While Wisconsin’s economy is growing, working families across the state are struggling, squeezed between flat paychecks and the rising cost of necessities. One factor dragging down paychecks is the erosion of overtime pay. The salary level below which workers are guaranteed overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours a week has not been updated in years, causing the share of salaried middle-class workers automatically eligible for overtime to plummet from 62 percent in 1975 to less than 7 percent today.[1]
Executive Summary
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor ordered a long overdue update to restore overtime pay protections to middle-class workers earning less than about $48,000 a year. However, this overtime pay raise was blocked in Wisconsin and nationwide as the result of a lawsuit brought by Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel with the support of Governor Scott Walker. As a result of the lawsuit, hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites lost out on overtime pay rights.
This report provides data for the first time on the local impact on Wisconsin workers of Attorney General Schimel’s action blocking this middle-class raise. Starting with state-level data available from the Economic Policy Institute, the report breaks down the impact, county by county.
The key findings include the following:
Statewide, 165,000 Wisconsinites lost overtime pay protections as a result of the lawsuit.
Workers in every county across the state lost overtime protections, including 23,000 in Milwaukee County, 14,000 in Dane County, and 8,500 in Green Bay’s Brown County.
Smaller communities also saw significant impacts, including about 6,400 in Appleton’s Outagamie County, 4,700 in La Crosse County, 4,600 in Oshkosh’s Winnebago County, 4,500 in Wassau’s Marathon County, 4,500 in Kenosha County, 3,900 in Eau Claire County, and 1,100 in Douglas County in the Superior/Duluth area.
As a result, this year and every year Wisconsin workers are losing $23 million in overtime raises. That’s $23 million in badly needed higher pay that workers across the state are losing ever year because of the lawsuit brought by Schimel to block the overtime raise that Walker also opposed.
In other states, including California, New York, Washington State, and Pennsylvania, governors and state legislatures are responding to the blocked federal overtime pay expansion by acting under state law to deliver this raise.
Wisconsin’s governor and legislature should follow those states’ lead and act quickly to deliver this badly needed overtime raise for the state’s workers.
In particular, under Wisconsin law, the governor, acting through the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, has the power to update overtime pay on his or her own without need for action by the legislature. Governors in Pennsylvania and Washington State are already doing so.
Past polling found that Wisconsin voters support an overtime pay expansion by an overwhelming 81 to 14 percent margin.
This report provides background on the overtime pay issue, presents the data on the impact across the state of blocking the overtime pay raise, and explains how Wisconsin’s governor or legislature can act to finally make these overtime raises happen.
Background on the Lawsuit Blocking the Federal Overtime Pay Restoration
Despite a growing economy and record corporate profits and CEO pay, paychecks for most of the workforce are barely keeping up with the rising cost of living.[2] One of the reasons is eroding pay protections, including those for overtime pay.
It used to be that if you worked more than 40 hours a week, your employer would pay you time-and-a-half for those extra hours. There was an exemption for managers and professional employees, but only for workers who were both highly paid above a salary threshold and had specific management responsibilities or professional roles. Those protections ensured that most workers didn’t have to work excessive hours—and that if they did, they would receive extra pay to make up for it.
Back in 1975, the overtime salary threshold for that exemption was the equivalent of $61,200 a year, and 62 percent of salaried workers in the U.S. were automatically eligible for overtime pay.[3] Today, the level has plummeted to less than 7 percent because the salary threshold has been frozen at just $23,660 since 2004.[4] As a result, many low-paid employees like assistant managers at fast-food restaurants, retail stores, health insurance companies and the like who struggle on salaries of $25,000 to $45,000 a year aren’t eligible for overtime and can be forced to work 50, 60, or even 70 hours a week for no extra pay.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor updated the overtime salary threshold to $47,476 a year—a moderate increase that would not even have fully restored overtime to the 62 percent of salaried workers who used to receive it.[5]
But a group of 21 state attorneys general, including Wisconsin’s Brad Schimel, sued and blocked this middle-class pay raise for their own constituents.[6] Scott Walker also vocally opposed the overtime pay raise and called for its repeal as part of his platform of labor “reforms.”[7]
While legal experts and even the Trump Administration believed the court’s ruling was erroneous and was likely to be reversed on appeal,[8] the administration announced in 2017 that the U.S. Department of Labor would rewrite the blocked overtime rule, most likely rolling back this long overdue pay raise and replacing it with weaker protections for fewer workers.[9] In September 2018, the Trump Labor Department scheduled a series of “listening sessions” as part of this effort to revise the rule and substitute weaker protections for fewer workers.[10]
Despite the rollback of the overtime restoration by Schimel, with Walker’s support, employer surveys show that 50 percent or more of national companies, including major retailers, restaurant chains, and banks, have already adopted the higher, updated overtime standards and adjusted their pay scales.[11] That shows that restoring overtime pay is economically realistic and would not entail a burdensome transition for businesses.
The Impact of the Blocked Overtime Pay Restoration in Wisconsin—and the Benefits of Finally Delivering It
In this report we use state-level data from the Economic Policy Institute, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the U.S. Census Bureau to analyze for each county across Wisconsin how many workers lost overtime pay as a result of Schimel and Walker’s blocking the U.S. Labor Department’s overtime pay restoration—and how many would regain those protections if Wisconsin’s governor and/or legislature act to deliver this long overdue raise.
As summarized in Table 1, the data show that a total of 165,000 workers across Wisconsin lost overtime pay as a result of the Schimel lawsuit.
WISCONSIN Workers Who Lost Stronger Overtime Pay Protections: 164,795
Workers in every county across the state lost overtime protections, including 23,000 in Milwaukee County, 14,000 in Dane County, and 8,500 in Green Bay’s Brown County. Smaller communities also saw significant impacts, including about 6,400 in Appleton’s Outagamie County, 4,700 in La Crosse County, 4,600 in Oshkosh’s Winnebago County, 4,500 in Wassau’s Marathon County, 4,500 in Kenosha County, 3,900 in Eau Claire County, and 1,100 in Douglas County in the Superior/Duluth area. See Table 1.
A typical worker who lost out on expanded overtime pay was an assistant manager at a big-box retail store or a restaurant chain who earns $25,000 to $45,000 a year. Other affected workers include low-level, low-paid managers at banks, health insurance companies, and a wide range of other types of businesses.
These workers, of which there are many thousands in Wisconsin, would have had overtime pay restored under the 2016 U.S. Labor Department expansion if Schimel had not blocked it in court.
As Table 2 details, as a result, this year and every year Wisconsin workers are losing $23 million in overtime raises. That’s $23 million in badly needed higher pay that workers across the state are losing ever year because of the lawsuit brought by Schimel to block the overtime raise that Walker also opposed.
That figure for total lost pay combines projections for two types of lost raises. The first is the total of estimated unpaid overtime hours being worked each year by workers who would have been covered under the updated overtime protections. The second consists of estimated raises for workers whose employers would likely have raised their salaries up to the level of the new overtime threshold in order to keep them exempt from overtime requirements.
