DOL Approves Controversial Overtime Labor Rule
by理查德·德·安布罗西奥(Richard D'Ambrosio)/President Obama signs new overtime rule into effect. Photo: Department of Labor
The Obama Administration this week发表最终规则updating Department of Labor (DOL) overtime regulations that will impact more than four million Americans—including many travel professionals—in its first year. The effective date of the final rule is Dec. 1, 2016.
Under the new rules, anyone earning less than $50,440 per year is subject to overtime pay, up from the $23,660 threshold that has been in place since 2004.
美国旅行社学会一直很关心that by more than doubling the full-year salary threshold the bill will increase the cost of labor for travel agencies. ASTA estimates that the typical travel-agency employee earns approximately $38,000 annually.
“尽管我们认为应公平地补偿员工,但在我们去年9月提出的公开评论中,我们表示严重的担忧,即在没有交货时间的情况下增加这一范围的时间将对我们的会员的业务运营和旅行社社区造成严重破坏整体,旅行公众最终将感受到这一点。” ASTA总裁兼首席执行官Zane Kerby说。
The salary and compensation levels will automatically update every three years, DOL ruled, to maintain the levels at a certain national salary percentile. Future automatic updates to those thresholds will occur every three years, beginning on Jan. 1, 2020.
DOL claimed that the annualized equivalent of the previous standard salary level is below the 2015 poverty threshold for a family of four. It said that the new salary level is at the 40th percentile of “weekly earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest wage Census Region (currently the South).”
克比说:“以及缺乏对该国不同地区生活成本差异的核算,这代表了我们相信的所有小型企业的额外负担,坦率地说,奥巴马政府未能充分考虑。透明
TheRetail and Services Establishment豁免通常会保护机构免受这些加班规则的侵害。它说,雇员必须在零售机构工作,至少要支付最低工资的一半半,并被佣金支付的50%或以上才能有资格加班,但不幸的是,超过45次以上几年前,DOL将旅行社置于黑名单上,禁止他们遭受豁免,因为工党确定旅行社“缺乏零售概念”。
A few weeks ago, ASTA was considering filing a formal petition to have agencies removed from the blacklist. If ASTA cannot convince DOL to remove travel agents from the blacklist, it might be willing to accept a phased-in increase.
At the same time that it tries to work with DOL, ASTA said it will assist its members in complying with the rule in advance of the Dec. 1 effective date. ASTA will be launching一系列的webinars以及有关该主题的其他教育计划,“并将在our upcoming Global Convention,”克比说。
The first webinar will be held July 27.