How will the Labor Department reform guaranteed overtime pay?

Barack Obama issued an executive order to the Department of Labor on Thursday demanding revisions to the Fair Labor Standards Act so that millions of Americans who work more than 40 hours per week for no extra pay get compensated time and a half. Only 12 percent of salaried workers today qualify for guaranteed overtime, compared with 65 percent in 1975.

"I'm directing Tom Perez, my secretary of labor, to restore the commonsense principle behind overtime," said Obama during the order's signing at the White House. "If you go above and beyond to help your employer and your economy succeed, then you should share a little bit in that success."

The law currently allows employers to exempt from guaranteed overtime pay any employees who earn more than $23,660 and spend time supervising workers. 

Some businesses say they will suffer if new overtime regulations go into effect.

"This will mean renegotiating the salaries for our staff. We only have this much budget money to go this far," says small-business owner Johanna Waters.

Other critics say its overregulation and will backfire.

"I think you'll see a lot of people try and limit overtime as much as possible," says Dan Bosch of the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

New York and California have already gone ahead of the federal government, raising their overtime salary thresholds to more than $600 a week. 

Thursday's order is the latest move by the president to combat economic inequality using executive power, going around a deadlocked Congress. 

Last month he ordered a raise in the federal minimum wage for federal contractors. He also set up a kind of federally backed individual retirement account for first-time savers called the MyRA.

It could take the Labor Department more than a year to revise the Fair Labor Standards Act.

What features will be revised in the Fair Labor Standards Act?

Who will be affected by the changes?

How will businesses fare?

We consulted a panel of experts for the Inside Story.

This panel was assembled for the broadcast of “Inside Story.”

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