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New overtime rule covers fewer workers than Obama version

Had the 2016 rule been instituted, roughly three times more workers would have been covered.

Under the new rule, employers will be required to pay overtime to employees making less than $35,568.
Under the new rule, employers will be required to pay overtime to employees making less than $35,568.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Based on a new Trump administration rule set to kick in on January 1, 2020, more than a million additional workers will soon be eligible for paid overtime. The Department of Labor finalized a rule on Tuesday that will require companies to pay overtime when people making less than $35,568 a year in salary work more than 40 hours a week. The current cut off is about $24,000.

Business groups, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called the new rule “balanced and responsible.” But things could have gone differently. A 2016 rule from the Obama administration would have raised that threshold even higher, to $47,476, which worker advocates say would have covered 3.2 million workers.

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