Accountants are 50% more likely to be sick before your taxes are due
You’ve probably heard the old adage that “nothing in life is certain but death and taxes.
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Overtime law updates have been in the US news for over a year now, with a definite outcome yet to come. The once-proposed changes to the overtime salary threshold under the Obama administration quickly devolved into the stalling of its implementation, parties on either side trying to push for a favorable decision, and businesses of all sorts scrambling to undo the various measures they’d undertaken in anticipation of the seemingly now-defunct changes.
Today, the most recent proposed change to overtime pay is being similarly battled out, and — if passed by the Senate — may sound a death knell once and for all to the original overtime changes proposed under Obama.
This latest bill — the Working Families Flexibility Act — proposes to tweak the FLSA’s stipulation that employers must pay employees overtime (at 1.5 times the regular rate for time worked over 40 hours each week). If the bill passes, then employers would have the option to offer non-exempt employees compensatory time off (banked at the rate of 1.5 times the number of overtime hours worked, up to 160 hours) in lieu of overtime pay. Though the FLSA already permits public sector employees to be given compensatory time instead of cash for overtime, the new bill would include private sector workers as well.
The bill has already passed in the house, and is now being considered by the Senate. Additionally, President Trump has indicated that he would sign the bill if it makes it to his desk.
Before you rush to accommodate the latest in potential overtime legislation, consider the following implications for employers and employees:
Whether the bill will actually help improve work-life balance and flexibility is a conclusion for which we’ll have to wait and see. American workers are already notorious for not using their vacations and overworking, so employers may need to pay the comp time hours at the end of the year anyway.
On the whole, businesses often find it difficult to even meet existing labor laws, and this could well be an additional burden without proper processes and systems in place.
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