Wisconsin’s Governor and Legislature Should Follow the Lead of Other States and Act Quickly to Deliver the Long Overdue Middle-Class Overtime Raise
In other states, including Pennsylvania, Washington State, California and New York, governors and state legislatures are responding to the blocked federal overtime pay expansion by acting under state law to deliver this raise. For example, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf[12] and Washington State Governor Jay Inslee[13] this year both directed their state labor departments to update their overtime regulations to expand overtime pay—a process that is now underway in both states. California’s overtime salary threshold is already in the process of increasing to $62,400 a year by 2022.[14] And New York’s overtime salary threshold is increasing to $58,500 a year by late 2021 in the suburbs and by late 2018 in New York City, and by a date still to be determined in the reminder of the state.[15]
Wisconsin’s governor and legislature should follow those states’ lead and act quickly to deliver this badly needed overtime raise for the state’s workers. In particular, under Wisconsin law, the governor, acting through the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, may update the applicable overtime pay rules on his or her own without need for action by the legislature.[16] Wisconsin’s governor thus has the power to deliver the long overdue overtime raise, as governors are currently doing in Pennsylvania and Washington State.
Alternatively, the Wisconsin legislature also has the power to expand overtime pay. Past polling found that Wisconsin voters support an overtime pay expansion by an overwhelming 81 to 14 percent margin.[17]
Updating Wisconsin’s overtime rules would finally deliver this long overdue raise for 165,000 or more middle-class workers across the state.
Tables
Table 1. Wisconsin Workers Statewide and by County Who Lost Stronger Overtime Pay Protections
Wisconsin
164,795
Adams County
380
Ashland County
594
Barron County
1,705
Bayfield County
370
Brown County
8,468
Buffalo County
300
Burnett County
362
Calumet County
1,157
Chippewa County
1,867
Clark County
848
Columbia County
1,562
Crawford County
677
Dane County
13,901
Dodge County
2,221
Door County
1,297
Douglas County
1,146
Dunn County
1,261
Eau Claire County
3,892
Florence County
107
Fond Du Lac County
2,980
Forest County
186
Grant County
1,400
Green County
1,233
Green Lake County
475
Iowa County
739
Iron County
183
Jackson County
495
Jefferson County
2,422
Juneau County
638
Kenosha County
4,522
Kewaunee County
538
La Crosse County
4,664
Lafayette County
325
Langlade County
693
Lincoln County
681
Manitowoc County
2,293
Marathon County
4,513
Marinette County
1,322
Marquette County
334
Menominee County
12
Milwaukee County
23,490
Monroe County
1,448
Oconto County
826
Oneida County
1,305
Outagamie County
6,442
Ozaukee County
2,747
Pepin County
162
Pierce County
760
Polk County
1,290
Portage County
2,320
Price County
426
Racine County
4,355
Richland County
493
Rock County
4,178
Rusk County
433
Sauk County
2,886
Sawyer County
539
Shawano County
1,126
Sheboygan County
3,461
St. Croix County
2,485
Taylor County
668
Trempealeau County
1,037
Vernon County
768
Vilas County
725
Walworth County
3,345
Washburn County
533
Washington County
3,578
Waukesha County
11,185
Waupaca County
1,521
Waushara County
574
Winnebago County
4,578
Wood County
2,350
Source: NELP Action analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), the Economic Policy Institute and the Current Population Survey.
Table 2: Total Overtime Pay Raises Lost Per Year by Wisconsin Workers
$23,160,733
Source: NELP Action analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), the Economic Policy Institute and the Current Population Survey.
Appendix: About the Data
The analysis in this report was prepared with data available from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and draws on state-level analyses by EPI of the impact of the 2016 U.S. Department of Labor overtime raise. Beginning with EPI’s estimates of statewide worker impact and its estimates of overtime pay lost annually, the analysis then used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and the Current Population Survey to update those estimates to the present, and to estimate county-level impacts.
Endnotes
[1] Economic Policy Institute, What’s at stake in the states if the 2016 federal raise to the overtime pay threshold is not preserved—and what states can do about it (Nov. 15, 2017), available at: https://www.epi.org/publication/whats-at-stake-in-the-states-if-the-2016-federal-raise-to-the-overtime-pay-threshold-is-not-preserved/
[3] Economic Policy Institute, What’s at stake in the states if the 2016 federal raise to the overtime pay threshold is not preserved—and what states can do about it
[15] New York’s overtime salary threshold for the Executive and Administrative Exemption is increasing to $1,125 a week, which is $58,500 a year. See New York State Department of Labor, Miscellaneous Industry Wage Order Summary, available at: https://labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/wp/Part142.pdf ; New York State Department of Labor, Hospitality Industry Wage Order Summary, available at: https://labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/wp/Part146.pdf
[16] Wisconsin’s overtime rules are established in large part by regulation, and exempt “persons whose primary duty consists of executive, administrative, or professional work.” Wis. Admin. Code DWD 274.04. While the department’s current regulations defining those terms incorporate a $700 a week salary threshold, the governor and commissioner could update the regulations to raise the threshold.
While Nevada’s economy is growing, working families across the state are struggling, squeezed between flat paychecks and the rising cost of necessities. One factor dragging down paychecks is the erosion of overtime pay. The salary level below which workers are guaranteed overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours a week has not been updated in years, causing the share of salaried middle-class workers automatically eligible for overtime to plummet from 62 percent in 1975 to less than 7 percent today.[1]
Executive Summary
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor ordered a long overdue update to restore overtime pay protections to middle-class workers earning less than about $48,000 a year. However, this overtime pay raise was blocked in Nevada and nationwide as the result of a lawsuit brought by Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt and First Deputy Attorney General Wes Duncan. As a result of the lawsuit, tens of thousands of Nevadans lost out on overtime pay rights.
This report provides data for the first time on the local impact on Nevada workers of Attorney General Laxalt and First Deputy Duncan’s action blocking this middle-class raise. Starting with state-level data available from the Economic Policy Institute, the report breaks down the impact, county by county.
The key findings include:
Statewide, 104,000 Nevadans lost overtime pay protections as a result of Laxalt and Duncan’s lawsuit.
Workers in every county across the state lost overtime protections, including 78,000 workers in Clark County and 16,000 workers in Washoe County.
Smaller communities still saw significant impacts, including 1,900 workers in Carson City, 1,700 in Douglas County, 1,600 in Elko County and 1,100 workers in Lyon County.
As a result, this year and every year Nevada workers are losing $8 million in overtime raises. That’s $8 million in badly needed higher pay that workers across the state are losing ever year because of the lawsuit brought by Laxalt and Duncan to block the overtime raise.
In other states, including California, New York, Washington State, and Pennsylvania, governors and state legislatures are responding to the blocked federal overtime pay expansion by acting under state law to deliver this raise.
Nevada’s next governor and new legislature should follow those states’ lead and act quickly to deliver this badly needed overtime raise for the state’s workers.
In particular, under Nevada law, the governor, acting through the Nevada Labor Commissioner, has the power to update overtime pay on his or her own without need for action by the legislature. Governors in Pennsylvania and Washington State are already doing so.
This report provides background on the overtime pay issue, presents the data on the impact across the state of blocking the overtime pay raise, and explains how Nevada’s governor and legislature can act to finally make these overtime raises happen.
