The past couple of posts discuss the new overtime pay rules that will soon go into effect in the U.S. Depending on your specific employment situation and your employer, the transition could be good news or bad news. Or it might not be of much impact to you at all.
So far we’ve presented a couple of possibilities. Might your employer boost your pay just enough so that you will not be impacted by the new overtime pay law? Could your employer basically take away the option of overtime by hiring more workers? The following are a couple of other options employers are within their rights to elect.
3.) Your employer could make you a non-exempt employee instead of an exempt employee. You could go from being salaried to being paid an hourly rate. Forbes suggests this could be good or bad. The good would be that if you actually do put in more than 40 hours as you may have before, you will get paid overtime. The possible bad outcome of this is that your employer could choose not to let you work the hours you need. Maybe you wouldn’t even get to work the 40 hours you rely on in order to make ends meet.
4.) Maybe nothing huge will change for you work-wise, but your employer will take the new law as an opportunity to simply give you more pay through the overtime you work. They could reclassify your status in order for you to be eligible for overtime pay requirements and not have to worry so much about the tax complications as they used to.
No matter what your circumstance, if you are ever concerned that you are not getting the wages that you deserve, reach out to an employment lawyer in your area. Especially when laws change, these matters get confusing. An attorney with experience in wage and hour regulations can help clarify things and provide the support you need.
