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A Daily Chronicle of Bush Administration Distortion

November 14, 2003

Bush Veto Threat May Lead Congress to Reverse Itself on Overtime Pay

With the White House "show[ing] no inclination to compromise,"¹ House and Senate conferees are likely to strip a provision protecting overtime from proposed Labor Department changes that would deny overtime pay to as many as 8 million workers.²

Earlier this fall, both the House and Senate voted for the provision to block the proposed overtime rules from enactment. However, the White House has repeatedly threatened to veto any legislation that blocks implementation of its overtime overhaul.³

President Bush says in almost every speech in which he discusses tax relief, "when Americans have more take home pay to spend, to save, or invest, the whole economy grows and people are more likely to find a job. So we're returning more money to the people to help them raise their families."⁴ But the White House insistence that the overtime rules be allowed to take effect will guarantee that millions of U.S. workers will receive less pay for the same amount of work.

Analysis by the Economic Policy Institute shows that 2.5 million salaried workers will lose their right to overtime pay and that an additional 5.5 million hourly workers are at risk of being shifted to salaried employment and losing their status -- 8 million workers total.⁵

The administration claims the proposed rule will guarantee overtime pay to 1.3 million workers who were previously ineligible,³ while minimizing the point that roughly hundreds of thousands, by the administration's own calculations, will become ineligible under the new rule change.⁶

The administration's assertion that 1.3 million new workers will become eligible for overtime pay takes the number of workers who earn between the current minimum salary level of $8,060 and the proposed level of $22,100. But the figure includes 600,000 workers who are not white collar workers covered under the current regulations, and therefore would not be considered under the revised regulation.⁷

Sources:

"Stevens Says Media Caps Will Stay In Appropriations Bill," National Journal's Congress Daily, 11/12/03.
"Eliminating the Right to Overtime Pay", Economic Policy Institute, 6/26/03.
"Statement of Administration Policy," Office of Management and Budget, 7/8/03; "Statement of Administration Policy," Office of Management and Budget, 9/2/03.
Presidential Speech, 11/07/03.
Ibid.
"U.S. Department of Labor Proposal Will Secure Overtime for 1.3 Million More Low-Wage Workers", Labor Department Press Release, 3/27/03; "White House Proposes New Rules for Overtime," New York Times, 3/28/03, p. A11.
"Letter to Rep. Randy Cunningham Re: inquiries about the Department of Labor's proposed revisions to overtime regulations," Economic Policy Institute, 10/29/03.

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