(Washington, D.C.) – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) expressed its support today for the Department of Labor’s new overtime regulations.  The new rules are aimed at reducing government bureaucracy and eliminating wasteful lawsuits.

“These new rules will guarantee overtime protection to workers who make $23,660 per year or less, some 6.7 million workers,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Not only does this benefit hard-working families across America by providing them with a higher paycheck for their increased workloads, but it also helps them save money as taxpayers.  Updating and clarifying the rule will reduce violations of ‘white collar’ overtime pay exemptions and likely save business $252 million per year.”

The Department of Labor sought to update 50-year old regulations that define exemptions from the Federal Labor Standards Act for white-collar employees.  Before the changes, workers who earned less than $8,060 were the only ones guaranteed overtime pay.  With the new rules, 1.3 million salaried white collar workers who were not entitled to overtime pay will see their pay increase.  In addition, 5.4 million salaried workers who were unsure if their efforts entitled them to overtime pay will now see their overtime rights guaranteed.  The Department of Labor considered almost 80,000 comments and spent nine months writing the final regulations.

“For years, businesses have asked for clarification of overtime pay regulations.  The old regulations were obsolete, caused uncertainty and invited lawsuits,” Schatz continued.  “For years, trial lawyers and labor unions successfully exploited the confusion for their benefit.  The number of lawsuits doubled in the 1990s and class actions have tripled since 1997, resulting in wasteful litigation.  These new regulations will reverse this pattern.

“Even with this good news, CCAGW expects special interests who are more interested in their own welfare than actually helping their constituencies will do everything they can to reverse the new regulations.  Already efforts are underway by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to prevent these regulations from going forward,” Schatz concluded.  “CCAGW strongly urges Congress to stand fast and support the Department of Labor’s efforts to bring overtime rules into the 21^st Century.”

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.