Dems urge Obama to double threshold for overtime pay

More than half of the Senate’s Democrats are urging President Obama to more than double the salary threshold governing overtime rules.

{mosads}The Democrats, led by Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), are pushing the White House to make sure that workers who make less than $56,680 a year are automatically eligible for overtime.

Currently, that threshold stands at $23,660 — a level that covers just over 1 in 10 American workers, and which Democrats say leaves behind far too many middle-class families. Obama directed Labor Secretary Thomas Perez to update the overtime regulations in March of last year, and the new rules are expected soon.

“Too many Americans are working longer and harder without anything to show for their efforts in their paychecks. These long hours are straining middle class workers and their families,” the 26 Democratic senators wrote.  

“Since the 1970s, average salaries for middle class individuals have dropped even while salaried workers have increased the hours they spend on the job. Strengthening overtime protections will help millions of middle class families.”

The letter comes as the White House and Democrats in both the House and the Senate are seeking to sharpen the pitch that they’ll do more than Republicans to boost the middle class. Obama rolled out a “middle-class economics” plan in his State of the Union address last week, though some analysts have questioned how much the tax proposals in that platform would aid households making between roughly $50,000 and $80,000 a year. 

Business groups like the Chamber of Commerce and top congressional Republicans objected to Obama’s move on overtime rules last year.

In their letter, the Democratic senators said that the current rules for overtime, which have been altered once in roughly four decades, had failed to keep pace with inflation. Roughly 2 out of 3 U.S. workers were covered by the overtime rules in 1975, the Democrats said, which would be equivalent to almost $70,000 in annual wages now.