Louisiana employers are urging House Majority Whip Steve Scalise to “exercise his leadership and fast track legislation” that would be an alternative or that would fix a new federal law that would make 4 million more higher-earning workers eligible for overtime pay.
The Partnership to Protect Workplace Opportunity, which represents businesses fighting the regulation, says the overtime pay rule, which goes into effect on Dec. 1, would require employers to reclassify workers, change tracking systems and reassess their budgets, operations and services. Lawyers and accountants have warned that there are no exceptions to the rule, the group says.
The PPWO—including the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, Louisiana Forestry Association, Solidarity Project, Community Volunteers Association, law offices and others—is asking Congress to take a closer look at how the law would impact the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.
“All we want is a closer examination to determine how these proposals impact those who operate hospitals, universities, police and fire departments, public health clinics, schools, government offices, small businesses, and charitable organizations,” says Dawn Collins, executive director of the Solidarity Project, a statewide advocacy network. “We’re already facing budget challenges at a time when in Louisiana there is an extreme need for our services.”
Under the federal pay rule, the salary threshold under which employers must pay overtime to white-collar workers would double to $47,476 a year, or $913 per week, from $23,660 per year.
The threshold also would readjust every year to reflect changes in average wages.
“The Labor Department’s rule makes no accommodation for differences between for-profit and nonprofit organizations, nor does it make any allowance for regional differences in rates of pay and cost of living,” Collins says.
The PPWO says nonprofits such as Habitat for Humanity and the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools and government and education departments would be subject to the rule. Buck Vandersteen, Louisiana Forestry Association executive director, calls the rule extreme and to abrupt to handle.
“In an already stagnant economy, the consequences will be devastating to our association as a whole and incredibly demoralizing to those salaried staff members who will now have to punch a time clock,” Vandersteen says in a statement.
Twenty-one states, including Louisiana, have sued to overturn the rule. Last month, LABI penned a letter asking the Obama administration to delay the implementation of the rule in the 22 parishes that received the disaster declaration due to August’s historic flood. The association says the rule would “especially hamper small businesses, which were those most significantly affected by the flooding.”
LABI tells Daily Report it has yet to receive a response to its letter. The U.S. Department of Labor has not responded to inquiries from Daily Report on the issue.
