Effective December 1, the U.S. Department of Labor’s overtime law will raise the salary threshold to $47,476 per year. This change will affect 4.2 million U.S. government and private industry employees who are currently salaried and/or hourly. For the salaried workers, who make less than $47K annually (or $913 per week), will now be able to earn overtime pay or get more free time away from work. For the employer, they will have the option to increase salaries to meet the new threshold or switch a person to hourly and pay the overtime if they put in the hours. Every three years the salary threshold will be updated automatically by the DOL. By 2020, the annual salary threshold will be $51,168. Photo credit: PBS.org
