Try with:
.over-element {
pointer-events: none;
}
in your CSS, this is the easy solution, but sadly it has bad browser support http://caniuse.com/#search=pointer-events .
But I remember coming across a fix for ie, I think it was this one: http://www.vinylfox.com/forwarding-mouse-events-through-layers/
I'm afraid making that work consistently across browser is trickier than you originally thought