On Friday a federal choose in Texas struck down a brand new rule from the Biden administration geared toward extending additional time protections to hundreds of thousands of employees.
Choose Sean D. Jordan of the U.S. District Court docket for the Jap District of Texas dominated that the Labor Division went past its authority in issuing the regulation earlier this yr. He granted abstract judgment to the state of Texas, which had sued to cease the rule from taking impact.
The additional time rule is without doubt one of the furthest-reaching financial reforms that President Joe Biden has pursued unilaterally by means of the federal rulemaking course of. It might dramatically increase the share of employees who’re entitled to time-and-a-half pay once they work greater than 40 hours in per week.
However due to court docket battles just like the one in Texas, the regulation’s future was doubtful even earlier than Donald Trump, who has broadly promised to undo Biden’s agenda, gained the presidential election.
Jordan, who Trump nominated to the bench in 2019 throughout his first time period within the White Home, had quickly blocked the additional time rule from shifting ahead in Texas in June. His newest order halts the regulation throughout the nation, leaving the present, stricter additional time guidelines intact.
A Labor Division spokesperson didn’t instantly touch upon the company’s plans for the rule.
The company can attraction Jordan’s order in hopes of maintaining the rule alive, however defending it is going to finally fall to the incoming Trump administration. A Trump marketing campaign spokesperson had declined to say the place Trump stands on the Biden rule when HuffPost requested in September.
Most hourly employees are entitled to time-and-a-half pay once they work additional hours, however the guidelines are completely different for employees paid on wage. Biden is making an attempt to lift what’s often called the additional time wage threshold, the extent beneath which most salaried employees are mechanically assured additional time pay.
MANDEL NGAN through Getty Photos
Trump had set the brink at simply $35,568 throughout his first time period. Biden’s rule would push it to $58,656 subsequent yr, in order that the brink covers an estimated 4 million extra employees. The edge would have been listed to rise with inflation after that.
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Main employer teams had come out strongly in opposition to the Biden rule, simply as they did when former President Barack Obama tried to increase additional time protections to extra employees. In any case, elevating the wage threshold would increase employees’ pay, and thus employers’ labor prices.
The Related Builders and Contractors, which represents the development trade, was among the many teams cheering Jordan’s choice to strike down the rule. It stated employees would have misplaced out on the “flexibility” afforded to managers and others on wage who’re exempted from the legislation.
“This would have disrupted the construction industry, specifically harming small businesses, restricting employee workplace flexibility in setting schedules and hours, and hurting career advancement opportunities,” Ben Brubeck, the group’s vp for regulatory and labor affairs, stated in a press release.
