Since President Trump took office, there have been no
updates on the new overtime rule instituted by the Obama administration's
Department of Labor, leading ASTA to believe the rule won't go into effect.
Under the rule, salaried employees making $47,476 or less would
be eligible for overtime pay; the current threshold is $23,660.
On a press call on Tuesday, Peter Lobasso, ASTA general
counsel, said it appears the rule -- which was blocked by a judge last
November -- is dead.
"We've certainly heard nothing since the Trump
administration began in January that there's any intention to pick this up
again, and I think at this point in time, at least, it's pretty safe to say
that this has died," Lobasso said.
The overtime rule was scheduled to go into effect on Dec. 1,
2016, but was blocked by a federal judge in Texas days before. While the
Department of Labor has appealed the judge's ruling, it has also sought an
extension to May 1 to file its brief on the matter.
"While the fate of the regulation remains unclear, it's
pretty safe to say... that it probably won't go into effect," said Erika
Richter, ASTA director of communications.
Before the rule was blocked, Richter said the Society had
embarked on a campaign to educate members on its potential effects and how they
could prepare for the changes. ASTA also included questions about the overtime
rule in research conducted last year.
Richter said ASTA found that 66% of survey respondents said
they had heard about Labor's new overtime regulations, and 34% indicated they
were "very concerned" about them. Thirty-two percent said the
regulations would not affect their business model.
"That being said, if the agency owners and managers are
required to follow this rule or have decided to begin tracking each salaried
employee's work hours each week, about 39% expressed that the extra work
required would be very burdensome, and that's no surprise to us," Richter
said. "I think most industries would agree that the extra tracking and
obligations, especially for a small business, is complicated and costly."
Lobasso said if the rule went into effect, it would have
affected many ASTA member agencies, and it got those same agencies thinking
about how they categorize employees.