The president of the United States and the president of the AFL-CIO
President Obama has said he plans to expand overtime protections to cover more workers. The question is how much expansion and how many more workers, and
some progressives are concerned that Obama and his Labor Department will go small, setting the salary threshold below which workers are required to get overtime too low, perhaps as low as $42,000 a year. That would only cover 35 percent of salaried workers. By comparison, in 1975, 65 percent of workers were under the overtime threshold.
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, is among those pushing for Obama to think bigger than $42,000:
“The spotlight is now on raising wages,” Trumka told me. “Raising wages is the key unifying progressive value that ties all the pieces of economic and social justice together. We think the president has a great opportunity to show that he is behind that agenda by increasing the overtime regulations to a minimum threshold of $51,168. That’s the marker.” [...]
“Why would you settle for a figure that excludes millions of people when [business interests are] not going to support that, either?” asked Trumka, who has also cut a Web video spelling out his case. “The president should go full throttle on restoring the 40-hour work week and not dilute this opportunity for raising wages.”
Average hourly earnings
fell in the latest jobs report, which you would think would bolster the case that something has to be done about wages. The president can do that, and he should.
Join Daily Kos in asking President Obama to provide the same fair overtime protections for today’s middle class that were once enjoyed by our parents.