Since Donald Trump became president, the Department of Labor (DOL) has been expected to oppose the Obama administration rule that doubles the minimum salary someone must earn to be exempt from overtime. So it was a surprise when the DOL filed a notice Monday to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to appeal the ruling that threw out the regulation this summer.
The rule has never been in force. A federal court judge issued a preliminary injunction in 2016, just before the rule was to take effect, and followed that up with a permanent injunction on Aug. 31
The DOL is appealing the injunction over its right to establish the salary threshold none-the-less. No one expects the Trump administration to back the Obama-era rule, but it could increase the threshold by a lesser amount.
“(DOL’s) appeal seems tied to the department’s plan to move forward with a lower threshold, possibly in the $32,000 to $35,000 range,” according to the news website HR Dive. The current threshold is $455 per week ($23,660 annually), while the Obama-era rule would have increased it to $913 per week ($47,476 annually).
