Obama Will Supposedly Change Rules On Executive Overtime Pay

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

(NY Times) President Obama this week will seek to force American businesses to pay more overtime to millions of workers, the latest move by his administration to confront corporations that have had soaring profits even as wages have stagnated.

On Thursday, the president will direct the Labor Department to revamp its regulations to require overtime pay for several million additional fast-food managers, loan officers, computer technicians and others whom many businesses currently classify as “executive or professional” employees to avoid paying them overtime, according to White House officials briefed on the announcement.

Right now, those making $455 a week or less as a salaried employee are eligible for overtime pay, per federal regulation. In some states, that salary rate is higher. Try to take Obama out of the equation for a moment

Conservatives criticized Mr. Obama’s impending action. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” said Daniel Mitchell, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute, who warned that employers might cut pay or use fewer workers. “If they push through something to make a certain class of workers more expensive, something will happen to adjust.”

That could most certainly happen: the question is, to what degree? Let’s flip it around, though: many companies designate positions as salaried in order to avoid paying OT. George Bush raised the rate to $455 a week in 2004. That’s a salary of $23,600. Not quite what one would think of as a salaried employee. And some of these employees may be working well over 40 hours a week.

White House officials said those rules were sometimes abused by employers in an attempt to avoid paying overtime. The new rules could require that employees perform a minimum percentage of “executive” work before they can be exempted from qualifying for overtime pay.

“Under current rules, it literally means that you can spend 95 percent of the time sweeping floors and stocking shelves, and if you’re responsible for supervising people 5 percent of the time, you can then be considered executive and be exempt,” said Ross Eisenbrey, a vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research organization in Washington.

Again, take Obama out of the equation: is this fair to workers? There certainly must be a line between what is fair, what is treating employees with respect, what is not taking advantage of them. I think we can all agree that companies shouldn’t have carte blanche to abuse the employer-employee relationship. One big question revolves around how much of an increase will the new rules require?

Let’s put Obama back in

Mr. Obama’s decision to use his executive authority to change the nation’s overtime rules is likely to be seen as a challenge to Republicans in Congress, who have already blocked most of the president’s economic agenda and have said they intend to fight his proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour from $7.25. (snip)

The proposed new regulations would increase the number of people who qualify for overtime and continue Mr. Obama’s fight against what he says is a crisis of economic inequality in the country. Changes to the regulations will be subject to public comment before final approval by the Labor Department, and it is possible that strong opposition could cause Mr. Obama to scale back his proposal. (snip)

The overtime action by Mr. Obama is part of a broader election-year effort by the White House to try to convince voters that Democrats are looking out for the middle class. White House officials hope the focus on lifting workers’ pay will translate into support for Democratic congressional candidates this fall.

And there’s the real reason for this proposed change: making Obama and Democrats look good to voters with a mid-term fast approaching. This is an attempt to further change the subject away from the horrible law known as Obamacare. Strictly politics.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Save $10 on purchases of $49.99 & up on our Fruit Bouquets at 1800flowers.com. Promo Code: FRUIT49
If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds.

Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed

3 Responses to “Obama Will Supposedly Change Rules On Executive Overtime Pay”

  1. gitarcarver says:

    Maybe Obama and his cronies should look into the laws the companies that were hired for ObamaCare first.

    San Francisco, CA: A call center unpaid wages class action lawsuit has been filed by employees at an Obamacare call center in Idaho, alleging the contractor, Maximus Inc, miscategorised empoyees as exempt for overtime, and is in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

    Specifically, the putative wage and hour class action lawsuit alleges that most employees worked between 50 and 60 hours a week beginning in the summer of 2013, without receiving compensation for the overtime, and that they were made to clock off before they had actually finished their shifts. Additionally, the lawsuit alleges the employees were unable to take mandatory breaks including lunch.

  2. Jeffery says:

    So, your ability to reason tells you that raising the wage limit is the right thing to do, but you accuse Obama of playing politics for wanting to do what your reason tells you is right?? Huh?

    You’re upset because of what may or may not motivate Obama to do what your reason tells you is the right thing to do? This statement in the article: “The overtime action by Mr. Obama is part of a broader election-year effort by the White House to try to convince voters that Democrats are looking out for the middle class” sounds suspiciously like an opinion than news or analysis. We all understand that the Democrats DO look out for the middle class as compared to Republicans.

    Do you not understand how politics works? Reasonably like-minded voters elect you to do things they agree need to be done.

  3. Butt_Melting_Gumballs says:

    I care not a whit for those people who others see as being railroaded. If a person themselves are working at a job that they feel is abusing them, then that worker themself has a right to seek redress………… or LEAVE!!!

    Who is making these workers take these jobs that don’t pay them proper wages?!?! If you work 60/hrs per week.. demand to be paid that.

    I’m salaried, but my pay and bennies make up for me working 60 hrs a week at times.

    I chose to take this position and I can choose to not work it in the future. Feds need to butt out.

Pirate's Cove