President Obama used the weekly White House address on Saturday to tout his recent decree, which expands the number of U.S. workers eligible for overtime pay.
The Labor Department announced Tuesday the finalization of a rule to give overtime protections to 4.2 million more Americans, doubling the overtime salary threshold.
“Things like the 40-hour workweek and overtime are two of the most basic pillars of a middle class life,” Obama said. “But for all the changes we’ve seen in our economy, our overtime rules have only been updated once since the 1970s.”
The administration’s action will apply to most salaried workers who earn less than $47,500 a year. The federal move will also ensure that threshold is reconsidered every three years, not every few decades.
Obama said the move will help Americans like Elizabeth Paredes of Tucson, Ariz., who wrote to him last summer describing her struggles as a single mother ineligible for overtime hours she regularly works.
“This is the single biggest step I can take through executive action to raise wages for the American people. It means that millions of hardworking Americans like Elizabeth will either get paid for working more than 40 hours, or they’ll get more time with their families. Either way, they win,” Obama said.
The president, who has largely stayed out of the debate on increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour, emphasized legislators and federal officials “have more work to do to make sure this economy works for everybody, not just those at the top.”
