GIVING SUPPORT — U.S. Sen. Jim Justice threw his support Tuesday to a bill to provide tax breaks for overtime payments. -- Photo Courtesy/U.S. Senate

CHARLESTON — As members of Congress work towards a “big beautiful” budget reconciliation package, U.S. Sen. Jim Justice joined a group of colleagues Tuesday pushing to include tax breaks for overtime in the final package.

Justice joined U.S. Sens. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., for a press conference Tuesday morning in support of legislation led by Marshall calling for tax breaks for overtime pay, an issue also championed by President Donald Trump.

“We all know it goes back to Biblical days, doesn’t it? We’re expected to work…but hard work, oftentimes, is not really rewarded,” said Justice, R-W.Va. “We really appreciate you working extra, but at the end of the day, we’re going to take a bunch more from you. How does that make any sense?

“I salute Senator Marshall and all these great senators that are on board, and I am very, very proud to be right with them,” Justice continued. “Absolutely, we need to reward our folks that work hard. We need them.”

Under Marshall’s proposal, called the Overtime Wages Tax Relief Act, the tax deduction for overtime pay would be capped at $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for married couples. The deduction would then phase out by $50 for every $1,000 in income once an individual reaches an adjusted gross income of $100,000 or $200,000 for married couples. According to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal, the $20,000 deduction for married couples could save them $4,400 in taxes at a 22% marginal tax rate.

“When I was on the campaign trail, I heard people saying, ‘we want a senator who’s going to fight for us.’ And the people that were constantly reaching out to me were hardworking men and women saying, ‘we need to want someone fighting for us; someone fighting for Main Street, not just Wall Street,'” Marshall said. “That’s why I’m so proud to introduce this bill…It gets us a tax deduction for overtime wages, but it sets some guardrails around it.”

During the 2024 campaign for president, Trump proposed eliminating taxes on overtime pay. At a rally in Arizona last September covered by the New York Times, Trump said eliminating taxes on overtime pay would provide a much-needed boost to the middle class. Trump has also supported ending taxes on tips and Social Security income.

“The people who work overtime are among the hardest-working citizens in our country, and for too long, no one in Washington has been looking out for them,” Trump said. “Those are the people that really work. They’re police officers, nurses, factory workers, construction workers, truck drivers and machine operators.”

Trump and supporters of eliminating taxes on overtime pay believe it will provide an incentive for job growth and increased productivity, putting more people on the tax rolls and boosting the national economy.

“I’m a business guy. I’m not a politician. But I can tell you hands down at the end of the day you’ve got to go grow revenue,” Justice said. “How do you grow revenue? You’re going to have to have manufacturing and on and on and on. This is a way to grow revenue.”

“We’ve got a lot of folks in this country who are working their tails off,” Tuberville said. “It’s simple. If you work extra hours, you get extra pay. And a majority of that does not go to state and federal government. Government didn’t earn it. These people that are working earn it. And this is a common sense bill. It sends a message to the country that hard work matters.”

“Our tax policy should reward hard work and incentivize work,” Ricketts said. “It says to all those hard working people out there, when you put in those (overtime) hours…that we, the federal government, are going to recognize that and we’re going to give you that tax relief on those overtime wages.”

According to an April 10 article by the Tax Foundation, exempting overtime pay from tax collections could put anywhere between a $680 billion and $1.5 trillion hole in federal tax revenue over a 10-year period.

Marshall said he hopes that the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives – where a similar bill was introduced – consider including the Overtime Wages Tax Relief Act in the budget reconciliation package – which Trump calls the “big, beautiful bill” – being developed by the House before heading to the Senate.

“I do sure hope that this will be part of the one big, beautiful bill and help President Trump fulfill his campaign promise, and no taxes on overtime is absolutely one of his pillars,” Marshall said.