President Biden supports American workers. His policies have centered on building America’s economy from the bottom up and the middle out. They work!
Two recent examples of “bottom up, middle out” came in the form of two new rules announced in late April by the Department of Labor (DOL).
The first rule will:
Extend Overtime Pay Eligibility: For more than 80 years, salaried workers earning less than a certain threshold have been entitled to time-and-a-half pay when they work more than 40 hours per week. However, the threshold that helps determine eligibility for overtime pay has risen far slower than wage growth, excluding many lower-paid salaried workers from overtime protections.
DOL’s rule will raise the minimum salary threshold for the overtime exemption for executive, administrative, and professional employees in two stages. And it will provide for increases every 3 years to make sure the threshold keeps up with wage growth.
This change will extend overtime protections to nearly 1 million workers based on an initial increase of the salary threshold to $43,888 ($844 per week) on July 1, up from $35,568 ($684 per week). And it will extend protections to about 3 million more workers on January 1, 2025, based on a second increase to $58,656 per year ($1,128 per week).
The second rule will:
Enhance Retirement Security: DOL’s rule will protect the millions of Americans who are diligently saving for retirement when they rely on advice from trusted professionals on how to invest their savings.
For example, hidden fees from bad advice on just a single product—fixed index annuities—is currently costing savers as much as $5 billion per year. The rule will require trusted investment advice providers to give prudent, loyal, and honest advice, and keep them from making recommendations that favor the providers’ interests—financial or otherwise—at retirement savers’ expense. These new safeguards will save tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per affected middle-class saver.
What’s the bottom line here?
First, DOL’s overtime rule will extend overtime protections to millions of workers, fulfilling the promise that a hard day’s work leads to a fair day’s pay. The rule will also make sure that the threshold for overtime eligibility rises with wage growth in the future.
Additionally, DOL’s new retirement rule will save Americans billions of dollars as they prepare for retirement by ensuring that savers get retirement advice that’s in their best interest, rather than in the interest of retirement professionals. By keeping their hard-earned savings from being lost to hidden fees from bad advice, Americans can realize up to 20% more in retirement savings.
Is there still more work to be done? 100%! Lots more work. But Biden has done so much more than many people guessed could be done. He deserves a lot of credit. AND he deserves to be re-elected.
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These posts are written by Goodnewsroundup (Goodie),
edited by Matilda Briggs, supported by 2thanks and WolverineForTJatAW,
and reinforced by several other notable Kossacks!
As with all good things, it takes a village.