As of December 1st, 2016, the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) overtime law will be hitting us right in our bank accounts. Although this act is theoretically meant to help and protect the working class, many corporations are responding by trying to sneak under our noses and take away a good chunk of our already minimal hard earned income.
If you are unaware or unsure what this law consists of, I will explain:
If an employee earns a salary that falls between $23,660/year and $47,476/year, they will now be eligible for overtime pay (1.5 times the calculated hourly wage for every hour over 40 hours/week) as of December 1st, 2016.
Commissions, bonuses, and incentive payments may count for up to 10% of the minimum salary of $47,476/year so long as those payments are received quarterly, so for those people who make under the new minimum may still be exempt from overtime pay if they receive such income.
(Source below)
It’s shocking enough to know how many people have been exempt from overtime pay, especially on an hourly wage. Companies (like the one I work for) will always try their hardest to work around the laws as quietly as possible. But now, we HAVE to get overtime, so what can they do?
Here’s what they can do:
Say you’re currently a salaried worker making the minimum amount of $23,660/year. You work long hours, you might even work or do work related things from home on your days off, so this law seems pretty awesome. Those extra hours add up in terms of money, so if anything, this law should drive many workers to want to work more – or better yet, your employer might just decide your worthy of being on the new minimum salary of $47,476/year. Win win! ….unlikely, though. Chances are, the company you work for is not thrilled about spending even a portion of their funds on something other than their own excessive amenities, and they MIGHT just try and pull a stunt like my company did, and they might just get away with it if you let them.
My company decided only a select few salaried managers within the company are worth the new minimum salary – only the managers who, mostly by happenstance, work at locations that pull in outrageous attendance and revenue. Understandably, because they make the majority of the companies money – why make them unhappy? But what about the majority of us? They decided to give us an hourly wage, calculated with promises that our wages will “remain the same” in hopes that we may not notice that they calculated our hourly wages by taking our salaries and dividing them into 45 hour work weeks. Where did that extra five hours come from? It doesn’t seem like that much of an impact, but if you take my salary – the MINIMUM you can make – and divide it by a NORMAL work week of 40 hours, I should make no less than 11.37/hour. Take my salary and divide it into a 45 hour work week, and I would be making $10.11/hour. Now, a $1.26/hour decrease doesn’t sound so awful, but that comes out to $2,620/year, and in my household, my boyfriend whom I live with works for the same company, meaning we would lose over $5,240/year combined. If we wanted to make up for this loss, we could each just suck it up and work an extra 260 hours/year… but wait, our company is likely to not allow us to work over 40 hours unless it’s an approved exception. So we are no longer “exempt” from overtime pay, we’re just not allowed to work overtime, and to add insult to injury, our pay is being cut even though we are still expected to provide our current level of work and stay at our current titles. What they attempted to do, although it seems unjust, is 100% legal. However, if employees refuse to stand for this, there’s only so much injustice they can force upon you to maintain a functional and profiting company.
The reason I’m writing this is so YOU can be aware. If it were up to me alone, I’d be stuck taking a pay cut out of fear of retaliation and also confusion in the conversion they presented us with – but we had a very well respected and brave employee give us all a voice. He – very professionally – spoke out against this new wage for us all, documented by sending his email to EVERY person with an email within the company, and ignited nearly 100 other employees to speak out too. We have now been told our wages are being recalculated, and it is understood by all affected not to sign any agreements that assign us a wage less than that calculated by a 40 hour work week. Most of us work hard for the little we are already paid, and we can’t just sit down and allow our livelihoods to be threatened by the people who have no idea what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck.
You have a voice – use it wisely, use it uniformly, and use it meaningfully.
Cheyenne Talks 