Changes to Pennsylvania’s Minimum Wage Act take effect starting Aug. 5. The new regulations update how employers pay tipped workers and ensure that salaried employees with fluctuating schedules are properly compensated for overtime. 

“The modernized regulation will expand eligibility for overtime to 143,000 people and strengthen overtime protections for up to 251,000 or more. This final rule ensures that employees who work overtime are fairly and fully compensated for their labor in accordance with the original intent of the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act,”

Pennsylvania has joined a handful of states that have raised their thresholds for overtime pay above federal levels, which is projected to extend overtime pay to 82,000 additional Pennsylvania workers within two years. 

Business groups are speaking out against extensions to the state’s overtime eligibility requirements that will qualify 82,000 more Pennsylvania workers for time-and-a-half pay by the end of 2022, approved this week by the state Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC).

A 2013 lawsuit brought by employees at General Nutrition Centers was recently heard in the state Supreme Court. The dispute centers on the calculation of overtime hours, as workers felt they were entitled to more pay under the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act than what they were given under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.