TOPEKA ? Kansas is joining a challenge to a new federal overtime rule that would allow hundreds of government workers to receive overtime for working more than 40 hours a week.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the rule goes into effect in December and will affect about 550 state employees in the executive and judicial branches who aren’t currently entitled to overtime pay.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office announced Tuesday that Kansas would join 20 other states in fighting the U.S. Department of Labor mandate. The department estimates the rule also will affect about 36,000 private employees in Kansas.

Schmidt called the initiative part of a “cascade of unauthorized rules and regulations emerging from Washington in the final months of the Obama administration.