Hardy holds hearing on Obama overtime proposal

By Scott Lucas

Friday, Oct. 9, 2015 | 1:37 p.m.

As the House Republican caucus plunged into chaos over the surprise withdrawal of Rep. Kevin McCarthy in the race to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner, one of Nevada’s representatives found time to look into chaos of another kind: A new regulation by the Department of Labor that Rep. Cresent Hardy said would force businesses to shoulder unfair costs in overtime compensation.

The House Small Business Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations, which Hardy chairs, held a hearing on Thursday on the new rule.

“Small-business owners and their employees should be afraid of what is about to be forced on them by the Department of Labor,” Hardy said. “Had my business been required to make this change, my employees could have lost their health insurance and other benefits.”

In July, the Obama administration proposed extended overtime wage regulations to nearly 5 million white-collar workers. Currently, employers are required to pay overtime to workers who make less than $23,660 per year.

The proposal would raise that cap to employees making less than $50,440. According to the Department of Labor, the change would impact 211,000 small businesses nationally. The threshold was last updated in 2004.

“A one-size-fits-all approach from Washington rarely works for our diverse nation,” said Hardy. “Nothing prevents a business owner from providing benefits reflective of long hours, but we need to preserve their freedom to make these decisions based on their own financial ability.” Hardy said that it would be more appropriate for any decision on overtime to be handled by Congress, rather than the administration.

The new rule could go into effect as soon as January 2016. For more on the proposed regulations, click here.