President Obama Announces New Overtime Law; MinuteHound Time and Attendance to Account for All Changes
New York, NY (PRWEB) March 25, 2014 -- Source: NYTimes March 11, 2014
MinuteHound has been closely monitoring the president’s intent to force American businesses to restructure overtime to millions of workers. It’s reported the president will actually direct the Labor Department to change regulations, forcing a number of industries to redefine terms like “executive” or “professional” and how these employees are treated when it comes to receiving overtime pay.
As a biometrics company that provides time and attendance solutions, MinuteHound is both curious and ready to see how these events turn out. Currently, companies that employ computer technicians, loan officers, fast food managers and other middle management positions have used the abovementioned terms to avoid paying these individuals overtime. This is while the same companies are enjoying profits and wages have stagnated.
With current regulations, employers can take advantage of what is referred to as the white collar exemption. This term encompasses employees that have been hired in what is executive, management, administrative and professional positions. Current guidelines maintain that employees are only obligated to pay overtime to any employer making less than $455 a week. New directives would increase that amount, essentially putting billions of dollars of income going into corporate pockets into the pockets of employees.
This move by President Obama is likely to be challenged by the Republican Party. Naturally, the business world is not too thrilled about the president’s intent. They want to maintain their flexibility in paying overtime and a reconstruction of overtime regulations would take that away.
The president has long had an agenda to deal with he’s called an “economic inequality.” Any change in regulations would dynamically alter which type of employee is eligible for overtime. According to UPI on March 12, 2014, on behalf of any new policy, White House Domestic Policy Council director Cecilia Muñoz questions why anyone would take issue with a desire to help employees thrive and be rewarded accordingly. “We need to fix the system so folks working hard are getting compensated fairly,” she has said. “That’s why we are jump-starting this effort.”
The White House is also looking to curtail abuse that attempts to stop paying overtime. New regulations would provide employees a percentage of “executive” work before employers could exempt them from qualifying for overtime pay. This point really piqued the interest of the technologists at MinuteHound. One of the major advantages of our software is it not only monitors time and attendance, but it minimizes the potential of time theft and fraud in the workplace.
While it is believed strong opposition may result in the president scaling back his proposal, any final changes to the regulations would be subject to public response before the Labor Department’s approval. Once the president’s request is made, the wage and hour administrator at the Labor Department will need to put them into effect. Unfortunately, this position has been vacant since the current White House administration took office.
However this story turns out, MinuteHound will be prepared with software updates, training or support that helps clients.
MinuteHound Contact Information
Website: http://www.MinuteHound.com
Email: info(at)MinuteHound(dot)com
Phone: (800) 351-7237
Ben Ari, MinuteHound, http://www.minutehound.com/, +1 (800) 351-7237, [email protected]
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