WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Tim Scott says he probably would not be where he is today if the Labor Department’s new overtime rules had been in place when he was working at a men’s clothing store as a teenager. Scott told retailers at the National Retail Federation’s Retail Advocates Summit in Washington that expanded overtime requirements could have kept him from becoming a supervisor or being promoted to manager.

The National Retail Federation is urging Congress to block a U.S. Labor Department’s rule change that would make millions of American’s eligible for overtime pay, by changing the threshold at which a worker is can be considered a salaried employee, and thus no longer entitled to overtime. Workers with annual salaries of less than $47,476 will be eligible for overtime pay when the rule goes into effect on December 1. Currently only those making less than $23,660 a year are eligible for overtime pay.

“These rules are a career killer,” said NRF senior vice preisdent of government relations David French. “With the stroke of a pen, the Labor Department is demoting millions of workers. In the retail sector alone, hundreds of thousands of career professionals will lose their status as salaried employees and find themselves reclassified as hourly workers, depriving them of the workplace flexibility and other benefits they so highly value. And the one-size-fits-all approach means businesses trying to make ends meet in small towns across America are now expected to pay the same salaries as those in New York City.”