A federal judge in Texas issued an injunction Tuesday that puts new overtime regulations on a temporary hold just days before they were scheduled to go into effect on Dec. 1.
In a challenge to the new overtime rules filed by 21 states in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Judge Amos Mazzant agreed with plaintiffs calling for an emergency injunction, saying the U.S. Department of Labor may have overstepped its authority in establishing new salary-level tests and an automatic increase to the threshold every three years.
The new overtime rules would raise the threshold of exemption for overtime from $455 per week, or $23,660 annually, to $913 per week, or $47,476 annually. As a result, about 4.2 million more workers across the U.S. were expected to become eligible for overtime pay, including many in the restaurant industry.
Industry lobbying groups, however, have opposed the threshold shift, arguing it was too much, too soon, and would overburden a restaurant industry already struggling with rising labor costs.
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