Coming soon: A change in who gets overtime pay [View all]

[mfcorey1]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -

The Obama administration is expected to move forward soon on its plan to provide overtime pay protections to low-salaried managers who don't qualify for them.

The move could affect millions of workers. It is aimed at addressing what the White House says is an erosion of the rules that established the 40-hour workweek -- a "linchpin of the middle class."

The way it works now, companies can avoid paying OT to any full-time workers making as little as $23,660 -- or $455 a week -- by classifying them as "exempt" and paying them as salaried employees, rather than hourly.

That means when they don't get overtime pay even if they work more than 40 hours a week.

And it's not just managers in lower-paid jobs in this bucket. Exempt positions also include administrators and sales employees, among others.

The expectation among policy experts is that the Department of Labor will propose raising the $23,660 income threshold, most likely to somewhere between $42,000 and $52,000. The agency may also amend how "exempt" duties are determined.

What advocates want: The liberal Economic Policy Institute estimates that 3.5 million more workers would become eligible for overtime pay if the threshold were raised to $42,000. And 6.1 million workers would qualify if the threshold approaches $52,000.

Advocates for an increase, like EPI and the National Employment Law Project, would like to see the threshold raised to at least $51,168 -- or $984 a week.

That threshold would provide automatic overtime eligibility for 47% of workers. That's up from 12% today but still below the 65% eligible in 1975.

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