No, Project 2025 doesn’t propose eliminating overtime pay

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, VERIFY has received dozens of questions from our readers about Project 2025, an initiative launched in 2022 by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. Project 2025 aims to provide a roadmap for the next conservative president to transform the government in favor of conservative social policies and ideals.

In our overview of Project 2025, we VERIFIED that the initiative’s authors recommend establishing policies that would restrict access to abortion nationwide, eliminate the Department of Education, and fire thousands of federal workers who may not be considered “conservative” enough.

Multiple social media posts claim that Project 2025 will make it harder for workers to get paid overtime or plans to eliminate overtime pay altogether.

“Under Project 2025, if you work more than 40 hours/week you won’t get paid overtime,” a viral Facebook post with over 43,000 shares claims.

“You like overtime pay? Too bad it’s gone,” a post on X says.

A VERIFY reader sent a text to our team asking if these claims are true.

THE QUESTION

Does Project 2025 propose eliminating overtime pay?

THE SOURCES

• The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank
• “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” published in 2023
• U.S. Department of Labor
• Fair Labor Standards Act
• Media Matters for America, a nonprofit left-leaning watchdog journalism organization
• Jonathan Berry, J.D., co-author of Project 2025’s labor chapter and managing partner at Boyden Gray PLLC in Washington, D.C.

THE ANSWER

No, Project 2025 does not propose eliminating overtime pay.

WHAT WE FOUND

Project 2025 does not call for the elimination of overtime pay. Instead, it does advocate for overtime pay adjustments and calls on Congress to amend the federal overtime rules. 

Critics say the proposed recommendations could potentially roll back worker protections and make it easier for companies to avoid paying as much money in overtime wages.

Jonathan Berry, an attorney and the former principal deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Labor during the Trump administration, co-authored the labor chapter of the Heritage Foundation’s “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” the 922-page document commonly known as Project 2025.

In an email, Berry told VERIFY that “the labor chapter in the Mandate for Leadership does not advocate for the elimination of overtime pay.”

“When it comes to overtime pay, the document should be read holistically, as it advocates for adjustments designed to benefit both workers and employers alike,” Berry said.

Many of the online claims reference the “Overtime Pay Threshold” section on page 592 of Project 2025. Under this section, Project 2025 proposes making multiple adjustments to federal overtime pay rules, which are regulated under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Current federal overtime rules state that covered nonexempt employees must receive overtime pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular pay rates. There is no limit on the number of hours employees 16 years or older may work in any workweek. The FLSA also does not require overtime pay for work on weekends, holidays, or regular days of rest unless overtime is worked on these days.

Project 2025’s “Overtime Pay Threshold” section calls on Congress to allow employers and workers to calculate the overtime period over a longer number of weeks, instead of the typical one-week or 40-hour pay period.

“Specifically, employers and employees should be able to set a two- or four-week period over which to calculate overtime,” Berry wrote. “This would give workers greater flexibility to work more hours in one week and fewer hours in the next and would not require the employer to pay them more for that same total number of hours of work during the entire period.”

Some critics of this proposal, including Media Matters for America, suggest it could lead employers to overload busy workweeks with extra-long shifts and then take advantage of slow periods through under-scheduling, which they say could effectively eliminate overtime altogether.

For example, based on the current federal overtime rules, an hourly employee who worked 45 hours in week one and 35 hours in week two would get paid five hours of overtime in the first week, and only be paid for 35 hours in the second week.

However, under Project 2025’s recommendations, workers would not get overtime pay for the first week since the two-week total would be 80 hours.

In addition to these recommendations, Project 2025 also proposes amending the FLSA to require employers to pay workers overtime for hours worked on the Sabbath, which would automatically default to Sunday or another day of religious observance, like Friday sundown to Saturday sundown.

VERIFY reached out to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.