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Breaking: Two Lawsuits Filed to Challenge the Department of Labor's Overtime Pay Rule


Although I had already posted an article earlier this morning, this breaking development out of Texas is too important to not write about immediately.


Earlier today, two lawsuits were filed to challenge the new overtime rules.  The first suit was brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  The second was brought by several business groups and officials from 21 states.  Both suits were filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas to challenge the Department of Labor's new overtime rules set to take effect December 1.  (The 21 states include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin).  For those needing a refresher, under the new overtime rules, employers would be required to pay overtime to any salaried worker that earns less than $47,500/year.  (Note, that threshold is double the current minimum rate of $23,660/year.)  In the suit, the states argued the overtime rule that was announced by President Barack Obama is unconstitutional as it dictates the wages states must pay employees for government functions and exceeds congressional authority.

As of this posting, although there has been no formal response from the Department of Labor or the Obama administration, prior comments from Labor Department official David Weil indicated that the Department of Labor was confident the rule would be upheld in court.

I think it is certainly possible that an injunction could be issued to prevent the implementation of the new overtime rule.  Although the judge these two cases are before, Judge Amos Mazzant, is a President Obama appointee...something that could essentially mean 'game over' for this challenge to the new overtime rules.  With that being said, this is far from over.  Stay tuned.



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