More Maine workers can now receive overtime pay under new federal rule
A Department of Labor final rule means millions of salaried workers who are employed in the executive, administrative or professional industries are eligible for overtime pay. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
More Maine workers will be eligible for overtime pay beginning Monday when a new federal rule takes effect.
The rule, finalized by the Biden administration in April, increases the salary threshold above which a worker can be exempt from overtime pay, meaning such compensation will be extended to about 4.3 million additional employees around the nation.
The previous salary threshold at which a Maine employee could be exempt from overtime pay was $42,450 a year. In order to be exempt, the worker also has to be paid on a salary basis and perform primarily executive, administrative or professional duties.
With the new rule going into effect, the overtime exemption threshold on Monday rose to $43,888 a year. But starting on Jan. 1, the threshold will increase again — this time much more significantly to $58,656 a year.
Going forward, the salary threshold will be updated every three years.
The Biden administration did not break down the number of additional workers eligible for overtime protections by state but rather by census region. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that in the next year — which would encompass both the July 1 and Jan. 1 exemption threshold expansions — 200,000 people in the New England census region could gain overtime protections, a spokesperson said.
According to James Myall, an analyst for the Maine Center for Economic Policy, who put together a state level calculation, roughly 3,000 Maine workers will be newly-covered under the Biden administration rule starting Monday and 23,000 more will be covered when the threshold rises again on Jan. 1, reaching a potential total of 26,000 Maine employees who will be impacted by the rule change in the coming year.
The implementation of the federal rule comes as state lawmakers also sought to increase the number of Mainers eligible for overtime pay through a bill introduced during this year’s legislative session. That measure was meant to largely match the Biden administration’s rule, but the bill was ultimately unsuccessful.
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