BETHESDA, Md. — The Auto Care Association expressed disappointment today that the Department of Labor’s (DOL) final rulemaking governing overtime pay regulation ignored the studies, meetings and thousands of comments received from a broad swath of American businesses, expressing serious objections to the proposed changes. The final rule increases the salary threshold for overtime eligibility to $47,476, which is a 100 percent increase, and it has an effective date of Dec. 1, 2016.

In comments previously submitted, the association stated that, “This unprecedented, industry-wide reclassification of a significant portion of our workforce will be severely disruptive to current levels of employee wages and benefits, and the very real probability of the consequent change (negative) in employee morale will affect every aspect of our day-to-day business functions.”

“Members fortunate enough to be aware of the coming changes are already beginning the reclassification of many employees as well as revisiting overall wages and benefits,” said Bill Hanvey, president and CEO, Auto Care Association. “One association member has already advised us that he ‘has to inform 10 percent of his employees that they are now hourly, not salaried’ and he doesn’t know how to deliver that message. Even more troubling is the large number of companies in the auto care industry who remain unaware of the change in regulation and its consequences.”

“No one is arguing that the rules didn’t need updating, but the massive change, all at once, will be financially disruptive and possibly devastating for many businesses. The association and the coalition for the Partnership to Protect Workplace Opportunity are asking members of Congress to support the Protecting Workplace Advancement and Opportunity Act,” said Hanvey.