A couple of weeks ago President Obama announced that he would be amending a rule applicable to salary thresholds for overtime entitlement under the Fair Labor and Standards Act. The rule would raise the salary threshold below, which workers automatically qualify for time-and-a-half overtime wages to $50,440 a year from $23,660. This is clearly a revolutionary ruling that could potentially affect millions of Americans, including ones in New York State and New York City
Unlike what most believe, this rule is not required to be approved by the Congress – the executive branch has the power to issue the regulation, which would restore the overtime salary threshold to roughly where it stood in 1975 in terms of purchasing power, without congressional approval, according the New York Times.
This is a strong first step by the administration to bridge the enormous wage discrepancy gap in the country. Let us hope for more decisions that follow this trajectory.