In 2024, the Biden administration issued a policy that will make over four million
workers newly eligible to qualify for overtime pay. The U.S. Department of Labor
did this by raising the “overtime threshold,” which is the salary ceiling under which
salaried workers still qualify automatically for overtime pay if they work more than 40
hours in a week, even though those workers are not paid hourly. Raising the overtime
threshold increases the number of workers with guaranteed overtime protections.
Currently, the threshold protects non-hourly workers who make up to $43,888
annually, and it’s set to rise again in 2025 to apply to people making up to $58,656.
Project 2025 doesn’t want to raise this threshold. Instead, Project 2025 proposes
lowering the threshold and taking away overtime eligibility for millions of workers.
This would leave at least four million working people in industries that pay annually
but still at lower wages stuck working long hours without overtime pay — everything
from hospitality to manufacturing, administrative roles, and more.