Background on the Lawsuit Blocking the Federal Overtime Pay Restoration
Despite a growing economy and record corporate profits and CEO pay, paychecks for most of the workforce are barely keeping up with the rising cost of living.[2] One of the reasons is eroding pay protections, including those for overtime pay.
It used to be that if you worked more than 40 hours a week, your employer would pay you time-and-a-half for those extra hours. There was an exemption for managers and professional employees, but only for workers who were both highly paid above a salary threshold and had specific management responsibilities or professional roles. Those protections ensured that most workers didn’t have to work excessive hours—and that if they did, they would receive extra pay to make up for it.
Back in 1975, the overtime salary threshold for that exemption was the equivalent of $61,200 a year, and 62 percent of salaried workers in the U.S. were automatically eligible for overtime pay.[3] Today, the level has plummeted to less than 7 percent because the salary threshold has been frozen at just $23,660 since 2004.[4] As a result, many low-paid employees like assistant managers at fast-food restaurants, retail stores, health insurance companies and the like who struggle on salaries of $25,000 to $45,000 a year aren’t eligible for overtime and can be forced to work 50, 60, or even 70 hours a week for no extra pay.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor updated the overtime salary threshold to $47,476 a year—a moderate increase that would not even have fully restored overtime to the 62 percent of salaried workers who used to receive it.[5]
But a group of 21 state attorneys general, led by Nevada’s Adam Laxalt and his deputy Wes Duncan, sued and blocked this middle-class pay raise for their own constituents.[6]
While legal experts and even the Trump Administration believed the court’s ruling was erroneous and was likely to be reversed on appeal,[7] the administration announced in 2017 that the U.S. Department of Labor would rewrite the blocked overtime rule, most likely rolling back this long overdue pay raise and replacing it with weaker protections for fewer workers.[8] In September 2018, the Trump Labor Department scheduled a series of “listening sessions” as part of this effort to revise the rule and substitute weaker protections for fewer workers.[9]
Despite the rollback of the overtime restoration by Laxalt and Duncan, employer surveys show that 50 percent or more of national companies, including major retailers, restaurant chains, and banks, have already adopted the higher, updated overtime standards and adjusted their pay scales.[10] That shows that restoring overtime pay is economically realistic and would not entail a burdensome transition for businesses.
The Impact of the Blocked Overtime Pay Restoration in Nevada—and the Benefits of Finally Delivering It
In this report we use state-level data available from the Economic Policy Institute, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the U.S. Census Bureau to analyze for each county across Nevada how many workers lost overtime pay as a result of Laxalt and Duncan’s blocking the U.S. Labor Department’s overtime pay restoration—and how many would regain those protections if Nevada’s governor and/or legislature act to deliver this long overdue raise.
As summarized in Table 1, the data show that a total of 104,000 workers across Nevada lost overtime pay as a result of the Laxalt and Duncan lawsuit.
Workers in every county across the state lost overtime protections, including 78,000 workers in Clark County and 16,000 workers in Washoe County. Smaller communities still saw significant impacts, including 1,900 workers in Carson City, 1,700 in Douglas County, 1,600 in Elko County and 1,100 workers in Lyon County. See Table 1.
A typical worker who lost out on expanded overtime pay was an assistant manager at a big-box retail store or a restaurant chain who earns $25,000 to $45,000 a year. Other affected workers include low-level, low-paid managers at banks, health insurance companies, and a wide range of other types of businesses.
These workers, of which there are many thousands in Nevada would have had overtime pay restored under the 2016 U.S. Labor Department expansion if Laxalt and Duncan had not blocked it in court.
As Table 2 details, as a result, this year and every year Nevada workers are losing $8 million in overtime raises. That’s $8 million in badly needed higher pay that workers across the state are losing ever year because of the lawsuit brought by Laxalt and Duncan to block the overtime raise.
That figure for total lost pay combines projections for two types of lost raises. The first is the total of estimated unpaid overtime hours being worked each year by workers who would have been covered under the updated overtime protections. The second consists of estimated raises for workers whose employers would likely have raised their salaries up to the level of the new overtime threshold in order to keep them exempt from overtime requirements.
Nevada’s Governor and Legislature Should Follow the Lead of Other States and Act Quickly to Deliver the Long Overdue Middle-Class Overtime Raise
In other states, including Pennsylvania, Washington State, California and New York, governors and state legislatures are responding to the blocked federal overtime pay expansion by acting under state law to deliver this raise. For example, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf[11] and Washington State Governor Jay Inslee[12] this year both directed their state labor departments to update their overtime regulations to expand overtime pay—a process that is now underway in both states. California’s overtime salary threshold is already in the process of increasing to $62,400 a year by 2022.[13] And New York’s overtime salary threshold is increasing to $58,500 a year by late 2021 in the suburbs and by late 2018 in New York City, and by a date still to be determined in the reminder of the state.[14]
NEVADA Workers Who Lost Stronger Overtime Pay Protections:
104,339
Updating Nevada’s overtime rules would finally deliver this long overdue raise for 104,000 or more middle-class workers across the state.Nevada’s governor and legislature should follow those states’ lead and act quickly to deliver this badly needed overtime raise for the state’s workers. In particular, under Nevada law, the governor, acting through the Nevada Labor Commissioner, may update the applicable overtime pay rules on his or her own without need for action by the legislature.[15] Nevada’s governor thus has the power to deliver the long overdue overtime raise, as governors are currently doing in Pennsylvania and Washington State. Alternatively, the Nevada legislature also has the power to expand overtime pay.
Tables
Table 1. Nevada Workers Statewide and by County Who Lost Stronger Overtime Pay Protections
State/County
Total workers affected
Nevada
104,339
Carson City
1,871
Churchill County
648
Clark County
78,106
Douglas County
1,717
Elko County
1,565
Esmeralda County
N/A
Eureka County
115
Humboldt County
392
Lander County
101
Lincoln County
115
Lyon County
1,103
Mineral County
94
Nye County
754
Pershing County
71
Storey County
497
Washoe County
16,994
White Pine County
197
Source: NELP Action analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), the Economic Policy Institute and the Current Population Survey.
Table 2: Total Overtime Pay Raises Lost Per Year by Nevada Workers
$8,404,652
Source: NELP Action analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), the Economic Policy Institute and the Current Population Survey.
Appendix: About the Data
The analysis in this report was prepared with data available from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and draws on state-level analyses by EPI of the impact of the 2016 U.S. Department of Labor overtime raise. Beginning with EPI’s estimates of statewide worker impact and its estimates of overtime pay lost annually, the analysis then used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and the Current Population Survey to update those estimates to the present, and to estimate county-level impacts.
