By Leigh Strope
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Retreating under pressure, the Bush administration is revising regulations to maintain overtime benefits for most white-collar workers earning up to $100,000 a year while guaranteeing police and firefighters extra pay for more hours on the job, Republican officials said Monday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said revisions in the proposed regulations also would guarantee overtime for lower-wage workers making less than $23,660 a year, higher than the $22,100 initially proposed.

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao is expected to preview the new proposals today, the sources said. They would not take effect until June 21 at the earliest.

Chao issued a proposed regulation in March 2003, but it drew sustained criticism.

The Senate voted last year to stop the administration from issuing the regulation, but that provision was later dropped under White House pressure. Even so, Democrats signaled a fresh attempt this year - in the run-up to the November elections - at a time when jobs and pocketbook issues are a key issue.

White House officials said that under the revisions, up to 107,000 workers could lose their overtime protection, but 6.7 million workers would be guaranteed overtime.

By contrast, under Chao's initial proposal, the Labor Department said 644,000 white-collar workers in occupations ranging from paralegals to licensed practical nurses, bookkeepers, surveyors and dental hygienists could have lost protection, and 1.3 million gained it.

Critics said the original proposal would allow work experience - such as training received during military service - to be credited as an equivalent to a college degree. That would mean many military veterans could lose their overtime eligibility in civilian jobs.

"Any update that installs more clarity and injects the realities of the 21st-century workplace will be better than what we are working with today," Katherine Lugar of the National Retail Federation said Monday.

But critics of the new regulations say they will prompt even more litigation.

"We're still expecting the worst because the administration has behaved as if the worst is coming," Bill Samuel, legislative director of the AFL-CIO, said Monday.

---

Gannett News Service contributed to this report.