There go more jobs.
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.
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.
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?
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.