In 1975, 65% of salaried workers in the United States were paid overtime. In 2013, only 11% of American salaried workers were paid overtime. So what happened?
Good lobbying by corporations; the increase of corporate PAC money in our elections; the decline of labor unions for another.
To be exempt from overtime (meaning you don't have to paid overtime), a salaried workers has to be paid a minimum of $455.00 per week ($455 divided by 40 = $11.38 per hour). There are other factors that make for the exemption also. If this threshold were the equivalent to what it was in 1975 (adjusted for inflation) the weekly minimum threshold would be $1327 or $69,000 a year.
President Obama should act to make the overtime standard the same today as it was for salaried workers in 1975; the minimum weekly should be changed to $1330.
The point is made in an excellent article in by Nick Hanauer in Politico: Whatever Happened to Overtime?
Sign a petition to President Obama at Daily Kos: What About Overtime?