Endnotes
[1] Economic Policy Institute, What’s at stake in the states if the 2016 federal raise to the overtime pay threshold is not preserved—and what states can do about it (Nov. 15, 2017), available at: https://www.epi.org/publication/whats-at-stake-in-the-states-if-the-2016-federal-raise-to-the-overtime-pay-threshold-is-not-preserved/
[3] Economic Policy Institute, What’s at stake in the states if the 2016 federal raise to the overtime pay threshold is not preserved—and what states can do about it
[14] New York’s overtime salary threshold for the Executive and Administrative Exemption is increasing to $1,125 a week, which is $58,500 a year. See New York State Department of Labor, Miscellaneous Industry Wage Order Summary, available at: https://labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/wp/Part142.pdf ; New York State Department of Labor, Hospitality Industry Wage Order Summary, available at: https://labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/wp/Part146.pdf
[15] Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 608.018(3)(d) exempts “employees who are employed in in bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacities” from overtime pay. The commissioner’s current regulations, Nev. Admin Code 608.125(c), instruct that “the Commissioner will refer to [the U.S. DOL’s overtime exemption] 29 C.F.R. §§ 541.1 and 541.2 to determine if an employee is employed in a bona fide executive or administrative capacity.” However, the governor and commissioner could update the regulations to delink them from the federal standard and adopt a higher salary threshold.
While Ohio’s economy is growing, working families across the state are struggling, squeezed between flat paychecks and the rising cost of necessities. One factor dragging down paychecks is the erosion of overtime pay. The salary level below which workers are guaranteed overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours a week has not been updated in years, causing the share of salaried middle-class workers automatically eligible for overtime to plummet from 62 percent in 1975 to less than 7 percent today.[1]
Executive Summary
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor ordered a long overdue update to restore overtime pay protections to middle-class workers earning less than about $48,000 a year. However, this overtime pay raise was blocked in Ohio and nationwide as the result of a lawsuit brought by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. As a result of the lawsuit, hundreds of thousands of Ohioans lost out on overtime pay rights.
This report provides data for the first time on the local impact on Ohio workers of Attorney General DeWine’s action blocking this middle-class raise. Starting with state-level data available from the Economic Policy Institute, the report breaks down the impact, county by county.
The key findings include:
Statewide, 327,000 Ohioans lost overtime pay protections as a result of the lawsuit.
Workers in every county across the state lost overtime protections. The largest impacts were 37,000 workers in Franklin County, 34,000 in Cuyahoga County, and 22,000 in Hamilton County.
Other major impacts include 17,000 in Montgomery County, 16,000 workers in Summit County, 13,000 in Lucas County, and 13,000 in Stark County.
As a result, this year and every year Ohio workers are losing $42 million in overtime raises. That’s $42 million in badly needed higher pay that workers across the state are losing ever year because of the lawsuit brought by DeWine to block the overtime raise.
In other states, including California, New York, Washington State, and Pennsylvania, governors and state legislatures are responding to the blocked federal overtime pay expansion by acting under state law to deliver this raise.
Ohio’s governor and legislature should follow those states’ lead and act quickly to deliver this badly needed overtime raise for the state’s workers.
Past polling found that Ohio voters support an overtime pay expansion by an overwhelming 80 to 14 percent margin.
This report provides background on the overtime pay issue, presents the data on the impact across the state of blocking the overtime pay raise, and explains how Ohio’s governor and legislature can act to finally make these overtime raises happen.
Background on the Lawsuit Blocking the Federal Overtime Pay Restoration
Despite a growing economy and record corporate profits and CEO pay, paychecks for most of the workforce are barely keeping up with the rising cost of living.[2] One of the reasons is eroding pay protections, including those for overtime pay.
It used to be that if you worked more than 40 hours a week, your employer would pay you time-and-a-half for those extra hours. There was an exemption for managers and professional employees, but only for workers who were both highly paid above a salary threshold and had specific management responsibilities or professional roles. Those protections ensured that most workers didn’t have to work excessive hours—and that if they did, they would receive extra pay to make up for it.
Back in 1975, the overtime salary threshold for that exemption was the equivalent of $61,200 a year, and 62 percent of salaried workers in the U.S. were automatically eligible for overtime pay.[3] Today, the level has plummeted to less than 7 percent because the salary threshold has been frozen at just $23,660 since 2004.[4] As a result, many low-paid employees like assistant managers at fast-food restaurants, retail stores, health insurance companies and the like who struggle on salaries of $25,000 to $45,000 a year aren’t eligible for overtime and can be forced to work 50, 60, or even 70 hours a week for no extra pay.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor updated the overtime salary threshold to $47,476 a year—a moderate increase that would not even have fully restored overtime to the 62 percent of salaried workers who used to receive it.[5]
But a group of 21 state attorneys general, including Ohio’s Mike DeWine, sued and blocked this middle-class pay raise for their own constituents.[6]
While legal experts and even the Trump Administration believed the court’s ruling was erroneous and was likely to be reversed on appeal,[7] the administration announced in 2017 that the U.S. Department of Labor would rewrite the blocked overtime rule, most likely rolling back this long overdue pay raise and replacing it with weaker protections for fewer workers.[8] In September 2018, the Trump Labor Department scheduled a series of “listening sessions” as part of this effort to revise the rule and substitute weaker protections for fewer workers.[9]
Despite the rollback of the overtime restoration by DeWine, employer surveys show that 50 percent or more of national companies, including major retailers, restaurant chains, and banks, have already adopted the higher, updated overtime standards and adjusted their pay scales.[10] That shows that restoring overtime pay is economically realistic and would not entail a burdensome transition for businesses.
The Impact of the Blocked Overtime Pay Restoration in Ohio—and the Benefits of Finally Delivering It
In this report we use state-level data available from the Economic Policy Institute, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the U.S. Census Bureau to analyze for each county across Ohio how many workers lost overtime pay as a result of DeWine’s blocking the U.S. Labor Department’s overtime pay restoration—and how many would regain those protections if Ohio’s governor and legislature act to deliver this long overdue raise.
As summarized in Table 1, the data show that a total of 327,000 workers across Ohio lost overtime pay as a result of the DeWine lawsuit.
OHIO Workers Who Lost Stronger Overtime Pay Protections:
327,063
Workers in every county across the state lost overtime protections. The largest impacts were 37,000 workers in Franklin County, 34,000 in Cuyahoga County, and 22,000 in Hamilton County. Other major impacts include 17,000 in Montgomery County, 16,000 workers in Summit County, 13,000 in Lucas County, and 13,000 in Stark County. See Table 1.
A typical worker who lost out on expanded overtime pay was an assistant manager at a big-box retail store or a restaurant chain who earns $25,000 to $45,000 a year. Other affected workers include low-level, low-paid managers at banks, health insurance companies, and a wide range of other types of businesses.
These workers, of which there are many thousands in Ohio, would have had overtime pay restored under the 2016 U.S. Labor Department expansion if DeWine had not blocked it in court.
As Table 2 details, as a result, this year and every year Ohio workers are losing $42 million in overtime raises. That’s $42 million in badly needed higher pay that workers across the state are losing ever year because of the lawsuit brought by DeWine to block the overtime raise.
That figure for total lost pay combines projections for two types of lost raises. The first is the total of estimated unpaid overtime hours being worked each year by workers who would have been covered under the updated overtime protections. The second part consists of estimated raises for workers whose employers would likely have raised their salaries up to the level of the new overtime threshold in order to keep them exempt from overtime requirements.
