“For over 80 years, a cornerstone of workers’ rights in this country is the right to a 40-hour workweek, the promise that you get to go home after 40 hours or you get higher pay for each extra hour that you spend laboring away from your loved ones,” Acting Secretary Julie Su said. “I’ve heard from workers again and again about working long hours, for no extra pay, all while earning low salaries that don’t come anywhere close to compensating them for their sacrifices.”

So the new rule would extend overtime protections to 3.6 million more salaried workers who are currently exempt from overtime rules.

According to the Labor Department, the new rule better identifies which employees are executive, administrative or professional employees who should actually be exempt from overtime regulations.

“Many low-paid salaried employees work side-by-side with hourly employees, doing the same tasks and often working over 40 hours a week,” the Labor Department Wednesday statement said. “But because of outdated and out-of-sync rules, these low-paid salaried workers aren’t getting paid time-and-a-half for hours worked over 40 in a week.”

The proposed rule would better ensure that these low-paid salaried workers who are not exempt ” will gain more time with their families or receive additional compensation when working more than 40 hours a week.”

Overtime protections would also be restored to U.S. territories under the proposed new rule, returning to how it was between 2004 and 2019 when overtime regulations covered U.S. territories where the federal minimum wage was applicable.

The proposed rule defines and delimits overtime exemptions for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and computer workers.

Overtime protections for U.S. workers are included in the Fair Labor Standards Act. The law requires “overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay.”