### Judge Blocks Biden Administration's Expanded Overtime Pay Rule

A new rule aimed at widening the scope of overtime pay for millions of salaried workers has been halted by a federal judge in Texas. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan ruled in favor of Texas and business groups, finding that the Department of Labor had overstepped its bounds by prioritizing employee wages over job duties in determining eligibility for overtime pay.

Currently, nearly all hourly workers in the United States qualify for overtime pay after working 40 hours per week. However, many salaried workers are exempt from this regulation unless their earnings fall below a specific threshold. The now-blocked Labor Department rule was set to increase this salary cap significantly, marking the largest such adjustment in decades.

Originally, the rule required that salaried workers making less than $43,888 per year in certain executive, administrative, and professional roles be eligible for overtime starting July 1, with plans to raise this amount to $58,656 next year. The Department of Labor estimated that the rule would extend overtime eligibility to an additional 4 million lower-paid salaried workers in its first year and provide entitlements to another 292,900 higher-compensated workers through separate threshold adjustments.

With the blocking of this rule, the threshold will revert to $35,568, a figure set in 2019 under the Trump administration. An immediate response from the Labor Department was not available, and it remains uncertain whether the department will appeal Judge Jordan's decision. Notably, Judge Jordan was appointed by former President Donald Trump.

Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su had commented in April, during the rule's finalization, that the administration was committed to raising labor standards, condemning the practice of lower-paid salaried workers receiving no additional pay for the same work done by their hourly counterparts.

Various trade groups challenged the new rule, claiming it would negatively impact businesses by increasing costs, potentially leading to job cuts or reduced worker hours. David French, executive vice president of government relations for the National Retail Federation, asserted that the changes would have constrained retailers' ability to offer tailored benefits to lower-level exempt employees.

This development echoes a similar scenario from 2016, when an Obama-era initiative to expand overtime pay was similarly struck down in court after facing resistance from business leaders and Republican officials. The Trump administration later enacted a smaller raise, the first since 2004. Advocates for increased overtime pay argue that such measures are insufficient and that many salaried workers are still being shortchanged, but upcoming potential changes under a new administration are expected to fall short of these advocates' demands.