The Federal Government is set to roll out new regulations on December 1st that cover overtime pay for salaried workers, according to
Restaurant Business Online. For the restaurant industry, that mostly means managers will see a boost in overtime pay. Currently, salaried workers who work more than 40 hours a week are not entitled to overtime pay unless they earn less than $23,660 annually. The new rules will push that threshhold to $46,476, and intends to "instantly raise the income of about 4.2 million members of the middle class".
The new rules were created by the U.S. Department of Labor with input from the National Restaurant Association and other groups. The NRA noted that the US. Dept. of Labor was considering basing the changes on a "long duties test", where managers who handle the duties of hourly employees (say, ocassionally bussing tables) would be entitled to overtime. After receiving industry input, the Dept. of Labor decided to go with an income based model. The annual income threshold will be reevaluated every three years to keep up with changes in wages and the economy.
As
RBO notes, for restaurants, this probably means paying managers more, either via the increased overtime (which is rarely paid today), or to raise their annual earnings above the $46,476 threshold. Either that, or get creative with scheduling and reduce hours.
This is likely to have an effect on many restaurants throughout the nation, and combined with recent iniatives to raise minimum wage, could make for a big hit to margins. Does your restaurant already pay managers for overtime? How are you anticipating these new rules will affect your business? Let us know what you think via Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Source:
Restaurant Business Online
Tablebases.com
