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Court blocks expansion of overtime... Inside the Holiday Inn in Breinigsville, Lehigh County, on Wednesday was a pre-Thanksgiving party and the biggest fundraiser of the year for Life Path. "We have very thin margins. We run at 98 percent of our budget every year," said Annette Kaiser, the nonprofit's communications and development director. With Life Path having 850 employees and serving seven counties, Kaiser said extra overtime costs would be a killer. "It's a big restructuring of the organization," she said. Life Path and other businesses are, at least, temporarily off the looming financial hook after a federal judge in Texas suspended the rule raising the employee salary limit for mandatory overtime pay from a little more than $23,000 to just over $47,000 per year. "This doubling of the salary to get an exempt status would have been excruciatingly painful," said Frank Facchiano of the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. Facchiano said in preparation for the change, which was set for December 1, the chamber boosted pay for some employees to meet the threshold, while switching others from salary to hourly. "Especially in a nonprofit and small-business world, people are on a salary the business can afford." he said. There are those employees, however, who make just above the threshold but are forced to work much longer than 40 hours per week. "If people are only paid a little wage at an improper rate and the company abuses the overtime laws that is completely unfair," said attorney Buddy Lesavoy. Lesavoy said employees need to be better informed of their rights and existing laws need to be better enforced. "In my mind, this could have been phased in over time. You don't do almost doubling overnight," he said. Back at the fundraiser, Kaiser said she is hoping money raised ends up helping clients and not costs for overtime. Read the original article here.