Coming soon: A change in who gets overtime pay

Low-wage salaried employees may be a thing of the past. The Obama administration is expected to move forward with its plan to provide overtime pay protections by March or April, potentially affecting millions of workers.

The change is aimed at what the White House says is “an erosion of the rules that established the 40-hour workweek – a linchpin of the middle class.”

CNNMoney reports, the way it works now, companies can avoid paying overtime to any full-time workers making as low as $23,660 by classifying them as "exempt" and paying them as salaried employees, rather than hourly. That means they don't get overtime pay even if they work more than 40 hours a week.

The proposed change would raise the income threshold to somewhere between $42,000 and $52,000. An estimated 3.5 million workers would become eligible for overtime pay.

Advocates say that threshold would provide automatic overtime eligibility for 47 percent of workers, up from 12 percent today, but still below the 65 percent eligible in 1975 when today’s rules were put in place.

Opponents say the move would inflate payroll costs and could hurt already cash-strapped companies.

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