In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) was enacted to protect America’s workers from being exploited by their employers by establishing an eight-hour workday, a 40-hour workweek, minimum wage, and overtime pay. Since then, countless Pennsylvanians across many industries have benefited from these protections, but more can be done to ensure that our workers are not being taken advantage of as the cost of living continues to rise.
 
Regarding overtime, FSLA dictates that most workers who put in more than 40 hours a week must be paid 1.5 times their regular pay for the extra hours they work. Most workers who are paid on an hourly basis qualify for overtime pay; however, salaried employees are only eligible if their salary is below a threshold set by the federal government. Like the federal minimum wage, the overtime threshold has not been properly updated to keep up with inflation. For this reason, the Biden Administration sought to right this wrong by raising the threshold of $35,568 to $58,656 by 2025. Yet in a frustrating turn of events, the overtime rule has been suspended due to a federal court in Texas declaring that the rule “exceeds the Department of Labor’s authority.” While an appeal has been filed, I believe that now is the time to act on the state level and join states like California, New York, Maine, and Washington in surpassing the federal overtime eligibility threshold by setting our own threshold.
 
As Pennsylvanians continue to pay more and more to travel to and from work, to put food on the table, and to have a roof over their heads, it is imperative that we make sure that they are being paid fairly for the amount of work they do. Please join me in this important endeavor so that our neighbors who work so hard have every opportunity to prosper in Pennsylvania.

Statutes/Laws affected:
Printer's No. 1103: P.L.11, No.5