“Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country,” said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. “All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day…is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation.”
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
Just in time for Labor Day, the Bush administration presented its plans for eliminating overtime pay for war veterans. That’s right: if you learned your trade in the military, Bush’s “pro-labor” plan now makes you an exempt, salaried employee, ineligible for overtime.
Bush’s plan also proposes that employers convert exempt employees to hourly employees at a lower rate of pay which, without overtime, reflects their actual work hours.
What if you provide “skilled advice” as part of your trade? You’re also ineligible for overtime pay. Exempt Professionals once included doctors, lawyers, and those with specialized degrees. Now, it covers any person with specialized knowledge.
And you only need to read through 15,576 pages of Federal Register to find this delightful information. Even more interesting? That the “comp time” Bush gleefully extolled the virtues of during his nomination acceptance speech doesn’t exist in this proposed mammoth law, while the pay cuts do.
Happy Labor Day, newly-minted exempt salaried employees formerly known as “laborers”. Welcome to the sixty-hour work-week for forty hours’ pay.
And now a completely different perspective…
Workers complain about gaining overtime. Many regard being “salaried” as an intangible positive status, and an improvement over hourly wages. They are being paid for results, rather than for being a warm body so many hours a day.
And just as it removes overtime pay for a large class of citizens who formerly enjoyed it, the proposed bill also devalues segments of salaried workers to hourly. Not that I necessarily agree… I’ve been on both sides of the fence, and although there are certain “perks” to being salaried (goal-oriented rather than time-oriented), all things considered I’ve decided being paid by the hour is enormously preferable.
Particularly when the fit hits the shan and you pull that eighty-hour week!
Nevertheless, it’s something to think about. Five years ago, had I had my status changed from salaried to hourly, I probably would have complained about it.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Keep in mind,..
Hourly employees will still get paid for the extra time, I think.. just not the time and a half overtime.
The double edged sword for Nurses is: Sometimes you HAVE to work overtime, and that will make those people lose a lot of money.
Sometimes you want to work 48 hours, but they won’t let you because they don’t want to pay overtime. They’ve been known to cancel nurses who go over 40 on a shift and call in a PRN person. This could allow nurses who want to work 50 hours to do it.
Still.. a competitive workplace would include overtime, I hope – otherwise their employees could walk to someone who does.
woohoo
That’s compassionate conservatism for you.
— Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor
Shut Up And Get Back To Work
Meanwhile, we’re all blogging in while sitting at the office…
Reversal
And in a dramatic reversal, Congress barely votes against allowing the Labor Department to implement the new administration policies. Hooray for the little guy! But the vote was certainly a squeaker!
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Congressional Vote
What was lovely was that it was a real show of solidarity for the Democrats, who have had issues with party loyalty in the past. Every single Democrat voted to block the overtime policies, as well as 22 Republicans who broke ranks with their colleagues. Yay!
— Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor