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The Trump administration should drop defense of a Biden-era Department of Labor rule that would expand eligibility for overtime pay, a coalition including the NAM said this week. 
 
What’s going on: “[W]e urge you to abandon the administration’s defense in federal courts of the Department of Labor’s 2024 final rule altering the overtime regulations  
under the Fair Labor Standards Act,” the coalition, led by the Partnership to Protect Workplace Opportunity and made up of 90 business groups including the NAM, told Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday. 

• The 2024 rule increased the salary threshold for determining overtime pay eligibility from $35,500 to $56,656.  
• In February, the Trump administration filed a notice of appeal in Lubbock, Texas, federal court of a December 2024 U.S. District Court ruling striking down the overtime rule—but the administration “is expected to revisit and possibly scrap the 2024 rule,” Reuters (subscription) reports.   

Problematic changes: The 2024 rule made three changes to the FLSA’s overtime regulations that would have a negative impact on manufacturers, the groups said: increasing the minimum salary threshold for overtime pay, using a new methodology for reaching the overtime figures and establishing automatic, triennial threshold updates. 

What it would do: If implemented, the rule “would result in the reclassification  
of large numbers of employees from salaried to hourly. This reclassification would leave those workers with fewer opportunities for flexible work arrangements, career development opportunities and access to critical benefits and employers with additional administrative costs and staffing challenges.”  
 
What should be done: The Trump administration should abandon efforts to defend the rule, the coalition said.