Labor Department Appeals Injunction Against Overtime Rule

Craig Webb, editor-in-chief of ProSales Magazine reports that the U. S. Labor Department (DOL) last Friday announced that it is appealing the preliminary injunction that stopped the Obama Administration’s Overtime Rule from taking effect on December 1st. In a press statement, the Labor Department said, “On Dec. 1, the Department of Justice on behalf of the Department of Labor filed a notice to appeal the preliminary injunction to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit…..The Department strongly disagrees with the decision by the court. The Department’s Overtime Final Rule is the result of a comprehensive, inclusive rule-making process, and we remain confident in the legality of all aspects of the rule.”

As background, on November 22nd, U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant filed an injunction blocking the DOL from implementing and enforcing the Overtime Rule. The rule raises by almost double the annual pay threshold to $47,476 whereby a worker is exempted from time-and-a-half overtime pay after working 40 hours in a week. The rule stipulates that this pay threshold would rise automatically in the future based on inflation.