Clintonista
01-21-2004, 12:50 PM
Not in a Union? Work overtime to pay the rent?
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IS IT WORTH IT?
Jan. 20, 2004, 11:28PM
Overtime change forges ahead
Labor secretary sets March 31 date at Capitol hearing
Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- Labor Secretary Elaine Chao on Tuesday rebuffed a public request by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to delay until September the department's business-backed plan to overhaul overtime rules.
"Enough time has been spent on delays and studies of all sorts," Chao told Specter at a hearing, adding that the department intends to promulgate the new regulations by March 31. Employers are spending $2 billion a year on "needless litigation" by workers seeking overtime pay, Chao said, diverting money from "job creation and better pay and benefits."
Specter, chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on labor, who called the hearing to provide what he called a full airing of the issue, asked Chao to remain in the hearing room while experts debated how many workers could lose overtime pay because of the regulations. Chao departed after testifying.
Specter, who has long cultivated the support of labor unions in Pennsylvania, faces a tough primary challenge from Rep. Pat Toomey, a well-financed Republican conservative.
In an interview after the hearing, Specter said he could do little to stop the Bush administration from implementing the changes, which he criticized at the hearing as endangering workers' overtime earnings and complicating already complex employment laws.
Specter said the Bush administration could push ahead with the revisions regardless of the outcome of the appropriations battle under way in the Senate. Efforts by Specter and others to strip money to enforce the overtime changes from the bill passed the House and Senate but were removed after strong White House lobbying.
Employer groups applauded Chao's decision to push ahead with the revisions.
"It's a very favorable sign for employers," employment lawyer Camille Olson said. "She refused to delay the implementation."
At the hearing, the Department of Labor and business groups said the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 needs to be updated to protect workers, as well as to reduce the number of employers bng sued by workers.
The department has emphasized the portions of the regulations that would benefit low-wage workers.
The new rules would make anyone earning less than $22,100 automatically eligible for overtime pay, up from $8,060 now, a figure last revised in 1975. But critics have noted that the rules would also exempt from mandatory overtime pay anyone "in a position of responsibility" or earning more than $65,000 a year.
"Without any hearings, with the stroke of a pen, the secretary of labor is about to adversely affect the lives of millions of Americans," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said.
Jared Bernstn, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, testified that his analysis indicates that nearly 8 million workers could lose overtime pay as a result of the changes.
He said the Labor Department's estimate that 644,000 workers could lose overtime was too narrow, because the department examined only the portion of the work force ? some 11 million workers ? that recved overtime in 2002, rather than the wider pool of 90 million workers eligible.
Ronald Bird, chief economist of the Employment Policy Foundation, called Bernstn's numbers "a wild guess" because the U.S. job market is too complex for precise analysis.
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YOUR SCREWED! THANKS W (BUT YOU GET TO KEEP YOUR GUNS & HATE GAYS)
IS IT WORTH IT?
Jan. 20, 2004, 11:28PM
Overtime change forges ahead
Labor secretary sets March 31 date at Capitol hearing
Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- Labor Secretary Elaine Chao on Tuesday rebuffed a public request by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to delay until September the department's business-backed plan to overhaul overtime rules.
"Enough time has been spent on delays and studies of all sorts," Chao told Specter at a hearing, adding that the department intends to promulgate the new regulations by March 31. Employers are spending $2 billion a year on "needless litigation" by workers seeking overtime pay, Chao said, diverting money from "job creation and better pay and benefits."
Specter, chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on labor, who called the hearing to provide what he called a full airing of the issue, asked Chao to remain in the hearing room while experts debated how many workers could lose overtime pay because of the regulations. Chao departed after testifying.
Specter, who has long cultivated the support of labor unions in Pennsylvania, faces a tough primary challenge from Rep. Pat Toomey, a well-financed Republican conservative.
In an interview after the hearing, Specter said he could do little to stop the Bush administration from implementing the changes, which he criticized at the hearing as endangering workers' overtime earnings and complicating already complex employment laws.
Specter said the Bush administration could push ahead with the revisions regardless of the outcome of the appropriations battle under way in the Senate. Efforts by Specter and others to strip money to enforce the overtime changes from the bill passed the House and Senate but were removed after strong White House lobbying.
Employer groups applauded Chao's decision to push ahead with the revisions.
"It's a very favorable sign for employers," employment lawyer Camille Olson said. "She refused to delay the implementation."
At the hearing, the Department of Labor and business groups said the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 needs to be updated to protect workers, as well as to reduce the number of employers bng sued by workers.
The department has emphasized the portions of the regulations that would benefit low-wage workers.
The new rules would make anyone earning less than $22,100 automatically eligible for overtime pay, up from $8,060 now, a figure last revised in 1975. But critics have noted that the rules would also exempt from mandatory overtime pay anyone "in a position of responsibility" or earning more than $65,000 a year.
"Without any hearings, with the stroke of a pen, the secretary of labor is about to adversely affect the lives of millions of Americans," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said.
Jared Bernstn, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, testified that his analysis indicates that nearly 8 million workers could lose overtime pay as a result of the changes.
He said the Labor Department's estimate that 644,000 workers could lose overtime was too narrow, because the department examined only the portion of the work force ? some 11 million workers ? that recved overtime in 2002, rather than the wider pool of 90 million workers eligible.
Ronald Bird, chief economist of the Employment Policy Foundation, called Bernstn's numbers "a wild guess" because the U.S. job market is too complex for precise analysis.
________
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