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Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label Business Econ Minimum Wage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business Econ Minimum Wage. Show all posts

Friday, May 20, 2016

Washington Post: Millions more workers will be eligible for overtime pay under new federal rule

Washington Post: Millions more workers will be eligible for overtime pay under new federal rule


Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and President Obama will announce a new rule Wednesday that will expand the number of workers eligible for overtime pay. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

The Obama administration unveiled a new rule Wednesday that will make millions of middle-income workers eligible for overtime pay, a move that delivers a long-sought victory for labor groups.

The regulations, which were last updated more than a decade ago, would let full-time salaried employees earn overtime if they make up to $47,476 a year, more than double the current threshold of $23,660 a year. The Labor Department estimates that the rule would boost the pay of 4.2 million additional workers.

The change is scheduled to take effect Dec. 1.

The move caps a long-running effort by the Obama administration to aid low- and middle-income workers whose paychecks have not budged much in the last few decades, even as the top earners in America have seen their compensation soar. The last update to the rules came in 2004, and Wednesday’s announcement is the third update to the salary threshold for overtime regulations in 40 years.

“Along with health care reform, this is one of the most important measures that the Obama administration has implemented to help middle-wage workers,” said Jared Bernstein, a former chief economist for Vice President Biden and a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The Obama administration will unveil a new rule that would make millions of middle-income workers eligible for overtime pay. Here's what you need to know about it. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

About 35 percent of full-time salaried employees will be eligible for time and a half when they work extra hours under the new rule, up significantly from the 7 percent who qualify under the current threshold, according to the Labor Department.

The shift was swiftly criticized by small business owners, nonprofit groups, and universities that say they may have to switch some salaried workers to hourly positions to afford the new threshold. And instead of seeing bigger paychecks, some salaried workers may be assigned fewer hours, they said.

“For many of these types of employees they’re going to be viewing it as a demotion,” said David French, senior vice president of government relations for the National Retail Federation. “They’re going to have to clock in and clock out. They’re no longer going to have flexibility at work.”


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Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Andrew Soergel - U.S. News & World Report - Minimum Wage Increase Comes with Cadre of Potential Complications

Minimum Wage Increase Comes with Cadre of Potential Complications

Andrew Soergel - U.S. News & World Report - Tuesday, December 22, 2015


New Year's Day is still more than a week off, but 2016 is already shaping up to be the year of the minimum wage increase.

Alaska, Arkansas, California and Colorado are among about a dozen states due for minimum wage upticks at the turn of the year, with more increases and more potential legislation already in the pipeline for later in 2016 and beyond.

The federal minimum wage currently sits at just $7.25 per hour, though waiters and individuals who receive a bulk of their income through tips can legally earn even less. Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is among a host of politicians championing higher wages as a means of revitalizing the middle class.

But the jury is still out on how much minimum wage gains would actually help the U.S. economy and the middle class. Some studies suggest government-mandated wage hikes are actually detrimental to the American workforce.


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Monday, February 10, 2014

Senator Joe Getty: New Study Documents Adverse Impacts of Raising Minimum Wage In Maryland

New Study Documents Adverse Impacts of
Raising Minimum Wage In Maryland
Marylanders for Joe GettyFebruary 10, 2014

At a press conference this morning, the results of a new study on minimum wage prepared by economist Stephen S. Fuller, Ph.D., George Mason University, were released by the Maryland Foundation for Research & Economic Education.

Over ten bills have been introduced in the Maryland General Assembly this session and will receive hearings in the House and Senate this week.

In an extensive research report, Fuller concludes that raising the minimum wage in Maryland would:

     1.   increase the price of consumer goods;
     2.   reduce employment and personal income;
     3.   weaken the state's competitive position relative to adjacent states having lower labor costs;
     4.   slow the growth of gross state product; and
     5.   slow population growth and weaken real estate values.

The full report has been posted on the WBAL-TV website (Click Here).
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