The Foraker Group

As we’ve been reporting recently, the new Department of Labor overtime rules will take effect on December 1. The National Council of Nonprofits has been actively engaged in this issue for some months, and we’ve been sharing with you the information they’ve gathered. When the final rules were released in May, the Council surveyed organizations around the country, with a focus on those that receive government grants and contracts, to find out how the rules will affect them. Their findings include:

• Moral support exists for the new policy, coupled with concern over how to cover increased personnel costs while maintaining current levels of service.
• Organizations are concerned about the public. A third of respondents report that to comply they will have to reduce staff and service levels, likely leading to greater suffering in communities.
• Nonprofits with grants and contracts find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place because their existing agreements with government don’t take higher costs into account.
• Nonprofits are already subsidizing governments. More than half said their existing agreements cover only between 70 and 90 percent of the actual cost of service delivery.

We strongly encourage Alaska nonprofits to read the full report from the Council. If you have questions, please call us. We are in the process of developing tools and classes that will help you better understand the new rules and how to comply with them. Those tools will be announced in future newsletters and on this blog.