WASHINGTON — The National Restaurant Association has praised a preliminary injunction that delays the implementation of the US Dept. of Labor’s new overtime rule.
The rule, published on May 23 and scheduled to go into effect Dec. 1, raised the minimum salary level for exempt employees to $47,476 annually from $23,660 annually, making more US workers eligible for overtime pay. The preliminary injunction was issued Nov. 22 in the US District Court, Eastern District of Texas. The preliminary injunction may be found here.
The Washington-based NRA is cautiously optimistic about the preliminary injunction, said Cicely Simpson, executive vice president of government affairs and policy at the NRA.
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| Cicely Simpson, executive vice-president of government affairs and policy at the NRA. |
“This was a critical step in what we hope will be a positive outcome in the case against the Department of Labor,” she said.
The NRA pointed out the injunction does not delay the overtime rule indefinitely and that a final decision by the court could result in the rule taking effect.
“The National Restaurant Association is continuing to urge Congress to pass legislation that would modify or delay the rule’s Dec. 1 implementation date,” the NRA said. “This rule is too much, too soon, and it will have a far-reaching negative impact on the country’s second largest private sector industry and the millions of workers who work in our nation’s more than 1 million restaurants.”
