Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), issued the following statement on the U.S. Department of Labor’s final rule to restore and extend overtime protections to millions more low-paid salaried workers. The salary threshold for overtime pay will increase to the equivalent of an annual salary of $43,888 effective July 1, 2024, and will increase to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. Starting July 1, 2027, salary thresholds will update every three years, by applying up-to-date wage data to determine new salary levels.
“After the Trump administration callously excluded millions of workers from overtime protections, this final rule from the Biden administration will restore and expand protections for millions of working people, ensuring they get the overtime compensation they deserve when working long hours away from their families,” said Senator Murray. “This will make a material difference in the lives of over 4 million workers—giving their families extra breathing room for their extra labor. From Day One, the Biden administration has been laser-focused on improving the lives of working Americans, and this rule is one more important step in that direction.”
The new final rule will:
- Restore and extend overtime protections to low-paid salaried workers. Many low-paid salaried employees work side-by-side with hourly employees, doing the same tasks and often working over 40 hours a week. But because of outdated and out-of-sync rules, these salaried workers aren’t getting paid time-and-a-half for hours worked over 40 in a week. The department’s increased salary threshold would help ensure that more of these salaried workers receive overtime protections traditionally provided by the department’s rules.
- Give workers who are not exempt executive, administrative, or professional employees valuable time back. By better identifying which employees are executive, administrative, or professional employees who should be overtime exempt, the rule will better ensure that those who are not exempt will gain more time with their families or receive additional compensation when working more than 40 hours a week.
- Prevent a future erosion of overtime protections and ensure greater predictability. The rule will automatically update the salary threshold every three years to reflect current earnings data.
Senator Murray has been a consistent champion for workers’ rights throughout her career. When the Trump administration announced plans to set the salary threshold under which workers would be guaranteed overtime pay at $35,308, down from $47,476 set by the Obama administration—leaving out millions of workers—Murray denounced the move. Last year, she applauded the Biden administration’s proposed overtime rule. Murray is a lead sponsor of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would strengthen protections for workers’ right to organize a union and bargain for higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions. Last Congress, as Chair of the Senate HELP Committee, she held a hearing urging action to protect workers’ right to organize, and has worked hard over years to build support for the bill. In the spending bill passed into law in December 2022, Senator Murray secured a long overdue $25 million increase in funding for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to help ensure the agency can protect the rights of workers everywhere.
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