Ohio’s Governor and Legislature Should Follow the Lead of Other States and Act Quickly to Deliver the Long Overdue Middle-Class Overtime Raise
In other states, including Pennsylvania, Washington State, California and New York, governors and state legislatures are responding to the blocked federal overtime pay expansion by acting under state law to deliver this raise. For example, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf[11] and Washington State Governor Jay Inslee[12] this year both directed their state labor departments to update their overtime regulations to expand overtime pay—a process that is now underway in both states. California’s overtime salary threshold is already in the process of increasing to $62,400 a year by 2022.[13] And New York’s overtime salary threshold is increasing to $58,500 a year by late 2021 in the suburbs and by late 2018 in New York City, and by a date still to be determined in the reminder of the state.[14]
Legislation was introduced this session in the Ohio legislature calling for restoring overtime pay.[15] Ohio’s governor and legislature should follow those states’ lead and act quickly to deliver this badly needed overtime raise for the state’s workers.
Past polling found that Ohio voters support an overtime pay expansion by an overwhelming 80 to 14 percent margin.[16]
Updating Ohio’s overtime rules would finally deliver this long overdue raise for 327,000 or more middle-class workers across the state.
Tables
Table 1. Ohio Workers Statewide and by County Who Lost Stronger Overtime Pay Protections
State/County
Total workers affected
Ohio
327,063
Adams County
459
Allen County
3,647
Ashland County
1,592
Ashtabula County
2,809
Athens County
1,652
Auglaize County
1,530
Belmont County
1,918
Brown County
693
Butler County
9,185
Carroll County
550
Champaign County
791
Clark County
4,012
Clermont County
4,176
Clinton County
1,161
Columbiana County
2,773
Coshocton County
886
Crawford County
1,244
Cuyahoga County
34,201
Darke County
1,593
Defiance County
1,053
Delaware County
4,367
Erie County
3,348
Fairfield County
3,938
Fayette County
1,249
Franklin County
36,711
Fulton County
1,456
Gallia County
991
Geauga County
2,673
Greene County
3,922
Guernsey County
1,228
Hamilton County
21,894
Hancock County
2,811
Hardin County
740
Harrison County
255
Henry County
799
Highland County
1,011
Hocking County
698
Holmes County
1,863
Huron County
1,711
Jackson County
976
Jefferson County
1,582
Knox County
1,581
Lake County
6,552
Lawrence County
1,179
Licking County
4,056
Logan County
1,307
Lorain County
7,129
Lucas County
13,361
Madison County
1,226
Mahoning County
8,903
Marion County
1,873
Medina County
4,533
Meigs County
339
Mercer County
1,674
Miami County
3,132
Monroe County
256
Montgomery County
16,526
Morgan County
225
Morrow County
358
Muskingum County
2,775
Noble County
250
Ottawa County
973
Paulding County
425
Perry County
511
Pickaway County
904
Pike County
538
Portage County
3,840
Preble County
908
Putnam County
1,044
Richland County
4,695
Ross County
1,905
Sandusky County
2,162
Scioto County
2,107
Seneca County
1,826
Shelby County
1,548
Stark County
12,880
Summit County
15,992
Trumbull County
5,302
Tuscarawas County
3,130
Union County
1,340
Van Wert County
993
Vinton County
175
Warren County
4,942
Washington County
1,651
Wayne County
3,297
Williams County
1,438
Wood County
4,469
Wyandot County
685
Source: NELP Action analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), the Economic Policy Institute and the Current Population Survey.
Table 2: Total Overtime Pay Raises Lost Per Year by Ohio Workers
$42,099,593
Source: NELP Action analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), the Economic Policy Institute and the Current Population Survey.
Appendix: About the Data
The analysis in this report was prepared with data available from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and draws on state-level analyses by EPI of the impact of the 2016 U.S. Department of Labor overtime raise. Beginning with EPI’s estimates of statewide worker impact and its estimates of overtime pay lost annually, the analysis then used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and the Current Population Survey to update those estimates to the present, and to estimate county-level impacts.
[3] Economic Policy Institute, What’s at stake in the states if the 2016 federal raise to the overtime pay threshold is not preserved—and what states can do about it
[14] New York’s overtime salary threshold for the Executive and Administrative Exemption is increasing to $1,125 a week, which is $58,500 a year. See New York State Department of Labor, Miscellaneous Industry Wage Order Summary, available at: https://labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/wp/Part142.pdf ; New York State Department of Labor, Hospitality Industry Wage Order Summary, available at: https://labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/wp/Part146.pdf
While Missouri’s economy is growing, working families across the state are struggling, squeezed between flat paychecks and the rising cost of necessities. One factor dragging down paychecks is the erosion of overtime pay. The salary level below which workers are guaranteed overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours a week has not been updated in years, causing the share of salaried middle-class workers automatically eligible for overtime to plummet from 62 percent in 1975 to less than 7 percent today.[1]
Executive Summary
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor ordered a long overdue update to restore overtime pay protections to middle-class workers earning less than about $48,000 a year. However, this overtime pay raise was blocked in Missouri and nationwide as the result of a lawsuit brought by Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley. As a result of the lawsuit, hundreds of thousands of Missourians lost out on overtime pay rights.
This report provides data for the first time on the local impact on Missouri workers of Attorney General Hawley’s action blocking this middle-class raise. Starting with state-level data available from the Economic Policy Institute, the report breaks down the impact, county by county.
The key findings include:
Statewide, 237,000 Missourians lost overtime pay protections as a result of Hawley’s lawsuit.
Workers in every county across the state lost overtime protections, including 36,000 workers in St. Louis County, 22,000 in Jackson County, 17,000 in Greene County and 13,000 in St. Charles County.
As a result, this year and every year Missouri workers are losing $27 million in overtime raises. That’s $27 million in badly needed higher pay that workers across the state are losing ever year because of the lawsuit brought by Hawley to block the overtime raise.
In other states, including California, New York, Washington State, and Pennsylvania, governors and state legislatures are responding to the blocked federal overtime pay expansion by acting under state law to deliver this raise.
Missouri’s governor and legislature should follow those states’ lead and act quickly to deliver this badly needed overtime raise for the state’s workers.
Past polling found that Missouri voters support an overtime pay expansion by an overwhelming 76 to 16 percent margin.
This report provides background on the overtime pay issue, presents the data on the impact across the state of blocking the overtime pay raise, and explains how Missouri’s governor and legislature can act to finally make these overtime raises happen.
Background on the Lawsuit Blocking the Federal Overtime Pay Restoration
Despite a growing economy and record corporate profits and CEO pay, paychecks for most of the workforce are barely keeping up with the rising cost of living.[2] One of the reasons is eroding pay protections, including those for overtime pay.
It used to be that if you worked more than 40 hours a week, your employer would pay you time-and-a-half for those extra hours. There was an exemption for managers and professional employees, but only for workers who were both highly paid above a salary threshold and had specific management responsibilities or professional roles. Those protections ensured that most workers didn’t have to work excessive hours—and that if they did, they would receive extra pay to make up for it.
