Defend Overtime Pay for Millions of Hard Working People

From the Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epi.org/):

There’s nothing scarier than a Department of Labor that sides with Big Business and the Chamber of Commerce over working people. And yet, in the first year of the Donald Trump’s presidency, that’s exactly what we’ve seen―from letting employers hide fatal injuries of employees to undermining Obama-era rules that protect retirement savers from unscrupulous Wall Street “advisers.”

Now, the Trump administration has another chance to show whose side it’s on as the Department of Labor considers how to address the overtime pay of millions of working people.

Last year, in the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency, the Department of Labor updated the overtime pay rule to extend overtime eligibility to 4.9 million more working people, and strengthen the rights of 7.6 million more.

But, this August, a Texas district court ruled in favor of business interests, ruling that the updated overtime regulation was invalid. Will the Trump administration defend the new overtime salary threshold of $47,476 or cave to the Chamber of Commerce and lower the threshold, hurting the overtime pay of millions of working people?

Go to http://www.epi.org/action/demand-dol-protect-overtime-pay/ to sign the petition to the Department of Labor demanding that it defend overtime pay for millions of working people and commit to the Obama-era overtime salary threshold of at least $47,476.

Back in 1975, President Gerald Ford’s Labor Department set the salary level for overtime exemption at well over $50,000 in today’s dollars―high enough to cover more than 60 percent of full-time salaried workers. The Obama-era rule set it at $47,476―high enough to cover about one-third of full-time salaried employees but lower than the level that it was in the 1970s. That’s why the salary threshold should be at least $47,476 and it should be indexed going forward to maintain its value as wages and prices rise.

Donald Trump uses a lot of rhetoric in support of working people. But his actions speak louder than words.

Demand the Department of Labor defend the overtime pay of 12.5 million working people and commit to the Obama-era salary threshold of at least $47,476.

At a time of massive income inequality, strengthening overtime protections for low- and middle-income families is one of the most important actions we can take.