Overtime Pay Structure

The Fair Labor Standards Act has been amended many times and is virtually an ever-changing law, however, it does not cover all employees. There are several classes of “exempt” employees, including salaried employees in the executive/managerial, administrative, and professional areas. Outside salespeople are also considered exempt. One of the issues facing companies today is knowing which employees are exempt and which are non-exempt. There are tests to determine if an employee is exempt. In 2004 the tests changed to a standard test, which is whether or not the employee’s salary is $455/week or greater and the duties test, which allows for exempt status if more than 50% of the work performed by an individual is “exempt work.” (Pass and Broadwater) Exempt employees do not receive overtime pay, which can be a substantial cost savings to a company. My previous employer required that an exempt manager close the center each night even though we had non-exempt team leads who acted as managers in most capacities. The reason was to avoid overtime costs.

The American dream is all but a figment of the imagination that is unrealistic to attain since it is becoming harder and harder for any middle class to sustain itself in the middle or the poor society to prosper to the intermediate class. What once was possible is almost impossible to achieve success and wealth through hard work, persistence, and action. The top one percent of the American society is making it impossible for the lower class to hold on to hope for a better future. The richer are getting richer by remarkably increase profits. Yet, the lower class wages have either decrease in some sectors of employment or have remained stationary resulting in “income inequality. That is “…the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population” (inequality.org). Today it is even more evident that the lower class is stuck, unable to go nowhere. Savings is almost none existence to the middle and poor classes yet, they are working harder than ever before. Fortunately by having a free democratic society take control over “wealth inequality” the economic difference can stabilize through unionization for all low-wage labor.

First off, inequality in the United States has increased most steadily and substantially in the past century. Statistics show that people born in the 1940’s were more likely to earn a wage higher than their parents, than people born in the 80’s. In addition, 4/10 children stay in their parents’ wage bracket and only 1/10 children moves up or down from the bracket. According to this, social reproduction has become more common and economic and social mobility less common.

However, this requirement will undermine employees with higher productivity per hour. A worker who used to be paid $10 per hour will have to face a reduction. This can negatively affect his productivity. Job discrimination will also rise and

While smaller businesses operating on tighter budgets may find it expensive to pay overtime, the bigger companies with few employees on the managerial positions are capable of paying for overtime for the employees whose category will fall below the minimum exempt. Furthermore, all the options available for employers to handle the proposed rule should it come into effect will still benefit the American worker. One remedy is to follow the law and raise the annual salaries of employees who are overtime-exempt which will motivate workers who are already earning a salary close to that minimum (Rossheim, 2016). The second option is to re-classify workers as no-exempt, a move that would see the workers who are earning below the proposed exempt minimum qualify for overtime pay or reduce the workload for employees so that they only work for 40 hours in a week (Rossheim, 2016). The last option would be to hire more workers and avoid paying overtime which is a good move in providing employment for the unemployed. It is evident that the options available for employers would work towards improving employees’ welfare as well as saving the organization from the challenges of low remuneration.

One of which is increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour. In continuous of this, On March 13, Obama issued an Executive Order directing the Department of Labor to draft a regulation to expand the eligibility of salaried workers on federal contracts to receive overtime pay. This paper will dissect three questions; what is the central HCD issue raised in this regulation, Should the regulation be adopted as proposed? If so, then why? If not, then why not? And finally, what are the broader implications of this proposed regulation for the legal environment of

Therefore, in order to make the American Dream achievable to everyone, income wages must increase for those in the lower class and government welfare should be provided to all Americans in order to increase the opportunity of social mobility. Though income inequality may seem as an inevitable issue that just happens to plague many Americans who choose to work in blue collar jobs, current economic inequality is more realistically the result of unfair economic policies that threaten to worsen if they are not immediately addressed. The poor conditions of the workers who work for long hours with little pay demonstrate that America is at a crucial point, and that without immediate action, the country will continue to plunge further downward into

Income inequality has been a common problem among people in the United States. A prime example of a group facing income inequality is the middle class. The middle class has served as the backbone to a working economy for decades. Though, lately, the middle class is facing a downward spiral: it is slowly shrinking in number. Because the Middle class will never truly be eliminated, solutions can be limited; however the best thing to do is to try to strengthen this weak link. As Richard Nixon said in his Address to the Nation, we are a “working class” as a whole, we should be using that backbone to uphold our nation. The middle class does so much in our economy that the fall of this keystone could possibly cause a complete domino effect in the

Around 15% of American citizens live below the poverty line today, and many believe that raising the minimum wage will lower this number. On May 21, 2015, The Wall Street Journal published an article by Warren Buffett, “Better Than Raising the Minimum Wage.” Buffett writes about a cost effective way for Americans to receive a steadier income other than raising the minimum wage. He highlights that the everyday worker with no special skills often finds it hard to be successful. The way Buffett proposes to fix this issue is to develop the Earned Income Tax Credit or Tax returns. Buffett used a lot of fact based arguments and appealed to ethos, but it could not make up for the lack of pathos and a strong argument in this article.

One major aspect of the Fair Labor Standards Act as of December 2016 is the overtime

The United States was once known to offer honest jobs, with an honest pay for a hard day of work. The middle class of the united states was once a thriving class that lived comfortably off of that standard. Today the middle class is marginally smaller and the jobs don’t promise the same benefits they once did. There are many possibilities that may have caused the demise of the middle class, but very little is being done to resolve the issue. The importance of having a large working middle class is key to having an overall thriving economy and great living conditions for all in the United States. The middle class is shrinking and this can be resolved by worker’s unions, raising the tax on the upper class, and raising the minimum wage.

As an assistant store manager at Brookshire’s I would be tasked with helping to create the weekly schedules of the employees, help the customers by answering questions or showing them where products are located, purchase inventory, evaluating the competition, and promoting products as well as prompting cashiers to help promote products. The work hours for this position can be set to a fixed time frame but the days that I would work could fluctuate every week considering that there are two assistant managers at the Brookshire’s grocery store in Palestine, Tx. The assistant manager’s average pay is $47,010 yearly (N/A, 2018), which I could support my bills and food if I live by myself. The assistant manager reports to the store director and works with the second assistant manager along with the managers of

the wages of the department assistant is $14.75 per hour. They review it and increase it every year. The managers has yearly package.

When deciding if an employee is eligible for overtime pay and minimum wage, supervisors would be declaring employees as either exempt or nonexempt. According to www.nolo.com, “An employee who meets the requirements of an exemption category under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) or under state law, which typically apply only to white collar employees who receive a certain minimum salary. Exempt employees are not entitled to extra pay for overtime hours.” Exempt employees often receive a salary per year that is segregated into weekly or bi-weekly payments based off of an average 40-hour work week. With salaried employees, supervisors may agree upon flex schedules where an employee may work a predetermined amount of hours per

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 established a federal minimum wage and rules regarding overtime pay and documentation. The FLSA applies to employees in the private sector and in local, state and federal government agencies. The rate of overtime pay, which is one and one-half times the regular rate of pay, kicks into effect after 40 hours of work are reached in a workweek. There are no limits on the number of hours an employee who is 16 years or older may work in any workweek. Bear in mind that the FLSA doesn’t require employers to pay overtime for work on holidays and weekends unless there is overtime involved. The hours worked only apply to the time employees are