WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Warren DeHaan checked out details of new federal overtime rules online this week, he heaved a sigh of relief.
On Monday, when the federal Fair Pay regulations take effect for salaried employees, DeHaan figures his six Russ's Restaurants will be ready.
Restaurants, convenience stores and retail shops are among those most likely to start paying overtime to more workers.
Receiving the extra wages likely will be people such as assistant managers who put in long hours at a relatively low salary.
At Russ's, the top two managers at each site are longtime employees whose salaries are above the level of what the new law would dictate, and the other two managers are paid hourly, DeHaan said.
"I read over those rules. They won't have any effect on our business, but they will have a lot of effect on the chains," DeHaan said.
He criticized the national chain restaurants that "just slap a label on a couple of people, give them a title," then work them long hours without overtime.
"They play that game, but they've been taken to court on class-action suits,"
DeHaan said.
Slowing the onslaught of labor lawsuits is one aim of the slimmer set of regulations.
The Department of Labor's new regulations set two extremes:
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Anyone earning less than $23,660 -- $455 a week -- gets overtime whether they're managers or day laborers.
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People paid more than $100,000 almost never qualify for overtime.
Between those pay rates, however, are 65 million white-collar jobs, both hourly and salaried.
Broader definitions of executives, administrators and professionals could sweep more hourly jobs out of overtime range and into the exempt world of salaries.
The job descriptions replace standards set 50 years ago, although most of the regulations are substantially the same.
The changes largely have been ones of focus -- fine-tuning the descriptions of creativity and learning in professional, salaried jobs.
Executives are those who supervise two or more employees and have the power to hire and fire. And in the administrative ranks, nearly any office job that requires discretion and independent judgment in a major way could be exempt.
One of the biggest changes is a boost to the minimum salary from the $155 a week set in the 1970s. Starting next week, anyone making up to $455 a week is eligible for overtime pay.
Some jobs are deliberately set aside for overtime eligibility -- veterans and police, fire and ambulance workers.
Other professionals, such as nurses, could be shifted to salary status and lose the right to overtime. But with the dire need for nurses, hospitals are unlikely to make that move.
"It's an option that's open but we're not going to take it," said Dan Oglesby, vice president of human resources for Spectrum Health.
Human resources professionals have been scurrying to check their payroll plans. At Wolverine World Wide, Amy Shellenbarger said the new regulations prompted an audit of the company's jobs.
"We didn't find the changes to be significant. We went to a couple of seminars with our attorneys to make sure we were reading the regulations correctly," she said.
Union contracts that define overtime rules supersede the federal standard, but the new regulations will put extra pressure for change at negotiation time, said Robert Potter, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 951.
"If an employer can get overtime work done more cheaply by using this method, it will put competitive pressure on us at the bargaining table," Potter said.
The Employers' Association is putting on a fee-based morning seminar Aug. 31, said Dave Smith, association president. Some new provisions affect employer-employee disciplinary issues.
"There's more targeted relief" if a company errs in overtime issues, Smith said. "An employer can pay for that mistake and move on" by paying the overtime dollars owed.
"This is a good opportunity for people to look at their pay practices and get their act together," said Ronald Miller, senior labor analyst with CCH Inc. "A lot of people don't feel a push for compliance" until a disgruntled employee files a lawsuit, he said.