Dive Brief:

• The Associated General Contractors of America has submitted comments opposing the proposed overtime regulation changes to the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.
• The proposed new rule would raise the salary threshold for executive, administrative and professional exemptions from $455 per week, or $23,660 per year, to $970 per week, or $50,440 per year. For highly compensated workers, the threshold would be raised to $122,148 per year, up from $100,000.
• The AGC rejects the White House's claim that the proposed changes would result in higher pay for some workers. A recent survey by the association found "74% of AGC-surveyed construction contractors responded that they would likely reclassify some or all of the impacted exempt workers to a non-exempt hourly status at their current salaries."

Dive Insight:

The AGC joined a group of associations and businesses across industries — called the Partnership to Protect Workplace Opportunity — to send the joint letter, which asks the DOL to lower the threshold and take into account regional economic disparities; permit bonuses to count towards the new threshold level; leave the highly compensated employee threshold level unchanged; as well as several other requests that can be found here.

In addition to the coalition's letter, the AGC also submitted an independent letter to the DOL detailing the proposal's impact specifically on the construction industry.

Economists from the National Association of Home Builders have said the proposed new rules would affect at least 116,000 supervisors in the construction sector nationwide. The three main U.S. builder and contractor associations — the AGC, NAHB and Associated Builders and Contractors — all joined the coalition opposing the plan.