Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has signed into law legislation that blocks the
federal government's proposed changes to rules governing overtime, the Chicago
Sun-Times reports. The law allows workers who were eligible for overtime on
March 30 to keep that eligibility.
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The newspaper notes that Illinois is the first state to block the overtime changes.
Debate has centered on how many workers would lose overtime eligibility under
new rules proposed by the Bush administration. The Bush administration estimates
that 644,000 white-collar workers would lose overtime, but Democrats argue that
as many as 8 million workers would lose overtime. In Illinois, the proponents
of the law signed by Blagojevich say it would preserve the overtime of about
375,000 workers, the newspaper reports.
The federal government was expected to publish final overtime regulations by
the end of March, but publication is delayed while the Office of Management
and Budget reviews the new rules.
The rules are expected to raise the salary threshold for overtime to $425 and
change the overtime exemption standards for the executive, administrative, professional,
computer, and outside sales categories.
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