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College Corner: Holy Redeemer grad Darius Washington stepping up for Eastern basketball

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Recovering Kvitova feels the love from Australian Open fans

<p>HARRISBURG (AP) &#8212; Stymied by Republicans in his effort to pass a law raising the minimum wage, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is moving to boost pay in Pennsylvania through another means &#8212; by making hundreds of thousands of additional salaried employees eligible for overtime pay, administration officials say.</p><p>Administration officials said their proposed regulation extending overtime to more salaried employees would need approval only from a five-member board whose members are appointed by Wolf, two top Republican lawmakers and two top Democratic lawmakers, giving it a 3-2 Democratic majority.</p><p>Wolf planned to announce the initiative Wednesday.</p><p>The approval process could take more than a year, and raising the overtime threshold would strengthen the middle class, boost the economy and help make wages fairer, the Wolf administration said.</p><p>But it is likely to draw fire from business owners, who cheered when federal courts blocked a similar move by former President Barack Obama. Worker-advocacy groups say that some employees often put in far more than 40 hours a week and end up making less than the minimum wage.</p><p>California, New York and a handful of other states with higher minimum wages require overtime pay for salaried workers above the federal baseline, management consultants say.</p><p>Wolf&#8217;s administration said the regulation would phase in the increase over three years and cover 460,000 more salaried workers. It would eventually require that salaried workers earning up to almost $48,000 a year, or about $920 a week, get time-and-a-half pay for any time they work over 40 hours in a week.</p><p>Pennsylvania&#8217;s current threshold is set at the federal baseline of $23,660, or $455 per week, which took effect in 2004.</p><p>The move comes after Wolf has spent three years fruitlessly asking the Republican-controlled Legislature to increase the state&#8217;s minimum wage, which is set at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.</p><p>Republican lawmakers haven&#8217;t budged on Pennsylvania&#8217;s minimum wage, leaving Pennsylvania in the bottom half of states.</p><p>Obama&#8217;s administration tried in 2016 to more than double the federal overtime threshold by regulation to $47,476, or $913 a week, but it was blocked by a federal court after 21 states sued and it was never enforced.</p><p>President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration has not taken action to increase the federal baseline for overtime pay.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wolf </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_Wolf_Tom-07-24-14-cmyk-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wolf </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Marc Levy</p><p>Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

Wolf taking steps to expand who gets OT pay