Press Releases

Today, the House passed the Regulatory Relief for Small Businesses, Schools, and Nonprofits Act (H.R. 6094), legislation introduced by Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), chairman of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, to require a six-month delay in the effective date of the Department of Labor’s extreme and partisan overtime rule. Finalized in May, the unprecedented rule doubles the salary threshold for overtime eligibility and requires automatic adjustments every three years while doing nothing to improve the existing maze of federal overtime requirements. Following the vote in the House, Rep. Walberg and Rep. John Kline (R-MN), chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, released the following statements:

“We all agree we need to modernize our nation’s overtime rules, but small businesses, nonprofits, and colleges and universities should not be hurt in the process,” Rep. Walberg said. “The department needs to abandon this flawed rule and pursue the balanced approach we’ve been fighting for from the start. Instead, they are forcing those who have to deal with the real-world consequences to make significant changes before an arbitrary December deadline. While the department continues to ignore widespread concerns, the House has taken an important bipartisan step to provide hardworking Americans more time to implement this expansive rule. The administration should do the right thing and approve this much-needed delay.”

“The department has advanced an extreme regulation that will stifle workplace flexibility, make college less affordable, and jeopardize services for individuals in need,” Chairman Kline said. “And to make matters worse, the department spent more than two years finalizing this rule and gave the American people just six months to make the tough choices necessary to implement it. Providing small businesses, colleges and universities, and charitable organizations more time to mitigate these harmful consequences is the least we can do. I commend Representative Walberg for introducing this important legislation and for his ongoing efforts to ensure federal overtime rules are updated in a fair, responsible way.”

BACKGROUND: Republicans have repeatedly called for a responsible effort to modernize federal overtime rules. Nonprofits, small businesses, and colleges and universities nationwide have also urged the administration to pursue a balanced approach. Unfortunately, in May 2016, the Department of Labor finalized an extreme and partisan rule that does nothing to streamline current regulations. Instead, the rule doubles the salary threshold for overtime eligibility to $47,476 per year and requires automatic adjustments every three years. To make matters worse, the department will implement the rule on December 1, 2016, providing workplaces, schools, and organizations across the country just six months to make significant changes.

Concerns have been raised that the rule will stifle workplace flexibility and opportunity, impose significant burdens on small businesses, jeopardize crucial nonprofit services, and increase the cost of higher education. To prevent these consequences, the department should withdraw its rule and work to modernize our nation’s overtime rules responsibly. However, the department has refused to heed these concerns and plans to implement the rule on December 1, 2016. The Regulatory Relief for Small Businesses, Schools, and Nonprofits Act would delay implementation of the rule by six months, providing workers, small businesses, nonprofits, and colleges and universities more time to prepare for dramatic changes resulting from the department’s final rule.

To read the bill, click here.

To learn more, click here.

 

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