Salaried workers* directly benefiting from the increase in the overtime salary threshold to $913/week, by demographic, 2015
| Group | Total salaried workers* | Directly benefiting salaried workers** | Share of group’s salaried workers that are directly benefiting | Group’s share of directly benefiting workers | Group’s share of total salaried workforce |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (A) | (B) | (C)=(B/A) | (D)=(Bx/B1) | (E)=(Ax/A1) | |
| All (1) | 53,717,000 | 12,502,000 | 23.3% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
| Gender | |||||
| Male | 28,495,000 | 6,133,000 | 21.5% | 49.1% | 53.0% |
| Female | 25,223,000 | 6,369,000 | 25.3% | 50.9% | 47.0% |
| Race/ethnicity*** | |||||
| White | 37,656,000 | 8,038,000 | 21.3% | 64.3% | 70.1% |
| Black | 4,799,000 | 1,504,000 | 31.3% | 12.0% | 8.9% |
| Hispanic | 6,359,000 | 2,006,000 | 31.5% | 16.0% | 11.8% |
| Asian | 4,100,000 | 771,000 | 18.8% | 6.2% | 7.6% |
| Other | 4,904,000 | 182,000 | 22.7% | 1.5% | 1.5% |
| Age group | |||||
| 16–34 | 15,130,000 | 4,535,000 | 30.0% | 36.3% | 28.2% |
| 16–24 | 2,849,000 | 941,000 | 33.0% | 7.5% | 5.3% |
| 25–34 | 12,280,000 | 3,594,000 | 29.3% | 28.7% | 22.9% |
| 35–44 | 13,145,000 | 2,769,000 | 21.1% | 22.1% | 24.5% |
| 45–54 | 13,221,000 | 2,739,000 | 20.7% | 21.9% | 24.6% |
| 55–64 | 9,461,000 | 1,990,000 | 21.0% | 15.9% | 17.6% |
| 65+ | 2,760,000 | 469,000 | 17.0% | 3.8% | 5.1% |
| Educational attainment | |||||
| Less than high school | 1,853,000 | 693,000 | 37.4% | 5.5% | 3.4% |
| High school | 8,312,000 | 3,158,000 | 38.0% | 25.3% | 15.5% |
| Some college | 11,418,000 | 3,836,000 | 33.6% | 30.7% | 21.3% |
| College degree | 19,007,000 | 3,658,000 | 19.2% | 29.3% | 35.4% |
| Advanced degree | 13,128,000 | 1,157,000 | 8.8% | 9.3% | 24.4% |
* The sample reflects salaried (nonhourly) workers who are subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This excludes certain groups of workers such as the self-employed, most federal workers, religious workers, many agricultural workers, and many transportation workers.
** Directly benefiting salaried workers are those who will newly be guaranteed overtime protection by virtue of their salary alone under the higher overtime threshold, i.e., they make at least $455 a week (the old threshold) but less than $913 a week (the new threshold in 2015 dollars). This includes workers who are newly eligible (they were excluded from automatic overtime protection because they were classified, in some cases incorrectly, as executive, administrative, and professional or "EAP" employees); and workers whose rights are strengthened (they were at risk of being classified as EAP employees).
*** Race/ethnicity categories are mutually exclusive (i.e., white non-Hispanic, black non-Hispanic, and Hispanic any race).
Note: Subtotals may not add up to totals due to rounding. 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, 2015