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NRF backs another idea for diluting overtime rules

July 15, 2016

Legislation that would slow the enactment of some of the provisions of the overtime rules set to take effect in December received loud and instantaneous applause from the National Retail Federation.

The Overtime Reform and Enhancement Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday by Oregon Democrat Kurt Schrader. The representative's proposal would slowly phase in the current regulations, which are set to take effect this fall. The NRF said in a news release that the Act would curb some of the "substantial damage" that the NRF believes will happen as a result of the new rules. The NRF believes that  they'll force employers to cut employee hours and/or base pay to allow for added payroll costs mandated by the new rules. 

"The Labor Department's changes to the overtime threshold are too much, too fast for both employers and employees to adjust to without serious negative consequences for both," said David French, NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations. "The Schrader bill addresses the 'too fast' part of the problem and we support it."

When those labor regulations take effect Dec.1, employers will have to pay overtime to most workers paid less than $47,476 a year if they put in more 40 hours a week. Currently, that threshold is set at $23,660 annually. The new regulations also call for automatic increases to that salary maximum every three years. 

Schrader's bill, if passed into law, would drop that threshold to lower than $36,000 this year, then phase in the new $47,476 threshold over the next three years.
Previously, the NRF has said it wanted Congress to pass a Republican-sponsored measure, called Protecting Workplace Advancement and Opportunity Act. If passed, that act would halt implementation of the aforementioned regulations until the U.S. Department of Labor completes an analysis of the regulations' impact. That bill would also block automatic increases to the wage threshold.