Christian schools ‘encouraged’ by rulings against Biden administration’s overtime rule
A Biden administration measure that would have subjected more than 4 million workers nationwide to new overtime requirements appears to be losing steam following losses in two U.S. District courts…

A Biden administration measure that would have subjected more than 4 million workers nationwide to new overtime requirements appears to be losing steam following losses in two U.S. District courts in Texas over the last two months.
The verdicts are “encouraging” for the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), the nation’s largest Christian schools’ group, said Wen Fa, an attorney for The Beacon Center of Tennessee, which is representing ACSI in its own case against the rule in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Fa told The Lion Monday that the Department of Labor (DOL) has vacated the rule nationwide, meaning it’s not going to be enforced, although the D.C. court could still rule on the matter.
But multiple losses to date and a change in the White House to President Trump means there’s a chance the government will withdraw its appeal entirely and let the matter rest.
At issue were changes that would have forced businesses to pay overtime to employees based primarily on their salaries and not on their job duties. The change would also have raised the amount a salaried worker can earn and receive mandated overtime pay, from $35,000 to $58,000, starting this month.
The changes would have potentially impacted many Christian school teachers and employees. And the salary threshold would have increased automatically every three years.
Without the rule, Christians schools do not have to pay overtime to salaried workers who earn more than $35,000.
Fa said it’s likely the Department of Justice, which is representing the Labor Department, could make its intentions known by late March, when it must give an update on another labor-related case involving independent contractors. Beacon is representing two freelance journalists in that case, Fa said, which seeks to block changes in how independent contractors are handled.
Fa said previously that the DOL had exceeded its power, since Congress did not give it authority to use salary to determine whether an employee was “exempt” or not from overtime.
“The DOL’s new salary increase all but eliminates the focus on the duties of the employee in violation of the clear text of the (Fair Labor Standards Act),” the Beacon Center said in a release, and that automatic increases of the salary level every three years goes against previous labor department practice of giving notice and soliciting objections before making any changes.
“In 2016, the Department of Labor tried something very similar … and that was held to be unlawful by a district court and was ultimately repealed with the change in presidential administration,” Fa told The Lion previously. “All the problems that the court mentioned in that case, I think there are similar problems in this case.”