Employers: More overtime could have downsides
By Yuki Noguchi, KQED-TV
The Labor Department is considering changing rules that define who qualifies for overtime pay and who does not, and businesses say it would have far-reaching consequences that may not be good for workers.
Currently, the rules say you have to make less than $23,660 a year to be eligible for overtime, but the Labor Department’s proposal would more than double that required salary level to $50,440. That would mean an estimated 6 million more people would be eligible for overtime pay.
Worker advocates say the current rules open up millions of workers to abuse. Many earn relatively low salaries but are asked to work many extra hours without pay because they’re exempt from overtime rules, says Vicki Shabo, vice president of the National Partnership for Women and Families. She says some research shows women, who would make up about 3.2 million of those workers, would especially benefit.
This is a slippery slope, with pluses and minuses on either side.
Of course employers want to get more hours for less pay, which in some cases is really abuse.
Of course employees want the salary, so they can find inventive ways to get paid steadily and still do all their personal business on the employers clock.
The younger workers desire for flexibility, in my opinion, only shows that they are just in it for the money, and could care less about quality of work, or if their efforts are actually helping or hindering the business they work for.
From what I see, no matter what the business, I see people on the clock, on their phones, face booking, emailing, web surfing. I must believe billions of dollars in wages annually are used unproductively by employees on their smart phones. A technological breakthrough has become part of a way of life that supersedes social interaction, family responsibility, working for wages and more.
I wonder if anyone enforces a “no cell phone on the job” rule.
I visited a business recently, and observed 4 employees standing outside, every one of them with a phone in their hands talking or keyboarding on the things.
Looking at the trash and clutter and dirt around the business, obviously there for days or longer, why these people were not assigned to clean it up and maintain it that way.