How Will New Overtime Pay Rule Affect In-plants?
On Wednesday, President Obama and U.S. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez announced the publication of the Department of Labor’s final rule updating overtime regulations. This will automatically extend overtime pay to salaried workers earning up to $47,476 a year when they work more than 40 hours in one week. Previously, salaried workers in executive or administrative positions who made more than $23,660 were excluded from overtime protection.
How will it impact in-plants when the rule goes into effect on December 1? For some, not at all. For others, they may have to raise their rates.
The majority of in-plants contacted by IPG yesterday felt the rule would have minimal impact on them. At some in-plants, all salaried managers make more than the threshold, or seldom work overtime. At others, like Penn State and Yale University, the schools reviewed their salaried management positions years ago and made adjustments that allowed these managers to collect overtime.
Jon Bedsted, senior manager of Mayo Clinic’s Print Production & Mail Center, summed up the responses of most when he surmised, "While I’m not a human resources person, I believe there shouldn’t be any impact on the Mayo Clinic in-plant because our 10 exempt employees are paid above the new threshold."
For some managers, though, overtime pay is not the norm; their work ethic dictates that they should get the job done that they were hired to do, no matter how many hours it takes.
Drew Burgering
"Just last night I worked until 7:15 addressing a newsletter for the Summer Theater," remarks Drew Burgering, manager of Printing & Copying Services at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Ga. "I often run my digital machines after hours and come back several times a night to empty and load paper." He does all this to meet customer deadlines and get printed pieces in the mail on time.
Because his salary is just under the cutoff, he would be eligible for overtime pay—but since that salary is budgeted, he would require approval before working any overtime. This could greatly impact timely delivery of important projects.
"So I will either have to hire more students or part time employees," Burgering remarks. "With the extra expense I will need to recover that with higher prices."
How will this new rule affect your in-plant? Let us know.
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
