Obama Expanded Overtime to 4 Million Workers; Trump & GOP Reversing It

At Smart Dissent, we are endlessly trying to keep up with the Republican destruction of our government that will never make headlines.  These are NOT minor things; they have significant impacts on large amounts of the population.  The distractions of a criminally corrupt Trump administration is making it impossible for almost anyone to know about things like this post.

The Department of Labor is scaling back an Obama-era rule that would have doubled the maximum salary for a worker to qualify for overtime pay, according to a proposed rule the agency sent to the Office of the Federal Register for public review.

Trump’s labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, said he would create a watered-down version of Obama’s rule. Now the agency is only lifting the salary limit from $23,000 to $35,000 and scrapping the cost-of-living increases; that means about 2.8 million of the 4 million workers who expected to get overtime benefits won’t get them.

Companies were relieved, and workers were furious.

Businesses were furious with Obama admin that they would have to pay fair overtime workers to more employees.  Basically, workers needed changes but Republicans are bowing to the corporations.  Same as always.  

The new overtime rule is the latest example of the Trump administration’s efforts to loosen Obama-era worker protections through business deregulation.

By doubling the salary threshold, the new rule would have ensured that the bottom 40 percent of salaried workers will qualify for overtime — a boon to many in the food service industry and elsewhere at the lower ends of the labor market.

Business groups have been quite effective in keeping it this way, making sure Congress and the executive branch make the fewest adjustments possible.

All in all, the Labor Department says the new rule will transfer about $400 million from US employers to their workers each year for the next 10 years.

That should have a minimal impact on businesses. The $1.5 trillion tax cutCongress gave them last year will surely cover it.

Source: https://www.vox.com/2019/3/12/18259816/obama-overtime-rule-trump-labor-department