OH joined Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin in a lawsuit [pdf] against the U.S. Department of Labor, its secretary, and other federal officials seeking to halt the new overtime rules.
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Twenty-one states joined in a federal lawsuit that charges the Obama administration with overstepping its authority in rewriting the rules, which raise the overtime salary threshold from $23, 600 to $47,500 per year.
The overtime rule is created to restore the intent of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the crown jewel of worker protections in the United States.
This new overtime rule is going into effect on December 1. Furthermore, the automatic escalator provision means that employers will have to go through their reclassification analysis every three years.
At the time of the announcement, U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez contended that too many people are taken advantage of by being called or designated as managers – and made to work extra hours for free. Now employers only have to pay overtime to people who make up to $23,660 a year.
The states’ effort, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt, holds that the rule requires congressional validation and will result in increased employment costs – and possible service cuts and layoffs – for many state and local governments, as well as private businesses.
The measure would shrink the so-called “white collar exemption” that exempts workers who perform “executive, administrative or professional” duties from overtime and minimum wage requirements. Transit Auth., 469 US 528 (1985), held that extending coverage of the FLSA to state governments did not violate the Constitution (overruling its prior decision in National League of Cities v. Usery, 426 USA 833 (1976)).
“For their sake and the sake of federalism, I have joined Attorneys General from across the country to stop this job-killer”, Landry says in a statement.
Vice President Joe Biden announced the new rule during a visit to Columbus in May.
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Other plaintiffs include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin, and the governors of Iowa, Maine and New Mexico.
