Changes could be coming to the way U.S. business calculate and pay out overtime wages, and the Senate will consider a bill that makes E-Verify mandatory for all employers. Is your business prepared? This and other news in today’s Weekend Roundup:
Proposed Overtime Rule Covers More Workers
The Department of Labor has proposed an increase in the salary-level threshold for white-collar exemptions to $35,308 per year from $23,660.
If finalized, the new overtime rule would result in the reclassification by employers of more than a million currently exempt workers as nonexempt and an increase in pay for others above the new threshold. The proposal does not call for automatic adjustments to the salary threshold, does not create different salary levels based on region of the country and does not make any changes to the duties tests.
Sen. Grassley Introduces Mandatory E-Verify Legislation
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has re-introduced the Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act that would require all employers in the United States to begin using E-Verify for all employers within 1 year. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) has introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
Bill Aims To End Decades-Long Waits For High-Skilled Immigrants
Should some people wait 20 years or longer for an employment-based green card so others born in a less populous country can wait not at all? Those are the moral and practical issues raised by a new bill that aims to correct what many consider the most irrational provision in U.S. immigration law—the per-country limit.
Under current U.S. immigration law, how long a person waits for an employment-based immigrant visa (green card) is determined by where you were born. An engineer from Iceland might wait less than a year for a green card, while an engineer from India can endure a wait of a decade or much longer.