8 million to lose OT pay?
(Interesting how it is OK for Bush to attack the middle
class, and take money from them, while cutting taxes
the most for his rich friends...what hypocrisy...t)
Bush administration proposal would dramatically alter rules for paying overtime, study says.
June 26, 2003: 9:53 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - More than eight million white-collar workers in the United States will be ineligible for overtime pay under a plan proposed recently by the Bush administration, a research group said Thursday.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a Washington think tank, in a study published on its Web site, examined a March proposal by the Labor Department to change the criteria for paying overtime and found it would cost 2.5 million salaried employees and 5.5 million hourly employees their right to overtime pay -- and also could cause them to work longer hours.
"The millions of employees who will see their pay reduced will, in all likelihood, see their hours of work increase at the same time," wrote the authors of the study, Ross Eisenbrey and Jared Bernstein. "Once employers are not required to pay for overtime work, they will schedule more of it."
In fact, the study said, the total effect of the proposed rule could be far greater -- the EPI studied its impact on only 78 of the 257 "white collar" occupations identified by the Labor Department.
Under current regulations, established by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, about 79 percent of all workers are guaranteed the right to overtime pay, or time-and-a-half for every hour worked above 40 hours in a week.
Currently, there are three tests for whether or not an employee is ineligible for overtime -- the employee's level of pay, whether or not the employee is a salaried or hourly worker, and whether or not the employee performs certain job duties.
The Bush administration's proposal would raise the cut-off pay level for overtime -- meaning about 1.3 million more lower-wage workers will get overtime, according to the study.
But the EPI study said that benefit is more than erased by the rest of the administration's plan, which would change the job descriptions for millions of workers, moving them into "administrative," "professional" or "executive" jobs, which are not eligible for overtime. It also would make it virtually impossible for any workers making more than $65,000 a year to get overtime.
The Bush administration has said the new rules are clearer and will lower the chance of employee lawsuits. The EPI study said the proposal could have the opposite effect.
"The proposed rule is rife with ambiguity and new terms ... that will spawn new litigation," the study said. |
