A new ruling from the Obama administration’s Department of Labor could impact tens of thousands of Indiana small business owners, forcing them to offer expanded overtime for their workers and decreasing their profitability.
At present, employers must only offer overtime to workers who earn salaries of less than $23,660. Under the proposed rule, that threshold would rise to $50,440.
In Indiana, the ruling would impact 100,000 workers—about 3.4 percent of the total employed workers.
Beth Milito, NFIB’s senior legal counsel, said the change will hurt small business owners in markets—many of Indiana’s communities, for example.
“Promoting someone to manager is going to be an expensive proposition for many small businesses and the result will be less mobility and fewer opportunities for workers at the bottom,” Milito said.
The proposed rule is currently in a public feedback phase. NFIB will continue to oppose the rule.
“These issues are bandied about, and they are brought up by politicians and bureaucrats,” says NFIB/Indiana State Director Barbara Quandt, “it sounds good, it sounds like a good idea, but unfortunately I haven’t seen the evidence that employers are holding people down at these wages.”
