U.S. employers have spent months adjusting employee schedules, job duties and pay ahead of a new overtime rule set to take effect next week. But an order from a federal judge on Tuesday puts the fate of the rule into question.

The preliminary injunction essentially halts the implementation of a rule that would have required employers to start paying overtime to workers earning salaries of less than $47,476 a year, making millions more workers eligible for time-and-a-half pay.

Employers that made big changes in their workforce ahead of the rule's Dec. 1 effective date-either by raising managers' salaries to the newly set threshold for overtime pay or eliminating job categories like assistant manager-say they aren't yet planning to reverse course, while others are taking a wait-and-see approach.

The vast expansion of overtime eligibility has been one of President Barack Obama's signature achievements, intended to meaningfully raise incomes for people in front-line roles in retail, food service and beyond. But the business community objected to some aspects of the rule, and said the new salary threshold is too big a jump from the current $23,660, which was last updated in 2004.