"President Barack Obama attempted to raise the cut-off in 2016, aiming for $47,476, but that was ultimately blocked by a federal judge over states' concerns tha

"President Barack Obama attempted to raise the cut-off in 2016, aiming for $47,476, but that was ultimately blocked by a federal judge over states' concerns that the new threshold would increase their costs." That's not why Obama's attempt to raise the cut-off was blocked. The federal law governing this exempts anyone employed in a "bona fide executive, administrative or professsional capacity" and only gives the administrative branch the power to set rules like minimum pay if they're aimed at ensuring exempt employees do actually fall into those categories. The main stated benefit of raising the cut-off, according to the official documents from the Obama administration explaining it, was that it would force employers to pay overtime to people who genuinely were conducting this kind of exempt work. Actually forcing employers to pay overtime to people who weren't carrying out exempt work was described as a more minor secondary benefit. That was a plain and straightforward violation of the letter of the law. Most of the US press just avoided talking about this part of the court rulings at all, presumably for partisan reasons.