Say goodbye to your overtime pay

[ikojo]

OK it looks like I accepted an exempt position just in time. I know going in that I will not be paid overtime. Now it seems many more working class Americans will be joining me in my new exempt status thanks to 16 Dems (Z Miller, Schumer, Feinstein, and Breaux were among those Dems who supported Bush) and those Dems who did not even show up to vote (Kerry, Lieberman and Edwards among the non voting Senatorial Dems) against the Ominbus Budget act that was in the Senate today.

If you received training in the military then that is considered the same as a college degree and you can be reclassified as exempt from being paid overtime.

If you make over $65K per year you can be reclassifed as exempt from being paid overtime.

What corporation will not take advantage of reclassifying employees so they don't have to pay overtime? I suspect the one I just left will do it that's for sure. They are all about maximizing the bottom line at the employee's expense.

Yes, folks we have indeed traveled back in time...for it is now 1904 where people will work many more hours for the SAME PAY!!!!

wooo hoooo!

[LincolnMcGrath]

1. No American Corp. would ever try to bend the rules.

Come on! Overtime pay is overated anyway. jeebus

[SoCalDem]

2. Attention Workers:.. Report at once to the training room

Your advanced training will now commence..

Course syllabus:

Coffee maker cleaning
Copier toner replacement
Mop squeezing technique
Furniture placement
Fedex/UPS/USPS/Emery parcel receiving
Phone message retrieval..

at the end of this training you will receive your certificate affirming that you have successfully completed this training. Your new job title will be "office Assistant"..

As office assistant you will now be a salaried employee. You will no longer be eligible for overtime.

[LincolnMcGrath]

3. It's disgraceful

For a president who has presided over the largest net job loss since Herbert Hoover to show such determination to cut workers' overtime pay is disgusting.

[ikojo]

4. Although Bush led the fight and didn't back down from

wanting to change the wage and hour rules, he could not have done it without assistance from some Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives.

The primary difference between the pugs and Dems, at least from my station in life, is that the pugs could care less what the public thinks. They will forge ahead with their agenda. Dems get all mushy if a pug criticizes them and then they try to run headlong to the right, not realizing that as long as there is a D following their name Tom DeLay and Co could care less about them.

[LincolnMcGrath]

5. The Bush Crime Family knows no bounds

Judicial cand. turned down---- Just renominate him/her.

Overtime rules not getting anywhere--- Just tuck it in the OSB.

The minority Dems are over a barrel.

[BiggJawn]

6. If I made over 65 Kilobuck a year...

..I wouldn't give a rat's ass if I was offered OT or not.

In the last 2 years I've been offered MAYBE 12 hours of OT.

I don't think I understand this completely. I get the idea from some sources that this will allow employers to work you 50-60 hours a week, yet only pay you for 40? Or will they work you 50 and pay you 50, instead of paying you for 55 hours?

Is this really as Dickensian as some are making it out to be?

[LincolnMcGrath]

7. Is this really as Dickensian as some are making it out to be?

YES and MORE

[BiggJawn]

9. I still don't get it

They can MAKE you work 60 hours for 40 hour's pay? Is that true?
Shit, who says they have to even pay you for the FIRST 40, then?

[LincolnMcGrath]

11. some faqs

http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/briefingpapers_flsa_jun03

[ikojo]

8. What it means is that instead of being

classified as a non exempt employee (meaning you must be paid time and a half after you have worked 40 hours in a week) the company could now reclassify you as exempt from overtime pay.

Yes, it means that if you work 50 hours your paycheck will look the same as if you worked 40, no more no less. Since the employer will not be required to pay you more for working more hours what incentive is there for the corp to hire more people and NOT work someone more than 40 hours in a week?

[BiggJawn]

10. Show me where it says they can work you 50 for 40's pay.

I don't think that's legal. You can be re-classified as Exempt from OVERTIME pay, but I seriously doubt that is going to be interpreted as meaning that anything you're required to work over 40 hours will be considered Indenture and you will be payed NOTHING for it.

Smacks of WalMart's "Clock out and mop the back room" crap that they got in trouble for.

[LincolnMcGrath]

12. Its called flex time

[ikojo]

13. Exempt is the same as salaried

When one is salaried and one works 50 hours a week one is not paid anymore than if one worked 40. Supposedly it also means that if one works 30 hours a week then one's check is not reduced but is the same as if one worked 40 hours a week.

In the past, BEFORE the onslaught of the right-wing, in order to be classified as exempt one had to have some management type responsibilities. If that criteria was not met then one could not be classified as exempt. It is THOSE rules that Bush wants to change, the criteria for classifying an employee as exempt.

If one is classified as exempt it is not against the law to work 50 or 60 hours and not be paid for anything over 40.

Added: http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/briefingpapers_flsa_jun03

"Current rules for classifying an employee as exempt from overtime pay:
Under current law, each of the following three tests must be met to classify an employee as exempt and therefore ineligible for overtime. First, the "salary-level" test stipulates that employees earning less than a certain level each week cannot be exempt. Second, the "salary basis" test states that employees must be paid a set salary—not an hourly wage—in order to be exempt. Finally, the third screening test is the "duties test," which states that a worker cannot be denied overtime pay unless his or her duties are primarily "administrative," "professional," or "executive" in nature."

What Bush wants to do is change who can be classifed as professional.

[LincolnMcGrath]

14. Expansion of the "learned professions"

Expansion of the "learned professions" and substitution of work experience for academic education
The expansion of the "learned professions" is even bolder, as the proposal's treatment of chefs and cooks illustrates. Because culinary academies and a number of colleges and universities offer degrees in the culinary arts, the proposed rule specifically states that chefs5 and sous chefs qualify as "learned professionals." And because cooks, chefs, and sous chefs who do not obtain a culinary arts degree can achieve through work experience or on-the-job training substantially the same knowledge level as a degreed individual, the rule throws open the possibility that any cook with enough work experience can be exempted from overtime pay protection as a learned professional.


The Department of Labor's own preliminary regulatory analysis equates six years of work experience with a college degree and suggests that any worker with six or more years work experience in an occupation that includes professionals could be deemed a professional and denied the right to overtime protection.6

There are about 2.1 million cooks employed in the United States, and 21%—more than 440,000 workers—have at least six years of experience. Under the proposed rule, all of those experienced cooks and chefs who make more than $425 a week—about 240,000 in all—would be exempt.


But, in fact, the proposed rule does not set any minimum number of years of job experience to qualify for the professional exemption, and it might be that far more of the 2.1 million chefs, cooks, and sous chefs will be exempt. The preamble states, "We have not proposed any specific formula in the regulations for determining the equivalencies of intellectual instruction and qualifying work experience."7 It may be that employers will decide that a single year or two of job experience is enough to provide "professional-level" knowledge, and it is hard to see how the Department of Labor will test the culinary skills of restaurant cooks to determine whether they are "learned professionals."