What the new overtime rule might mean for you

In mid-May, the Labor Department made a long-anticipated - or dreaded, depending on your viewpoint - change to rules on overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Under the previous rules, a worker whose annual salary exceeded $23,660 and who performed certain duties could be required to work more than 40 hours a week without being paid overtime. The new rules will more than double that income threshold to $47,476 a year, meaning workers earning less, regardless of job description, will be entitled to overtime pay starting Dec. 1.

The Labor Department made this change at the request of the White House because, in the words of President Obama, "Americans have spent too long working long hours and getting less in return." The overtime threshold had been adjusted periodically for inflation until 1975, when it stalled before receiving a small boost in 2004. Then it stalled again. This year's update will "help grow middle-class wages and put $12 billion more ... in the pockets of hardworking Americans over the next 10 years," said the president.

According to FAQs from the Labor Department, employers have a number of options for implementing the rules, including paying overtime to workers under the new income threshold or limiting them to 40 hours per week.

But critics, even those who agree a change is needed, argue that the adjustment is too much, too soon. Employers may face higher payouts, lost work-hours, and the burden of reclassifying a large percentage of their workforce in just months. Workers face the possibility of having their hours or their base wages reduced to keep their employers' costs low without losing productivity.

As the dust settles, I'll be curious to hear about readers' experiences with the new law, whether in the ranks of management or workers.

In the meantime, here's a question that showed up in my inbox the same day the final rule was issued:

Q: I work for a nonprofit with several hundred employees. Many of us are salaried and not currently eligible for overtime, but we will become eligible under the new rule because we make less than the new $47,476 threshold. Up until now, our employer has instructed us to record eight hours per day (40 hours per week) on all our timesheets, even if we work more hours.

Under the new rules, is the current timekeeping instruction from my employer appropriate, or should my time sheet reflect actual hours worked?

A: Before the rule change, it didn't matter what hours you recorded because you weren't entitled to overtime pay. But starting Dec. 1, if your pay is below the new threshold, any hours you work above 40 must be accounted - and paid - for.

Thanks to Nancy Hammer, senior government affairs policy counsel with the Society for Human Resource Management.

• Ask Karla Miller about your work dramas and traumas by emailing wpmagazine@washpost.com.