ASTA’s CEO said the
society is “disappointed” in the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) final rule
updating overtime regulations, which was announced Wednesday.
According to the DOL,
the rule sets the standard salary level at the 40th percentile of earnings that
full-time, salaried workers earn in the lowest wage census region. That region
is currently the south at $913 per week or $47,476 annually. It also set up a
mechanism to automatically update salary and compensation levels every three
years.
The standard salary
level is used to determine which salaried workers are eligible for overtime pay
(time-and-a-half) if they work more than 40 hours per week. When the final rule
becomes effective on Dec. 1, most salaried workers that make up to $47,476
annually must get overtime pay if they work over 40 hours in a week.
The previous standard salary
level was $455 per week or $23,660 annually, set in 2004.
ASTA CEO Zane Kerby said
the new rule “will more than double the salary threshold below
which workers will be eligible to receive overtime pay.”
“While we believe
employees should be compensated fairly, in the public comments we filed last
September we expressed our grave concerns that an increase of this magnitude
with little lean time will cause significant disruption to our members’
business operations and the travel agency community as a whole, which will be
felt ultimately by the traveling public,” Kerby said.
He also said the society
felt the provision increasing the salary threshold every three years, without
accounting for the different costs of living throughout the country, is “an
additional burden on all small businesses.”
ASTA has met with the
department in an effort to give members “some relief from the final rule,”
Kerby said, but will also assist members in complying with the new regulations
via webinars and educational programs.