PLAINS TOWNSHIP -- More Americans will soon be eligible for overtime pay thanks to a change in federal regulations.
The overtime rule has been blamed by some as being one of the reasons for a declining middle class because for decades, the rule remained the same while the cost of living has gone up.
Not only has that rule now been updated, but it will have to be updated again every three years.
"A lot of people are overworked, and some are overworked and underpaid at the same time," said office manager Trish Gallagher.
The updated federal overtime rule will soon affect millions of salaried employees including Gallagher, an office manager near Wilkes-Barre.
For decades, salaried employees could work 50, 60, even 80 hours a week, and as long as they were paid just over $23,660, employers did not have to pay them overtime.
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Now, the overtime threshold has doubled, bumping up to nearly $48,000.
"If it came to us doing a lot of overtime, they will just change the way the way we do our payroll," said Gallagher.
Gallagher's employer -- One Source -- is in an interesting situation. The business in Plains Township not only has some salaried employees still below the new threshold but it's a staffing business, so it works with other businesses that will also have to adapt to this updated federal rule.
"Now a much larger workforce is going to be eligible for overtime that they have not had to worry about before," said One Source vice president Phillip Amend.
Amend says employers in the area are now having to decide if they will stop salaried employees from working more than 40 hours a week, pay them above the $47,476 threshold, or track overtime and adjust payroll policies.
"This has been on the radar of most employers, at least the clients that we work with are aware of it and been planning for this. But for those who have not been planning on it, they are going to have to put systems in place that allows them to do that."
Employers have six months to prepare to pay their salaried employees below the new threshold.
The federal overtime rule goes into effect December 1.
