Kansas joins lawsuit over expansion of overtime

Kansas has filed a federal lawsuit over a new nationwide overtime rule.

The Sunflower State is now one of 21 states across the country challenging a change that would allow employees who make less than $47,476 a year to be entitled to overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours a week. The previous threshold was $23,660, according to the White House.

In the lawsuit, the states allege that the new rule “exceeds constitutional authorization.”

“The cascade of unauthorized rules and regulations continuing to pour out of Washington in the final months of this presidential administration is truly breathtaking,” Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in a statement. “In this case, the unauthorized federal mandate affects not only private businesses but state taxpayers, who will bear the added cost imposed on state government. Our legal objection is that any power to impose this mandate on states rests with Congress, which has not delegated that power to the bureaucrats at the U.S. Department of Labor.”

The change will impact roughly 40,000 private employees in Kansas, according to the announcement from the attorney general’s office.

The rule is slated to go into effect Dec. 1. The change will extend overtime protections to 4.2 million workers, according to the White House.

This story was originally published September 20, 2016 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Kansas joins lawsuit over expansion of overtime."