The Trump administration on Thursday proposed new rules mandating when certain workers must be given overtime pay, pushing a plan that would raise pay for more than a million people but scales back the previous administration’s plans to expand overtime pay to even more workers.
Under the administration’s proposal, employees who earn under $35,308 a year must be paid overtime if they work more than 40 hours per week, according to a news release from the Department of Labor. Under current law, that number is set at $23,660 — approximately 30 percent lower than the administration’s proposal.
The Obama administration had proposed a more aggressive threshold, mandating overtime pay to those earning less than about $47,000 annually, but that plan was thwarted by a court challenge brought by more than a dozen Republican states and has never taken effect. The Obama plan would have made overtime pay available to more than 4 million additional workers, while the Trump administration estimates its plan would affect 1.1 million workers. The Obama proposal was invalidated by a Texas judge weeks before it was scheduled to go into effect.