Back in 1975, the overtime salary threshold for that exemption was the equivalent of $61,200 a year, and 62 percent of salaried workers in the U.S. were automatically eligible for overtime pay.[3] Today, the level has plummeted to less than 7 percent because the salary threshold has been frozen at just $23,660 since 2004.[4] As a result, many low-paid employees like assistant managers at fast-food restaurants, retail stores, health insurance companies and the like who struggle on salaries of $25,000 to $45,000 a year aren’t eligible for overtime and can be forced to work 50, 60, or even 70 hours a week for no extra pay.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor updated the overtime salary threshold to $47,476 a year—a moderate increase that would not even have fully restored overtime to the 62 percent of salaried workers who used to receive it.[5]
But a group of 21 state attorneys general, including Missouri’s Josh Hawley, sued and blocked this middle-class pay raise for their own constituents.[6]
While legal experts and even the Trump Administration believed the court’s ruling was erroneous and was likely to be reversed on appeal,[7] the administration announced in 2017 that the U.S. Department of Labor would rewrite the blocked overtime rule, most likely rolling back this long overdue pay raise and replacing it with weaker protections for fewer workers.[8] In September 2018, the Trump Labor Department scheduled a series of “listening sessions” as part of this effort to revise the rule and substitute weaker protections for fewer workers.[9]
Despite the rollback of the overtime restoration by Hawley, employer surveys show that 50 percent or more of national companies, including major retailers, restaurant chains, and banks, have already adopted the higher, updated overtime standards and adjusted their pay scales.[10] That shows that restoring overtime pay is economically realistic and would not entail a burdensome transition for businesses.
The Impact of the Blocked Overtime Pay Restoration in Missouri—and the Benefits of Finally Delivering It
In this report we use state-level data available from the Economic Policy Institute, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the U.S. Census Bureau to analyze for each county across Missouri how many workers lost overtime pay as a result of Hawley’s blocking the U.S. Labor Department’s overtime pay restoration—and how many would regain those protections if Missouri’s governor and legislature act to deliver this long overdue raise.
As summarized in Table 1, the data show that a total of 237,000 workers across Missouri lost overtime pay as a result of the Hawley lawsuit.
Missouri Workers Who Lost Stronger Overtime Pay Protections:
236,838
A typical worker who lost out on expanded overtime pay was an assistant manager at a big-box retail store or a restaurant chain who earns $25,000 to $45,000 a year. Other affected workers include low-level, low-paid managers at banks, health insurance companies, and a wide range of other types of businesses.Workers in every county across the state lost overtime protections, including 36,000 workers in St. Louis County, 22,000 in Jackson County, 17,000 in Greene County and 13,000 in St. Charles County. See Table 1.
These workers, of which there are many thousands in Missouri, would have had overtime pay restored under the 2016 U.S. Labor Department expansion if Hawley had not blocked it in court.
As Table 2 details, as a result, this year and every year Missouri workers are losing $27 million in unpaid overtime. That’s $27 million in badly needed higher pay that workers across the state are losing ever year because of the lawsuit brought by Hawley to block the overtime raise.
That figure for total lost pay combines projections for two types of lost raises. The first is the total of estimated unpaid overtime hours being worked each year by workers who would have been covered under the updated overtime protections. The second part consists of estimated raises for workers whose employers would likely have raised their salaries up to the level of the new overtime threshold in order to keep them exempt from overtime requirements.
Missouri’s Governor and Legislature Should Follow the Lead of Other States and Act Quickly to Deliver the Long Overdue Middle-Class Overtime Raise
In other states, including Pennsylvania, Washington State, California and New York, governors and state legislatures are responding to the blocked federal overtime pay expansion by acting under state law to deliver this raise. For example, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf[11] and Washington State Governor Jay Inslee[12] this year both directed their state labor departments to update their overtime regulations to expand overtime pay—a process that is now underway in both states. California’s overtime salary threshold is already in the process of increasing to $62,400 a year by 2022.[13] And New York’s overtime salary threshold is increasing to $58,500 a year by late 2021 in the suburbs and by late 2018 in New York City, and by a date still to be determined in the reminder of the state.[14]
Missouri’s governor and legislature should follow those states’ lead and act quickly to deliver this badly needed overtime raise for the state’s workers. Past polling found that Missouri voters support an overtime pay expansion by an overwhelming 76 to 16 percent margin.[15]
Updating Missouri’s overtime rules would finally deliver this long overdue raise for 237,000 or more middle-class workers across the state.
Tables
Table 1. Missouri Workers Statewide and by County Who Lost Stronger Overtime Pay Protections
Missouri
236,838
Adair County
1,404
Andrew County
266
Atchison County
227
Audrain County
1,076
Barry County
1,634
Barton County
441
Bates County
465
Benton County
526
Bollinger County
276
Boone County
8,665
Buchanan County
4,457
Butler County
2,661
Caldwell County
177
Callaway County
1,116
Camden County
2,652
Cape Girardeau County
4,345
Carroll County
297
Carter County
222
Cass County
3,303
Cedar County
475
Chariton County
236
Christian County
2,455
Clark County
195
Clay County
7,892
Clinton County
482
Cole County
4,059
Cooper County
646
Crawford County
741
Dade County
202
Dallas County
407
Daviess County
200
DeKalb County
310
Dent County
559
Douglas County
412
Dunklin County
1,737
Franklin County
4,455
Gasconade County
802
Gentry County
286
Greene County
16,857
Grundy County
362
Harrison County
373
Henry County
883
Hickory County
206
Holt County
137
Howard County
388
Howell County
2,107
Iron County
363
Jackson County
22,423
Jasper County
6,468
Jefferson County
5,766
Johnson County
1,725
Knox County
165
Laclede County
1,933
Lafayette County
1,063
Lawrence County
1,068
Lewis County
347
Lincoln County
1,235
Linn County
470
Livingston County
790
Macon County
570
Madison County
563
Maries County
155
Marion County
1,671
McDonald County
945
Mercer County
223
Miller County
953
Mississippi County
535
Moniteau County
511
Monroe County
239
Montgomery County
371
Morgan County
644
New Madrid County
851
Newton County
2,184
Nodaway County
904
Oregon County
405
Osage County
425
Ozark County
255
Pemiscot County
789
Perry County
1,208
Pettis County
2,546
Phelps County
1,911
Pike County
698
Platte County
4,000
Polk County
1,063
Pulaski County
1,532
Putnam County
113
Ralls County
320
Randolph County
1,088
Ray County
441
Reynolds County
280
Ripley County
518
Saline County
1,103
Schuyler County
57
Scotland County
134
Scott County
1,925
Shannon County
249
Shelby County
209
St. Charles County
13,158
St. Clair County
251
St. Francois County
3,139
St. Louis City
12,514
St. Louis County
36,223
Ste. Genevieve County
504
Stoddard County
1,344
Stone County
806
Sullivan County
222
Taney County
5,039
Texas County
738
Vernon County
787
Warren County
805
Washington County
763
Wayne County
482
Webster County
927
Worth County
45
Wright County
613
Source: NELP Action analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), the Economic Policy Institute and the Current Population Survey.
Table 2: Total Overtime Pay Raises Lost Per Year by Missouri Workers
$26,698,570
Source: NELP Action analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), the Economic Policy Institute and the Current Population Survey.
