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posted by martyb on Monday November 28 2016, @12:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the longer-hours-for-same-pay dept.

Common Dreams reports

[On November 22, U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant of Texas] halted an Obama administration rule that would have expanded overtime pay for millions of workers, a decision that was slammed by employees' rights advocates.

The U.S. Department of Labor rule, which was set to go into effect on December 1, would have made overtime pay available to full-time salaried employees making up to $47,476 a year. It was expected to touch every nearly every sector [1] in the U.S. economy. The threshold for overtime pay was previously set at $23,660, and had been updated once in 40 years--meaning any full-time employees who earned more than $23,600 were not eligible for time-and-a-half when they worked more than 40 hours a week.

[...] Workers' rights advocates reacted with dismay and outrage. David Levine, CEO and co-founder of the American Sustainable Business Council, mourned the ruling, saying the opponents were "operating from short-sighted, out-moded thinking".

"The employees who will be hurt the most and the economies that will suffer the most are in the American heartland, where wages are already low", Levine said. "When employers pay a fair wage, they benefit from more productive, loyal, and motivated employees. That's good for a business' bottom line and for growing the middle class that our nation's economy depends on. High road businesses understand that better compensation helps build a better work culture."

[...] Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project (NELP), noted [2] that the rule would have impacted up to 12.5 million workers, citing research by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

"The business trade associations and Republican-led states that filed the litigation in Texas opposing the rules have won today, but will not ultimately prevail in their attempt to take away a long-overdue pay raise for America's workers", she said. "Unfortunately, for the time being, workers will continue to work longer hours for less pay thanks to this obstructionist litigation."

[1][2] Content is behind scripts.


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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @08:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @08:22PM (#434191)

    Sounds like you're describing the "broken window fallacy."

    Liberals don't think, they feel. That's how we get so much irrationality.

    The market will pay you what your labor is worth. If you don't like where you're working, you're free to go somewhere else. If no one else will pay you what you're making now, your labor isn't worth what you think it is.

    Everyone knows that price fixing doesn't work.

    Employers will just adjust such that no overtime is paid. My wife was a victim of this legislation. She's hourly now, but not allowed to have any overtime. Internal customer needs help after hours? tough. Now she has to punch out for everything (Dr's appt, etc.), whereas, when she was salaried, she could come and go as necessary.

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  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday November 28 2016, @09:28PM

    by MostCynical (2589) on Monday November 28 2016, @09:28PM (#434233) Journal

    Do you really mean "price fixing", or do you mean "minumum wage", or do you mean something else?

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex