US president Barack Obama will seek to increase the number of people who earn overtime pay by updating regulations that exempt broad swaths of supervisors, managers and office workers from making overtime, a White House official said yesterday.

Mr Obama will today ask the Labour Department to look at regulations for overtime, and whether to hike the salary threshold above which employers are not required to pay overtime. The threshold was last raised in 2004 to $455 per week.

It is another in a series of populist measures Mr Obama is promoting ahead of the November midterms as Democrats try to appeal to voters and keep control of the Senate.

“Some employers classify workers as ‘white collar’ workers even though the overwhelming majority of their duties are not white collar,” a White House official said on condition of anonymity, using the example of a shift supervisor at a fast food restaurant.

“It’s even possible some of these workers make less than the minimum wage per hour,” the official said. A salaried worker earning $455 per week who works 63 hours or more earns less than the minimum wage. – (Reuters)