Overtime Rule May Be Issued Faster Under New DOL Leadership

Employers can expect to see change more quickly at the Department of Labor (DOL), including issuance of a final overtime rule perhaps as soon as by the end of the year, now that the department is under new leadership new Acting Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella. Pizzella is completely committed to ensuring the rule is finalized by year's end, said Michael Lotito, an attorney with Littler in San Francisco, "knowing that once 2020 begins, all focus turns to the election and any new rules take on heightened politization." Former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned July 12 after he came under fire for having secured a plea deal for convicted pedophile and newly indicted Jeffrey Epstein. Since the new indictments, "All the news about the DOL has been about Epstein and nothing about what it's doing," said Tammy McCutchen, an attorney with Littler in Washington, D.C., and former administrator for the DOL's Wage and Hour Division. Acosta's resignation means the Epstein controversy won't "distract from everything good the DOL has accomplished."