The Wall Street Journal, "New Rules for Overtime Pay Are Based on Salaries, Duties"

          Are you entitled to overtime pay? For many workers, the answer could change over the next few months. Last week, the U.S. Labor Department announced the first major reworking of the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime-exemption rules in 50 years. The new rules provide guidance for overtime eligibility -- one of the most tangled employment issues in recent years -- based on salary levels as well as the duties that workers regularly perform on the job.
           The new rules are also intended to quell the rising tide of overtime-related litigation. "We are restoring overtime to what it was intended to be: fair pay for workers, instead of a lawsuit lottery," said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao, in announcing the new rules. Ms. Chao also emphasized that the rules strengthen overtime protections for 6.7 million low-wage workers, including 1.3 million salaried white-collar workers who weren't previously entitled to overtime pay.
           The new rules "will increase the number of workers who are found to be exempt, but there will still be fights," says a partner at Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein LLP, a San Francisco law firm. "It will just change the battleground." Further complicating matters, the new federal rules will have no effect at all in a few states such as California, where employers must follow state overtime rules that are more favorable to workers.