Tell the Department of Labor to Protect Overtime Pay

Nicole is a single mom who works at the front desk of a hotel. When she was first promoted to a shift supervisor, she was excited because she thought the new role would come with an increase in pay as well as responsibilities. But while her salary has gone up, Nicole’s overall earnings have gone down… What’s the catch?

Under current federal law, only hourly workers and those paid salaries less than $23,660 a year–below the poverty line for a family of four—are guaranteed pay for the overtime hours they work. Up until her promotion, Nicole was eligible to earn time-and-a-half for the hours she regularly worked over 40 hours a week. In her new role as shift supervisor, she’s no longer eligible to earn overtime pay, yet she’s increasingly expected to work overtime hours whenever one of her colleagues needs time off.

Take action today to defend the rights of millions of workers like Nicole by contacting the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and submitting a comment in OPPOSITION to their insufficient overtime proposal. Scroll down for a sample comment and the link to the DOL website.

You may recall that in early 2016, the DOL was going to raise the salary threshold for those eligible to earn overtime pay to $47,476 – which was in response to DOL receiving more than 270,000 comments from Action Takers like WE and you. But this raise was challenged in 2017 and never took effect, and the current administration’s DOL is now proposing an insufficient raise to $35,308 – which would leave behind millions of workers, including 4.2 million women like Nicole who deserve to be paid fairly for the overtime hours they’re expected to work.

Through May 21, DOL is collecting public comments on this overtime proposal. Join Women Employed and send the DOL a message in OPPOSITION to their overtime proposal that would wrongly exempt millions of workers whose jobs should make them entitled to overtime pay, particularly women who disproportionately occupy jobs at the low end of the salary scale for managerial and professional employees.

You can copy the following text into the Comment Box on the DOL website.

It would be better if you can add your own comments, too!

I strongly oppose the proposed regulations to raise the overtime threshold to $35,308 per year because it fails to adequately protect workers who are not Executive, Administrative, or Professional employees in any meaningful sense. The $35,308 proposed threshold would still leave many non-managerial employees wrongly exempt from overtime. I urge the Department of Labor to act immediately to change this threshold to $47,476 to bring overtime protections to millions of workers who are working overtime but not getting paid for it.

Together, we will ensure more women, families, and communities can build their economic power and thrive.

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