That problem was solved by certain tests required to determine whether a person was really management, such as the percentage of their time spent performing actual management tasks. I know it was still abused, but I did HR and payroll for decades, and I made sure my employer followed the rules to avoid lawsuits.
Most of the people that had a choice of comp or overtime took the comp time. I never had the choice as a manager making way beyond the threshold, nevertheless I wouldn’t work excessive hours unless special circumstances required it.
Abuse of the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) guidelines for exempt vs. non-exempt is the root of the issue. I work in IT and I've seen a lot of companies abuse the vagaries of these guidelines. The Help Desk Analyst is a good example. Many companies classify this job as exempt, but it should be non-exempt.
Changing the threshold should be done by Congress because the threshold is specified in the FLSA. Obama is in effect re-writing this law.
The primary offender here is the retail industry. They routinely throw menial grungework at exempt, salaried members of management. Then stick their head in the sand and act like they had no idea it was happening when challenged. Thus they can avoid having to pay an hourly wage to an employee to do such things.
I had a management title and spent far more time stocking shelves, sweeping floors, and doing maintenance work than actually managing anything.
This goes on pretty much across the board in all retail chains. It was long past time this was addressed.