Wed:Where Did Vivek Rama-Slimy Get His Money

Over Time, this Overtime Rule Will Make a Big Difference

The Biden administration unveiled a new rule Wednesday to extend overtime pay to an additional 3.6 million salaried white-collar workers in the United States.

While most hourly workers are entitled to overtime pay, non-hourly professional workers — executive, managerial, administrative and professional employees — are exempt from overtime pay unless they make less than $35,568 a year.

The Labor Department’s proposed rule would guarantee overtime pay for far more non-hourly workers, raising the threshold for professional workers to benefit those earning less than $55,000 a year.

“Today, the Biden-Harris administration is proposing a rule that would help restore workers’ economic security by giving millions more salaried workers the right to overtime protections,” acting labor secretary Julie Su said in a statement.

The rule would boost wages for many workers in low-wage but salaried occupations — including in administration, hospitality, manufacturing and retail — making them eligible for time-and-a-half pay for working more than 40 hours in a week. In another major change, the rule would include automatic increases to the salary level for overtime eligibility every three years.

DeathSentence Hates Free Money

President Joe Biden is offering one of his White House challengers hundreds of millions of dollars to spend in his state. The only problem: that opponent is refusing to take it.

The Inflation Reduction Act makes Florida eligible for some $350 million in energy efficiency incentives. But Gov. Ron DeSantis has rejected the funding and other measures, creating the most prominent blockade by any Republican governor against Biden’s economic agenda.

And there’s nothing the White House can do besides hope he changes his mind.

The rejection has the potential to create significant ripple effects, politically and economically, in the coming months. As the president and his Cabinet members go around the country boasting about the IRA, rebates for energy-efficient purchases — the majority of the funding that DeSantis has refused — have played a particularly prominent role. That’s not just because they underpin the administration’s climate agenda but because they provide direct rebates to consumers.

The IRA allows governors the authority to block a handful of its programs, and with it, the power to blunt the political impact of legislation that some Democrats believe will be a key factor in the 2024 election.

Through a veto of his legislature’s request, DeSantis turned down $5 million to set up the rebate program for consumers who buy energy efficient appliances and retrofit their homes. It also effectively blocked $341 million to fund the program because the state would need the administrative money to apply for the program, according to people familiar with Florida's budget process. However, federal Energy Department rules allow a state to accept the second pot of money even if they don’t take the first. If Florida doesn’t apply for the full $346 million by next August, the law allows DOE to provide Florida’s money to other states.

The governor also rejected $3 million in IRA funds to help the state fight pollution and rebuffed the Solar for All program which would have paid to help low-income people access solar panels. DeSantis also vetoed $24 million in grants from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

So far, DeSantis is the only governor to signal that he will block the energy rebates. But on the smaller sums of money, he has company. He’s one of four to turn down pollution mitigation funding from the IRA. The others are the Republican governors of South Dakota and Iowa, and Kentucky’s governor, who is a Democrat. The states that haven’t applied for the solar fund are all led by Republicans. They include Florida, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota and South Dakota.