As a second Trump administration approaches, we’re running out of time to confirm as many federal judges as possible to provide a check on his presidential power and curb his stated policy priorities.
There are 40 federal judicial vacancies and 16 nominations before the Senate right now—as our civil rights hang in the balance, take action now!
(Washington, D.C.) The Trump Administration’s Department of Labor (DOL) has just proposed a rule to dramatically weaken the final overtime rule issued by the Obama Administration in 2016. The 2016 rule updated the salary threshold under which employees are guaranteed to be eligible for overtime pay, raising it from just $23,660 annually—below the poverty threshold for a family of four—to $47,476 (which would have reached approximately $51,000 this year under the rule’s provision for automatic adjustments to keep pace with rising wages). A baseless lawsuit has delayed implementation of the updated overtime rule—and DOL now seeks to reduce the overtime threshold to $35,308. This proposed reduction will exclude more than half of the 12.5 million workers who would have gotten new or strengthened overtime protections under the 2016 rule, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The following is a statement by Emily Martin, National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) Vice President for Education & Workplace Justice:
“Despite their rhetoric, the Trump Administration does not stand on the side of working people. Once again, the Administration shows blatant disregard for workers and for sound policy making. The 2016 overtime rule—supported by rigorous economic analysis and by the vast majority of the nearly 300,000 public comments received in response to it—would have given overtime protections to well over 12 million workers across the country, most of whom are women. But this new rule will deprive more than half of these workers of the pay they deserve. It’s time for the Department of Labor to prioritize the needs of working women and men over corporate interests.”
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For immediate release: March 8, 2019
Contact: Inés Rénique ([email protected])
