A new proposal that would give employers an option in how they calculate overtime for certain of their employees was green-lighted by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) this week. While details of the final proposal won’t be released until it’s published in the Federal Register, the most recent notices available indicate that flexibility will be in play when a worker’s hours vary every week as to which method of determining overtime eligibility is used by the employer. Generally speaking, under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), overtime-eligible workers must be paid time and a half if they work more than 40 hours. Under the proposed method however, employees who are entitled to overtime pay receive a fixed weekly salary, which is divided by the actual number of hours an employee worked in that week to determine the base hourly rate for that week. Back in 2011, the Obama administration issued a rule that precluded employers from using the averaging method if they compensated workers with bonus and premium payments. We’ll keep an eye out for Federal Register publication.