AUSTIN (WBAP/KLIF News) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit today on behalf of 21 states challenging the president’s 2014 directive to the secretary of labor to update the overtime regulations by limiting workers to 40 hours a week, pay time and a half for overtime or give workers more free time. The rule becomes effective Decembers 1st.
The twenty-one state coalition argues that without valid congressional authorization to do so, the president took illegal action in directing the U-S Department of Labor to simplify the overtime rule to more than double the salary threshold for a worker to be entitled to overtime. The overtime rule will force many state and local governments, as well as private businesses, to substantially increase their employment costs. Some governments and private businesses may even be forced to eliminate services or lay off employees.
The lawsuit contends that the new rule contains a ratcheting mechanism to automatically increase the salary level every three years without going through the rule-making process required by law. As a result, none of the groups affected by the changes to the rule—workers, employers, governments, and the public in general—will have the ability to provide their input before the federal government imposes these changes.
Attorney General Paxton said “Once again, President Obama is trying to unilaterally rewrite the law, And this time, it may lead to disastrous consequences for our economy. The numerous crippling federal regulations that the Obama administration has imposed on businesses in this country have been bad enough. But to pass a rule like this, all in service of a radical leftist political agenda, is inexcusable.”
Joining Texas and Nevada in the lawsuit are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin.
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