Appendix: About the Data
The analysis in this report was prepared with the generous permission of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and draws on state-level analyses by EPI of the impact of the 2016 U.S. Department of Labor overtime raise. Beginning with EPI’s estimates of statewide worker impact and its estimates of overtime pay lost annually, the analysis then used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and the Current Population Survey to update those estimates to the present, and to estimate county-level impacts.
[3] Economic Policy Institute, What’s at stake in the states if the 2016 federal raise to the overtime pay threshold is not preserved—and what states can do about it
[14] New York’s overtime salary threshold for the Executive and Administrative Exemption is increasing to $1,125 a week, which is $58,500 a year. See New York State Department of Labor, Miscellaneous Industry Wage Order Summary, available at: https://labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/wp/Part142.pdf ; New York State Department of Labor, Hospitality Industry Wage Order Summary, available at: https://labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/wp/Part146.pdf
While Michigan’s economy is growing, working families across the state are struggling, squeezed between flat paychecks and the rising cost of necessities. One factor dragging down paychecks is the erosion of overtime pay. The salary level below which workers are guaranteed overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours a week has not been updated in years, causing the share of salaried middle-class workers automatically eligible for overtime to plummet from 62 percent in 1975 to less than 7 percent today.[1]
Executive Summary
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor ordered a long overdue update to restore overtime pay protections for middle-class workers earning less than about $48,000 a year. However, this overtime pay raise was blocked in Michigan and nationwide as the result of a lawsuit brought by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. As a result of the lawsuit, hundreds of thousands of Michiganders lost out on overtime pay rights.
This report provides data for the first time on the local impact on Michigan workers of Schuette’s action blocking this middle-class raise. Starting with state-level data available from the Economic Policy Institute, the report breaks down the impact, county by county.
The key findings include the following:
Statewide, 271,000 Michiganders lost overtime pay protections as a result of Schuette’s lawsuit.
Workers in every county across the state lost overtime protections. The largest impact was in Oakland County, with 36,000 workers losing pay protections.
In other large counties, the impacts included 34,000 workers in Wayne County, 30,000 in Kent County, 19,000 in Macomb County, 10,500 in Genesee County. 9,000 workers in Ottawa County, and 8,000 in Kalamazoo County.
In smaller counties, impacts included 4,000 workers in Grand Traverse County, and 2,000 workers in Marquette County.
As a result, this year and every year Michigan workers are losing $37 million in overtime raises. That’s $37 million in badly needed higher pay that workers across the state are losing ever year because of the lawsuit brought by Schuette to block the overtime raise.
In other states, including California, New York, Washington State, and Pennsylvania, governors and state legislatures are responding to the blocked federal overtime pay expansion by acting under state law to deliver this raise.
Michigan’s governor and legislature should follow those states’ lead and act quickly to deliver this badly needed overtime raise for the state’s workers.
In particular, under Michigan law, the governor, acting through the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, has the power to update overtime pay on his or her own without need for action by the legislature. Governors in Pennsylvania and Washington State are already doing so.
Michigan voters support expanding overtime pay eligibility for the state’s workers by an overwhelming 75 to 18 percent margin, according to a spring 2018 poll by EPIC/MRA.
This report provides background on the overtime pay issue, presents the data on the impact across the state of blocking the overtime pay raise, and explains how Michigan’s governor and legislature can act to finally make these overtime raises happen.
Background on the Lawsuit Blocking the Federal Overtime Pay Restoration
Despite a growing economy and record corporate profits and CEO pay, paychecks for most of the workforce are barely keeping up with the rising cost of living.[2] One of the reasons is eroding pay protections, including those for overtime pay.
It used to be that if you worked more than 40 hours a week, your employer would pay you time-and-a-half for those extra hours. There was an exemption for managers and professional employees, but only for workers who were both highly paid above a salary threshold and had specific management responsibilities or professional roles. Those protections ensured that most workers didn’t have to work excessive hours—and that if they did, they would receive extra pay to make up for it.
Back in 1975, the overtime salary threshold for that exemption was the equivalent of $61,200 a year, and 62 percent of salaried workers in the U.S. were automatically eligible for overtime pay.[3] Today, the level has plummeted to less than 7 percent because the salary threshold has been frozen at just $23,660 since 2004.[4] As a result, many low-paid employees like assistant managers at fast-food restaurants, retail stores, health insurance companies and the like who struggle on salaries of $25,000 to $45,000 a year aren’t eligible for overtime and can be forced to work 50, 60, or even 70 hours a week for no extra pay.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor updated the overtime salary threshold to $47,476 a year—a moderate increase that would not even have fully restored overtime to the 62 percent of salaried workers who used to receive it.[5]
But a group of 21 state attorneys general, including Michigan’s Bill Schuette, sued and blocked this middle-class pay raise for their own constituents.[6]
While legal experts and even the Trump Administration believed the court’s ruling was erroneous and was likely to be reversed on appeal,[7] the administration announced in 2017 that the U.S. Department of Labor would rewrite the blocked overtime rule, most likely rolling back this long overdue pay raise and replacing it with weaker protections for fewer workers.[8] In September 2018, the Trump Labor Department scheduled a series of “listening sessions” as part of this effort to revise the rule and substitute weaker protections for fewer workers.[9]
Despite the rollback of the overtime restoration by Schuette, employer surveys show that 50 percent or more of national companies, including major retailers, restaurant chains, and banks, have already adopted the higher, updated overtime standards and adjusted their pay scales.[10] That shows that restoring overtime pay is economically realistic and would not entail a burdensome transition for businesses.
The Impact of the Blocked Overtime Pay Restoration in Michigan—and the Benefits of Finally Delivering It
In this report we use state-level data available from the Economic Policy Institute, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the U.S. Census Bureau to analyze for each county across Michigan how many workers lost overtime pay as a result of Schuette’s blocking the U.S. Labor Department’s overtime pay restoration—and how many would regain those protections if Michigan’s governor and/or legislature act to deliver this long overdue raise.
As summarized in Table 1, the data show that a total of 271,000 workers across Michigan lost overtime pay as a result of the Schuette lawsuit.
Workers in every county across the state lost overtime protections. The largest impact was in Oakland County, with 36,000 workers losing pay protections. In other large counties, the impacts included 34,000 workers in Wayne County, 30,000 in Kent County, 19,000 in Macomb County, 10,500 in Genesee County. 9,000 workers in Ottawa County and 8,000 in Kalamazoo County. In smaller counties, impacts included 4,000 workers in Grand Traverse County, and 2,000 workers in Marquette County. See Table 1.
A typical worker who lost out on expanded overtime pay was an assistant manager at a big-box retail store or a restaurant chain who earns $25,000 to $45,000 a year. Other affected workers include low-level, low-paid managers at banks, health insurance companies, and a wide range of other types of businesses.
These workers, of which there are many thousands in Michigan, would have had overtime pay restored under the 2016 U.S. Labor Department expansion if Schuette had not blocked it in court.
As Table 2 details, as a result, this year and every year Michigan workers are losing $37 million in overtime raises they would otherwise have received. That’s $37 million in badly needed higher pay that workers across the state are losing ever year because of the lawsuit brought by Schuette to block the overtime raise.
