New Overtime Rule for Highly Paid Workers May Cause Headaches

The Labor Department’s proposal to make more workers eligible for overtime pay isn’t finalized yet, but it potentially could end up creating some tough decisions for businesses with highly paid workers.

The DOL is proposing a new salary cutoff of about $147,000 for workers to be considered “highly compensated employees” and therefore exempt from overtime pay requirements under federal labor law. The move, which some in the business community called “jarring,” would be a nearly $50,000 jump from the current $100,000 salary standard. The proposal is also more than $12,000 higher than that floated in 2016 by the Obama administration. ...