Chairman Scott to Secretary Acosta: The Department of Labor’s Proposed Overtime Rule Leaves Millions of Workers Behind
WASHINGTON – Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03), chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, wrote a letter to Department of Labor Secretary R. Alexander Acosta urging the Department to abandon its proposal to rescind Obama-era overtime regulations. Under the Department’s proposal, nearly 8.2 million workers—including 4.2 million women and 3 million people of color—would be left behind.
The Chairman expressed concern regarding the Department’s flawed methodology that influenced the rule, as well as a lack of adherence to congressional intent as outlined in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
“Congress’s policy objectives in enacting overtime protections in the FLSA were two-fold: to reduce employees being overworked by their employers and to spread employment by incentivizing employers to hire more employees rather than overworking current employees,” said Chairman Bobby Scott. “In his failure to fully defend the 2016 rule and proposing this new rulemaking, the Secretary acts contrary to congressional intent.”
The proposed rule, which was released in March, would set the salary threshold under which workers are entitled to receive overtime pay at $35,308 per year. While some people will see benefits under the new threshold, the proposal would exclude millions of workers who would have benefited under the 2016 Obama administration rule, which would have increased the threshold to nearly $50,000.
This is a missed opportunity to implement significant reforms to ensure that workers are compensated for all the hours they work.
To read the full text of the letter, click here.
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