that says “DANGER! YOUR OVERTIME MAY BE AT RISK!” and recommends contacting your legislator. Again technically that’s true — one’s overtime may be at risk. But chances are it isn’t. Also, you don’t get to finish the quiz.
For example, I clicked “yes” to a generic question about computer work and got the danger screen. In my organization some of my lower-level computer folks actually lost their exempt status as a result of the changes. A person who just codes (programs) is subject. The exemption requires programming analysis and development, which are completely different — and much higher level — skillsets.
So my final conclusion is that the test is worth a look, but definitely is not unbiased and should not be considered reliable. It’s primarily a tool that attempts to further the AFL-CIO’s objections to the new standards. Since it’s on the AFL-CIO web site, I would expect something to be slanted toward their viewpoint, but if I saw that on a supposedly unbiased web site I would consider it misleading.
This shows the politicization of this issue and typifies the misleading propaganda being flung around by those with an axe to grind.
It’s not that the quiz is inaccurate in terms of who may be exempt. It’s just that most of these people are already exempt. If they’re not being treated that way now, it’s true they may lose their overtime, but this will be because of all the publicity leading to heightened employer awareness, not because of any changes brought about by the new rules.
And that same heightened employer awareness will likely cause many people to be reclassified as nonexempt, thus newly “qualifying” for overtime (though they were entitled to it all along)
Just my opinion.
I agree that the quiz could be biased. Thanks, George, for highlighting the source of the quiz. And thanks Catherine for your comment and for trying it out!
I guess I should be more cautious in highlighting the source of the quiz in the future. I certainly didn’t mean to give my “blessing” to it with the posting.
Buyer beware!
T
Shouldn’t the first question really be: Do you live in [state e.g. California] that has its own overtime rules that exceed the Federal ones? -or- Select your state, and if, e.g. California, then “You’re fine.”
I’m ignorant as to exactly how many states that would be, but California is a significant chunk of the population just right there.
George,
I have yet to become aware of a single employee — in or out of the state government where I work — who has lost overtime eligibility because of the new rules. I am, however, aware of many employees who have gained eligibility. I don’t know if it’s newly gained by law or newly gained because of the clarifications, but from this end of the country the trend is definitely toward the number gaining eligibility being far more than the number losing eligibility.
Of course, as Jon notes, that may not be true in all states. Mine is an notorious right-to-work state; I’ve complained often enough in my blog about the nifty little statute on the books that effectively and legally keeps government employees from unionizing, and thus leaves us completely vulnerable to government whim as far as pay and benefits.