That figure for total lost pay combines projections for two types of lost raises. The first is the total of estimated unpaid overtime hours being worked each year by workers who would have been covered under the updated overtime protections. The second consists of estimated raises for workers whose employers would likely have raised their salaries up to the level of the new overtime threshold in order to keep them exempt from overtime requirements.
Michigan’s Governor and Legislature Should Follow the Lead of Other States and Act Quickly to Deliver the Long Overdue Middle-Class Overtime Raise
In other states, including Pennsylvania, Washington State, California and New York, governors and state legislatures are responding to the blocked federal overtime pay expansion by acting under state law to deliver this raise. For example, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf[11] and Washington State Governor Jay Inslee[12] this year both directed their state labor departments to update their overtime regulations to expand overtime pay—a process that is now underway in both states. California’s overtime salary threshold is already in the process of increasing to $62,400 a year by 2022.[13] And New York’s overtime salary threshold is increasing to $58,500 a year by late 2021 in the suburbs and by late 2018 in New York City, and by a date still to be determined in the reminder of the state.[14]
Michigan Workers Who Lost Stronger Overtime Pay Protections:
270,880
Michigan’s governor and legislature should follow those states’ lead and act quickly to deliver this badly needed overtime raise for the state’s workers. In particular, under Michigan law, the governor, acting through the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, has authority to update the applicable overtime pay rules on his or her own without need for action by the legislature.[15] Michigan’s governor thus has the power to deliver the long overdue overtime raise, as governors are currently doing in Pennsylvania and Washington State.
Alternatively, the Michigan legislature also has the power to expand overtime pay, and legislation to do so has been introduced in past sessions.[16]
Michigan voters support expanding overtime pay eligibility for the state’s workers by an overwhelming 75 to 18 percent margin, according to a spring 2018 poll by EPIC/MRA. Broken out by partisan affiliation, the poll found support for overtime expansion among 85 percent of Democratic voters, 67 percent of Republican voters, and 65 percent of Independents, along with 65 percent of Tea Party members.[17]
Updating Michigan’s overtime rules would finally deliver this long overdue raise for 271,000 or more middle-class workers across the state.
Tables
Table 1. Michigan Workers Statewide and by County Who Lost Stronger Overtime Pay Protections
State/County
Total workers affected
Michigan
270,880
Alcona County
201
Alger County
189
Allegan County
2,841
Alpena County
1,209
Antrim County
663
Arenac County
557
Baraga County
149
Barry County
1,130
Bay County
2,893
Benzie County
534
Berrien County
4,242
Branch County
1,201
Calhoun County
3,374
Cass County
867
Charlevoix County
808
Cheboygan County
899
Chippewa County
1,021
Clare County
680
Clinton County
1,468
Crawford County
332
Delta County
1,387
Dickinson County
1,066
Eaton County
3,076
Emmet County
1,707
Genesee County
10,511
Gladwin County
435
Gogebic County
455
Grand Traverse County
4,301
Gratiot County
1,103
Hillsdale County
1,070
Houghton County
1,099
Huron County
1,103
Ingham County
8,712
Ionia County
2,779
Iosco County
796
Iron County
382
Isabella County
2,651
Jackson County
4,196
Kalamazoo County
7,775
Kalkaska County
232
Kent County
29,790
Keweenaw County
61
Lake County
180
Lapeer County
2,028
Leelanau County
637
Lenawee County
2,299
Livingston County
5,008
Luce County
187
Mackinac County
545
Macomb County
18,842
Manistee County
577
Marquette County
2,306
Mason County
1,053
Mecosta County
1,019
Menominee County
604
Midland County
1,892
Missaukee County
419
Monroe County
2,844
Montcalm County
1,463
Montmorency County
212
Muskegon County
5,616
Newaygo County
1,169
Oakland County
35,714
Oceana County
764
Ogemaw County
779
Ontonagon County
147
Osceola County
509
Oscoda County
226
Otsego County
1,092
Ottawa County
9,327
Presque Isle County
282
Roscommon County
719
Saginaw County
7,070
Sanilac County
1,253
Schoolcraft County
201
Shiawassee County
1,657
St. Clair County
3,700
St. Joseph County
2,362
Tuscola County
1,002
Van Buren County
1,790
Washtenaw County
8,096
Wayne County
33,981
Wexford County
1,361
Source: NELP Action analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), the Economic Policy Institute and the Current Population Survey.
Table 2: Total Overtime Pay Raises Lost Per Year by Michigan Workers
$37,370,076
Source: NELP Action analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), the Economic Policy Institute and the Current Population Survey.
Appendix: About the Data
The analysis in this report was prepared with data available from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and draws on state-level analyses by EPI of the impact of the 2016 U.S. Department of Labor overtime raise. Beginning with EPI’s estimates of statewide worker impact and its estimates of overtime pay lost annually, the analysis then used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and the Current Population Survey to update those estimates to the present, and to estimate county-level impacts.
[3] Economic Policy Institute, What’s at stake in the states if the 2016 federal raise to the overtime pay threshold is not preserved—and what states can do about it
[14] New York’s overtime salary threshold for the Executive and Administrative Exemption is increasing to $1,125 a week, which is $58,500 a year. See New York State Department of Labor, Miscellaneous Industry Wage Order Summary, available at: https://labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/wp/Part142.pdf ; New York State Department of Labor, Hospitality Industry Wage Order Summary, available at: https://labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/wp/Part146.pdf
[15] Mich. Comp. Laws. Ann. § 408.414a(4)(a) exempts “employees who are employed in in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity” from overtime pay and authorizes the director of the Department Licensing and Regulatory Affairs to define those terms by rule. Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 408.414a(5). While the department’s current regulations defining those terms incorporate a very low $250 a week salary threshold, the governor and the director can update the regulations to raise the threshold.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor ordered a long overdue update to restore overtime pay protections to middle-class workers earning less than about $48,000 a year. However, this overtime pay raise was blocked in Wisconsin and nationwide as the result of a lawsuit brought by Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel with the support of Governor Scott Walker. As a result of the lawsuit, hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites lost out on overtime pay rights.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor ordered a long overdue update to restore overtime pay protections to middle-class workers earning less than about $48,000 a year. However, this overtime pay raise was blocked in Nevada and nationwide as the result of a lawsuit brought by Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt and First Deputy Attorney General Wes Duncan. As a result of the lawsuit, tens of thousands of Nevadans lost out on overtime pay rights.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor ordered a long overdue update to restore overtime pay protections to middle-class workers earning less than about $48,000 a year. However, this overtime pay raise was blocked in Ohio and nationwide as the result of a lawsuit brought by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. As a result of the lawsuit, hundreds of thousands of Ohioans lost out on overtime pay rights.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor ordered a long overdue update to restore overtime pay protections to middle-class workers earning less than about $48,000 a year. However, this overtime pay raise was blocked in Missouri and nationwide as the result of a lawsuit brought by Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley. As a result of the lawsuit, hundreds of thousands of Missourians lost out on overtime pay rights.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor ordered a long overdue update to restore overtime pay protections for middle-class workers earning less than about $48,000 a year. However, this overtime pay raise was blocked in Michigan and nationwide as the result of a lawsuit brought by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. As a result of the lawsuit, hundreds of thousands of Michiganders lost out on overtime pay rights.