DOL rule would OK overtime for many salaried CT workers

Thousands of salaried workers in Connecticut could become eligible for overtime pay under a proposed new rule the U.S. Labor Department filed Wednesday. Under the rule, employees earning up to $55,068 a year would be eligible to earn the overtime rate — time-and-a-half pay — for hours worked beyond a standard full-time schedule of 40 hours a week. The threshold would adjust every three years to take inflation into account. Currently, only salaried workers making $35,568 or less are eligible for overtime. 

Using state labor data, Ruth estimated that at least 389,000 and likely up to 600,000 working people in Connecticut could become newly eligible for overtime pay under the new rule (if they’re salaried employees, as opposed to hourly). The cohort could include workers in manager-level positions in sectors like manufacturing, property management, social services, early education and food service.

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State officials likely won’t decide until this winter whether to add state dollars to the cash-starved heating assistance program, which is set to slash aid to Connecticut’s poorest families by nearly $1,000 per household. The fate of the Connecticut Energy Assistance Program also could hinge on whether the state has enough funds to cover pressing needs in health care, social services and higher education.

The poorest families will get nearly $1,000 less through the Connecticut Energy Assistance Program under the plan endorsed this week due to a huge cut in federal funding. Andrea Barton Reeves, commissioner of the state Department of Social Services, said the projected maximum benefit for the poorest qualifying household next winter would be $1,350. That’s down $970 from the $2,320 maximum benefit provided last winter, when demand for heating assistance shattered the 100,000-household mark after hovering between 73,000 and 92,000 homes over the previous four years.

Connecticut will have only $84.8 million to spend on energy assistance this winter, with most funds coming from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

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lsellew@record-journal.com203-317-2225Twitter: @LaurenSellewRJ