Trump says he would push to end taxes on overtime pay

(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would push for legislation that would end taxes on overtime pay if he wins a second term.

“Today, I’m also announcing that as part of our additional tax cuts, we will end all taxes on overtime. You know what that means? Think of that,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Tucson, Arizona.

“That gives people more of an incentive to work. It gives the companies a lot, it’s a lot easier to get the people,” Trump said in his first rally since his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this week.

His pitch came in battleground Arizona, where Harris’ ascendance on the ticket has put the state — which President Joe Biden won by just 10,000 votes — back in play for Democrats this year.

The former president previously announced he would push to end taxes on tips and proposed that seniors should not pay taxes on Social Security benefits.

“The people who work overtime are among the hardest working citizens in our country and for too long, no one in Washington has been looking out for them,” Trump said. “Those are the people, they really work. They’re police officers, nurses, factory workers, construction workers, truck drivers and machine operators.”

The Harris campaign quickly countered that Trump, as president, denied overtime pay for millions of workers and warned that if he wins a second term, fewer workers would receive overtime.

“Trump tried to rip away overtime pay for nearly 10 million workers and devastated families,” said Harris-Walz 2024 spokesperson Joseph Costello in a statement. “A second term will be even worse: Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda would allow employers to stop paying many workers overtime.”

Trump’s overtime rule

Harris’ claim references a 2016 effort by then-President Barack Obama to overhaul federal overtime rules and raise the salary threshold to about $47,500 a year, or $913 a week. That would have roughly doubled the level that was in place at the time. But business groups and 21 states sued, and later that year, a federal judge in Texas issued an injunction

The Trump administration said in 2017 that it would not defend the rule in appellate court. Two years later, the Trump administration lifted the threshold to roughly $35,600 a year, or $684 per week, making an estimated 1.2 million more people eligible – nearly 3 million fewer workers than would have been eligible under Obama’s rule.

If Trump wins a second term, he would once again have to decide whether to defend his predecessor’s overtime rule. The Biden administration in April finalized a rule that would raise the threshold to the equivalent of an annual salary of roughly $43,900, or $844 a week, starting July 1, and then to about $58,700, or $1,128 a week, on January 1, 2025. Biden’s rule is also facing several legal challenges, which are winding their way through the courts.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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