Almost two dozen states, including Utah, filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Tuesday claiming that a new labor rule, which offers overtime pay to all American workers who earn up to almost $50,000 per year, is unconstitutional. Toward that aim, the rule increases the salary threshold below which most white-collar, salaried workers are entitled to overtime from the current $455 per week (or $23,660 for a full-year worker) to $913 per week (or $47,476 for a full-year worker). It will also ensure the threshold is updated every three years by indexing it to salary growth in the lowest income region of the country-an unprecedented step.
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Nevada Attorney General Paul Laxalt is leading the coalition of 21 states in their filing of a federal lawsuit that challenges the new overtime rule.
“Longstanding federal law requires an overtime exemption for “bona fide executive, administrative or professional” employees”, Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt (R) said in statement to the Review-Journal.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez says he was confident in the legality of the rule, describing the lawsuits as partisan, obstructionist tactics.
In men, depression is different. Employers will either have to pay overtime or limit hours for these salaried workers, meaning more employees will be working a true 40-hour week.
Twenty-one states led by Republicans sued the Obama administration Tuesday over the Labor Department’s new “overtime rule” – charging it circumvented Congress and it would increase costs for small companies.
For the first time in the Labor Department’s history, it failed to consider salary levels in the retail marketplace when setting the final rule-in all previous rulemakings, DOL had reduced the national overtime threshold to account for average retail wages.
The U.S. Labor Department started finalizing the rule in May, saying that it would put more money into the hands of the middle class, or give them more free time.
The complaint asks the court to prevent the the new rule from going in to effect, which is scheduled to be implemented December 1, 2016.
The states’ lawsuit says that under the rule many state employees would become eligible for overtime pay even though they perform management duties that should make them exempt.
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Plaintiffs in Tuesday’s lawsuit include the states of Texas, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and OH, among others.
