Quid Pro Quo: Overtime Pay vs. Campaign Contributors

Posted by on . 8 comments.

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After being subjected to clever and misleadingly named policy initiatives such as the Jobs and Growth tax cuts, Healthy Forests and Clear Skies, next we get Fair Pay. You might think that with such a sunny name and origins in the Department of Labor (created in 1913 “to foster, promote and develop the welfare of working people, to improve their working conditions, and to enhance their opportunities for profitable employment.”) that this would be a positive.

You would be wrong. So wrong. This is after all the government agency that wanted to count fast food workers as manufacturing jobs.

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The Labor Department’s Fair Pay page touts the plan as protecting overtime pay for people earning $23,660 or less annually. That’s $11.37/ hr. Since these workers don’t make enough money to deter employers from forcing them to work overtime, covering these workers is meaningless.

To understand the “need” for this plan, the key is to look at the workers who aren’t covered, and therefore lose their overtime pay. These workers include:

  • Sales Employees
  • Executive Employees
  • Administrative Employees
  • Professional Employees
  • Employees in Computer-Related Occupations
  • Outside Sales Employees
  • Salary Basis Requirement and the Part-541 Exemptions
  • Highly-Compensated Workers and the Part-541 Exemptions

    In other words, educated professionals who make good money. In exempting them from overtime pay, the Department of Labor is in effect encouraging employers to force their most valuable workers to work more hours for no pay, decreasing their marginal costs and boosting productivity. Corporatism at its very best. Since the Department of Labor is no longer protecting the interests of labor, what is their mission? We already have the White House to run giveaways to business.

    What is behind this push? Big Bush/Cheney campaign contributors, of course.

    Prime example: Insurance adjusters are now not eligible for overtime. While not the most popular lot with the masses, adjusters often have to work after hours traveling to assess claims. Why would a job with inherent overtime be exempt? The insurance industry has given over $10 Million to Republican campaigns this year, and this exemption will save them over one billion dollars per year on adjusters alone.

    This country is for sale. Anyone with enough money can play, and nothing is out of the question. This isn’t capitalism. This isn’t market forces at work. This is a naked attempt to repay the administration’s funders at the expense of their constituents.

    It’s time to get serious. This policy will affect millions of people in this country. If you have Republican friends or family, tell them about this. I don’t think they will enjoy working more for no pay. Who would.

    • Comments

    1. frank says:
      May 18, 2004 at 9:31 am

      not to pick the nit, but in your breakdown of those not covered by the fair pay rules you list:

      Sales Employees
      Executive Employees
      Administrative Employees
      Professional Employees
      Employees in Computer-Related Occupations
      Outside Sales Employees
      etc.

      where on the dol web page http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/main.htm

      does it mention sales employees in general? i see a clear distinction being drawn between outside sales and all other sales.

    2. matt says:
      May 18, 2004 at 9:53 am

      http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fs17f_outsidesales.htm
      Outside Sales Exemption

      To qualify for the outside sales employee exemption, all of the following tests must be met:

      The employee’s primary duty must be making sales (as defined in the FLSA), or obtaining orders or contracts for services or for the use of facilities for which a consideration will be paid by the client or customer; and

      The employee must be customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer’s place or places of business.

      If your point is that outside sales people make commissions rather than salary, that isn’t universally true.

    3. frank says:
      May 18, 2004 at 10:39 am

      no, i wasn’t really trying to make a point at all, just wondering if they’ll be able to take away my overtime pay as well, considering i am an _inside_ sales rep. you didn’t answer my question, and it arose specifically because i had already read the part you mentioned. there is a difference between outside and inside sales. are inside sales reps affected by the new regulations?

    4. sac says:
      May 18, 2004 at 4:47 pm

      I would love to be exempt from overtime pay, but thanks to a new law in California that was supposed to protect us IT workers clocking all those overtime hours on salary that we read about in Wired, I now have to fucking clock in and out until I make 83,000 a year. Then, I will be exempt again.

      Just yesterday, I got an email wondering why I left 11 minutes earky one day last week. Never mind I almost never take the full hour lunch. Luckily for me, I am guaranteed that hour by law, so it doesn’t matter. It’s a pain in the ass. I feel like a very overpaid pizza driver.

    5. matt says:
      May 18, 2004 at 5:28 pm

      I don’t know if inside sales are covered, but I’d bet that it could be covered by the administrative exemption if they felt like it.

    6. matt says:
      May 18, 2004 at 5:29 pm

      Sac-

      I’m sure the majority of our readers feel your pain.

    7. frank says:
      May 18, 2004 at 5:55 pm

      while i agree that the administrative exemption classification is frighteningly vague, i also believe that a good lawyer would find a way to argue around it. i also know that there are tons of people who make more than $455/week who could never dream of affording a lawyer good enough. :P

      but, i can’t really imagine that all of this will hold up to any long term litigation/policy making (ie after bush et al are no longer in office)

    8. Bart says:
      July 19, 2004 at 4:28 pm

      Wow – obviously, personal initiative and long-term interests have gone the way of the Berlin Wall (yes, that socialism thing was successful in Germany – let’s bring it back). Anyone in this country with the guts, determination, and creativity can begin, operate and succeed at a business enterprise if they choose. Apparently most of you choose to make excuses instead and then lament why the “man” is holding you down. Guess what? You are holding you down.
      You think greater government assistance in wage and hour law is going to increase employee motivation? Spend much time reading? For over four decades, research by liberal and conservative scholars alike shows that money motivates most folks for oh, two weeks or their next paycheck whichever comes first.
      My experience over two decades is that folks get exactly what they are willing to work for – in all communities.
      As an african american fellow I went to college used to say, “there are two kinds of people – those that find a way and those that find an excuse.”
      Blame the DOL. While you are griping, someone else is working hard and will get to be your boss.