ABA today urged members of Congress to block the Department of Labor’s final overtime rule from taking effect. The rule — which increased the salary level used to determine whether employees are exempt from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act from $23,660 to $47,476 — is set to take effect on Dec. 1. ABA’s letter came in advance of a hearing on the rule today in the House Education and Workforce Committee.
The association reiterated its concerns that the rule imposes a “one-size-fits-all” standard on employers nationwide, with no regard to the economic and cost of living differences between states. Despite multiple meetings between ABA and member bankers with the DOL and the Office of Management and Budget during the rulemaking process, the final rule granted only a “token reduction” to the salary threshold and moved the annual automatic update of the threshold to every three years.
“Although these changes are an improvement, this is still an increase of more than 100 percent in the salary threshold and…will not alleviate the harm this rule will do to community banks and their employees,” ABA wrote. “Thus, we believe it is clear that the secretary [of labor] is not willing to reconsider the rule in a meaningful way without congressional action.” ABA encouraged lawmakers to support H.R. 4773, the Protecting the Workplace Advancement and Opportunity Act. The bill would nullify the rule and require the DOL to conduct a detailed economic analysis prior to making dramatic changes to federal overtime pay requirements.
