If You Make Less Than 50K a Year, You’re Probably Getting a Raise This Year
Finally, some great news for middle-class workers in the United States: If you're salaried (or hourly), make less than $50,440 per year, and work more than 40 hours per week, you will now be eligible for overtime pay.
Wait... seriously? Yes, you. You're gonna get overtime pay. Hallelujah.
Here's how this works: Currently, the federal government and the Department of Labor have an "overtime cap," and it's set at $23,660. If you make less than that per year, you are legally entitled to overtime pay for working more than 40 hours per week. If you're salaried and make more than $23,660 (which is almost everyone on salary), you're what's referred to as an "exempt employee," and no matter how many hours you work in a week, you're still getting paid the same amount of money.
This summer, the Department of Labor is widely expected to raise this "overtime cap" to $50,440. That means if you're salaried, but make less than that annually, your employer will have to pay you overtime for working more than 40 hours per week.
Here's what the Department of Labor has to say about it:
The Department of Labor has announced a proposed rule that would extend overtime protections to nearly 5 million white collar workers within the first year of its implementation. Failure to update the overtime regulations has left an exception to overtime eligibility originally meant for highly-compensated executive, administrative, and professional employees now applying to workers earning as little as $23,660 a year. For example, a convenience store manager, fast food assistant manager, or some office workers may be expected to work 50 or 60 hours a week or more, making less than the poverty level for a family of four, and not receive a dime of overtime pay. Today’s proposed regulation is a critical first step toward ensuring that hard-working Americans are compensated fairly and have a chance to get ahead.