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A trade association that opposes the U.S. Department of Labor’s new overtime rules is pushing to delay when the regulations take effect.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) submitted a letter this week asking the Department of Labor to reconsider the Dec. 1 start date for the law changes.
When in place, the law “substantially expands business costs for overtime,” the letter says.
“The Final Rule has a substantial impact on small businesses, including the members of the NFIB,” the letter says. “Achieving compliance with the Final Rule across the universe of small businesses takes substantial time.”
The Department of Labor finalized the regulation changes in May. NFIB is asking the federal agency to move the date the rules take effect from Dec. 1 to June 1.
“The December 1 implementation date is a sufficient amount of time (more than six months) for employers to adjust to the new salary level,” says David Weil, administrator of the the Department of Labor’s wage and hour division, in a recent article from USA Today.
The new regulations will require that most workers earning less than $913 per week be paid overtime when working more than 40 hours in a week, regardless of whether they are currently considered overtime exempt employees.
“In many cases, small businesses must reorganize their work forces and implement new systems for tracking hours, record keeping and reporting,” NFIB president Juanita Duggan says in the USA Today article. “They can’t just flip a switch and be in compliance.”
