Retailers React to DOL Overtime Rule

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) issued the following statement from Jennifer Safavian, executive vice president for government affairs, in response the release of the overtime rule by the U.S. Department of Labor.  

“While a review of the current overtime threshold is justifiable, the dramatic changes imposed by the Department of Labor are not. The rule will certainly hurt those that it purports to help. Specifically, the rule will cause retail employees who are forced to be reclassified from salaried to hourly to lose much of the flexibility and upward mobility they value. 

“Further, the Department of Labor’s failure to adequately consider regional differences will ensure the most acute effects will be experienced by employees in rural areas and the automatic annual adjustment will create a perpetual state of disruption as businesses will be forced to reclassify employees every three years.  

“In the weeks and months ahead, RILA will focus on educating Congress on the impact the rule will have on workers and press for action to halt this harmful rule from taking effect.” 

RILA detailed its objections to the proposed rule in comments submitted to DOL last year. 

###

RILA is the trade association of the world’s largest and most innovative retail companies. RILA members include more than 200 retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers, which together account for more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales, millions of American jobs and more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers domestically and abroad.