The Obama administration is challenging an injunction that halted the implementation of a sweeping overtime pay regulation, advancing a federal court battle over a rule that could face an eventual challenge from President-elect Donald Trump.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and other department officials filed a notice of appeal today with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, defending the rule requiring employers to pay overtime to workers earning salaries less than $47,476 a year.
Business leaders and many states say the new threshold is too much of an increase from the current threshold of $23,660, which was last updated in 2004. They also say the government overstepped its authority by stipulating that the new threshold would automatically increase every three years.
Nearly two dozen states and a coalition of business groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed separate lawsuits in September to overturn the regulation, which was set to qualify millions more Americans for overtime pay today.
The complaints were consolidated, and last week a Texas judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the rule, in a blow to one of President Barack Obama’s signature workplace regulations.
The Labor Department says the ruling “has the effect of delaying a fair day’s pay for a long day’s work for millions of hardworking Americans.”
Even barring court action that could permanently block the rule, the regulation could face a challenge from Trump, who has said he would roll back business regulations he thinks do economic harm.
