Posted on 07/02/2015 5:25:30 PM PDT by Kaslin
The Obama administration’s proposed overtime regulations could severely limit the autonomy of workers and employers, according to business groups and legislative critics.
The National Retail Federation said the onerous regulations, which would mandate overtime payment for a broader class of workers, could affect the ability of businesses to complete jobs. The NRF, which represents thousands of businesses and millions of retail workers, said this could stifle productivity.
“The irony is that if [Obama] came under the new overtime rules he would have already hit 40 hours by now and his boss would have told him to clock out with the job half-done,” NRF spokesman David French said. “We think managers are professionals who should be able to make their own decisions. This plan isn’t about expanding the middle class—it’s about turning salaried professionals into clock-watchers.”
Obama touted the new overtime regulations during a speech in Wisconsin on Thursday.
“This is an issue of basic fairness. You work longer, you work harder, you get paid,” he said. “It’s one of the single most important steps to raise middle class wages.”
Business groups say that the regulations could have unintended consequences. The International Franchise Association (IFA), which represents thousands of businesses, announced its “strong opposition” to the proposal.
“This change is likely to have the opposite of its intended effect and will clearly harm more workers than it helps,” IFA spokesman Robert Cresanti said in a release. “Millions of salaried workers will now become hourly and lose out on key benefits such as workplace flexibility and long term advancement opportunities. This is just the latest example of the Obama administration unnecessarily meddling in the everyday management of small businesses.”
Congressional Republicans have also criticized the new regulations for boosting government oversight and micromanagement of business matters more than actual employee wages. The House Joint Economic Committee released a report on Thursday questioning its efficacy. The regulations could lead employers to cut down on wages to control costs in the event of overtime and “will impose unnecessary costs, hinder economic expansion, and more likely limit workers’ earnings potential than enhance it,” according to the report.
“Once again, the Obama administration is overreaching and imposing broad new regulations on employers that will require them to devote precious resources to costly regulatory compliance,” Committee Chairman Dan Coats (R., Ind.) said in a release. “As with the administration’s minimum wage proposals, this overtime rule is unlikely to result in many employees seeing larger paychecks and could instead limit employment opportunities for workers.”
That report followed an American Action Forum study that found that nearly 70 percent of workers affected by the regulation are in families with combined incomes that are already earning far more than the national poverty threshold. Coats urged the Obama administration to look for other avenues to boost wages for workers.
“A better way to strengthen the middle class and tackle income inequality is to enact pro-growth policies that will improve the economy for all Americans, such as approving future free trade agreements and passing comprehensive tax reform,” he said.
The Department of Labor is accepting public comment from businesses, unions, and other interested parties.
There go more jobs.
Once again, the easiest path for socialist president Zer0 is to give away other people’s money.
How he cannot see that this will eliminate jobs is beyond belief. But, he can care less unless it affects his golf game.
Why wouldn’t Obama feel emboldened?
The GOP, instead of fighting him, have enabled him.
Why (WHY!?!?) are the Republicans SO inept with their messaging. They are arguing their side by saying “no it isn’t”, while Obama says “yes it is”. Reminds me of the Monty Python argument sketch from the 70’s.
It’s the WRONG ARGUMENT.
What the Republicans SHOULD be arguing is that this latest Obama scheme is tacit admission that his economic policies aren’t working, and the economy is a wreck. In a health economy, there is competition among employers for workers. Workers hop from job to job because there are other jobs available for higher pay. Or, they tell their current employer they want a raise, and the employer has to seriously consider it, or be faced with an empty position, and/or filling it with an unknown quantity.
The ONLY reason a policy like 0bama is proposing would even be floated is because there are too many workers and not enough jobs. That gives the employers the upper hand, and wages stagnate. The 5.3% U-3 unemployment 0bama was crowing about today is pure B.S. There are some 93 million people of working age without jobs. And as a percentage of the population, the last time it was this high, Carter was President.
Take the jack-boot of big government off the neck of employers and the economy, and wages will rise as more Americans go back to work, and the economy can grow again.
The IDEA of this law is to stifle productivity, and spread the work among more people. This is similar in concept to France’s 35-hour work week.
The reality is that any that job can be offshored, will be offshored. And this trend is going way up the food chain. If you can even remotely imagine that your job can be offshored, you’d better believe that it can, and it will.
back in the 80’s, I learned that the labor laws in Italy were so awful that there were companies whose officers were the ONLY actual employees of those companies - everyone else was an independent contractor. That is probably our future at this rate.
Maybe because he is not as smart as he wants everyone to believe. Also he only thinks of himself and how he can get a legacy. Which he sure will get, but it wont be what he wants
Well said.
Luckliy millions of Americans are out of work or working their 29.5 hour “full time” jobs to get by and won’t have to deal with these rules.
Yeah, I would settle for a job, let alone overtime.
No - now there will be MORE jobs. Instead of a 46 hour week for just ONE person, there will be TWO people each working a 23 hour week. So MORE jobs are being created. Obama - the job creating president!
I used to work at a company and got paid overtime after 50 hours. Out in the field though and could rack up 80+ hours in a week. Got “promoted” with very little pay raise. And also put up into the bracket where I was not payed O.T.
Of course they were laying people off at the time(hence my effective pay cut), so I wasn’t in any position to complain. I still had my job.
Sounds like my husband’s experience over the years. We now find ourselves much worse off than before the Obama economic “miracle” worked its magic.
A part of me wonders what the effect would be if these ‘rules’ were applied to the DOD. Can you imagine all of the Enlisted men and women applying for overtime?
What about grad students? Some PI’s consider them to be slave labor
Good point... imagine all of the sacred cows both on the right and left that might be affected.
Makes me smile ;)
Many of the five million or so employees that the administration is boasting about getting overtime will not get the raise to the minimum salary threshold, or receive one and one-half their equivalent hourly rate for hours in excess of forty in a workweek. Instead, many will see the joys of “chinese overtime” or “fluctuating workweek”, which legally results in the employee receiving a progressively lower overtime rate as hours over forty increase, and only half-time overtime at that decreasing hourly rate for overtime hours. This arrangement, while prohibited in California and Alaska, is permitted under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the laws of other states.
Many others will see their employers discover that, if they need ninety or so hours of exempt work, those hours can be purchased far less expensively by hiring three or four employees and working them only twenty-five or thirty hours a week each. Not only would this eliminate overtime, but also any legal requirement to provide health insurance. Employees working 25 hours a week or less might also fail to be eligible for family and medical leave, eliminating another huge employer headache.
Gee, you’d almost think the government WANTS to eliminate full-time work.
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