New OT law and the media

It was passed in the 1970s and signed under Ford because Republicans didn't want doctors and lawyers and other white-collar professionals to claim overtime pay. The original threshold was $20K, which would be over $50K today with inflation. It used to cover more than 60 percent of workers; it fell to 7 percent under what had been, and may end up being again, the old threshold of $23K.

What Obama and the Dept.of Labor did was have the law work as it originally was intended. Instead, it's been used for the past 40 years to fuck over those who the law wasn't supposed to be made for, which for Republicans, is a good thing.

 

I made a case with a legitimate accounting of my work hours ... presented a list of things that our product could no longer offer if I was limited to no overtime ... and they gave me an $8,000 raise. The official letter made it clear that the new law was the reason for the raise. Now I am scared shitless that they will rescind the pay raise and continue to expect the 70-hour work weeks, and I will have to leave. Happy fucking Thanksgiving, Judge Asshole.

 

I don't understand. If I am an assistant manager required to work 60 hours a week for $30,000, I'm happy to work 40 hours a week for $30,000.

 

That judge was an asshole. It's not like this happened overnight and people had not time to adjust.

Why not let people get paid or the time off while it's fought in the courts?

 

Well, the idea is that some Republicans are saying is that if they were going to cut your hours by 1/3, then they would cut your pay by 1/3. instead of having you work 60 hours for $30K, they would have you work 40 hours for $20K.

Which then would mean the assistant manager would be barely making more than the employees they were supervising, which would be a great motivation for them to want to be an assistant manager with the extra responsibility and hardly any extra pay. And it would also motivate them, if they really wanted to work 60 hours and earn more money, to go get a part-time job and not devote all their energies to their main job.

All of this also will result in great morale for those like Baddecision, who are about to be told that they're getting a paycut, and I'm sure those assistant managers will really want to go all-out now for 60 hours a week for those employers.

 

Pay should be for 40 hours per week. Period. This is one law I was very happy to see Obama push.

 

Some of my progressive friends are celebrating the ruling, since it would have cost them. Funny how self-interest doesn't pay heed to ideology.

 

I don't know how to feel. All of us here who are salaried pretty much felt like this was a good excuse for our company to start treating us worse and it had been starting to show.

 

Obama pulled the trigger way too late. It would've been much tougher for an opposing administration to reverse had it been in place for a while. Of course he assumed Hillary would win and it would continue unopposed.

 

Agreed. He had talked about it for a couple of years, but didn't try to do anything about it until the last couple of years of his term.

From what some stories I've seen, Trump and the GOP may not roll it all the way back to what it had been, out of fear of pissing off too many people. They may try to reduce the $47K threshold, but not back to $23K, they may have it implemented more gradually over a few years, and/or not have small employers be beholden to it. Any way, it's still a loss for workers.

 

A lot of us have already signed contracts to go to hourly at my shop...wonder how they'll wiggle out of that.

 

I know a couple of TV guys this is supposed to effect. However, they've both said they're going to ignore it and keep doing their 50-60 hour weeks while only getting paid for 40. Raycom apparently isn't discouraging this type of thing.

I would sue their asses off if my employer tried this.