Free Republic

On July 6th, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with the potential to affect an untold number of employers. The proposed rule, published in the Federal Register at 80 FR 38515, drastically changes the DOL’s interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act with respect to overtime exemptions. The current rule, put in place in 2004, exempts employees with salaries of at least $455 a week ($23,660 a year) and who perform executive, administrative, professional, outside sales and computer duties from overtime regulations. In a Presidential Memorandum in March of 2014, President Obama directed the DOL...

Back in June a bright, young, soon-to-be Deutsche Bank intern prepared for his first summer on Wall Street. He told us he knew what he was getting into: "Terrible hours." He was right. On this 21-year-old's very first day, he was staffed on a project at 8 p.m. and ended up working until 2:30 a.m. His hours have let up somewhat since, but he rarely leaves before 10:30 p.m. or 11:30 p.m. On weekends, if he's not working and can meet a friend for lunch, he'll choose a table near an open window because the fresh air is such a...

Should salaried employees have to log their hours? President Obama thinks so. He just proposed regulations requiring salaried employees making less than $50,000 a year to track their work time. Most news coverage has not highlighted this aspect of the new overtime regulations. Unfortunately, they will reduce salaried workers’ flexibility — without raising pay. Federal law guarantees hourly workers overtime pay for working more than 40 hours a week. The regulations currently exempt many salaried employees. Executive, administrative, and professional employees frequently get paid for the work that is done, not the hours that are logged. These employees get a...

Regulations: With the flick of his magic pen, President Obama will soon grant millions of workers overtime play. At least, that's the fantasy being peddled by the White House and regurgitated by a credulous press.

Forty hours in a single day? Some excellent reporting here by Diana Stancy of The Daily Signal. I realize that when we start talking about dollars in reference to a federal agency, it’s hard to know what’s excessive. Amtrak pays $200 million in a single year just for overtime? Is that a lot? In the context of a $3.7 trillion federal budget? Short answer: Yes. Amtrak’s entire personnel cost amounts to $1.2 billion, so you’re talking about one-sixth of that in overtime. But it’s when you really dig down into the reporting of hours that it becomes clear some of...

From immigration and the “Latino registration machine” to the GOP’s apparent inability to recognize the racial aspects of the Charleston church shooting, Real Time host Bill Maher had a field day with his panelists on Friday night’s show. Yet it’s the “Overtime” segment’s extra nuggets that made for some of the most WTF-worthy viewing, especially for this reaction from MSNBC’s Joy Reid: Of all the possible conversation topics, what could have triggered such a reaction from Reid? Oh nothing, really — just guest Ann Coulter‘s funny-but-serious answer to Maher’s question about “which Republican candidate has the best chance of winning...

The overlord of overtime. Obama set to use sneaky administrative maneuver to force huge wage increaseHis cheerleaders at the worst web site in the world call it “the most ambitious government intervention on wages in a decade,” and since this is the Obama Administration we’re talking about, you surely won’t be surprised to know it’s happening without any involvement from Congress. Barack Obama isn’t going to get Congress to pass a statutory increase in the minimum wage, but he’s very skilled at finding ways to push executive authority to the legal limit - or beyond - to accomplish goals he...

If you take an economics course, you may learn about the different events that can cause an increase in workers' pay. The demand for the product a worker makes may rise, causing the demand for workers to go up. The supply of workers may decline, causing employers to bid up wages to keep the ones they have. But there's one event the textbooks don't cover: The president of the United States gives you a raise. Many workers will get news to the effect that he has done just that. But it's not as simple as it sounds. Barack Obama thinks...

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was passed in 1938, one of those statist measures that FDR and his allies said were necessary to combat the Depression. It is the law that puts federal politicians and especially bureaucrats in the Department of Labor in charge of key aspects of labor contracts, including the minimum wage and mandatory overtime pay. Lately, the FLSA has gotten itself into the news. Obama insists on raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour, but that’s rather old news. Last week, he declared that the Labor Department would revise the rules on overtime...

Business groups and congressional Republicans are blasting regulations President Obama will announce Thursday that could extend overtime pay to as many as 10 million workers who are now ineligible for it. While liberals lauded the plan as putting more cash in the pockets of millions of workers, business groups warned it would damage the economy and Republicans said it was another example of executive overreach. Trade associations already battling the White House over a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour said they were blindsided by the announcement. “This came as a shot out of the blue,”...

