Democratic senators are calling on the Trump administration to follow through on a plan to expand overtime pay to millions of workers now that the reform’s future is unclear.
The rule put in place by former President Joe Biden would make vastly more workers eligible for time-and-a-half pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. But a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump during his first presidency blocked it from going into effect last year, and the Trump administration has chosen not to defend the rule in court on appeal, at least for now.
On Wednesday, a dozen senators led by Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Trump’s labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and urged her not to “roll back” or “gut” the reforms, warning it would be a betrayal of Trump’s campaign promise to boost the working class.
“If President Trump genuinely believes that ‘the people who work overtime are among the hardest-working citizens in our country,’ he should protect or even expand on this rule,” the senators wrote in their letter, quoting Trump’s own words from the trail last year.
Many modestly paid workers, such as retail store managers, work extremely long hours but don’t get any additional pay beyond their base salary, even if they log 70 hours in a week. The Biden administration sought to change that by significantly raising what’s known as the overtime “salary threshold” — the level below which most salaried workers are guaranteed overtime pay under the law.
The threshold was at just $35,568 due to policy set by the first Trump administration. Biden’s rule would hike it to $58,656 and then index it for inflation, thereby extending overtime protections to an estimated 4 million workers. As a result, employers would have to either pay those workers extra or cap their hours at 40 and give them more free time.
With the rule tied up in court, Trump’s Justice Department filed a motion in April to halt an appeal aimed at keeping it alive. The administration wrote that it “intends to reconsider the rule,” signaling they may water it down or kill it entirely, leaving the current, low salary threshold in place.
“This refusal to defend the overtime rule in court flies in the face of President Trump’s campaign promises to help workers,” Warren and her colleagues wrote. “It is particularly cruel as President Trump and Congressional Republicans work to force through their ’big beautiful bill,’ which would be the biggest wealth transfer in a single bill from working-class Americans to billionaires this country has ever seen.”
The situation is in many ways a replay of Trump’s first term. His predecessor, Barack Obama, had tried to aggressively expand overtime pay only to be stymied by a conservative judge. After winning the White House in 2016, Trump abandoned Obama’s overtime rule and put in place a much milder reform that raised the threshold but benefited far fewer workers. That’s the framework that remains in place today.
Trump’s main overtime proposal these days is to eliminate taxes on it. That campaign pledge has become part of congressional Republicans’ reconciliation package known as the “big, beautiful bill,” which is being negotiated between the House and Senate. The Senate version would set a maximum $25,000 tax deduction for overtime pay, with the benefit phasing out for high earners starting at $150,000 of income.
If that proposal becomes law, employees who work long hours could have higher take-home pay because of the deduction. But it’s the overtime salary threshold that helps determine who’s eligible for time-and-a-half pay in the first place. With a lower threshold, fewer workers would benefit from the tax cut Trump is touting.
Democrats said in their letter that abandoning the Biden reform would “rob” workers of extra pay and time with their families.
“Repealing this rule would be a huge blow to working families across the country and is another way in which Republicans continue to run on working-class values but govern according to billionaires’ wishes,” they wrote.