The Trump administration is following through on campaign promises to reverse course on changes to overtime law initiated by President Obama.
This week, the Department of Labor sent a formal request for information on the Obama-era rule to the Office of Management and Budget, a move Capitol insiders say indicates the current administration is ready to dismantle the former administration’s efforts to change current overtime laws.
In November, a federal judge in Texas issued a nationwide injunction against an Obama administration regulation expanding by millions the number of workers who would be eligible for overtime pay. The rule change was set to go into effect December 1, 2016 and would have raised the salary limit below which workers automatically qualified for overtime pay to $47,476 from $23,660. The judge, Amos L. Mazzant III of the Eastern District of Texas, ruled the Obama administration had “exceeded its authority by raising the overtime salary limit so significantly,” according to The New York Times.
After President Trump took office, “his Labor Secretary signaled he would try to amend the rule, lowering the salary threshold,” according to a report this week by NPR.
“Once approved by OMB that request would ask the public to comment on a number of questions that would inform our thinking,” Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday.
Republican senators have been vocal in their opposition to the Obama regulation.
“That was a bad rule,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), noting that the salary threshold increase would be “just too high for many parts of the country.”
