Nearly one-third of salaried workers will be guaranteed overtime under the new rule, but that falls short of the half covered in the mid-1970s: Share of salaried workforce covered by the federal overtime salary threshold, 1975–2015
| Year | Share of salaried workforce covered under federal overtime salary threshold |
|---|---|
| 1975 | 49.6% |
| 1976 | 45.1% |
| 1977 | 42.5% |
| 1978 | 37.2% |
| 1979 | 39.8% |
| 1980 | 35.0% |
| 1981 | 30.0% |
| 1982 | 26.3% |
| 1983 | 24.1% |
| 1984 | 21.3% |
| 1985 | 19.0% |
| 1986 | 17.1% |
| 1987 | 15.2% |
| 1988 | 13.8% |
| 1989 | 13.4% |
| 1990 | 11.8% |
| 1991 | 10.5% |
| 1992 | 10.3% |
| 1993 | 9.9% |
| 1994 | 10.3% |
| 1995 | 9.5% |
| 1996 | 9.0% |
| 1997 | 8.2% |
| 1998 | 7.5% |
| 1999 | 6.6% |
| 2000 | 5.9% |
| 2001 | 5.5% |
| 2002 | 5.2% |
| 2003 | 4.9% |
| 2004 | 15.2% |
| 2005 | 14.5% |
| 2006 | 13.2% |
| 2007 | 12.6% |
| 2008 | 11.7% |
| 2009 | 11.7% |
| 2010 | 11.3% |
| 2011 | 11.3% |
| 2012 | 10.8% |
| 2013 | 10.0% |
| 2014 | 9.9% |
| 2015 | 32.7% |
Note: The sample is limited to nonhourly wage and salary workers.
Excludes unpaid workers and self-employed.The count of covered workers exclude most named occupations (teachers, lawyers, judges, and various medical professions) as well as religious workers, who are not subject to the FLSA, but they're included in the count of the salaried workforce. Historical estimates of the share covered are benchmarked to EPI's 2015 estimate. The estimates consider all the workers who directly benefit from the federal salary threshold increase alone, and do not include a subset of salaried California and New York workers already covered by state thresholds higher than the old federal threshold.
Source: EPI analysis of the U.S. Department of Labor's proposed (July 6, 2015) and final (May 18, 2016) rule, "Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees," 29 CFR Part 541; and Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group microdata, various years