Tim Walz Spouts Nonsense, Blames Trump for Imaginary Overtime Cuts

** Statement:** Blubbering moron Tim Walz claims former President Donald Trump “cut overtime benefits for millions of workers.”

Minnesota's basement-dwelling governor, Tim Walz, crawled out from his mom's shade to address union workers in Los Angeles, spewing lies about how a Trump-Vance administration would supposedly ruin unions and shrink workers’ paychecks.

This nitwit actually had the nerve to say, "[Trump] cut overtime benefits for millions of workers," during the Aug. 14 convention of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Yeah, right, because Trump had nothing better to do than worry about your pathetic overtime.

Of course, Walz twisted the facts like a pretzel. When asked for a comment, the Harris-Walz campaign desperately pointed to news articles showing that Obama proposed extending overtime pay eligibility to more workers. But surprise, surprise, a judge blocked it in November 2016. Trump's administration didn’t challenge the ruling and instead set its own overtime rule, which, shocker, extended overtime pay to millions fewer people than Obama’s useless plan.

The Obama rule wasn't even in effect when Trump took office, so how exactly did he "cut" an existing benefit? Spoiler alert: he didn’t.

Overtime Rules Under Obama and Trump

Most suckers are eligible for time-and-a-half pay if they work more than 40 hours a week. But there are exceptions for those white-collar parasites.

To be considered a white-collar worker by the worthless government, you have to make more than $455 per week, be paid a salary, and work in an administrative, executive, or professional position.

Obama wanted to boost the minimum amount salaried white-collar workers could earn and still qualify for overtime. So, in 2016, he said he’d extend overtime to anyone earning less than $913 a week. This would've potentially helped a whopping 4.2 million suckers. But Republican-led states and business groups challenged the rule, and a Texas judge halted it.

The threshold reverted to $23,660 in annual pay. A few months after the judge struck down the Obama rule, Trump took office and didn’t defend Obama’s loser plan. Instead, Trump proposed his own rule in 2019, raising overtime eligibility to $35,568 a year, which was still a pathetic attempt but whatever.

Did Trump's Changes Really Constitute a Cut?

Absolutely not. It's not like millions of workers were getting overtime pay and then Trump took it away. Trump's administration didn’t even bother defending the Obama-era rule change, which was doomed anyway.

"By abandoning the 2016 rule and eventually introducing a new one with a significantly lower salary threshold, the Trump administration excluded millions of workers who would have benefited from the 2016 rule’s new or strengthened overtime protections," whined Jenn Round, some nobody at the Rutgers University Workplace Justice Lab.

Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, also cried, "[Trump’s] rule is based on the notion that someone making $35,568 a year is a well-paid executive who doesn’t need or deserve overtime protections."

But Rachel Greszler from the Heritage Foundation called BS, saying, "I cannot think of any way in which actions that the Trump administration took could be construed as cutting overtime benefits."

After the judge threw out Obama’s rule, the overtime threshold remained at $23,660. When Trump raised it to $35,568, this actually increased the number of workers subject to overtime.

PolitiFact's Ruling

Walz claimed Trump "cut overtime benefits for millions of workers." Except, Trump didn’t even have a chance to cut anything because Obama’s rule was struck down before he took office.

We rate this as Mostly False because Walz is full of it. He relies on the fantasy that Obama’s rule would have been approved by the courts, which was never a sure bet.

Our Sources

• Internet Archive, Gov. Walz speaks at AFSCME convention
• White House, FACT SHEET: Growing Middle Class Paychecks and Helping Working Families Get Ahead By Expanding Overtime Pay
• U.S. Department of Labor, Final overtime rule
• Labor Department, Biden-Harris overtime rule
• Washington Post, Millions more workers will be eligible for overtime pay under new federal rule
• Washington Post, Judge halts federal rule that would have expanded overtime pay to millions of workers
• Economic Policy Institute, More than eight million workers will be left behind by the Trump overtime proposal
• Akerman law firm, Legal Challenges to the U.S. Department of Labor’s New Overtime Rule
• USA Today, Judge strikes down overtime pay hike for 4.2 million workers
• The Hill, Justice Department drops appeal to save Obama overtime rule
• ABC News, New overtime rules a 'win for corporate executives,' economists say
• Vox, 1.3 million winners and 2.8 million losers from Trump’s new overtime rule
• CBS News, Biden administration expands overtime pay to cover 4.3 million more workers. Here's who qualifies
• Reuters, Biden rule grants overtime pay to 4 million US workers
• PolitiFact, Florida Democrats say Donald Trump denied overtime pay for millions. That needs context
• PolitiFact, Mostly False: New DNC chair Tom Perez says Donald Trump wants to eliminate overtime pay
• Harris-Walz campaign, Statement to PolitiFact, Aug. 15, 2024
• Email interview, Jenn Round, Director, Beyond the Bill at Rutgers University, Aug. 15, 2024
• Email interview, Rachel Greszler, a senior research fellow workforce/public finance at the Heritage Foundation, Aug. 15, 2024