While Congressional Democrats have been constant with their support for America’s increasingly irrelevant labor unions, the new overtime rule promulgated out of the Obama Administration’s Department of Labor has proven to be financially unfeasible even for their Congressional staff budgets, according to Bloomberg BNA:

That leaves House Democrats in a unique bind. They largely favor the DOL’s proposal to more than double the minimum annual salary for overtime exemption to $50,440 from $23,660. But they understand that providing overtime pay for their employees—many of whom earn below $50,440 and are prone to work well over 40 hours some weeks—may not be financially feasible. …

[T]here are Democrats who support the DOL’s rulemaking but don’t know if they can afford to compensate staffers accordingly because of steep cuts in their office budgets.

“We don’t have a set-hour kind of situation here; some kids work 12, 14, 16 hours a day, weekends, and I feel terrible that I cannot afford to give raises to the staff,” Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 11.

With $320,000 slashed from members’ representational allowances (MRAs) over the past four years, “I don’t see how we could pay overtime” for the “17 or 18 people that each of us is allowed to have—that’s problematic for me,” added Hastings, a senior member of the House Rules Committee.

Indeed, as a result of this new rule, Democrat Members of Congress are now faced the same grim reality that many American small businesses confront:

This change will result in many workers being reclassified from salaried to hourly wages and thus eligible to earn overtime compensation, Senior Vice President Randel Johnson said. That would raise labor costs for small business owners, nonprofits and state and local governments. Businesses could be forced to reduce their operations and services to avoid a significant budget hit, Johnson said.

Not only is the Department’s of Labor’s Overtime rule financially unfeasible, the rule will degrade the quality of service that is available to the member and constituents:

What chiefs of staff fear, Fitch said, is the prospect of being forced to send staff assistants and legislative correspondents home at 5 p.m. because the office can’t incur additional expenses. In doing so, they’d be “degrading the quality of services” available to both the member and constituents, he said. If Congressional Democrats are already struggling to comply with the Department of Labor’s radical overtime rule, imagine the dire consequences that this rule could have on the millions of Americans whose jobs are supported by small business.

If Congressional Democrats are already struggling to comply with the Department of Labor’s radical overtime rule, imagine the dire consequences that this rule could have on the millions of Americans whose jobs are supported by small business.