Ending Overtime Abuse

So the Obama administration finally did something to end the abuse of salaried workers. The President finally changed the rules on overtime so that salaried workers can earn more for the time that they put in on the job.

Overtime for hourly workers means that after forty hours they earn time and a half. When I worked in the restaurant industry years ago, this overtime was the difference in making ends meet or losing my life to working two jobs.

Now salaried people can see their wages go up to almost $50,000 if they work overtime.

And that is a good thing because I know many salaried people that are working 50 to 60 hours a week and getting nothing for it. Supposedly they make it up in the weeks that they work under 40 hours, but few of them actually work under 40 hours.

Back in the late 1980s my one manager heard us complaining about how poorly we were paid compared to management and the higher ups in the corporation. So he kept track of his hours one week, and it was a very busy week. For the $3.85 I made per hour of work, he made $2.65 an hour. (And the wait staff made even less than him. Tips don't always get tehm up to minimum wage.)

And in all things that the capitalist presidents do, there has to be a down side to it.

After all – look at the “Affordable Care Act” that was supposed to help end the health insurance crisis in this country. What did the Obama Administration do? Basically forced people to buy insurance from private health care corporations. It increased their profits and used our tax dollars to do it. This was good for us because? And there are still millions without health insurance that need it. And communities without access to hospitals and health clinics. A single payer, Medicare-for-all system funded by a revision in the Social Security tax code would have solved the insurance aspect of that problem better.

So, I am waiting to see who gets screwed over by the change in overtime rules. Obama serves the capitalists well when he does something. I'm waiting for someone to pull the curtain back.

I know that it changes nothing for teachers. That was to be expected.

One change that I did notice was in an article in the Business section of the Buffalo News. In order to avoid paying overtime, some businesses are going to be hiring more workers. So the workers that are on salary might not even be able to benefit financially from this change.

Then again, hiring more workers means that unemployment will go down. This will give workers some leverage against the capitalist owners of businesses because the workers will tend to want to go where they are paid better and receive better benefits. So there might be some increase in these areas.

But I'm still waiting for the curtain to be pulled back. There is always something that benefits the capitalist class. It just has not been found yet.

So let us cheer and celebrate the fact that salaried workers can now at least receive overtime wages. No more being pushed for hours beyond 40 for nothing extra in their pockets.