I've done more reading on the FLSA issue, namely the Economic Policy Institute's Briefing Paper "Eliminating the Right to Overtime Pay", and I've also begun talking with friends about underlying and otherwise similar issues. I still find it fascinating that I cannot easily find direct documentation of the proposed changes on either the White House web site or the Department of Labor's. This underscores for me the evident motivation behind these kinds of policy changes.
Here's a basic outline of the changes that are described and analyzed in greater detail in the EPI's briefing:
The current weekly salary level under which all employees are guaranteed overtime pay is $155 a week. The proposed changes would raise this to $425 a week. This seems like the only unambiguously positive change in the proposal. With this proposed change, more low wage workers will have the right to overtime pay. The report points out, however, that the proposed change is "not indexed for inflation" and so "will protect fewer and fewer workers over time." This is a reality that is constantly troubling in most economic policies that I have ever learned anything about which affect the quality of living and the statndards for income levels in the US. The minimum wage is a perfect example of policy that is both out dated and totally out of touch with the realities of current economic rates--evidenced by many institutions' and states' adopting living wage policies.
I've got to go see more of NYC now, so I'll have to write more on this later. . .is anybody out there. . .breathing?
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