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It's a hard cutoff at $47,476? So if you were making $47k, they can just bump you to $47,500 and no OT?
Of course they can do that if those employees are salaried and I am sure many employers will. But also, not everyone making over that threshold is a salaried employee and no one is saying they should all be salaried or are required to be.
The new law is not an end all, be all to change everything for every salaried employee. However, it will change things drastically for millions of employees currently salaried and below that threshold.
It's a hard cutoff at $47,476? So if you were making $47k, they can just bump you to $47,500 and no OT?
If you were making $47K per year, and were classified as "Exempt Salaried" (i.e. exempt from overtime pay requirement), and your job duties met the requirements to be classified as Exempt; then yes, the employer could just bump your pay up above the new threshold. You would get a little more money, but they could still avoid paying overtime.
This is what I think could happen in a lot of situations where employees are a little under the new salary threshold, but are currently classified as Exempt. Especially in cases where the employee is subject to working a significant amount of overtime.
There are a lot of lower-level professional, administrative, and managerial employees, especially in lower-wage regions, who could be impacted by this. It's not just food service and retail managers.
At the risk of sounding like a Negative Ned, I'm thinking that an unintended consequence of this new law will be the elimination of a good number of lower paid jobs which will be affected by this legislation. This will also force the higher paid ($47,476k+/yr) employees to pick up the extra workload for no extra pay as a result of those layoffs.
If you were making $47K per year, and were classified as "Exempt Salaried" (i.e. exempt from overtime pay requirement), and your job duties met the requirements to be classified as Exempt; then yes, the employer could just bump your pay up above the new threshold. You would get a little more money, but they could still avoid paying overtime.
This is what I think could happen in a lot of situations where employers are a little under the new salary threshold, but are currently classified as Exempt. Especially in cases where the employee is subject to working a significant amount of overtime.
There are a lot of lower-level professional, administrative, and managerial employees, especially in lower-wage regions, who could be impacted by this. It's not just food service and retail managers.
If I recall, the current threshold pay is around $26,600. So a salaried employee making $30,000 who works 50 hours a week could just see her hours cut to 40/week while still maintaining the same pay. Of course the employer could just pay the time-and-a-half for the extra two hours per day that person works (assuming a M-F schedule), rather than cutting the hours.
At the risk of sounding like a Negative Ned, I'm thinking that an unintended consequence of this new law will be the elimination of a good number of lower paid jobs which will be affected by this legislation. This will also force the higher paid ($47,476k+/yr) employees to pick up the extra workload for no extra pay as a result of those layoffs.
^Glass half empty analogy.
Glass half full analogy> It could easily create MORE jobs if the employer doesn't want to pay OT to the newly designated hourly positions with the new threshold. They will need to hire new employees to pick up the slack that the previously salaried employee had worked if they don't want to pay any OT.
I would also think that most salaried employees making over the $47,476 have completely different jobs and responsibilities than the currently salaried employees who will be affected by the new law.
My pay went up $50 a week with 15 less hours I need to be at work each work with a bump down to hourly. They are already kicking me out there door after 8 hours worked. No complaints here.
Its nice to actually have a LIFE again. You don't get the same benefits being hourly but you're not a slave to the corrupt machine like salaried employees are.
It's interesting to note that three professions do not have to meet the minimum salary requirement to be classified as Exempt: Doctors, lawyers and teachers.
Doctors and lawyers are almost always going to be compensated above the going minimum salary to be classified as Exempt. Teachers are another story, especially lesser-experienced teachers. And teachers often complain of having to devote many hours outside the classroom performing work-related duties, like grading papers, preparing lesson plans, attending conferences and meetings, etc. Last I saw, average teacher annual salary in the U.S. was $56K, not a whole lot above the new threshold for exempt classification.
Where is it completely useless? No one said anyone is suppose to live on $47,476 a year in NYC so not sure where you are even getting that from.
The law is useless because it is maintaining a class of employees (including myself if I was working in NYC) who are not even being paid a living wage, based on the local cost of living, but are still expected to work 24/7/365 without being paid for overtime. No exempt employees are paid less than $47,476 here.
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It is creating a new threshold for millions of employees in the U.S. who are now designated and compensated as salaried and making less than $47,476 who will now be hourly employees and compensated for OT. Many of those employees who are currently salaried making less than $47,476 could very well be averaging less than minimum wage depending on how many total hours they end up working per week.
It is perfectly legal in my field to work so many hours that our hourly pay is below minimum wage. We make more than $47,476, so the new law doesn't help us.
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And sure employers are going to find a work-a-round by hiring extra employees so they don't have to pay the newly designated hourly employees OT however, at least the newly designated hourly employees will no longer be worked to death for next to nothing and can also seek out other PT jobs to increase their pay if needed.
But people like myself can still be legally worked to death.
What bugs me the most is that now politicians will take credit for supporting the middle class, when $47,476 is not even close to a middle class salary in the NYC area.
Of course they can do that if those employees are salaried and I am sure many employers will. But also, not everyone making over that threshold is a salaried employee and no one is saying they should all be salaried or are required to be.
The new law is not an end all, be all to change everything for every salaried employee. However, it will change things drastically for millions of employees currently salaried and below that threshold.
Some people tend to have the view that if you can't make something perfect, don't bother improving it at all. That's when "the perfect" becomes the enemy of "the good."
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