Q. How many workers now are eligible for overtime pay?

A. The Labor Department estimates that 71 million workers are paid by the hour. These workers are eligible for premium pay of time and a half if they work more than 40 hours in a week.

The Fair Labor Standards Act, which established the 40-hour workweek in 1938, covers another 39 million people who are salaried workers exempt from overtime because of professional, executive or administrative duties. Overall, the act covers 110 million people in more than 6.5 million workplaces, the department said.

Q. What's the difference between salaried and hourly workers?

A. Hourly workers are paid only for the hours they work. Salaried employees are paid a guaranteed amount each week they work, even if they put in only 20 hours.

Employers cannot dock or deduct the pay of a salaried worker who takes off a few hours to attend to personal matters such as a doctor's appointment or a child's soccer game. But salaried employees get no extra pay when they work 50 or 60 hours a week.

Q. Does everyone who is eligible for overtime get it?

A. Most employers limit the hours of hourly workers to 40 or less. In many workplaces, overtime is rare or nonexistent.

In a given week, only 11.6 million workers are paid for overtime, according to an estimate by the Employment Policy Foundation. And the prevalence of overtime pay did not change significantly between 1985 and 2001, the employer-sponsored think tank found.

Meanwhile, thousands of workers file complaints annually saying they are illegally denied overtime by employers who require them to work off the clock, who pay straight time for more than 40 hours work or who misclassify them as salaried employees.

Q. What occupations will lose their eligibility for overtime?

A. Ross Eisenbrey of the liberal-leaning Economic Institute wrote a study estimating that 8 million workers would lose overtime eligibility. He cites police sergeants, supervisory firefighters, para-

legals, assistant restaurant managers, social workers and licensed practical nurses as occupations that would be reclassified.

In addition, most white-collar employees earning more than $65,000 would become exempt, even if they are not professionals, executives or administrative employees.

Tammy McCutchen, administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, disputes Eisenbrey's findings as "nothing more than a misleading political document full of mischaracterizations, unsupported assumptions and a general ignorance of the current law." Her agency notes that the new regulation will not override union contracts and will make it harder to classify employees as executives.

Q. Are any occupations not covered by overtime requirements?