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Equipment dealers impacted by Obama labor law rule

President Obama’s recent changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act are intended to increase worker pay and overtime pay, but the changes might have a negative impact on businesses, including ag equipment dealers.

Natalie Higgins, a labor law attorney for the Equipment Dealers Association, says the rule changes will affect many businesses.

Higgins says the administrative rules affecting white-collar executive, professional and administrative employee overtime exemptions will change how businesses operate. She says, “It’s going to make their cost of doing business greater.  It’s going force them to restructure their staffing in some cases.  It’s going to force others to downsize.  Like I said, the most important thing is it’s limiting our flexibility to staff our dealerships, and that’s our main concern.”

The rule will force businesses to review their policy and pay procedures before the December first deadline.

Higgins tells Brownfield every business will be affected differently. “With smaller dealerships, I anticipate that there may not be layoffs because they don’t have enough employees to lay off so-to-speak, but it will cause them to fully restructure their pay but with our larger dealerships that have a more corporate structure, it’s a very real concern that there could be significant layoffs.”

Higgins says if cutbacks come, their farmer customers might find it more difficult to get parts and services for machinery, especially if something breaks down on a weekend during planting and harvesting.