“Workers Win” with Labor Department’s New
Overtime Rules

FairPay Initiative Guarantees Overtime Rights for Millions of Workers

WASHINGTON—U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today announced the final regulations governing overtime eligibility for “white-collar” workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The regulations had not been substantially updated for over 50 years, creating confusion for workers and employers, generating wasteful class action litigation, and failing to effectively protect workers’ pay rights.

“Today, workers win. The department’s new rules guarantee and strengthen overtime rights for more American workers than ever before,” said Secretary Chao.

“When workers know their rights and employers know how to pay workers, everybody wins,” added Chao. “With the ‘FairPay’ rule, we are restoring overtime to what it was intended to be: fair pay for workers, instead of a lawsuit lottery. And we will use these new clear standards to vigorously enforce the overtime laws on behalf of workers—building on this Administration’s strong record of pro-worker wage and hour enforcement.”

The new rules expand the number of workers eligible for overtime by nearly tripling the salary threshold. Under the 50-year-old regulations, only workers earning less than $8,060 annually were guaranteed overtime. Under the new rules, workers earning $23,660 or less are guaranteed overtime. This strengthens overtime protection for 6.7 million low-wage salaried workers, including 1.3 million salaried white collar workers who were not entitled to overtime pay under the existing regulations. These workers will gain up to $375 million in additional earnings every year.

To provide even stronger overtime protection for workers, the FairPay rules add new sections that clearly state that “blue-collar” workers, police officers, fire fighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and licensed practical nurses are entitled to overtime protection.

The department’s new FairPay rule will take effect in 120 days. It will be published in the Federal Register and a text version is available online at www.dol.gov/fairpay. For further information about the Fair Labor Standards Act, visit the Department’s Wage and Hour Division web page at www.dol.gov.

An online audio news release is available for this announcement.

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.