On Friday, a federal judge in Texas struck down a new Biden administration rule aimed at expanding overtime protections to millions of workers.
Judge Sean D. Jordan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that the Labor Department exceeded its authority by issuing the regulation earlier this year. He granted summary judgment to the state of Texas, which had filed suit to prevent the rule from going into effect.
The overtime rule is one of the most sweeping economic reforms that President Joe Biden has unilaterally pursued through the federal regulatory process. It would dramatically increase the share of workers entitled to time-and-a-half pay if they work more than 40 hours a week.
But thanks to lawsuits like the one in Texas, the future of the regulation was in doubt even before Donald Trump, who has broadly promised to undo Biden’s agenda, won the presidential election.
Jordan, who Trump nominated to the bench in 2019 during his first term in the White House, had temporarily blocked passage of the overtime rule in Texas in June. His latest order halts regulations across the country, leaving current, stricter overtime rules intact.
A Labor Department spokesperson did not immediately comment on the agency’s plans for the rule.
The agency can appeal Jordan’s order in hopes of keeping the rule alive, but defending it will ultimately be up to the new Trump administration. A Trump campaign spokesperson had declined to say where Trump stands on the Biden rule when asked by HuffPost in September.
Most hourly employees are entitled to time-and-a-half pay if they work extra hours, but the rules are different for employees who are paid on a salary basis. Biden is trying to raise the so-called salary threshold for overtime, the level below which most employees are automatically guaranteed overtime.
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Trump set the threshold at just $35,568 during his first term. Biden’s rule would bring it to $58,656 next year, making the threshold cover an estimated 4 million additional workers. The threshold would then have been indexed to rise with inflation.
Leading employer groups had spoken out strongly against the Biden administration, just as they did when former President Barack Obama tried to expand overtime protections to more workers. After all, raising the salary threshold would increase the wages of employees, and therefore also the labor costs of employers.
The Associated Builders and Contractors, which represents the construction industry, were among the groups that applauded Jordan’s decision to scrap the rule. It said workers would have lost the “flexibility” afforded to managers and others in terms of salary who are exempt from the law.
“This would have disrupted the construction industry, hurt small businesses in particular, limited workers’ workplace flexibility in setting schedules and hours, and harmed career opportunities,” said Ben Brubeck, the group’s vice president for regulatory affairs and labor matters, in a statement.
