Texas led the lawsuit against the Department of Labor that has now blocked the new overtime rule from going into effect.
The injunction from U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant comes on the heels of yet another Texas-led legal assault on what was supposed to be a key Obama Administration policy. The rule, which sought to make it harder for employers to take advantage of low-paid employees, would have doubled the maximum salary at which someone working 40 hours a week can still earn mandatory overtime pay – raising the earning threshold from $23,600 a year to $47,467.
In September, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined Nevada's attorney general in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Labor on behalf of 21 states seeking to block the new overtime rule, arguing it was – you guessed it – just another federal overreach that would burden businesses. In a statement this week, Paxton chided the new rule for imposing a "one-size-fits-all standard that only looks good in press statements. Not on my watch."
As the Wall Street Journal reports, many employers who granted year-end raises to bump workers over the new earning threshold now face an awkward choice: do they claw back raises they've already promised or suspend them until the rule is ironed out by the courts?
