George W. Bush's well-heeled CEO friends have been clamoring for some time for help in finding ways to control and reduce costs and increase profitability. It now appears that the Bush Administration is planning on moving ahead with a plan that will reduce the number of people who are eligible for overtime pay. Of course, the fact that the working men and women of this country will bear most of the burden seems not to matter to Bush and his minions.
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is moving ahead with plans to revamp the nation's overtime laws this month, rejecting opposition from labor groups that dispute White House estimates on how many workers will lose the right to time-and-a-half pay for putting in more than 40 hours a week.
How the administration deals with the issue will not only affect the household incomes of many Americans and the bottom lines of employers but could emerge as an issue in a presidential campaign already dominated by the question of whether administration trade policies are hurting workers.
Labor Secretary Elaine Chao recently rejected a call by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to delay implementation of the rules so a study could be done to determine whether the administration or its critics are right. Such a study would put off action until after the November presidential and congressional elections.
Chao said the new rules are designed to bring clarity to outdated regulations that are so difficult to interpret that issues of worker pay often are left to expensive and time-consuming litigation. Moreover, she said at a Senate hearing that the new rules provide guaranteed overtime to a group of workers who need it the most — those making up to $22,100 a year, an increase on the current ceiling of $8,060.
To use myself as an example, I am exempt, meaning that my employer can essentially require me to work as much as it sees fit while having the certainty of knowning that my cost (salary) will be static. If you have to pay your employees overtime, this changes everything, and it becomes much more difficult to control your labor costs.
How many business people wouldn't jump at the opportunity to have fixed labor costs? To be able to know to within a farthing of what you'll be paying out every two weeks in paychecks would be a wet dream for most corporate masters and their accountants. There is just one problem with this scenario, however. The people who will be getting screwed by these new rules will be the ones who can least afford it.
Instead of exempting workers who "customarily and regularly exercise discretionary and independent judgment," the new definition is broader to incorporate people who "hold a position of responsibility." The definition of professionals exempted is expanded to include not only workers with advanced degrees or postgraduate study, but those with special work experience or training. Salaried employees who make $65,000 or more would be automatically exempt from overtime pay.
The administration says 644,000 workers nationwide might lose rights to collect overtime for working more than 40 hours a week. The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank whose statistics are often cited by unions, puts the number at 8 million.
You can bet that if businesses discover that they can now classify employees as exempt and deny them overtime, they will be doing exactly that. Does it not seem odd that the Bush Administration, who have painted themselves as champions of working men and women, are now demonstrating their true colors?
If George W. Bush is a champion of the working man, then I am the Queen of England (warning: I look horribly sickly and washed out in purple). It will be a sad day when George W. Bush forces working people to take one up the *** (metaphorically speaking, of course), and then those same people turn around and vote for him. If that happens, you might say that the very working people I am defending deserve their fate. Let's hope it won't come to that.
Of course, there is something to be said for getting exactly the quality of leadership that you deserve.
