Iowa’s move to end overtime eligibility for thousands of state workers will help the state better manage its budget and has a "relatively small impact," Gov. Kim Reynolds told reporters Tuesday.

“We are very appreciative of our state workers, but this is an opportunity to better manage our resources and has really relatively small impact,” Reynolds said.

The governor’s statements follow a Des Moines Register investigation showing that Iowa is cutting overtime pay to 2,800 employees.

The change means that state employees in 167 job classifications can be required to work more than 40 hours a week and — in many cases — never receive additional pay or compensatory time.

The state estimates it will save $5 million a year from the change.

Reynolds said only about half of those affected by the changes had received overtime pay in the past.

“The vast majority of state workers still qualify for overtime. I think it is important to note that,” Reynolds said.

However, the 12,800 state government employees who still qualify for overtime will see a reduction in the way Iowa calculates overtime pay.

For example, the hours that count toward overtime must be those actually worked in a week. Previously, sick or vacation days counted toward the calculation.

In some cases, employees who still qualify are paid their hourly salary, rather than 1½ times their hourly salary, as they previously had been paid.

Database: State employee overtime and comp time.

The changes were made through a controversial and wide-ranging collective bargaining bill that lawmakers approved in February — House File 291.

The bill was introduced, approved by lawmakers in the House and Senate (all Republicans) and signed by then-Gov. Terry Branstad within eight days, despite fierce union protests.

Among a host of other changes, the law allows the state to roll back overtime eligibility that historically had been granted to thousands of union employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA.

Iowa has for years had difficulty filling nursing positions due to competition with hospitals and private-sector jobs that offer better pay, bonuses and schedules.

The state has made some concessions to its new overtime rules that allow some of the nurses to continue to receive hourly wages for the extra hours they work. But most nurses no longer receive the 1½ times pay when they’ve worked more than 40 hours in a week.

Groups such as the National Employment Law Project, a New York-based group that advocates for workers' rights, have called Iowa’s overtime changes “short-sighted” and predict far greater complications than those involving shortages in nursing staffs.

AFSCME Iowa Council 61, which represents more than 40,000 public employees in Iowa, argues in a lawsuit that the new law violates the Iowa Constitution by creating "favored" and "disfavored" groups of government workers.

A hearing in the case is set for Sept. 15.