New overtime rules could mean $8,000-$10,000 in salary increase

Obama admin passed overtime rule changes his week

Thousands of dollars in raises for salaried employees in Wisconsin.  

That’s essentially the prediction from the liberal advocacy group Citizen Action of Wisconsin, after final overtime rule changes were released by the Obama administration this week.

“It’s a huge economic boon to Wisconsin and every local community in the state,” Citizen Action head, Robert Kraig, said. 

Based on current wage averages and hours worked, a lower tier salaried worker could expect a raise of between $8,000-$10,000 in Wisconsin because of the overtime rules, according to Citizen Action. 

Raises are pretty likely if you’re one of those lower-wage salaried employees, working long hours and not getting anything in return, right now.  

Kraig says the changes are no more than updates of rules in place for decades.

“We create these overtime rules in the first place to make sure that when you work excessive hours, you’re rewarded for hard work,” Kraig said. “And they simply froze the formula for decades.

“The percentage of workers that were included used to be very large and now it’s less than seven percent.”

Citizen Action used wage and hour data to predict the average low-salaried employee in La Crosse, and that could mean another $8,800 when the rules go into effect.

But it won’t be for everyone.

“I’m sure there’ll be some monkeying around by some people,” Kraig said of employers trying to escape the new rules. “The  fact of the matter is, these workers aren’t getting the overtime that they should get.”

The overtime rules go into effect in December, impacting those salaried, non-exempt workers who make less than about $47,000 a year.