New Pay Rule Affects Lab Personnel & Postdoc Budgeting

The U.S. Department of Labor released final rules classifying employees as eligible for overtime pay based on their compensation level. The new pay rule requires that employees paid less than $47,476 per year be eligible for overtime for working more than 40 hours per week. This threshold doubles the previous standard of $23,660 which was set in 2004.

This rule will become effective December 1st, 2016 (unless otherwise modified by Congress). For more details see Overtime Final Rule and Higher Education.

For research faculty, this rule change will likely affect lab employees including postdocs. The University of Utah's Human Resources department is evaluating the impact of this rule change on employees and departments. More information is expected as they assess options.

Researchers should immediately begin to consider those employees who will be affected by this change. Grant proposals that will be funded after December 1st should take these compensation levels and job classifications into account.

Updates:

• July 26, 2016. The National Science Foundation has created a set of Frequently Asked Questions in order to address how this rule will affect NSF-funded projects.