I'm not sure if many people have been paying attention, but I have since I work with a lot of HR legal stuff.

The feds have taken another step to confuse employers and employees and open the doors to plenty of new work force lawsuits.

There is a new overtime law that begins today.  Businesses have 120 days to comply.  I have been reading a bunch of articles about the law, and I'm still not sure I understand all of it, and it appears that I am not alone.

Basically, under the new law (well, it's actually a majorly revised law), anyone making less than $23,660 a year is now eligible for overtime pay whenever they work more than 40 hours in a week, regardless of their job classification.  Employees earning between $23,660 and $100,000 who previously received overtime pay might become ineligible for overtime pay if they are classified as professionals, administrators or executives.  I have also seen this classified as "anyone who is in the position of authority" or anyone who "can make decisions" which makes the law that much more confusing.  Most "contract" employees are also exempt from this law, as is a business owner that owns a majority of the company.

However, a major concern are the "learned professional" jobs, such as nurses, who will now be working as long of hours (or longer) and not getting overtime pay unless the hospital provides it.  They were previously given overtime protection.

I have seen the same estimates on many site about this:
"The Labor Department says as many as 107,000 workers could lose overtime eligibility under its new rules, but about 1.3 million will gain it. The Economic Policy Institute, says 6 million will lose, and only a few will get new rights to premium pay for working more than 40 hours a week."  I have also seen a more conservative look at it that said that about 600,000 workers could lose overtime but 1.2 million will gain it.  (Which is only a net gain of 600,000 people who may already be getting it).

Sounds like a lot of confusion and employer expense for little benefit.  I would also not be shocked if people who know *have* to be paid overtime start seeing that they don't get raises for a few years to even it out.  It just seems like another band-aid on our current employment issues.