Related Articles

August 25, 2004

More than 100 million Americans were entitled to time and a half pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act until now, when new rules take effect. Six million of those, including supervisors, assistant managers, financial services workers, nurses and police lost that right on Monday, August 23 in what amounts to the biggest collective pay cut in Americas history.

Hundreds of workers protested the Bush administrations new regulations outside the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., including nearly 70 staffers from the IBEW International Office standing out in hard-to-miss neon yellow T-shirts. Carrying signs and chanting responsively rhymes like, "Come on all you billionaires, we want wages that are fair!" they were joined by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania). Other rallies were scheduled to take place across the United States.

"Two weeks from today, we will celebrate the dignity of American labor on Labor Day," said Senator Harkin. "Today is a national day of shame for this administration. This is anti-labor day."

Harkin and Specter vowed to continue their fight against the rules, which the Senate has rejected three times in the past two years for their transparent value as a giveaway to businesses who will be able to force employees into working extra hours without pay. The Bush administration insists that more people will become eligible for overtime under the new rules, and that they will bring more "clarity" to outdated wage and hour laws. But if workers earn any more than $23,660 a year, they will lose their right to earn overtime.

"Eventually no one will qualify for overtime pay," said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill. "Employers who have been pushing for these changes for years will have no reason to limit workers hours to 40 hours per week. Its likely that more people will be working overtime but they wont be paid for it."

Sweeney said, until today, overtime has represented 25 percent of the paychecks for workers who earn it. While health care, fuel and college tuition continue to increase, now those workers will be working just as much or more, earning only their base pay. "This is an insult to working people who make this country run," Sweeney said. "Overtime pay is what makes the difference between working for a living and just living to work."

Many union members, whose wages and hours are determined by negotiated labor contracts, will not be affected by this change, at least initially. But nonunion workers will feel the immediate impact. And as labor contracts expire and are renegotiated, union members are likely to be under pressure to agree to overtime concessions, too.

"Its anti-labor, anti-family and anti-middle class," said Harkin, who vowed to continue his fight against the new regulations when Congress returns to Washington on September 7.

Former Labor Officials Decry New Overtime Rules

50 Creative Ways to Cheat Workers Out of Pay By the U.S. Labor Department

House Says No to Overtime Overhaul... October 6, 2003

Senate Says No to Overtime Regs... September 17, 2003

Bill Would Nix Overtime Rules... July 14, 2003

Hundreds Rally For Overtime... July 1, 2003

DOL Targets Overtime Pay... June 26, 2003

Labor Prevails to Defeat Comp Time Legislation... June 11, 2003

Overtime Rules Menace Workers Nationwide... May 30, 2003

Bush Proposes Changing Federal Overtime Rules... April 2, 2003

Overtime Pay... U.S. Department of Labor