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A federal judge appointed by then-President Donald Trump blocked a new rule Friday that would have expanded access to overtime pay for an estimated 4 million salaried U.S. workers. That means designated employees who earn more than about $35,550 will no longer be eligible for extra pay when they work more than 40 hours per week.

According to the Associated Press:

U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan sided with the state of Texas and a group of business organizations that argued the Labor Department exceeded its authority when it finalized a rule earlier this year to significantly expand overtime pay for salaried workers—ruling that the department could not prioritize employee wages over job duties when determining eligibility.

Under the federal law, nearly all hourly workers in the U.S. are entitled to overtime pay after 40 hours a week. But many salaried workers are exempt from that requirement—unless they earn below a certain level.

The Labor Department’s now-scuttled rule would have marked the biggest increase to that cap in decades. Employers were required pay overtime to salaried workers who make less than $43,888 a year in certain executive, administrative, and professional roles as of July 1—and that was set to rise to $58,656 next year.


“Judge Jordan … found that job duties—not salary—are what makes someone an EAP [executive, administrative, or professional] employee, and that by elevating salary over duties to such a meaningful degree, the DOL [Department of Labor] exceeded its Congressionally delegated authority to ‘define’ and ‘delimit’ the EAP exemptions,” explained The National Law Review. “As Judge Jordan pointed out, the January 2025 increase would have represented a 65 percent increase from the salary level in effect before the effective date of the 2024 rule, the effects of which would have been ‘staggering.’”

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