President Trump’s pick for
Secretary of Labor, CKE Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder, withdrew his
nomination in February 15. The withdrawal comes after controversies over his employing
an undocumented immigrant to clean his home and abuse allegations from his
ex-wife. Now, Alexander Acosta became President Trump's new pick to lead
the Labor Department.
Trump’s original choice for labor
secretary, fast-food executive Andy Puzder, was a vocal opponent of
Obama’s reforms. It’s unclear where Trump’s new nominee, Alexander Acosta,
stands on the issue.
Millions of Americans pay or workload
may have changed for good due to the overtime rules. But the reforms are now
tied up in court and face a dim future under Trump, whose administration
is rapidly peeling back regulations on corporations. The new,
business-friendly White House could decline to defend the reforms on appeal ―
making it more likely they will die a slow death ― or choose to replace them
with something more palatable for employers and less generous to workers.
If the reforms don’t survive in
some fashion, a status quo will prevail in which hardly any Americans who work
on salary qualify for overtime pay. It wasn’t always so. In 1975, an estimated
62 percent of salaried workers were covered by overtime law. But that figure
has fallen to around 8 percent, as employers take advantage of regulations
that haven’t been updated over time. As a result, overtime pay has become a
foreign concept to an entire generation of salaried workers.
Under the Fair Labor Standards
Act, hourly workers are entitled to time-and-a-half pay for any hours
beyond 40 in a week, but the picture is more complicated for employees on
salary. Whether or not they get overtime depends on how much they earn and what
their job duties are. When workers are exempted from the law, companies can
force them to work 60, 70, or even 80 hours a week without paying
anything extra for it.
If the Trump administration does
not defend Obama’s reforms, worker groups could end up defending them instead.
If so, an appeals court could find Obama’s reform lawful, paving the way for it
to be implemented. If not, states could still end up fashioning their own rules
that take the place of federal ones, much like the minimum wage: California and
New York already have their own regulations on overtime.
If Trump’s team put forward a
rule with a lower salary threshold, which could placate business groups enough
to prevent a legal challenge, while still bringing some workers new
protections. Let’s wait and see whether 2017 will witness a minimum wage
increase and federal labor law poster update
in Trump presidency. And Trump may feel sufficient
political pressure to replace Obama’s rule if he allows it to wither. After
all, he promised higher wages for working-class Americans throughout his
campaign.
