The Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce joined more than 50 Texas business organizations in taking legal action, announced Sept. 20, against a new Department of Labor overtime rule, which goes into effect Dec. 1.

The Texas and national business organizations, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and the Texas Association of Business, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court that alleges a new overtime rule will negatively impact businesses. The legal challenge alleges the federal government “went too far in the new overtime regulation.”

"The Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce saw this issue as 'mission critical,' as we are here to develop successful businesses and a thriving community,” said Barbara Thomason, Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce president. "We cannot do this within an environment where business costs will escalate to this degree.”


Thomason said the Department of Labor's new overtime rule will limit workplace flexibility, impede career and promotion opportunities and make it harder for businesses and nonprofits to expand to meet the needs of their customers and constituents. In addition, she said it will impose significant new economic costs.


"The new overtime rule will be particularly damaging to nonprofit organizations, including trade associations and chambers of commerce, that will be subject to the rule,” she said. "We could see businesses cut jobs or even struggle to stay in business."


The overtime pay rule changes the salary threshold for those who are exempt from receiving mandatory overtime pay. Currently, full-time, salaried workers making $23,660 or more per year do not qualify for overtime pay. Under the rule, that salary level changes to $47,476 or more per year in 2016.

The Department of Labor said about 4.6 million employees who are currently exempt from overtime pay would receive overtime protection under the rule, which the department argues would help those workers receive fair compensation for their work.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said in a statement Tuesday he expects the overtime rule to withstand legal scrutiny, dismissing the lawsuit as a partisan attempt to undermine the Obama administration's labor policies.

"Despite the sound legal and policy footing on which the rule is constructed, the same interests that have stood in the way of middle-class Americans getting paid when they work extra are continuing their obstructionist tactics," Perez said in the statement.

The overtime rule was intended to "restore the intent" of the Fair Labor Standards Act, Perez said. The effects of the law's overtime protections have eroded over time, he said.

But Randy Johnson, U.S. Chamber vice president of labor, immigration and employee benefits, said in a statement that the policy would result in significant new labor costs and cause "disruptions" in the labor market.

“The new overtime rule will result in salaried professional employees being converted to hourly wages, and it will reduce workplace flexibility, remote electronic access to work, and opportunities for career advancement," Johnson said.

The suit states that, by setting an excessively high salary threshold for determining who qualifies as “executive, administrative and professional employees,” the rule departs from the intent established by Congress in the Fair Labor Standards Act. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

The state of Texas also announced its own federal lawsuit against the pending overtime rule change, joining a coalition of 21 states. Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement the new law would “lead to disastrous consequences for our economy.”