Still bewildered about overtime changes? We have (sources for) answers.
The Chicago Tribune reports: “New overtime rules bewilder many owners” (by Joyce M. Rosenberg, AP)
Overtime has suddenly become a confusing proposition for some small-business owners. New government rules that took effect Aug. 23 change the criteria under which employees must be paid overtime. That means company owners need to look at all of their employees and determine whether each should now be receiving overtime–or might now be exempt from overtime.
Good advice, if obvious.
Here at this blawg, we have experienced a great many “hits” on several of our posts regarding overtime, as people are obviously interested in learning more.
Strangely, almost nobody has read the post I did a week ago, that is chock-full of helpful links for those wishing to learn about the new rules in depth. Michael thinks I just wrote a boring headline, so nobody bothered. But he also says its the best thing he’s seen on the Internet about this issue (and, as I’ve mentioned, he’s very objective and modest).
The Chicago Tribune continues:
Owners will need to look at the rules, and also need to look at the many exceptions, not just to job classifications, but also to salary requirements.
The last point is important: employers have often gotten in trouble in the past for treating workers as salaried exempt, but failing to toe the line on the strict definition of “salary basis” for pay, such as by improperly “docking” pay for certain absences.
Meanwhile, Michael’s very popular post on the AFL-CIO’s overtime-deprivation “quiz” has been cited by Walter Olson in PointofLaw.com, a wonderful blog that includes an employment law page.
Walter links to this FactCheck.org critique of a (March, 2004) anti-Bush ad that plays fast and loose with the facts on the new overtime rules: “Would Bush Eliminate Overtime Pay for 8 Million? A TV ad from an anti-Bush group says so. But it’s based on a study that actually says something different.”
