オバマ大統領がホワイトカラーエグゼンプションを縮小することを提案

Obama Proposes Shrinking White-Collar Exemptions

March 13, 2014, SHRM

オバマ大統領は、残業代の入手可能性を広めること（残業代を支払われる労働者の基準を再考すること）、つまり、Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)の規制を10年ぶりに、初めて見直すことを労働省に指示した。大統領は、2014年3月13日に覚書に署名した。特に、大統領は、インフレーションの影響を考慮するために、現在の、週あたり455ドルという、サラリーベースの基準を上げることを望んでいる。この基準は、過去40年間にたった2回しか上げられていない。

「残念ながら、何百人ものアメリカ人が、彼らが受け取るに値する残業代を得ることができていない。それは、当初は高賃金のホワイトカラー労働者を意味していた残業代の例外規定が、今や、1年当たり2万3660ドルしか稼がない労働者もカバーしているからだ。」とオバマ大統領は述べた。

大統領の覚書に関するファクトシートのなかで、ホワイトハウスは、「何百人もの賃金稼得者が、残業代や最低賃金の保障の外に置かれている」と述べている。また、「この基準に満たないのは、賃金稼得者の12パーセントに過ぎない。」とも書かれている。

President Obama has proposed expanding the availability of overtime pay, directing the Labor Department to do its first overhaul of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations in 10 years.
The president signed a memorandum on March 13, 2014, instructing the Labor Department to update regulations about who qualifies for overtime pay. In particular, he wants Labor to raise the threshold level for the salary-basis test from the current $455 per week in order to account for inflation. The threshold has been raised just twice in the past 40 years. He would not specify the exact amount the threshold should be raised.

“Unfortunately, today, millions of Americans aren't getting the extra pay they deserve. That's because an exception that was originally meant for high-paid, white-collar employees now covers workers earning as little as $23,660 a year,” Obama said in remarks on overtime pay.

In a fact sheet on the president’s memorandum, the White House said: “Millions of salaried workers have been left without the protections of overtime or sometimes even the minimum wage. For example, a convenience store manager or a fast food shift supervisor or an office worker may be expected to work 50 or 60 hours a week or more, making barely enough to keep a family out of poverty, and not receive a dime of overtime pay.” The FLSA's minimum wage would not protect a salaried worker because salaried workers' pay must satisfy the weekly salary-basis test rather than the hourly minimum wage, which is $7.25 per hour.

It also pointed out that “only 12 percent of salaried workers fall below the threshold that would guarantee them overtime and minimum wage protections (compared with 18 percent in 2004 and 65 percent in 1975).” Further, the fact sheet called the FLSA regulations outdated, noting that states such as New York and California have set higher salary thresholds.