Texas Sues Obama Administration Over New Overtime Rule

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Texas Sues Obama Administration Over New Overtime Rule

 

by Patrick Svitek Sept. 20, 2016 211Comments

 

Texas is helping lead a lawsuit against President Barack Obama's administration over a new rule that makes millions more workers eligible for overtime pay.

 

Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday he is joining his counterpart in Nevada, Adam Laxalt, to file the lawsuit on behalf of 21 states. Paxton said the rule, announced earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Labor, is another example of Obama "trying unilaterally rewrite the law."

 

The rule, set to go into effect Dec. 1, doubles the salary threshold under which workers qualify for overtime pay, from $455 per week to $913 per week. The Labor Department estimates the rule will benefit an additional 4.2 million workers.

 

Critics of the rule say it will place a new burden on businesses, potentially forcing them to demote or lay off workers whom they cannot afford to pay more. On Tuesday, Paxton warned the rule "may lead to disastrous consequences for our economy."

 

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Federal judge blocks Obama overtime pay rule

By Victor Morton and Dave Boyer - The Washington Times - Tuesday, November 22, 2016

 

A federal judge has blocked a Department of Labor rule on overtime pay that made more than 4 million private-sector workers eligible for mandatory extra pay or time off.

 

U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant of the Eastern District of Texas, whom President Obama appointed, imposed a nationwide injunction against the rule Tuesday at the request of 21 states, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

 

Business groups cheered the decision as another rebuke of the Obama administration’s penchant for regulation and for extending executive power.

 

“The Labor Department’s overtime changes are a reckless and aggressive overreach of executive power, and retailers are pleased with the judge’s decision,” said David French, the National Retail Federation’s senior vice president for government relations.

 

The judge said the Labor Department regulation exceeded the authority granted it by Congress,

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/22/obama-overtime-pay-rule-blocked-federal-judge/

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Texas judge blocks overtime rule challenged by Paxton, others

A federal judge in Sherman has blocked a White House effort to make millions more workers eligible for overtime pay, handing a victory to Texas and 20 other states that had challenged the new Labor Department rule.

 

by Patrick Svitek Nov. 22, 2016 5:49 PM

 

A federal judge in Sherman has blocked a White House effort to make millions more workers eligible for overtime pay, handing a victory to Texas and 20 other states that had challenged the new Labor Department rule.

 

U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant granted a nationwide injunction Tuesday against the rule, which was set to go into effect Dec. 1. The rule aimed to double the salary threshold under which employees qualify for overtime pay, extending it to an estimated 4.2 million more workers.

 

In September, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton teamed up with his counterpart in Nevada to file a lawsuit challenging the rule on behalf of 21 states. They argued it amounted to overreach by the federal government that would place a new burden on businesses.

 

Paxton reiterated Tuesday that the rule "hurts the American worker."

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/11/22/texas-judge-blocks-overtime-ruled-challenged-paxto/

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Editorial: A rebuke for prez

Boston Herald editorial staff Monday, November 28, 2016

 

Another day — another judicial rebuke of President Obama, this time centering on his unilateral extension of overtime eligibility to millions of salaried managers.

 

Businesses have been scrambling to prepare for the new rule that makes employees who earn up to $47,476 a year eligible for time-and-a-half pay after working 40 hours. They adjusted schedules, job duties and in some cases salaries after the Department of Labor issued the final rule last spring, which was to take effect Dec. 1.

 

But a coalition of states and business groups challenged the new rule, and a federal judge in Texas last week granted an injunction that halts implementation nationwide.

http://www.bostonherald.com/opinion/editorials/2016/11/editorial_a_rebuke_for_prez

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Obama’s Labor Market Mischief

by Richard A. Epstein

via Defining Ideas (Hoover Institution)

Monday, November 28, 2016

 

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and its subsequent amendments (FLSA), Congress has delegated to the President the power to set overtime regulations for all public and private employees throughout the United States. On March 13, 2016, President Obama directed Thomas E. Perez, head of the Department of Labor (DOL), to “modernize and streamline the existing overtime regulations for executive, administrative, and professional employees,” which, in his view, “have not kept up with our modern economy.” The Department of Labor conducted exhaustive hearings on the matter, during which it received comments from close to 300,000 individuals and organizations.

 

In May 2016, following these hearings, the Department issued its Overtime Final Rule that showed how little it had learned from the process. It did nothing to adjust the definitions of EAP (executive, administrative, and professional employees) workers. But it did raise the minimum salary level for exempt EAP workers from $23,660 per year, or $455 per week, to $47,892 per year, or $921 per week.

http://www.hoover.org/research/obamas-labor-market-mischief