Employers generally don’t like being told to raise wages, so itwas not surprising that various employers, including businesses andnonprofits, have objected to a rule change proposed by the Obamaadministration.

Read: Employers aware, concerned about overtimestatus

That rule change would dramatically expand the number ofemployees who would be required to receive overtime pay when they work more than40 hours a week.

The proposed rule would more than double the salary thresholdabove which a worker could be exempt from overtime pay from $23,660to $50,440.

But one employer group that has had a tough time coming to aposition on the issue is the American Network of Community Optionsand Resources. ANCOR is an association of employers that providecare to people with intellectual disabilities.

"When we brought this issue to our board, the response wasemphatically, 'Yes, we want to pay the people that work for us whatthey're worth,' " Gabrielle Sedor, chief operating officer of ANCOR,told NPR.

But Sedor says that after some number-crunching she is hesitantto support such a dramatic change in compensation policy. Andconsidering that the groups providing the services get a largepercentage of their funding from Medicaid, she said they willlikely respond to the policy by asking for more money from thefeds.

Providers will spend an additional $1 billion a year on overtimepay on employees who currently make between the current thresholdand the proposed one, according to a study the group commissioned.The study based that estimate on the average salary of a workermaking between the two thresholds –– $37,050 –– and the fivehours of overtime that employers reported their employees work.

In a second scenario explored by the study, employers wouldavoid additional overtime payments by instead raising the salariesof their workers by an average of $13,000. That would cost theorganizations an estimated $1.86 billion.

Of course, the actual response from employers will include a mixof the two scenarios, in addition to a third strategy: cuttinghours.

"What's most troubling to me is that over 20 percent (of memberorganizations) thought that they would be forced to reduceservices, and that's a real challenge, because in every state theneed for services to people with intellectual disabilities isgrowing," Sedor said.