The Trump administration has begun a process to undo President Obama’s overtime pay rule and deny working people a pay raise.
The Obama overtime pay rule would make 4.9 million more workers eligible for overtime pay, and make it tougher to deny overtime pay to another 7.6 million workers who already are eligible.
For years, working people had pushed President Obama to restore overtime protections that were eroded by inflation in recent decades.
The way overtime works is that salaried workers who make less than $23,660 are guaranteed overtime if they work more than 40 hours in a week. The Obama overtime pay rule would raise this threshold to $47,476, with future increases built in.
This threshold still is too low. Back in 1975, President Ford set the overtime salary threshold at the equivalent of about $58,000 in today’s dollars.
But the Trump administration's Labor Department has said the Obama threshold is too generous, and now has taken the first step to revise the rule, with an eye toward denying working people pay raises.
This is yet another example of Trump’s record not matching his rhetoric when it comes to supporting regular working people.
The Obama overtime pay rule should go forward, and the overtime salary threshold should be kept at $47,476 with future increases built in, so millions of Americans finally can get paid for every hour on the job.