Fran Sussner Rodgers writes in the NYT that a little-noticed change in the American workplace is about to occur when later this month the Department of Labor is expected to announce an adjustment to the Fair Labor Standards Act raising the salary threshold for overtime from $23,660 per year to at least double that theshold. In 1975, the last year the threshold was significantly raised, 60 percent of salaried workers fell within the requirement for overtime pay while today only 8 percent do, so the new requirement should be a welcome change for millions of American workers.
But the change also speaks to an issue that affects everyone, whether eligible for overtime or not - the clash between the finite amount of time employees actually have versus the desire of employers to treat time as an inexhaustible resource. Employees in the United States currently work more hours than workers in any of the world's 10 largest economies except Russia. When everything over 40 hours is free to the employer, the temptation to demand more is almost irresistible. But for most employees, the ones exempt from overtime rules, their managers have little incentive to look for ways to use their time more efficiently. "We are a tired, stressed and overworked nation, which has many negative consequences for our personal health and the care of our children. As a nation, we work harder and longer than almost all of our competitors, and much of that work is uncompensated," writes Rodgers. "Time is our personal currency. We parcel it out, hour by hour, to meet the demands placed on us. We all pay a steep price, as individuals and as a nation, when we can't meet our most important obligations."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @12:46PM
> basically eliminated the concept of junior managers,
Did junior managers not exist before inflation made a joke of the limit?
> all this means is that they will be restricted to their official working time, because he doesn't have the margin to pay them more anyway.
Because he doesn't have the margin to pay them time-and-a-half for hours he was previously paying them nothing. If his margins are so thin that he can't afford to pay another employee straight time for those hours then his business was already in trouble.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tibman on Thursday June 25 2015, @02:03PM
I would agree just from the healthcare standpoint. I work for a small company (less than 50) and we have a negotiated healthcare plan. "Obamacare" isn't even mandatory until your company has over 50 full time employees. I am doubting his company is even that big (most are not). That employer just sounds like a crook.
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