Cap of $47,000 could impact managers, says Judge Mazzant in his ruling.
A federal judge— U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant in Sherman, Texas—has struck down the Obama administration overtime pay rules that would have expanded mandatory overtime pay to more than 4 million U.S. workers by increasing the maximum salary still eligible for overtime pay to about $47,000.
According to a report by Reuters, Mazzant said in his ruling that the salary cap of $47,000 was so high it could end up including management workers, who are supposed to be exempt from overtime protections. Mazzant was the same judge who last year blocked the rule from taking effect pending his final decision.
Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who represents the 21 states that sued over the rule, applauded the decision in a statement. He said the rule would have forced states to spend millions of dollars on overtime pay and led to private-sector job losses.
The National Restaurant Association in a statement said the Obama administration had overstepped its authority in adopting the rule. The group said it would work with the Trump administration “to ensure workable changes to the overtime rule are enacted.”
Meanwhile, union-backed National Employment Law Project said the judge ignored that the U.S. Department of Labor spent two years working on the rule and reviewed nearly 300,000 public comments before adopting it.
Before last year, federal overtime pay regulations had not been changed since 2004, when the salary level was set at $23,660.
Workers’ rights groups and many Democrats told Reuters that threshold unfairly excluded many workers who do not perform any management duties.