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A federal judge in Texas permanently blocked a rule that would have made around 4 million salaried workers eligible for overtime pay, according to Reuters.
U.S. district justice Sean Jordan said the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rule that took effect in July improperly bases eligibility for overtime pay on workers’ wages, rather than their job duties. The state of Texas and business groups representing a range of industries had filed lawsuits challenging the rule, which had been consolidated.
Jordan, who was appointed by Republican President-elect Donald Trump in his first term, struck down the rule after saying in June that it was invalid and temporarily blocked it from being applied to Texas state employees.
The current threshold for overtime, set in 2019 is $35,500.
The rule would have required employers to pay overtime premiums to salaried workers who earned less than $1,128 per week, or about $58,600 per year, when they worked more than 40 hours in a week, beginning Jan. 1, 2025. The rule would have raised the threshold to about $44,000 per year on July 1.
The DOL can seek review of the ruling in the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is widely regarded as the most conservative federal appeals court. But the incoming Trump administration could abandon any attempt to revive the rule.
