Gov. Matt Bevin applauded a ruling by a federal judge in Texas yesterday striking down the Obama-era overtime pay rule for salaried workers. If implemented, the new rule would more than double the minimum salary overtime threshold for public and private workers—without Congressional authorization—thereby substantially increasing employment costs and threatening jobs.
The overtime rule, originally set to go into effect on December 1, 2016, was initially put on hold by Judge Amos Mazzant (of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas) last November.
“The result of this unfunded mandate by the Obama Administration would be to force many private sector employers to lay off workers. This is not acceptable,” said Gov. Bevin. “It is a direct violation of the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and we stand with 20 other states in protecting the rights of individual states.”
On March 13, 2014, President Obama ordered the Department of Labor to revise the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime exemption for executive, administrative, and professional employees—the so-called “white collar” exemption—to account for the federal minimum wage.
On May 23, 2016, the Department of Labor issued the final new overtime rule. It doubled the salary-level threshold for employees to be exempt from overtime, regardless of whether they perform executive, administrative, or professional duties.
Additionally, the new rule contained a ratcheting mechanism to automatically increase the salary level every three years without going through the standard rule-making process required by federal law.
In addition to Kentucky, other states that have signed on to fight the overtime rule include: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.
(provided by Office of the Kentucky Governor)
