In an August 3rd op-ed, Sweeney, president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, Caldeira president and CEO of the International Franchise Association and Lugar, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association wrote about the impact the new rule will have on the industry:

We share the department’s goal of setting a standard salary level for full-time salaried employees that “adequately distinguishes between employees who may meet the duties requirements of the EAP [employee assistance program] exemption and those who likely do not, without necessitating a return to the more detailed long duties test.” However, under the proposed revisions, the threshold for requiring employers to pay overtime would more than double from the current $23,660, or $455 a week, to $50,440, or $970 a week. Increasing the threshold by such a drastic amount will cause labor costs to dramatically increase. This will have a severe, negative impact on many of the employees the regulation was specifically intended to help while also driving a wedge between hourly and salaried employees.