Colleges are worried about how to cover the costs of overtime pay that dozens of coaches, counselors, and other employees may soon become entitled to under anew federal rule designed to ensure they're paid equitably.
The new law, a change to the Fair Labor Standards Act that takes effect in December, makes more full-time salaried employees eligible for overtime pay. Those employees who earn up to $47,000 per year will be eligible for extra pay for work over 40 hours a week; now only those who earn up to $23,000 per year are.
Colleges are scrambling to sort out who on their campuses will become eligible for overtime pay and how to budget for the increased costs. Any employee whose primary responsibility can be defined as teaching is exempt, but determining that can be complicated. Many of the people likely to fall under the new threshold have a lot of contact with students and work long, often sporadic hours: student-life coordinators, residence-hall directors, athletics staff members, admissions counselors. Administrators are grappling with how to effectively serve students if they need to reduce the hours of some employees who help them.
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://www.chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Brace-for-Impact-of/237583