Providers are cheering a federal judge’s decision to grant a preliminary injunction in November against a rule that would have increased overtime pay eligibility.
The measure would have increased the salary threshold for overtime exemptions from $23,660 to $47,476 on Dec. 1, 2016. The rule marks the first update to overtime pay regulations in 12 years.
In granting the injunction, Judge Amos L. Mazzant III, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ruled that the new regulation would have caused “irreparable harm” to employers.
Those concerns have been echoed by providers who fear the rule would take a fiscal toll by requiring higher employee salaries or absorbed overtime costs.
Mazzant’s order prevented the rule from taking effect nationwide, pending further review.
The Department of Justice fired back in early December on behalf of the Department of Labor, filing a notice to appeal the injunction. The DOL then asked an appeals court for an expedited briefing; the motion would require the appeal to be briefed by February 7, 2017.
From the January 01, 2017 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
