The Labor Department said Tuesday that it is raising the salary companies will have to pay to exempt workers from overtime. The new rule will benefit many fast-food restaurant workers.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has issued a rule that will make overtime pay available to 1.3 million additional workers, though the proposal replaces a more generous one advanced by former President Barack Obama.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that it is raising the salary level that companies will have to pay to exempt workers from overtime to $35,568 a year, up from $23,660. Americans earning less than that amount will typically be paid time and a half for any work over 40 hours a week.

The new rule will benefit many retail, fast-food restaurant, and home health care workers, as well as other lower-paid workers. Many employees in those industries have been paid just above the $23,660 threshold, which has been in place since 2004, and then required to work overtime without extra pay.

Many worker rights’ and left-of-center economists criticized the move, however, for covering far fewer workers than an earlier proposal issued by the Obama administration in 2015.

Under Obama, the Labor Department proposed raising the threshold to more than $47,000, which would have made nearly 5 million more workers eligible for overtime. That rule, however, was struck down in court after being challenged by states and business groups.

In the 1970s, more than 60 percent of workers were eligible for overtime pay, said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. That figure fell to just 7 percent in 2016.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised the rule, arguing that it provides more flexibility for employers in managing their staffs.