Obama Legacy Already Crumbling As Federal Judge Blocks Overtime Rule

Ever a big fan of unilateral “rule changes,” back in May of this year Obama and the Department of Labor implemented a new overtime regulation that was set to take effect on December 1st. The rule change called for increasing the minimum salary threshold at which employers would have been required to pay overtime to workers from $23,660 to $47,476, or a mere 101%. The rule would have required employers to pay time-and-a-half to salaried workers making less than $47,476 per year for any time worked in excess of 40 hours per week. According to the Wall Street Journal, the new regulation would have cost employers about $2BN per year.
But, all that changed today when a federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas signed a preliminary injunction (attached at the end of this post) temporarily blocking the rule from taking effect next week to allow more time for litigation. Of course, the delay will be viewed by the Plaintiffs, and many employers around the country, as an outright victory as it likely postpones any final decisions until Trump takes over over the White House in January. And with Trump already signaling his intentions to roll back many of Obama’s “job-killing” regulations we suspect this one will get moved to the top of his list.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) praised the court’s decision as a huge victory for small business owners, 44% of which they claim would be directly impacted by the rule change.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Nov 22, 2016.

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