Fair overtime standards are to the middle class what the minimum wage is to low-income workers an indispensable labor protection that is absolutely essential to creating a broad and thriving middle class. The value of the threshold for overtime pay—the salary level at which employers are required to pay overtime—has been allowed to erode to less than the poverty line for a family of four today. Only workers earning an annual income of under $23,660 qualify for mandatory overtime.
Increasing the level to $80,000 and removing the exceptions that have been allowed to broaden will boost the middle class, add jobs, and help the entire economy.
President Obama can make this happen without Congress.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/11/overtime-pay-obama-congre...