U.S. employers are watching the clock.

With federal rules expanding paid overtime eligibility set to take effect nextmonth, business leaders are making moves to contain futurecosts, according to a New York Federal Reserve Bank survey.

The new regulation, finalized in May by the Labor Department andscheduled to come into force on Dec. 1, requires employers to paytime-and-a-half to salaried employees earning up to nearly $47,500annually — about double the current threshold of almost $24,000— after they work more than 40 hours per week.

Related: Incoming Education and Workforce Committee chairvows to fight overtime rule

In the survey, about one-in-three manufacturers and 40 percentof service firms in New York, northern New Jersey and southernConnecticut said they plan to implement one or a mix of responses:from raising salaries for some workers to above the overtimethreshold, to limiting employees' hours to 40 a week, or adjustingtheir headcount, mostly through job reductions.

Other actions they're considering include converting someworkers from salaried to hourly status, according to the New YorkFed survey.The change has met resistance from businesses andRepublicans, the party of President-elect Donald Trump, who on thecampaign trail gave conflicting views on his employment policies,saying at different times the minimum wage should be abolished,frozen or raised.

Republican governors control all but one of the 21 states thathave sued Democrat Barack Obama's administration to blockthe regulation, saying it could lead to layoffs.

A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Officereleased Monday found that canceling the scheduled changes beforeimplementation — however unlikely it seems — would reducepayroll costs by $40 million in December and by $470 million in2017.

Related: 21 states sue to block overtime rule

Employees' earnings would also fall, but real family incomewould increase by raising firms' profits and making consumergoods and services less expensive as a result, it found.

Some 3.9 million additional workers would gain overtimeprotection under the new rule, the CBO said.

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