Harkin Amendment deserves support

Last week, the United States Senate Appropriations Committee voted in favor of attaching the Harkin Amendment to the Department of Labor funding bill. The amendment, if passed on the floor of the Senate, would prevent the Department of Labor from implementing the Bush administration's desired changes to overtime rules.

In August, President Bush proposed a rule that takes away overtime pay compensation for millions of Americans. The Bush proposal strips workers of the right to receive time-and-a-half when working additional hours.

The Bush administration has justified this policy in order to "strengthen overtime protections" by "clarifying" the Fair Labor Standards Act exemption criteria. Such a justification is a fabrication of the truth, but even scarier is the fact this proposal is being implemented at a time when the economy is already facing job losses. Because the change is a simple rule clarification, the new rules could be implemented without the debate and support of Congress.

The new rules reclassify those workers with some managerial capabilities, thus making them exempt from receiving overtime pay. Registered nurses, police officers, long-term care workers, team leaders, chefs and assistant managers at fast food restaurants are among the estimated six million workers who will lose overtime pay benefits under the new Bush rule.

The solution is simple - Congress must adopt the Harkin Amendment that recently passed is the Senate Appropriations Committee. On five previous occasions this year, Congress has voted in favor of protecting overtime pay. The previous resolutions urging the President to protect the right of workers have fallen on deaf ears. The Harkin Amendment has specific language which works to prevent the implementation of new Bush rules.

The denial of time-and-a-half amounts to a pay cut for millions of Americans already struggling to make ends meet. These proposed pay-cuts would allow businesses to reduce cots, while forcing workers to work even more hours than before in order to bring the same level of income home.

The Bush rules are a direct attack on the 40-hour workweek. When those workers expected to lose overtime pay benefits previously decided to work additional hours in a week, they did so because they needed the additional income. They decided to work overtime because they were not members of the privileged class who were eligible to receive tax rebates under a Bush tax plan that left no millionaire behind.

People who decide to work more than 40 hours a week do so because they are in desperate need of the additional income. Now, these workers, many of whom are parents, will need to work more overtime to receive the income needed. The Bush administration has attempted to disguise its rules, but plain and simple, the rules are a drastic pay-cut for working America.

According to the Government Accounting Office, workers who are unable to receive overtime pay are two times more likely to work additional hours than those covered by overtime benefits. If workers are not protected by time-and-a-half, employers feel no regrets about forcing their employees to work additional hours since they do not have to pay extra for the work.

Such a pro-business policy is frightful because it allows employers to take advantage of their employees. Workers who fear a job loss are thus forced to agree to additional uncompensated hours. In the process, they are denied the ability to spend time with their families. In an era where many parents must work multiple jobs, an employer who demands even only a small number of additional uncompensated hours is denying a parent a few extra precious hours with his or her children.

On average, overtime pay accounts for nearly 25 percent of the total income of Americans who work more than 40 hours per week. The loss of additional wages is shocking, but even more shocking is the family time lost in order to work the additional hours.

Lower payroll costs for employers may mean more profit, but additional profit does not equate into job creation. Under an administration that has lost over one million jobs, the president should be proposing rule changes that encourage job creation, not discourage it.

Although further profit could result in the hiring of an additional position in theory, the reality is such a hiring will not happen. By removing time-and-a-half, the employer has incentive to force current workers to work additional uncompensated hours. There is no incentive whatsoever to create a new job, which would incur additional training and heath benefit costs.

The policy of overtime pay must also be analyzed in the context of the Bush administration's statements on the minimum wage. The administration has repeatedly said it supports an increase in the minimum wage, so long as states can opt out of the federal increase; just another example of hypocrisy of the administration's labor policy. When the administration says it wishes to "strengthen overtime pay," be wary of what it really means.

Last year, both the House and Senate voted in favor of amendments to the Department of Labor appropriations bill, which protected the right of overtime pay. President Bush immediately threatened to veto such legislation and the Republican dominated Congress proceeded to drop the overtime pay amendment.

This year, the vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee may have been bipartisan, but the votes last year were also bipartisan. The United States Congress must not allow itself to be bullied around by an administration that makes fundamental assaults on century-old labor rights. The Republican congressional leadership must support the will of the majority and not cave in to the demands of a bully who threatens to wield the veto.

Fundamental issues of workers rights and overtime pay compensation are not issues to compromise on. If the Congress does meet the president's demands, they will have compromised the lives of over six million Americans by forcing them to work longer hours for less pay.

Sources:

http://harkin.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=225705

http://harkin.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=225703