PUTTING WORKERS FIRST?

Who are the Trump Administration & Congress (really) fighting for?
"Every decision . . . will be made to benefit American workers."
- President Trump, Inaugural Address, Jan 20, 2017
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Week 174
May 20, 2020

Trump’s DOL finalizes new rule amending fluctuating work week calculations.

  • The new "Fluctuating Workweek Method of Computing Overtime" rule changes a 78 year-old rule that allowed workers to receive .05 in overtime in addition to their set salaried pay pay if they worked over 40 hours in a work week.The new rule also allows employers to pay premium pay, bonuses, or other incentive-based pay to workers whose hours and regular pay rate vary from week to week.
  • This rule gives employers more flexibility in determining overtime eligibility - a move that could allow more workers to be left out of qualifying for overtime pay.
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DOL, Overtime, Wage and Hour
Week 151
Dec 12, 2019

DOL finalizes the rule amending the definitions of “regular rate” for purposes of computing overtime pay under the FLSA.

  • DOL finalized the regulation that would allow call back pay to be included in the calculation of the regular rate, for purposes of calculating overtime pay, only if it is prearranged. 
  • By deleting the references to the frequency of call back payments and only allowing those payment to be included in the regular rate of pay, DOL has ignored the reality of low wage workers  who will accommodate frequent and last-minute scheduling changes without “prearrangement” and therefore will be paid less.
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DOL, Overtime, Wage and Hour
Week 146
Nov 04, 2019

DOL proposes to expand employers use of the “economically advantageous” fluctuating workweek method of computing overtime

  • The proposed Rule would make it easier for employers to use the FWW method and pay overtime premium pay at only half-time, instead of the usual time-and-a-half pay.  It would revise the current regulation for computing overtime compensation for salaried nonexempt employees who work hours that vary each week to allow payments in addition to the fixed salary to be used with the fluctuating workweek method of compensation.
  • This broadening of the exception to overtime premium pay undermines the purposes of the overtime provisions in the Act, which are to prevent the overwork of America’s workers, and to spread employment to others who need additional hours and result in more workers making only ½ times the regular rate for overtime hours instead of 1 ½ times that rate
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DOL, Overtime, Wage and Hour
Week 140
Sep 24, 2019

The Trump Administration finalizes an overtime rule that raises the salary threshold for overtime coverage to $35,308 per year.

  • The new rule expands overtime coverage for employees who make less than $35, 308 per year, but that falls substantially short of the $51,064 that workers would get under the Obama Administration's threshold. And unlike the Obama DOL proposal, the threshold isn't indexed so it will lose value year after year.
  • Analysis from the Economic Policy Institute demonstrates that well over half of the workers who would have gotten new or strengthened overtime protections under the 2016 rule are not covered by the new rule.
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DOL, Overtime
Week 114
Mar 29, 2019

DOL proposes to amend the definitions of “regular rate” for purposes of computing overtime pay under the FLSA.

  • While several of the DOL’s proposes are not controversial, the Department proposes to amend the regulations concerning call back pay and payments similar to call back pay is troublesome.
  • The DOL proposes to delete the current references to the frequency of call by payments and only allow call in pay to be included in the calculation of regular rate of pay when it is “prearranged”. DOL ignores the reality of low wage workers who will accommodate frequent and last-minute scheduling changes without “prearrangement” and therefore will be paid less.
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DOL, Overtime, Wage and Hour
Week 111
Mar 07, 2019

The Trump Administration proposed new rules backtracking substantially on the overtime pay expansion released by the Obama Administration.

  • The proposed rule expands overtime coverage for employees who make less than $35,308 per year, but that falls substantially short of the $51,064 that workers would get under the Obama Administration's threshold.
  • Preliminary calculations by the Economic Policy Institute suggest that over half of the workers who would have gotten new or strengthened overtime protections under the 2016 rule are not covered by the new rule.
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DOL, Overtime
Week 110
Mar 01, 2019

Trump DOL is reportedly close to proposing a new overtime regulation that is far weaker than the regulation proposed by the Obama DOL.

  • Caving in to demands from corporate lobbyists, the Trump DOL will eviscerate overtime coverage compared with the prior rule.
  • This regulation will provide protection for only half as many workers as the Obama regulation.
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DOL, Overtime
Week 41
Oct 30, 2017

Trump administration appeals overtime ruling but asks the court to stay the appeal pending new rulemaking.

  • Labor department appeals a Texas court's decision invalidating the overtime rule at the last minute, recognizing that the decision threatened the department's longer-term authority to make overtime rules. However, the DOL also signals that it was going to reconsider the overtime rule.
  • Aggressively challenging the district court ruling would shore up the labor department's regulatory authority - though it is clear that this Labor Department wants to use its authority to issue a weak rule that doesn't give workers the protection they need.
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DOL, Overtime
Week 27
Jul 25, 2017

Trump administration launches effort to strip millions of workers of their overtime rights.

  • Labor department seeks to overturn an Obama-era rule that would ensure that workers earning salaries below $47,476 have access to overtime.
  • Rescinding this rule would remove a variety of overtime-related protections from 12.5 million Americans -- including 4.2 million who were scheduled to get more pay or more flexible hours.
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DOL, Overtime
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