HOW THEY SEE IT \ Overtime rules New rules geared toward new economy

By ELAINE L. CHAO
KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE
Overtime pay matters to American workers and their families, and beginning Monday, millions more of them gained overtime rights.
Until now, outdated regulations left millions of workers without the guaranteed overtime protections they deserve. Now, after more than two years of careful deliberation with extensive input from the public, the Department of Labor's reforms to white-collar overtime regulations are taking effect. And while the new rules will result in America's businesses paying more money to their workers, they will give employers much-needed certainty and reduce the enormous number of lawsuits these 50-year-old regulations create.
Although overtime regulations can be a very complicated subject, the basics of the new reforms are quite simple.
Under the old, outdated regulations, workers earning as little as $8,060 could be denied overtime. The new overtime security rule nearly triples this salary threshold, so that workers earning less than $23,660 per year are guaranteed overtime protection no matter what they do or what their job title is. Approximately 6.7 million workers will benefit from this change: 1.3 million workers who did not have a right to overtime under the old regulations, and another 5.4 million whose right to overtime was uncertain or dependent upon the whim of the courts.
Overtime protection
The new overtime security rules, for the first time, also offer explicit guarantees of overtime protection to many workers earning above the $23,660 threshold, including blue-collar workers like carpenters, electricians, mechanics, plumbers, iron workers, operating engineers, longshoremen, and laborers, as well as workers who receive overtime under a union contract. Licensed practical nurses and first responders, such as police officers, fire fighters and EMTs also receive greater protection under the new regulations. Any worker paid on an hourly basis will continue to be guaranteed overtime pay no matter how much they earn, what job they perform, or what title they hold.
Because the old regulations hadn't been changed in decades, they were difficult to understand and apply in today's economy, meaning that it was often impossible to determine who should receive overtime. The result was an explosion in lawsuits. The new rules, by contrast, are significantly shorter in length, based on the realities of today's workplaces, and incorporate current court decisions to make it much easier to determine overtime eligibility. This new clarity means that workers won't have to resort to the courts to get the overtime they deserve and employers can devote money to building their businesses and paying workers, instead of enriching lawyers.
Some in Congress are attempting to undermine the new worker protections established by these reforms. Special interest groups have tried to discredit the new rules for political reasons, issuing trumped up "studies" filled with misinformation designed to confuse employers and frighten workers. Should these cynical tactics succeed and Congress roll back these overdue reforms, workers will be unjustly denied overtime, employers will still be saddled with lawsuits and the new worker protections contained in the updated rules will be swept away.
New court case
Rolling back these new protections would be disastrous for workers, especially now. According to a recent news report, a number of companies are preparing to treat more of their workers as eligible for overtime under the new rules, and a new court case, Robinson-Smith v. GEICO, found that many claims adjusters would be eligible for overtime under the Department's reforms -- a ruling, by the way, that directly contradicts what the fear-mongers have been claiming.
X Elaine L. Chao is the U.S. Secretary of Labor. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.