WASHINGTON - About 640,000 white-collar workers could lose overtime pay, while more than a million low-income employees could begin to earn it under a White House proposal to overhaul decades-old labor laws.

The changes being suggested today by the Labor Department revamp a section of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act that defines blue-collar and white-collar workers and determines who must be paid a time-and-a-half hourly rate for working more than 40 hours a week. About 110 million workers are covered by the complex regulations, which have not been updated in 28 years.

The Bush administration also is pursuing other revisions to workplace regulations and programs, including the Family Medical Leave Act, job training programs and unemployment insurance. The overtime proposal is subject to a 90-day public comment period. Final regulations, which would not require congressional action, probably would not take effect until late this year or early in 2004.

"Our proposal has attempted to simplify and update, to make those rules easier to apply and easier to enforce," Tammy McCutchen, administrator of the Labor Department's wage and hour division, told The Associated Press late Wednesday.

The current regulations are 31,000 words, she said. The proposed replacement: 13,000 words.

Business groups long have complained that the complicated rules, which contain outdated job descriptions and salary levels, require overtime pay for already well-compensated and highly skilled professionals.

A surge in overtime pay lawsuits aimed at employers also is a concern. Workers filed 79 federal collective-action lawsuits seeking overtime pay in 2001, surpassing for the first time class-action job discrimination suits against employers, according to the American Bar Association.

Workers now are exempt from overtime pay if they earn more than $155 a week, or $8,060 a year, and meet other convoluted, confusing job criteria, such as devoting at least 80 percent of their time to "exercising discretion" and other "intellectual" tasks that cannot be "standardized in ... a given period of time."

The proposal would raise the salary cap to $425 a week, or $22,100 a year, and any worker earning less automatically would be required to receive overtime pay.

Jobs most affected by the changes likely would be assistant managers of stores, restaurants and bars, McCutchen said. They would get overtime pay despite their management status as long as they earn less than $22,100 a year

The proposal also clarifies and simplifies definitions of administrative, executive and professional employees who should be exempt from overtime pay.

With the proposed changes, employers could face $334 million to $895 million in direct payroll costs for the 1.3 million low-wage workers estimated to become eligible for overtime pay. Overall, businesses could face costs of $870 million to $1.57 billion to implement new requirements.

But McCutchen said the benefits of increased productivity and fewer lawsuits could mean savings of $1.1 billion to $1.9 billion.

Union officials have said they would oppose any changes that would cause longer work weeks, because required overtime pay is the only brake stopping many employers from demanding excessive work hours.

"We're concerned that these rules could weaken the tradition of the 40-hour work week," said Kathy Roeder, spokeswoman for the AFL-CIO, which hadn't seen the proposal Wednesday night.

Employees who work under collective bargaining agreements negotiated by unions would not be affected by new regulations. Also, companies still can choose to pay overtime to exempt workers.

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On the Net:

Labor Department fact sheets on overtime pay: http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/overtimepay.htm