How will the Obama Administration’s plans to extend overtime protection to more workers affect manufacturing in New York State? Under a proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Labor, salaried employees who earn up to $50,400 annually would be eligible for overtime pay. Current rulemaking under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 sets the salary threshold at $23,600 per year.
Supporters of the higher threshold claim that the new overtime rule is an economic win/win. As President Obama explained in an article by the Huffington Post, “that’s good for workers who want fair pay, and it’s good for business owners who are already paying their employees what they deserve – since those who are doing right by their employees are undercut by competitors who aren’t.”
Opponents of the new overtime rule claim that American manufacturers can’t afford the added expense. “We do not know what we are going to do regarding our factory’s future in the U.S.,” one business owner told Melissa Fassbender of Manufacturing.Net. “My competitors are moving to outside of the country with labor rates low and property taxes being non-existent”.
The new overtime rule probably won’t be adopted until later this year, but is expected to cover an additional 5 million U.S. workers in 2016. Until then, manufacturers across the country have time to prepare. Here in New York State, how will extended overtime protection affect your manufacturing operations? Is the new rule an economic win/win, or a loss for NYS manufacturers?
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