A new overtime law issued by the Dept. of Labor will go into effect December 1 and car audio dealers should take note.
This is the first time in 12 years overtime regulations have changed and the move is expected to impact over 4 million workers who do not currently qualify for overtime.
The law applies to businesses making over $500,000 in annual sales. And it can apply to companies with stores in more than one state.
Previously if your salaried employee made less than $23,660 the law required he receive overtime pay if he worked more than 40 hours per week. Many employers got around that law by calling the employee a manager, which made them exempt from the law.
But under the new law, regardless of title, if your employee gets a salary of less than $47,476, you are required to pay overtime.
However, many car car audio employees are paid a base wage plus a commission.
Under the new law, commissioned employees must be paid the equivalent of minimum wage and a half for every overtime hour worked in a week. So if total commissions for the week plus the base salary end up producing a wage for the week that matches or exceeds minimum wage and a half, you are not required to pay overtime.
Here’s exactly what the law says regarding exemptions from overtime for commissioned employees:
- the employee must be employed by a retail or service establishment, and
- the employee’s regular rate of pay must exceed one and one-half times the applicable minimum wage for every hour worked in a workweek in which overtime hours are worked, and
- more than half the employee’s total earnings in a representative period must consist of commissions
You can read more about commissioned pay under the new overtime law here.
Various state laws on overtime apply and there’s a lot of fine print, so you may want to consult an expert in your state.
A blog by the Consumer Technology Assn. (CTA) called the law “harmful” to many small businesses, especially startup businesses.
You can visit the Wage and Hour Division web site: http://www.wagehour.dol.gov or call the helpline 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243) 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in your time zone.
I’m sure the sky is falling for those owners who refused to pay more for decades and expected their employees to work as virtual slaves, while they lived live like modern aristocracy. With record millionaires and billionaires coming out of the woodwork, I’m sure big record profit making business can pay a pinch more. All of our modern worker rights came from the blood, sweat and lives of those working class people that came before us.
“you are lucky to have me for a boss, crumbums”