New overtime rules that went into effect last week will help business owners by clearing up confusion about overtime protections, according to the Small Business Administration.
“With these new rules, small-business employers will have more clarity should they decide to hire more employees without the fear of additional litigation,” SBA Administrator Hector Barreto said in a news release. “Now, both employees and employers will have ironclad protections. This is very positive for small businesses in the long term.”
Yet the rules, which were updated for the first time in more than 50 years, have not been universally praised.
The number of workers who will lose overtime eligibility has ranged from 107,000 to 6 million, while those newly eligible for overtime range from hardly any to 1.3 million.
According to the SBA, 6.7 million workers who earn $23,660 per year or less will have overtime protections, and 1.3 million salaried white-collar workers will gain up to $375 million in additional annual earnings.
