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Bloomberg BNA's Penn on DOL Ruling on Overtime Threshold(Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Taking Stock with Pim Box and Kathleen
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  Speaker 1: Hayes on bloom Bird Radio. So as Charlie just deported,
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  Speaker 1: markets fixated on the minutes of the fed's last meeting,
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  Speaker 1: which have really reopened the door to an interest rate
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  Speaker 1: increase in June. FED watching inflation wages the labor market.
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  Speaker 1: I bet they're watching a story out today from Bloomberg
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  Speaker 1: b n A. We're joined by Ben Penn, labor reporter
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  Speaker 1: for b NA. He joins us from Arlington, Virginia to
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  Speaker 1: talk about the Labor Department's final overtime rule that's going
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  Speaker 1: to double the salary threshold for overtime exemption, effective in December,
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  Speaker 1: and it's going to make a big difference for people
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  Speaker 1: who are classified as a managers. Ben, welcome to taking Stock. Hi,
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  Speaker 1: thanks for having me. Well, this has been in the
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  Speaker 1: works for a while. In a nutshell, what is the
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  Speaker 1: Department of Labor going to start enforcing companies to do? Basically,
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  Speaker 1: the salary threshold for overtime exemption the words the level
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  Speaker 1: at which below which workers are automatically qualified for a
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  Speaker 1: time and a half pay when they work more than
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  Speaker 1: forty hours per week UM. That level has doubled. So
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  Speaker 1: currently um there that it is about twenty three thousand
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  Speaker 1: and change and it's going to go up to UH
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  Speaker 1: five hundred UM. So what you know, it's interesting you
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  Speaker 1: ask about Department of Labor Enforcement because right now they
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  Speaker 1: they are focused on the compliance assistance phase UM, where
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  Speaker 1: they're you know, doing an aggressive effort to reach out
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  Speaker 1: to UH, to various forms of employers that are impacted
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  Speaker 1: by this rule. But yes, UH, technically on December one,
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  Speaker 1: that is when the wage in our division investigators can
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  Speaker 1: begin enforcing the rule. And and they imagine there's going
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  Speaker 1: to be millions of employees who previously we're ineligible for
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  Speaker 1: over time who now can begin receiving it. But does
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  Speaker 1: the new rule mean that the people who are eligible
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  Speaker 1: will now start earning over time pay if they work
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  Speaker 1: more than forty hours a week? Yeah, that that is
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  Speaker 1: correct if they you know, in some cases, it won't
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  Speaker 1: necessarily lead to that, you know. You one of the
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  Speaker 1: arguments that that the rules opponents make is that well, um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, this is money that that these companies can't afford,
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  Speaker 1: and they're going to be um, you know, reducing their
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  Speaker 1: hours capping them at forty. Of course, then the administration
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  Speaker 1: would say that's another benefit of the rule that you know,
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  Speaker 1: it allows workers to have more time with their families
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  Speaker 1: and it could lead to job creation that way. So
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  Speaker 1: I guess that, yes, you know, if you're if you're
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  Speaker 1: a manager, you're expected to uh, you know, put in
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  Speaker 1: the extra hours, not punch the clock. But the Department
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  Speaker 1: of Labor sees this as wrongheaded because if you're you know,
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  Speaker 1: if you're making something three thousand a year in this
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  Speaker 1: day and age, is not such the kind of money
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  Speaker 1: that would justify people working you that hard. So this
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  Speaker 1: is the reason for the change. Yeah. The the argument
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  Speaker 1: from the administration has been that, uh, you know, in
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  Speaker 1: in the UH that this is a rule under the
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  Speaker 1: Fair Labor Standards Act that is outdated and it's allowed companies,
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  Speaker 1: especially in the retail and service hospitality sectors, to classify
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  Speaker 1: workers give them job titles of assistant managers when in
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  Speaker 1: reality they're spending a large portion of their day mopping
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  Speaker 1: the floors, working the cash register, and maybe they're supervising
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  Speaker 1: an employee for US for for a few hours as well.
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  Speaker 1: But um to uh, to d O L and and
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  Speaker 1: to President Obama who directed this, uh, this rule change
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  Speaker 1: in then you know that's unfair and this is a
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  Speaker 1: big way to provide a race for the middle class.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for taking time to share this
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  Speaker 1: information with us. En Penn is a labor reporter for
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg b NA. He's based in Arlington, Virginia. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: the Washington metro area home to a Bloomberg ninety one
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  Speaker 1: and one oh five point seven h D two. Bloomberg
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  Speaker 1: b n A is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bloomberg,
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  Speaker 1: a leading source of legal, regulatory and business information for professionals.