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OPA News Release: [01/20/2004]
Contact Name: Lisa
Kruska
Phone Number: (202) 693-4676
Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao Testifies in Support of
Proposal to Update Overtime Protections for White-Collar Workers
WASHINGTON—In congressional testimony today, U.S. Labor
Secretary Elaine L. Chao debunked a number of myths, distortions and
inaccuracies about the department’s proposal to update the nation’s
overtime regulations for white-collar workers, saying the proposal will
“strengthen overtime protections for millions of low-wage and middle-class
workers and empower workers to understand and insist on their overtime rights.
If the Department is blocked from issuing updated, stronger overtime
protections, these workers will continue to suffer.” Secretary Chao
delivered her testimony in front of the U.S. Senate Appropriations
Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education
and Related Agencies.
“The Department’s overtime reform proposal will not
eliminate overtime protections for 8 million workers, will not eliminate
overtime protections for police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other
first responders, will not eliminate overtime protections for nurses,
will not eliminate overtime protections for carpenters, electricians,
mechanics, plumbers, laborers, teamsters, construction workers, production line
workers and other blue-collar employees; and will not affect union
workers covered by collective bargaining agreements,” Secretary Chao
testified.
“The Department’s reform will strengthen overtime
protections for millions of low-wage and middle-class workers, will
empower workers to understand and insist on their overtime rights, will
enable the Department of Labor to vigorously enforce the law, will
prevent unscrupulous employers from playing games with workers’ overtime
pay, and will put an end to the lawsuit lottery that is delaying justice
for workers and stifling our economy with billions of dollars in needless
litigation.”
For the first time since 1975, the Department’s proposed
regulations would raise the salary threshold—below which workers would
automatically qualify for overtime—from $155 a week to $425 a week, or
$8,060 per year, to $22,100 per year. This increase of $270 a week, or $14,040
per year, would be the largest since Congress passed the FLSA in 1938. The
impact of this revision will be to increase the wages of 1.3 million
lower-income workers and reduce the number of low-wage salaried workers
currently being denied overtime pay.
Other proposed changes include revising job duties required to qualify
for the exemption to better correspond to 21st century workplace
realities. The old regulations, written in 1949, mention job classifications
that no longer exist, such as key punch operators, straw bosses, leg men and
gang leaders. Clarifying which job duties qualify for overtime pay will help
workers and employers easily determine overtime entitlement for millions of
workers whose status is currently unclear.
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