Without legal success, the mandate will go into effect Dec. 1, forcing small businesses to reorganize their workforce.
Louisiana AG Joins 21-State Coalition to Block New Overtime Rules
Twenty-one states have formed a
coalition to block the implementation of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) new
overtime rule before it goes into effect on Dec. 1, and Louisiana has joined
the effort. The states filed their challenge against the DOL rule with the U.S.
District Court in the Eastern District of Texas on Sept. 20, followed by an
additional suit filed the next day by NFIB, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and
49 other business groups.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff
Landry told KATC 3 ABC, “Once again, the President has
circumvented Congress and attempted to legislate through executive mandate.
Like Obamacare before it, this latest overreach will force employers to hire
less people and cut hours of their existing workers. This red-taped
bureaucratic edict will especially hurt the Louisiana workforce in the
education, retail, government, health, hospitality, and professional service industries.
For their sake and the sake of federalism, I have joined Attorneys General from
across the country to stop this job-killer.”
The new rule, which was released in
May, doubles the overtime threshold so that salaried workers who earn less than
$47,476 must be given overtime pay. NFIB estimates that 44 percent of small
businesses will see increased paperwork and scheduling burdens and will have to
deal with converting salaried workers to hourly ones and closely tracking their
time. These changes—and the fact that there will be fewer salaried, managerial
positions available, and therefore less opportunity for growth—will also
undoubtedly impact staff morale.
Although NFIB is fighting for the
compliance deadline to be pushed back until June of 2017 (from Dec. 1), in
order to give small business owners more time to make workforce adjustments,
employers should still act quickly to determine which employees will be
impacted by the new rule and what must be done to comply.
For more information about the new
rule and NFIB’s effort to block it, visit www.NFIB.com/overtime.
