The Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) hailed the recent action by the Eastern District Court of Texas striking down the Obama administration’s overtime rule. Under former President Barack Obama, the Labor Department last year doubled to $47,000, the minimum annual salary threshold a worker must make before he or she can be considered a “managerial” worker and therefore exempt from federal law requiring that they are paid time and a half after working 40 hours in a week. That is a significant increase from the current annual salary limit of $23,660. Business groups sued to overturn the rule, which they said raised the rate far too much. Many agree that the overtime rule was due for an update but the Obama administration had raised the minimum too high.
According to Paul T. Stalknecht, President and CEO of ACCA “Stopping the previous administration’s overtime rule was a top issue for ACCA members because it would have been a job killer. Besides the paper work and increased costs to run a business, our contractors were concerned for the future of their younger employees. Contractors would have hired fewer managerial positions, which would have signaled to younger staff that there was little opportunity for growth in their companies.”
The final decision was based on the argument that job responsibilities, and not just salary levels alone, should have been considered in setting the threshold.
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