Imperial Presidency: The White House says it will constrain companies from deciding which workers are white-collar enough not to punch a time card for overtime. We need more jobs, not more job-killing regulation. 'America does not stand still, and neither will I" is how President Obama defends playing God with the law, instead of acting as a constitutionally constrained chief executive. His rationale is that "wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do." From scrapping ObamaCare's mandates to disguising his health takeover's failure, to hiking the...

Unlike his various “fixes” for ObamaCare, there actually is some statutory basis for this move. In both cases, though, he’s following the same rule: Even if the policy isn’t good, the politics are, and that makes it worth doing.It’s a logical corollary to his push to raise the minimum wage. If, in the name of fairness and income equality, we can tell businesses how much to pay their lowest-ranking employees, we should also tell them how much to pay their middle managers, no? Under current federal regulations, workers who are deemed executive, administrative or professional employees can be denied overtime...

Feb. 12. 2014: President Obama, surrounded by workers, signs an executive order to raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers.AP President Obama, flexing his executive authority once again, plans to order the Labor Department to expand overtime pay requirements to include millions more workers -- in a move likely to rankle the business community. The president plans to make the announcement on Thursday at the White House, a senior administration official confirmed to Fox News. Though the administration has claimed previous executive actions had bipartisan support, officials are acknowledging that this particular move will anger business groups and congressional...

Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday signed a bill that will temporarily require overtime pay for domestic workers in California, after he vetoed a broader measure last year that critics said would have opened the door for government regulation of part-time baby-sitting. "Domestic workers are primarily women of color, many of them immigrants, and their work has not been respected in the past," the bill's author, Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco, said in a statement. "Now, they will be entitled to overtime, like just about every other California working person."

A 21-year-old intern who worked grueling hours at Bank of America's London office died just a week before his internship was to conclude. Moritz Erhardt, who studied at the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar, Germany, reportedly had worked until 6 a.m. for three days straight and was found dead in his flat.

Metro Transit officials confirm there is a major investigation underway at its light rail Hiawatha maintenance shop. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has learned the investigation started in December and is still in progress. Metro Transit says it does involve staff at the maintenance facility, but would not specify which employees were under investigation. Sources tell 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS it does involve managers as well as hourly employees. Those same sources say part of the allegations that lead to the investigation include the exchange of pills and firearms for coveted overtime shifts at the maintenance facility.

“You know, those Capitol janitors will not get as much overtime. I’m sure they think less pay, that they’re taking home, does hurt.” — Gene Sperling, director of the White House economic council, on ABC News’ “This Week,” March 3, 2013 “On the issue of the janitors, if you work for an hourly wage and you earn overtime, and you depend on that overtime to make ends meet, it is simply a fact that a reduction in overtime is a reduction in your pay.” — White House spokesman Jay Carney, news briefing, March 4 At a news conference last Friday,...

It's unknown how many public employees are spiking their pensions by working huge amounts of overtime. The problem is that no one is watching. And that lack of oversight means it is also unclear whether there's any financial impact on Minnesota's public pension funds. Some experts say it's become a pervasive problem nationally, at least among public workers who have the ability to work overtime in their final years before retirement. "It angers those who are playing by the rules," said Ed Siedle, a Florida-based lawyer who has been dubbed the "pension detective" for his work uncovering abuse and fraud....

Most Orland firefighters made more than $100,000 in 2010 Overtime added nearly $2 million to $21 million payroll By Andy Grimm and Steve Schmadeke, Tribune reporters July 20, 2011 The leaders of the Orland Fire Protection District say they're the best fire department in the state. At a minimum, they are probably among the best-paid, figures released Tuesday show. Of the 108 firefighters, lieutenants and engineers on the southwest suburban department's payroll last year, 79 were paid more than $100,000, according to salary data provided by new fire district board President James Hickey. Those paychecks were pumped up by overtime...

Madison's highest paid employee no longer drives a bus - not even close. Only one Metro Transit driver used overtime and other extra earnings to make more than $100,000 in 2010, down from seven six-figure-salary operators the previous year, a Wisconsin State Journal analysis of city records shows. In fact, after Metro added more drivers and spread overtime work, operators dropped from the city's 25 top earners last year. "We need to be true to our mission - safety, reliability and cost-effective service," Kamp said. "I think we're on a sustainable course." Bus driver John E. Nelson made $113,973 to...