Goodbye, 40 hour work week. New Deal, RIP.
Rick Santorum is offering an amendment to the upcoming minimum wage bill that will directly alter the nature of the guarantees that workers rely on.
No more 40-hour work week - after which, overtime is required. A new formula reshuffles how hours are calculated over several weeks, so that a 50 hour week, for example, would no longer assure overtime pay.
This amendment is being offered on MONDAY and competes against the Kennedy-sponsored proposed increase in the minimum wage.
More below the fold.
Details:
CUTTING OVERTIME PAY: The amendment abolishes the 40-hour work week and replaces it with an 80-hour, two-week work period. Today, those who work 50 hours in one week and 30 the next receive 10 hours of time-and-a-half overtime pay. Under the amendment, such workers would no longer get overtime pay, making mandatory overtime cheaper for employers. This change encourages employers to overwork employees in busy periods and cut their hours when things are less busy--leaving workers less able to control their work hours and to balance work and family. Construction workers, for example, whose work hours often vary from week to week, will be particularly hard hit. Currently about 100 million workers are eligible to receive overtime pay.
Also:
No more actual wages for tip workers - if the aggregate tips can equal minimum wage pay, the employer no longer has to pay a tipped worker anything at all.
Sources:
ACTION ALERT: http://www.adaction.org/actionalert.htm
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2014&mod
e=thread&order=0&thold=0
http://www.epinet.org/
HERE'S THE CRITICAL ACTION ITEM:
Please make a call to your Senators' offices and urge them to support a decent increase in the federal minimum wage (to $7.25) and oppose the inadequate $6.25 increase which comes in a package of damaging changes to the nation's labor laws.
YOUR CALLS MUST BE MADE ON MONDAY, MARCH 7TH TO BE EFFECTIVE.