Well, we can’t say we didn’t see this coming! In case you missed it (ICYMI) millennials took over the American workforce this week. According to Pew Research, for the first time, those kids aged 18 to 34, are now the largest segment of the workforce. But enough about millennials, let’s go through this week’s trending topics on the workforce, learning and development, and human resources!

The fight for overtime pay

Eighty percent of respondents to a Public Policy Poll said that that individuals making more than $23,000 annually should be allowed to receive overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours a week. Even more so, 65% of respondents indicated they supported overtime pay for people earning up to $75,000 a year.

According to the New York Times, President Obama, “direct[ed] the Labor Department to revamp its regulations to require overtime pay for several million additional fast-food managers, loan officers, computer technicians and others whom many businesses currently classify as ‘executive or professional’ employees…”

As of today, employers are prohibited from denying overtime pay to salaried employees making less than $455 per week or $23,600 a year, if they go over 40 hours a week. “Executive employees” are exempt from the overtime pay.

Read Fortune’s article, Extra pay for all! Americans want almost every worker to earn overtime, for more information!

To do better in the world, we need better HR

HR bashing isn’t anything new. And, many HR departments are making great strides to debunk their reputation and change their perception and value. This week, The Atlantic published an article titled, To Do Good in the Word, Get a Better HR Department, which highlights what the workforce wants from HR and various ways HR can drive positive change.

Let’s rewind back to millennials for just a minute. The Atlantic article cites two surveys that frame the state of the workforce:

“According to a Deloitte survey earlier this year, 47 percent of Millennials believe that the “purpose of business is to ‘improve society/protect the environment.’” Eighty-three percent of the 3,000 MBA students polled by the nonprofit Net Impact would take a 15 percent salary cut “for a job that makes a social or environmental difference in the world” (a positive difference, one would presume).”

According to The Atlantic, here’s how to drive positive change in HR:

• Stop the “seemingly pointless paperwork”
• Help the company do good (and they’re not talking about employee engagement programs!)
• Proactively eliminate the “unconscious bias”

Check out the full article packed full of great advice and real life examples!

It’s not just you: Work-life balance is getting harder

A recent Inc. article confirms what we already know to be true – maintaining a work-life balance is getting harder. The article features an Ernst & Young poll of 9,700 workers in the U.S., Germany, Japan, China, Mexico, Brazil, India and the U.K., and  1/3 of the respondents agree that it has become increasingly more difficult to find a work-life balance in the past five years.

Get the full skinny on the difficulty to achieve a proper work-life balance, here!

The aging workforce: Use it or lose it!

Kate Everson, an associate editor for Chief Learning Officer Magazine, commented on a study republished by Science Daily, which examined how engaging, stimulating activities affect the brain even after older employees have moved into retirement.

The article takes a learning and development approach to the study. Here are two great suggestions from the article that are worth reading (and maybe even doing!).

“Learning leaders can help to instill a habit of prioritizing passions. Have a 50-something employee who wants to know more about web design? Include them in a training session that challenges them to learn advanced HTML coding.

Or kill two learning priorities with one mentorship. Lodi-Smith said retirement can be particularly difficult for those who love their jobs and include them as part of their identities. For example, “I am an accountant.” Well, as of your 65th birthday, not so much. Consider setting up a mentor relationship with your devoted retirees so they can transfer their knowledge to the younger set and stay social and engaged in what they love.”

That’s all for now!