With the July 1 effective date of the new federal overtime rule looming, the Department of Labor has petitioned a Texas court to expedite discovery in a lawsuit seeking to block the rule.
The overtime rule increases the salary thresholds necessary to exempt a salaried executive, administrative or professional employee from federal overtime pay requirements. The current pay threshold for overtime pay exemption, which went into effect in January 2020 under the previous administration, is $35,568 per year or $684 per week — anyone making less than that amount is entitled to overtime pay, according to the Labor Department. Under the new rule, the threshold will increase to $43,888 per year, or $844 per week.
The case of software company Flint Avenue v. US Department of Labor, filed June 3, is one of three lawsuits in Texas brought by businesses and the state challenging the rule, claiming that the Labor Department “promulgated an unlawful regulation that would take away the white-collar exemption from a majority of Flint Avenue’s employees,” according to court records.
Each of the lawsuits “contend that the rule is arbitrary and capricious, and that the DOL lacked the authority to issue the change,” Bloomberg Law reported.
The Labor Department on June 20 requested an expedited time for discovery to June 24, Flint Avenue objected to the request. The defendants are requesting a two-day extension after receiving supplemental responses to their discovery requests, bringing the deadline to June 26, according to court records.
The overtime rule faces another challenge from a Republican-backed joint resolution introduced this month in both houses of Congress under the Congressional Review Act, which seeks to block the rule from going into effect.
