New Overtime rules - where is the improvement over the evil "proposed"

[papau]

The AP is reporting that the improvements involve making it explicit that police, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and other "first responders" would be eligible for overtime, as well as allowing Licensed practical nurses and registered nurses to be eligible. The only ones I understand is the obvious move of the white collar worker $65,000 cap to a $100,000 cap before they were at risk for losing their eligibility, plus raising the must pay overtime from $22,100 last year to today's $23,660.

So do the rules below take away from the rules previously in effect - and how do they do that? - The Moveone email asserts that they do take away overtime from folks = but gives no details.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/regulations.pdf

http://63.241.135.3/goto/department/labor/esa/541reg.asp

http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/seminar.htm

http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fact_exemption.htm

http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fact_occupation.htm


Executive Exemption

To qualify for the executive employee exemption, all of the following tests must be met:

The employee must be compensated on a salary basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $455 per week;
The employee’s primary duty must be managing the enterprise, or managing a customarily recognized department or subdivision of the enterprise;
The employee must customarily and regularly direct the work of at least two or more other full-time employees or their equivalent; and
The employee must have the authority to hire or fire other employees, or the employee’s suggestions and recommendations as to the hiring, firing, advancement, promotion or any other change of status of other employees must be given particular weight.
Administrative Exemption

To qualify for the administrative employee exemption, all of the following tests must be met:

The employee must be compensated on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $455 per week;
The employee’s primary duty must be the performance of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers; and
The employee’s primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.
Professional Exemption

To qualify for the learned professional employee exemption, all of the following tests must be met:

The employee must be compensated on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $455 per week;
The employee’s primary duty must be the performance of work requiring advanced knowledge, defined as work which is predominantly intellectual in character and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment;
The advanced knowledge must be in a field of science or learning; and
The advanced knowledge must be customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.
To qualify for the creative professional employee exemption, all of the following tests must be met:

The employee must be compensated on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $455 per week;
The employee’s primary duty must be the performance of work requiring invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor.
Computer Employee Exemption

To qualify for the computer employee exemption, the following tests must be met:

The employee must be compensated either on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $455 per week or, if compensated on an hourly basis, at a rate not less than $27.63 an hour;
The employee must be employed as a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer or other similarly skilled worker in the computer field performing the duties described below;
The employee’s primary duty must consist of:
1) The application of systems analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine hardware, software or system functional specifications;

2) The design, development, documentation, analysis, creation, testing or modification of computer systems or programs, including prototypes, based on and related to user or system design specifications;

3) The design, documentation, testing, creation or modification of computer programs related to machine operating systems; or

4) A combination of the aforementioned duties, the performance of which requires the same level of skills.

Outside Sales Exemption

To qualify for the outside sales employee exemption, all of the following tests must be met:

The employee’s primary duty must be making sales (as defined in the FLSA), or obtaining orders or contracts for services or for the use of facilities for which a consideration will be paid by the client or customer; and
The employee must be customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer’s place or places of business.
Highly Compensated Employees

Highly compensated employees performing office or non-manual work and paid total annual compensation of $100,000 or more (which must include at least $455 per week paid on a salary or fee basis) are exempt from the FLSA if they customarily and regularly perform at least one of the duties of an exempt executive, administrative or professional employee identified in the standard tests for exemption.

Blue Collar Workers

The exemptions provided by FLSA Section 13(a)(1) apply only to “white collar” employees who meet the salary and duties tests set forth in the Part 541 regulations. The exemptions do not apply to manual laborers or other “blue collar” workers who perform work involving repetitive operations with their hands, physical skill and energy. FLSA-covered, non-management employees in production, maintenance, construction and similar occupations such as carpenters, electricians, mechanics, plumbers, iron workers, craftsmen, operating engineers, longshoremen, construction workers and laborers are entitled to minimum wage and overtime premium pay under the FLSA, and are not exempt under the Part 541 regulations no matter how highly paid they might be.

Police, Fire Fighters, Paramedics & Other First Responders

The exemptions also do not apply to police officers, detectives, deputy sheriffs, state troopers, highway patrol officers, investigators, inspectors, correctional officers, parole or probation officers, park rangers, fire fighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, ambulance personnel, rescue workers, hazardous materials workers and similar employees, regardless of rank or pay level, who perform work such as preventing, controlling or extinguishing fires of any type; rescuing fire, crime or accident victims; preventing or detecting crimes; conducting investigations or inspections for violations of law; performing surveillance; pursuing, restraining and apprehending suspects; detaining or supervising suspected and convicted criminals, including those on probation or parole; interviewing witnesses; interrogating and fingerprinting suspects; preparing investigative reports; or other similar work.

[MSgt213]

1. So they are not screwing anybody like they wanted to do at first.

[papau]

2. I'm not sure if anyone is being screwed -only that fewer are being screwed

:-)

[papau]

3. the WH is saying 100000 lose OT under new rules - what rule

change causes the loss of OT?

[papau]

4. Changes I have noticed are:

Changes I have noticed are:

Requirements are dropped that workers not devote more than one-fifth of their time to activities unrelated to their main job.

"Creative professional employees" will have to do work "requiring invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor," but will no longer have to "consistently exercise discretion and judgment."

A new computer employee exemption that seems to include any computer related work other than working with productivity software.

[papau]

5. RN's on salary get no OT !!!!

The "fix" for was for hourly nurses only-


Now the fix for Registered nurses is only that those who are paid on an hourly basis should receive overtime pay. However, registered nurses who are registered by the appropriate State examining board generally meet the duties requirements for the learned professional exemption, and if paid on a salary basis of at least $455 per week, may be classified as exempt - which is the screwing they wanted to make!

[54anickel]

6. Here's a related article. Seems the new doc is 500 pages!

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8477656.htm

snip>
The Bush administration watered down several of its original proposals:


-The administration originally wanted to make it easier to deny overtime to workers who earned more than $65,000 a year. The final proposal upped that to $100,000.


-The administration proposed denying overtime to those who had received training in community colleges or while in the military. That was dropped, in part because veterans complained that they could lose overtime benefits.


-The administration proposed changing the definition of administrator to an employee performing work of substantial importance or work requiring a high level of skill. But the final version hews close to the existing rules, which define it as a work requiring the exercise of discretion and independent judgment.


-The administration also specifically guaranteed overtime to police officers, firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians. It gave the same guarantee to licensed practical nurses, but not to registered nurses.

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