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Alexander Statement on Trump Administration’s Final Overtime Rule


More than one million additional employees will now be eligible to receive overtime pay under the Trump Administration’s final rule raising the overtime annual salary threshold

WASHINGTON, September 24, 2019 — Senate labor committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement after the Trump Administration announced its final “overtime” rule:

“More than one million additional employees will now be eligible to receive overtime pay under the Trump Administration’s final rule raising the overtime annual salary threshold to $35,568. This is a reasonable update that should not have the same troubling effects for workers, businesses, non-profits, colleges and universities as the Obama Administration rule which would have more than doubled the threshold overnight.”

Background:

·        Under current law, employees earning a salary below $23,660 annually must be paid overtime if they work more than 40 hours per week.

·        This current salary threshold was set in 2004 during the George W. Bush Administration.

·        A federal judge struck down the 2016 Obama Administration rule which would have more than doubled the salary threshold to $47,476 and instituted automatic increases every three years.

·        The Trump Administration final rule released today raises the overtime salary threshold to $35,568 effective January 1, 2020.

·        The Department intends to update the salary threshold more regularly in the future through notice-and-comment rulemaking.

·        An additional 1.3 million Americans are now set to qualify for overtime pay as a result of this final rule.