An injunction issued just before Thanksgiving blocked a Department of Labor rule that would require overtime pay for millions of additional American workers. But some college employees will see raises nonetheless.
The final overtime rule, issued in May, would raise the salary threshold under which employees are eligible for overtime pay to $47,476 from $23,660. Congressional Budget Office report found that the injunction would mean $470 million in lost earnings in 2017 for those workers, including many employees of colleges and universities. The final rule included a teaching exemption but covered nonfaculty employees and postdoctoral fellows whose duties primarily focus on research. Many officials in college admissions, counseling centers and other parts of higher education also predicted that their units would have many employees newly eligible for overtime.
Many colleges and universities have indicated they plan to go ahead with salary changes that were already planned in response to the rule. Other institutions have said they will hit pause on salary changes following the injunction. And higher ed policy groups say they can’t provide an estimate of how many universities will move ahead or scrap plans made in response to the rule.
For those institutions moving ahead, however, the work they have already done was too significant to reverse course in light of the ruling.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/12/07/while-some-universities-hit-pause-many-move-ahead-implementation-overtime-rule