New Federal Rule Is Beneficial For Million More Workers, Overtime Pay Is Within Grasp

By Alexandra Park | May 19, 2016 01:59 AM EDT

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The new Federal rule is forecast to bring good tidings and higher returns for the million more workers. It has been noted that the million more workers will be eligible for an overtime pay benefits as well.

The Obama administration unveiled a new rule Wednesday that will make millions of middle-income workers eligible for overtime pay, a move that delivers a long-sought victory for labor groups and the regulations, which were last updated more than a decade ago, would let full-time salaried employees earn overtime if they make up to $47,476 a year, more than double the current threshold of $23,660 a year, according to an article published by The Washington Post.

The move is forecast to increase pay of not just mere thousand laborers but an estimate given by the Labor sector and it falls to an approximate figures of 4.2 million workers and the Federal rule is set to take effect on the first day of the last month of this year.

The move caps a long-running effort by the Obama administration to aid low- and middle-income workers whose pay checks have not budged much in the last few decades, even as the top earners in America have seen their compensation soar, reports the same post.

However, there is a glitch of the federal rule. While some businesses welcome the measure, many say it will simply force them to reshuffle salaries to get around the regulation and others fear it will mean demoting white-collar workers and altering workplace cultures, based on a similar post by USA Today.

"Along with health care reform, this is one of the most important measures that the Obama administration has implemented to help middle-wage workers," said Jared Bernstein, a former chief economist for Vice President Biden and a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

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