Punching In: Democrats Want Another Swing at Overtime Expansion

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers

Fighting for Overtime | House to Vote on Faster Labor Talks

Parker Purifoy: Lawmakers are trying to restore a Biden-era policy expanding eligibility for overtime pay, after the Labor Department moved to dismantle it.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) unveiled a bill last week to raise the wage bar for overtime eligibility from $35,568 to at least $89,000 by 2030. The lawmakers say it would make 29 million more workers eligible for time-and-a-half pay.

“At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when over 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, it is beyond unacceptable that President Trump is denying overtime pay to millions of workers who desperately need it to keep up with the outrageously high cost of living,” Sanders said.

Under the Restoring Overtime Pay Act, the salary threshold would instantly rise to $45,000 and then go up by $10,000 every year until 2030, when it would be set at the 55th percentile of full-time salaried workers.

According to a fact sheet from the lawmakers, that figure is currently $89,440 but could reach $98,000 by 2030.

The DOL on May 14 formalized the rescission of a 2024 regulation that would have raised the salary threshold to $58,656 by the beginning of 2025 and would have affected over four million workers. That rule was struck down in late 2024 by two separate Texas federal judges.

With the dismissal of the appeals of those court rulings and rescission of the Biden-era regulation, the salary threshold returns to where it was set in 2019 by the first Trump administration.

“Americans are working more for less,” Takano said. “Expanding the overtime threshold for salaried employees is the best way to ensure that families can survive the cost-of-living crisis caused by Donald Trump.”

While it is unlikely to gain traction in Congress with both chambers run by the GOP, the bill puts more labor issues in play before the midterm elections.

The legislation is co-sponsored by 26 Democratic senators—including Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.)—along with 22 House members.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

Al Drago/Bloomberg

George Weykamp: A bill to accelerate labor contract talks is getting its day in the House after a discharge petition received the critical signatures needed to force a vote on the measure.

Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), the main sponsor of the legislation, said last week that he had gathered the 218 signatures needed for a House vote on the Faster Labor Contracts Act. Norcross said as of last week 211 Democrats and seven Republicans signed the petition.

The union-backed bill would impose strict timelines for negotiating a first contract. If passed, the bill would allow for parties to go to mediation after 90 days of bargaining and to binding arbitration after another 30 days.

Currently it takes a newly unionized bargaining unit about 461 days on average to ratify a first contract, according to Bloomberg Law data compiled from 553 first contracts from 2005 to 2025.

The success of this discharge petition underscores growing support for organized labor from some rank-and-file Republicans. In December, over a dozen House Republicans joined Democrats on a bill that would reverse a Trump administration order that sought to strip collective bargaining rights for nearly two-thirds of the federal workforce.

The bill “has the potential to hold Corporate America accountable for endlessly dragging out negotiations and denying workers the first union contracts they deserve,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “The Teamsters Union thanks every Democrat and Republican who signed the discharge petition and made the choice to stand with workers.”

The bill has faced some steep opposition from business groups and conservative organizations who claim the timelines are unrealistic and over generalizes the nuances of company-specific labor disputes.

“Arbitrators often lack on-the-ground knowledge of workplace realities, local labor markets, and evolving business conditions, yet their decisions would bind workers and employers for years,” Brent Gardner, chief government affairs officer for American for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group, said in a letter last month to Congressional leaders.

“Once imposed, these contracts cannot be rejected by workers, even if the terms undermine wages, scheduling flexibility, workplace culture,” or productive management relationships.

We’re punching out. Daily Labor Report subscribers please check in for updates during the week, and feel free to reach out to us.