WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to say Tuesday whether President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris support Donald Trump’s call to end federal income taxes on overtime pay — despite previously backing his plan to end taxes on tips.
Jean-Pierre said it wasn’t possible to address the potential policy because the Republican ex-president pitched the idea as part of his campaign to reclaim the White House — even though Biden, Harris and Jean-Pierre got behind Trump’s “no tax on tips” proposal without acknowledging its source.
“The question that you’re asking me — supporting overtime pay, this is something, a proposal in the 2024 election so I’m going to be really, really mindful,” Jean-Pierre said in response to a question from Fox Business journalist Edward Lawrence at her regular briefing.
Trump has floated other populist policies that Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and Biden, the retiring incumbent, have yet to endorse — including eliminating income taxes on Social Security benefits and making IVF fertility treatments free for would-be parents.
The ideas have caused heartburn for some fiscal conservatives concerned about the growing national debt, though Trump has argued that reducing taxes would boost US productivity and tax revenue and that more childbearing would be beneficial for US society.
Jean-Pierre argued Tuesday that Trump’s administration actually was detrimental to workers by reducing eligibility for overtime — citing a 2019 regulation that required companies to pay salaried workers overtime if their annual base pay was beneath $35,568.
A pending rule from the final year of the Obama-Biden administration had set the figure higher at $47,476.
“We also can’t forget what the last administration did,” Jean-Pierre argued.
“They eliminated overtime protections for millions of workers. The Biden-Harris administration restored overtime protection to 1 million workers and next year we will extend protections to another 3 million workers. That means our admin is ensuring higher paychecks and more time with families.”
In addition to the federal overtime rules, most Americans live in states that have their own OT mandates.
About half of states require companies to pay workers 1.5 times their normal hourly wage when they work more than 40 hours per week — with that policy in force in states including New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina. In California, workers in some instances are entitled to double-time when exceeding the standard workweek.