A U.S. district judge in Sherman ruled in favor of multiple states and state officials Thursday over the U.S. Department of Labor’s controversial overtime rule. The ruling prevents the DOL from implementing new standards to the federal overtime rule. The new rule would have increased the salary threshold for full-time, salaried employees exempt from overtime pay from $455 per week (or $23,660 annually) to $913 per week (or $47,476 annually). Employees classified as executive, administrative or professional who earn less than $47,476 annually would have qualified for overtime pay under the new rule, according to the DOL. More than 20 states filed a lawsuit in September 2016 against the DOL, arguing that the rule was unconstitutional and would cause irreparable harm to the states. The states filed an emergency motion for the preliminary injunction to delay the rule’s implementation. A representative from the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce said last fall that the organization did not have a position on the new Fair Labor Standards Act rules. However, other area chambers of commerce, including those in Cedar Park and Round Rock, joined more than 50 Texas business organizations last September in filing a lawsuit against the DOL. U.S. District Court Judge Amos Mazzant placed a preliminary injunction on the rule Dec. 1, 2016, which is when the rule was scheduled to take effect. Some Austin business owners, however, had already made adjustments in anticipation of the rule's implementation. Mazzant signed the final judgement in favor of the plaintiffs Thursday. “I applaud the court’s ruling, which represents a victory for the American worker and prevents an unlawful revision of the Fair Labor Standards Act,” Marc Rylander, communications director for the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, said in a news release. “The overtime rule limits workplace flexibility without a corresponding increase in pay and forces employers to cut their workers’ hours.”