JURIST - Paper Chase: New overtime regulations cause confusion, dispute

New overtime regulations that took effect Monday, designed to clarify the rules and limit lawsuits, have already caused confusion and precipitated a largely partisan debate over their likely impact. The Bush administration has said that the Fair Pay Initiative will qualify more than 1.3 million new workers for overtime pay, but Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has countered that the regulations will leave out up to 6 million previously covered workers. Causing some of the confusion is the regulations' description of which executive, administrative and professional employees are exempt. The US Department of Labor has more on the Fair Pay Initiative. Read the regulation preamble [PDF] and the regulations [PDF]. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the new regulations. The Miami Herald has more.