One of the biggest changes to the overtime rules is that the salary threshold for exemption has been raised so that a greater number of lower wage workers will be eligible for overtime premiums. This change could be significant for hotels, which often employ a large number of individuals who fit into this category. Under the old regulations, employees making as little as $8,060 annually could be considered exempt if their job responsibilities fell under the exempt definitions. Now, workers making less than $23,660 per year - or $455 per week - will be eligible for overtime. Employees who make more than $100,000 per year are also exempt under certain circumstances, even if their job responsibilities do not fall under the exempt definitions. Hourly, blue-collar workers, and manual laborers, however, are guaranteed non-exempt status - which means they are eligible for overtime pay -- regardless of their compensation level.

While it is clear that a hotel manager would probably be exempt, and a bellhop likely would not be, there can be a significant amount of gray area when looking at the plethora of job titles within the typical hotel. For example, the category of executive employees would possibly include positions such ...