| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 18, 1999 |
CONTACT: Mary Ann Maloney (202) 606-2402 mamalone@opm.gov |
Washington, D.C. Many federal supervisors and managers would be able to earn more equitable overtime pay under a legislative proposal introduced by Representatives Elijah Cummings, Constance Morella, and Tom Davis.
The legislation sent to Congress by the Office of Personnel Management would increase the overtime pay limitations that affect federal supervisors and managers and other senior General Schedule (GS) employees and bring the federal governments overtime pay practices in line with non-federal overtime pay practices. The proposal would not affect employees who are covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), since these employees are not subject to the overtime pay limitations that apply to supervisors and managers and other FLSA-exempt employees.
Under current law, the hourly overtime pay rate for most FLSA-exempt GS employees is limited to one and one-half times the rate of pay for grade GS-10, step 1 ($26.64 per hour in the Washington-Baltimore locality pay area). This limitation applies even to higher-graded employees who make more than that amount on an hourly basis during their regular non-overtime work hours. The result is that when these employees work overtime, they receive less than their regular hourly pay rate.
Under OPMs proposal, employees would be guaranteed that they would always receive at least their regular hourly pay rate, subject to the biweekly premium pay limitation, which would also be increased under the OPM proposal.
The new limit on the total amount of regular pay and premium pay (including overtime, night, Sunday, and holiday pay) an FLSA-exempt employee can receive during any one pay period would be the same as for law enforcement officers (currently $4,243.20 per pay period). This would represent an increase of up to about 13.9 percent for employees who are subject to this cap, depending on where they are located.
OPM Director Janice Lachance said: The overtime pay proposal is a long overdue correction that would be consistent with the pay practices of many non-federal employers.
-END-
| United States Office of Personnel Management |
Office of Communications |
Theodore Roosevelt Building 1900 E Street, NW Room 5F12 Washington, DC 20415-0001 |
(202) 606-2402 FAX: (202) 606-2264 |
To OPM Home Page