Democratic presidential candidates are rallying behind the Obama administration's proposed overtime regulations.
Frontrunner Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonClinton advises checking your voter registration during Trump's State of the Union Hillicon Valley: Iowa chaos highlights misinformation threat | Officials blame app for delayed results | Company offers 'regret' | Nevada officials drop plans to use app | Ohio ramps up election security Biden allies spin after disappointing results trickle in from Iowa MORE called the new rules a "win for our economy and workers."
"President Obama is right to update overtime rules for the modern workforce -- a win for our economy and workers nationwide," Clinton tweeted Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders
Bernie SandersButtigieg maintains slim lead after second round of Iowa results released Sanders hits Trump, predicts he delivered his 'last' State of the Union address Schumer: Trump address 'demagogic, undignified, highly partisan' MORE (I-Vt.) also welcomed the draft overtime regulations, saying they are “long overdue.”
The Labor Department is proposing a new overtime rule that will expand the number of middle-class workers who qualify for time-and-a-half pay. This is the first time the rules are being updated in more than a decade.
“This long overdue change in overtime rules is a step in the right direction and good news for workers,” Sanders said in a statement.
“Businesses no longer will be able to shirk their responsibility to pay fair wages by simply labeling workers earning as little as $24,000-a-year as supervisors,” he added.
Businesses must pay overtime to low-wage employees who work more than 40 hours in a week under current federal law — but many workers do not qualify.
Certain workers making more than $455 a week, or $23,660 a year, are exempt from the rules, if they have a supervisory role at the company.
The Labor Department is looking to raise that threshold to $50,440 annually, or $970 a week, which would bring millions more workers under the umbrella of overtime protections.
Sanders had been calling for the Obama administration to raise the threshold even higher to $1,090 a week, but said he “welcomed” the new rules.
