Empire State Small businesses should prepare now for December.
278,000 New York Jobs Affected by Overtime Rule
Come Dec. 1, business owners across New York and nationwide
will be paying higher labor costs as a result of the Department of Labor’s new
overtime rule. The DOL estimates the regulation will impact more than 87,000
workers in New York.
The rule will raise the threshold at which employees are
exempt from earning overtime pay—from $23,660 to $47,476. The Fair Labor
Standards Act dictates that employees are not eligible for overtime pay if they
are compensated at a minimum wage level (now $47,476), if they are paid on a
salaried basis, and if they perform duties considered professional,
administrative, or executive in nature. Now, under the new rule, the minimum
wage level triggering overtime exemption is nearly double the old rate.
NFIB has spoken at length to the media about the harmful
impact of this ruling, including decreased staff morale stemming from
employment status changes, reduced hours, and falling pay rates.
For businesses that operate on calendar year budgets, this
unplanned mandate for increased labor costs in the final month of 2016
complicates matters.
One small item of relief: Bonuses, incentive pay, and commissions
can account for up to 10 percent of the salary threshold if the payments are
made on a quarterly basis. However, the exemption level will continue to rise,
tied to inflation, every three years, beginning on Jan. 1, 2020.
For more information, please visit NFIB.com/Overtime.
