​The salary threshold for an employee eligible for overtime will more than double on December 1, 2016, as the result of the overtime rule finalized by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on May 18, 2016. Under the new rule, employees making $913 per week ($47,476 per year) will be required to receive overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours in a week. The previous threshold was $455 per week ($23,660 per year). The rule should extend overtime protection to 4.2 million employees in the United States and boost wages by $12 billion over the next 10 years, DOL said. "Increasing overtime protections is another step in the President's effort to grow and strengthen the middle class," said a fact sheet issued by the White House. The threshold was set at the 40^th-percentile of full-time salaried workers in the lowest income region in the country (the South), and will re-set at the 40^th-percentile every three years. The rule also raised the "highly compensated employee" threshold, above which an employer needs to show only minimal evidence to demonstrate that a worker is not eligible for overtime, from $100,000 to $134,000. DOL offered four ways for employers to prepare for the new overtime rule: pay employees time-and-a-half for overtime work; raise salaries above the threshold; limit workers' hours to 40 per week; or some combination of the three. A May 18, 2016 article in McKnights said that many in the continuing care community do not support the rule and it will have a "profound effect" on the industry.

HRC Recommends: Leadership and human resources staff should review the final rule, determine which staff meet the proposed criteria for exemption, evaluate the four methods that DOL has suggested for compliance, and prepare to comply with the rule by the December 1, 2016, effective date.