The U.S. Department of Labor plans to release its final “overtime rule” next month. The rule would expand overtime pay eligibility for salaried employees, and anyone making under $50,440 a year could get overtime pay. As you can imagine, there are a lot of concerns.
“Small business owners should have a plan in place for each of these employees, as they may become eligible for overtime pay,” Paycor Executive Vice President Stacey Browning told AccountingWEB.com. “Depending on their current salary, their role, the classification of their role, and the number of hours they work, each employee will have a different outcome. You should start by creating a list of every exempt employee and their compensation to make the best decisions for your organization.
“Having an accurate calculation of hours worked per week will be very important as you seek to comply with these new regulations,” Browning continued. “Employers will need to have a time and attendance tracking solution that helps them accurately manage their employees’ hours through a unified system with payroll. Enabling employers to run real-time reports on hours worked and employees’ rate of pay will be a critical advantage.”
The final rule should be issued before May 16, which means employers will have to comply by July 15, 2016.
To learn more about the rule, please visit the Department of Labor website. And please let us know in the comments section what you’re doing to prepare for the rule change.
(Image: Lena Vasiljeva/Creative Commons)
It’s not a perfect solution, but this is a good time to think about asking employees to sign an arbitration agreement. This won’t keep the government agencies from going after you, but it will prevent individual lawsuits.