The Department of Labor is appealing last week’s preliminary injunction that prevented its new overtime rule from taking effect on Thursday. The department filed a notice of appeal yesterday for the Fifth District Court of Appeals.

At the center of the rule is the “white collar” exemption to overtime where employees performing executive, administrative or professional duties are exempt from overtime if they are paid on a salaried basis and receive the minimum salary of $23,660.

That minimum would have gone up to $47,892 under the new rule, causing more workers to be eligible for overtime.

The rule’s impact would be felt on the staffing industry. For example, some staffing firms weighed moving internal workers such as recruiters from salary to hourly and limiting overtime to meet the new rule. The rule had also been a topic at the Healthcare Staffing Summit last month.