Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), released the following statement in response to the Trump Administration’s final overtime rule which- compared to the Obama Administration rule the Trump Administration abandoned-covers millions fewer workers and pays them less.
“While Democrats are fighting to give workers across the country a raise-President Trump is siding with the biggest corporations to do the exact opposite. This weak rule is a huge step back from the strong rule issued by the Obama Administration and denies millions of workers the overtime pay they deserve. Democrats are going to continue pushing to raise the minimum wage, ensure equal pay, and provide a serious update to our nation’s overtime rules to give millions of working families the economic security they’ve earned."
Earlier this year, Senator Murray cosponsored the Restoring Overtime Pay Act, which would increase the overtime salary level from $23,660 per year to roughly $51,000 per year, making roughly 4.6 million workers newly eligible for overtime pay-codifying the Obama Administration’s 2016 proposed rule.
The Trump Administration’s rule was issued shortly ahead of the HELP Committee’s mark-up hearing to vote on the nomination of Eugene Scalia to lead the Department of Labor. Scalia, an elite corporate lawyer, has spent his career fighting for corporations and against workers-and has defended corporate clients who have stolen employees’ wages or denied overtime pay.
