Free Republic

Walmart shoppers are threatening to boycott the store after discovering employees aren't paid extra to work on Thanksgiving. Instead, Walmart offers them 10% and 15% discounts to shop in its store. The 15% discount is only available Dec. 5 and Dec. 6. Walmart said the policy has been in place for three years. "We simplified our paid time-off policies in 2016 to combine vacation, holiday, sick and personal time into one bucket," Walmart said in a statement. "As part of that change, we no longer offer holiday pay. We did this to give our associates greater flexibility and more choice...

The Secret Service arrested a Wisconsin man Thursday after he allegedly told a security guard he planned to kill President Obama, a federal official confirmed to Fox News. 55-year-old Brian Dutcher of Tomah allegedly made the threat the same day Obama was in La Crosse touting a proposal to make more workers eligible for overtime pay. …

President Obama continues his push to tweak free market forces and buy votes with an executive move that will force businesses to pay extra for overtime work of certain salaried employees. Managers earning more than $455 a week are not eligible for overtime pay, even if those "managers" are really shift supervisors at a 7-11 or fast food restaurant. The number of potential people impacted by this change is hard to quantify. The law governing oversight is rooted in the Fair Labor Standards Act 1938. In 1975, the Department of Labor set the minimum to $250 a week, which...

Unlike his various “fixes” for ObamaCare, there actually is some statutory basis for this move. In both cases, though, he’s following the same rule: Even if the policy isn’t good, the politics are, and that makes it worth doing.It’s a logical corollary to his push to raise the minimum wage. If, in the name of fairness and income equality, we can tell businesses how much to pay their lowest-ranking employees, we should also tell them how much to pay their middle managers, no? Under current federal regulations, workers who are deemed executive, administrative or professional employees can be denied overtime...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bypassing Congress, President Barack Obama intends to order changes in overtime rules so employers would be required to pay millions more workers for the extra time they put in on the job. The rules, which would not likely take effect until 2015, are aimed at workers currently designated as supervisory employees but who are exempt from overtime because they get paid a salary of more than $455 a week. Obama plans to order his Labor Department to recommend regulations that would increase that salary threshold and change the definition of what constitutes a supervisor. Obama's attention to...

Feb. 12. 2014: President Obama, surrounded by workers, signs an executive order to raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers.AP President Obama, flexing his executive authority once again, plans to order the Labor Department to expand overtime pay requirements to include millions more workers -- in a move likely to rankle the business community. The president plans to make the announcement on Thursday at the White House, a senior administration official confirmed to Fox News. Though the administration has claimed previous executive actions had bipartisan support, officials are acknowledging that this particular move will anger business groups and congressional...

(EXSCERPT)Lower pay, longer hours and unpredictable work schedules are some of the changes working families could face under the proposed changes to overtime.

White House Wins Fight on OT Rule Changes WASHINGTON - Foes of the Bush administration's proposed rules changing which workers would qualify for overtime pay abandoned their fight Friday in the face of unrelenting pressure from the White House and the House. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the chief Republican opponent of the new rules, agreed to drop a provision killing the regulations from a massive spending bill, lawmakers, congressional aides and lobbyists said. Critics of the new rules said they could lead to 8 million Americans losing eligibility for overtime pay, largely white-collar workers earning more than $65,000 a...

A new study released by the Employment Policy Foundation (EPF) found that proposed changes to the Part 541 regulations governing overtime would expand overtime protections to an estimated 3.4 millions workers. The analysis found that no one who currently has a right to overtime under the current regulations will lose that right under the proposed rule.

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON – Some congressional Republicans skittish about the political fallout from an economy hemorrhaging jobs turned back administration proposals to rein in overtime pay, shift government work to the private sector and allow pension changes that cut benefits for older employees. The defections in the GOP-controlled Congress gave organized labor rare victories last week on pocketbook issues. "Given the state of the economy, people are very anxious about these issues, and some they consider very basic, like overtime pay," said Bill Samuel, the AFL-CIO's legislative director. "I think Republicans are sensing...