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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.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday November 29 2016, @05:28AM
Like fervently posting about these kind of issues on the internet whenever they come up?
I'm not spending much time worrying about it, but whenever the opportunity comes along to voice an opinion, I care enough about this class of problem to voice my opinion.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 29 2016, @11:55AM
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday November 29 2016, @12:45PM
Why?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 29 2016, @03:23PM
Further, we want poor people employed. Walmart does that. Even if we suppose these social programs act as a subsidy for Walmart, we still have that the subsidy encourages Walmart to do stuff we want them to do.