Protect Overtime Pay
Update:
The Senate voted Wednesday (9/10/03) to bar the Bush administration from issuing new overtime-pay rules that would take money from the pockets of millions of workers. The vote was 54-45 with all but one Democrat (Miller of Georgia) and even six Republicans (Murkowski and Stevens of Alaska, Chafee of Rhode Island, Snowe of Maine, Specter of Pennsylvania, and Campbell of Colorado) voting to block the Labor Department from proceeding.
Since the House of Representatives narrowly voted, 213-210, to allow the administration to change the overtime rules, congressional negotiators will have to come up with an agreement from both sides to send to the President.
The proposed overtime changes would take effect as soon as early 2004 unless a law is enacted blocking them.
Your pay along with millions of other workers’ pay is being threatened; you can do something about it that will make the critical difference. The Bush Administration is proposing cuts in overtime pay that could reduce millions of workers take home pay. Overtime pay makes up about one-fourth of the average weekly earnings of workers who receive it. That is an average pay cut of $161 a week and can add up to thousands of dollars a year.
In the next few days the U.S. Senate will be voting on whether millions of American workers will continue to receive overtime pay. A vote in favor of the "Harkin Amendment" means workers will continue to receive overtime. A vote against it means workers will most likely get a pay cut. Tell your Senator to protect our overtime by voting in favor of the Harkin Amendment.
8 Million Workers Could Lose Overtime Pay
Although the Bush administration claims changes to the overtime rules would affect 644,000 workers, the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found the number of workers who will lose overtime pay is closer to 8 million and covers a wide range of workers, including nurses, firefighters, retail clerks and engineering technicians.
Workers making more than $22,100 a year could be denied overtime pay under the proposed changes if they are reclassified as professional, administrative or executive employees exempt from federal overtime rules.
Under, the Bush proposal, workers who lose their overtime rights also could face unpredictable work schedules and reduced pay because of an increased demand for extra hours—time for which employers would not have to compensate workers, according to the EPI.
Overtime pay cuts being pushed by the Bush administration are slated to go into effect unless Congress acts to block them. These changes would erode the 40-hour workweek and mean that if you receive overtime pay now, you might not in the future.
Act now. Tell your Senator to support the Harkin amendment and protect overtime pay.
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