Business owners may not have bigger fish to fry this election season, but there are others frying away that could have more immediate and dramatic effects on operations, among them: The looming overtime rule.

The rule, emanating from the U.S. Department of Labor, would shift thousands of workers from exempt to nonexempt status, forcing companies to make hard choices about staffing and compensation.

The proposed rule goes into effect at the end of the year. It has been overwhelmingly unpopular not only with businesses but with state officials and even dissidents within the Obama administration. However, despite 21 lawsuits filed by states and more by businesses aimed at derailing it, the rule remains on track for its 2017 implementation.

One very vocal opponent who perhaps may be able to influence the rule’s future is U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C. She is poised to assume the chairmanship of the House Education and Workforce Committee in the new year, and has vowed to do all she can to kill the rule.

However, as reported by the Society for Human Resource Management, the timing for Foxx is all wrong. She would assume the chairmanship just after the rule becomes law, making her options to attack it limited. As attorney Paul DeCamp of Reston, Virgina, said in the SHRM article, by the time she has an official position of influence, companies will have already made most or all of the workforce revisions required by the law. He added he found it unlikely Congress would be inclined to take up the cudgel against the new regs at that point.

But Foxx could be the catalyst for a fight. That she finds it odious is clear. She told SHRM the pending regulations "are another egregious example of the burdensome regulations that continue to hamper our economic recovery and hold American families back. Once again, unelected Washington bureaucrats have harmed the employees they claim to support by removing flexibility in the workplace, which could lead to cutting the pay or limiting the hours of workers."

So what could she do? She can keep up a steady drumbeat of opposition, bring before Congress evidence of the regulations’ flaws, and support the state suits challenging it — in other words, lobby hard so her Congressional colleagues can’t look the other way.

“As chair, she can keep the issue in the public domain,” attorney Michael Lotito of the Workplace Policy Institute told SHRM.

Foxx has also promised to combat other Labor Department policies, rules and National Labor Relations Board rulings that blossomed during the Obama era. And while much of her work may involve uphill battles, she seems ready for the challenge.

"If elected chairman, I will employ strict oversight of the DOL and work to limit the overreach of this agency and the National Labor Relations Board," Foxx says.

Instant Insights /

Incoming Education and Workforce Committee chair vows to fight overtime rule

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