Judge issues injunction on United States overtime pay rule for staff

It was expected to touch almost every sector of the USA economy and have the greatest impact on nonprofit groups, retail companies, hotels and restaurants, which have many management workers whose salaries are below the new threshold.

Mazzant III, an Obama-appointee, found that the states successfully demonstrated that “irreparable harm” would occur if the rule went into effect and that the DOL went beyond its authority by raising the salary level.

The indefinite postponement will stand until the judge renders his decision on the cases.

“Once again, a federal court has stepped in to block an illegal regulation sought by a federal agency that thought itself unfettered by the laws Congress actually passed”, Schmidt stated.

With Republicans controlling both houses in Congress and the Trump administration set to take office in less than two months, the new overtime rule’s long-term future remains in limbo.

A federal judge has halted changes to federal overtime rules that would have taken effect on December 1. Advocacy groups say employees who work for free are giving up time they could be spending with their families or advancing their education to get better paying jobs.

The regulations would not have entitled pastors to time-and-a-half pay for labor over 40 hours, based on judicial and regulatory precedents, but many church support staff and other employees of religious organizations would have qualified.

However, noted Mark Hudson, senior vice president at Shuttleworth and Ingersoll in Cedar Rapids, in a statement Wednesday, “A preliminary injunction is just that – preliminary”.

While the home-care rule was being contested, “some employers, relying on the district court’s injunction, did not pay overtime”, as the home-care final rule would have required had it taken effect January 1, the law firm Jackson Lewis said November 23 in an article on its website.

Earlier this year, Obama announced a new rule that roughly doubled the cap for salaried workers.

He said during last week’s oral argument the new rule’s proposed salary jump was “a much more drastic change”. Some have already communicated the coming changes to their workers and begun training those who would be affected to use a new timekeeping system.

But businesses said the rules would have created an overly restrictive environment that would have penalized younger and slower workers.

As a result of the indefinite delay, there is no requirement that they uphold those changes.

Sobocinski said he was glad to hear about the injunction delaying what he called an “anti-business law”.

Indeed, said attorney Jesse Panuccio of Foley & Lardner, “things could change quickly”. If you do so, you might consider communicating to your workforce that the expected changes are going to be delayed given today’s court ruling, and let them know that you will continue to monitor the situation and make adjustments when and if appropriate.