Premium increases could be as high as 90 percent.
Healthcare Rates Continue to Rise in Virginia
Wisconsin joined 20 other states last month in a federal lawsuit seeking to block implementation of the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule.
If the lawsuit does not prevail, the rule would go into effect on Dec. 1, meaning more than 10 million workers could be eligible for overtime pay. The rule, which was released in May, doubles the threshold under which employees are eligible for overtime. Come Dec. 1, salaried workers earning less than $47,476 will be eligible for overtime pay. According to NFIB estimates, 44 percent of small businesses be harmed by the rule. They will have to choose between raising salaries above the threshold, paying overtime, or converting salaried workers to hourly ones and closely tracking their time or prohibiting/limiting overtime work. They will also have to bear increased paperwork and scheduling burdens, and these changes—as well as the fact that there will be fewer salaried, managerial positions available, and therefore less opportunity for growth—will also impact staff morale.
Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel issued a statement on the coalition’s suit, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The federal overreach we continue to see is not a Republican v. Democrat issue, which is demonstrated by the bipartisan coalition of states fighting this rule. Wisconsin, and every other state, must be able to set their own priorities and policies and not be forced to take directive from an unchecked Washington, D.C., bureaucracy attempting to establish unprecedented power.”
Although NFIB is fighting for the compliance deadline to be pushed back until June of 2017, in order to give small business owners more time to make workforce adjustments, employers should still act quickly to determine which employees will be impacted by the new rule and what must be done to comply.
For more information about the new rule and NFIB’s effort to block it, visit www.NFIB.com/overtime.
