How Obama Helped Women By Fixing The Overtime Gap
SHEILA BAPAT – MARCH 19, 2014, 1:00 PM EDT
Late last week, President Obama issued an executive order expanding current overtime protections for U.S. workers. The move is critical for many in the U.S. who work more than 40 hours a week in sectors that pay little, but are nevertheless currently “exempt” from overtime pay.
Given how current overtime regulations disproportionately affect women’s earnings, this executive order — and other recent wage policies — is one of the most feminist positions Obama has taken. The administration has also made it a priority to raise the minimum wage and enforce existing labor laws. Women earn significantly less than men across the board, and they are also working in fields in which labor laws tend to be violated more frequently. Thus the Obama administration’s focus on improving labor protections is of deep significance with respect to both recognizing these gender disparities and undertaking efforts to transform them.
Currently, many workers in executive, administrative, or professional jobs fall within the “white collar exemption” and are thus denied overtime— even if they fill positions that pay very little. The Obama administration’s new regulations will narrow the categories of employees that can fall within this exemption.
Perhaps of greater significance, Obama’s proposed regulations specifically raise the salary threshold. Currently workers who earn more than $23,660 a year can be exempt from overtime. This threshold is nearly forty years old and does not afford rent in most parts of the country. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) pointed out that some ten million workers will benefit from these new regulations: “These workers include insurance clerks, secretaries, low-level managers, social workers, bookkeepers, dispatchers, sales and marketing assistants, and employees in scores of other occupations,” the report notes. That threshold is also where it would be if it had been adjusted for inflation since the last significant increase.”
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