Comment on Pennsylvania's Overtime Regulations

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A Day in the Life of a Munitions Worker, Britain, 1940 D679
(7/25/18 - Updated with new deadline)

In early July, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) proposed a new regulation requiring public comment. The proposed regulation would greatly expand eligibility for overtime pay in Pennsylvania.

The regulation, available here, makes it harder for employers to classify workers as exempt managers and administrative professionals by raising the minimum salary these workers have to get from $23,660 to $47,892.

This regulation mirrors much of the overtime proposal under President Obama's Administration that was put on hold in the courts. It would do three things:
  1. Clarify the definitions of executive, administrative, and professional workers to make it much easier to figure out what kinds of job duties qualify under the exemption. 
  2. Raise the minimum salary threshold for the exemption from $23,660/year to $47,892/year within two years and then institute a formula to update the minimum threshold every three years going forward. 
  3. Allow employers to count nondiscretionary bonuses for up to 10% of the salary threshold (i.e. up to $4,789/year could be paid in bonuses).
Keystone Research Center and CLS have put together sample comments available here. You can also read a report from NELP on overtime in Pennsylvania here.

If you submit comments, please send them by July 23 August 22 to Bryan M. Smolock, Director, Bureau of Labor Law Compliance, 651 Boas Street, Room 1301, Harrisburg, PA 17121 (bsmolock@pa.gov). Comments can be sent by mail or email.

In addition to the longer comments, individuals, especially impacted workers, are encouraged to submit simple, short comments with something like the following message:

 The Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) should act immediately to raise the overtime threshold to $47,892, a change that would bring guaranteed overtime protection to over 465,000 more workers in Pennsylvania based on their salary alone. In 1975, more than 60% of salaried workers nationwide were protected by overtime laws, but today it’s only 8%. Updating overtime regulations is one of the most important steps DLI can take to protect working families.

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