New overtime rule affects 61,000 in Pennsylvania

A new year could mean additional earnings for thousands of Pennsylvanians as a new federal rule guaranteeing overtime pay goes into effect.

The rule that takes effect Wednesday guarantees time-and-a-half payments to nearly all hourly employees who work more than 40 hours per week as well as most salaried workers who worked more than 40 hours a week and earn less than $35,568. The U.S. Department of Labor previously capped the threshold at which overtime payments are required at $23,700 a year.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor & Industry Jerry Oleksiak estimated an additional 61,000 Pennsylvanians will be among those newly eligible for overtime payments.

The new federal rule takes effect as a bill to increase Pennsylvania’s minimum wage above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour continues to work its way through the General Assembly.

“This new federal law means some of our workers can begin earning the overtime pay they deserve, but far too many are struggling to make ends meet because of Pennsylvania’s stagnant minimum wage. It is time for the commonwealth’s lawmakers to recognize the value of our hardworking men and women and increase their wage,” Oleksiak said. “Every one of our neighboring states has invested in their workers by boosting the minimum wage. It is unconscionable that Pennsylvania has not done the same in more than a decade.”

Pennsylvania has kept the minimum wage at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Meanwhile, 29 other states have boosted the minimum wage anywhere from $7.50 an hour to $12 an hour in 2019, with additional raises scheduled to take effect in 2020.

Gov. Tom Wolf, a longtime proponent of raising the minimum wage, previously proposed raising it to $12 in 2019 and adding steps that would take it to $15 an hour by 2025.

That proposal failed to gain traction in the Republican-controlled General Assembly. A bill to gradually raise the state’s minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by Jan. 1, 2022, passed the state Senate by a 42-7 vote in November but has yet to see action in the state House.

Oleksiak said the Senate bill would give a boost to nearly 400,000 Pennsylvanians still earning the federal minimum wage and save tax dollars by reducing the number of individuals and families receiving public assistance.