Linda Chavez-Thompson on Overtime Pay
Linda Chavez-Thompson
AFL-CIO Executive Vice President
June 2003

Video

Republican-Led Assaults on Overtime Pay Threaten Millions of Workers' Paychecks (1:05)
For generations, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has required employers to pay most workers time-and-a-half for more than 40 hours of work a week. America's workers depend on overtime pay to support their families, especially in these tough economic times of widespread joblessness, stagnant or declining wages, skyrocketing health care and prescription drug costs and rising child care costs. And while working families struggle to make ends meet, the Bush administration and Republican leaders in Congress are proposing changes in the FLSA that would erode the 40-hour workweek and could deny overtime pay to millions of America's workers, including police officers, firefighters, skilled health care workers, military reservists and many more. The Bush administration has proposed new regulations limiting workers' overtime eligibility. Congressional Republicans have proposed legislation to allow employers to offer comp time in lieu of paid overtime. These changes would be a major step backward for working families who struggled so hard to win the 40-hour workweek, the weekend and other job protections.

Video

The 'Family Time Flexibility Act' Does Nothing to Help Working Families (1:00)
Under the guise of helping working moms and dads have extra hours with their children, the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress are trying to strip away workers' guaranteed rights to overtime pay. This is another example of the Bush administration and congressional allies working to help Big Business at the expense of working families. The so-called Family Time Flexibility Act does not provide any more work schedule flexibility to workers than they already have under the current FLSA. All the flexibility and all the important decision making rights would go to the employer. Employers still would control when workers could use their earned comp time and could assign overtime only to those workers who agree to take time off instead of pay. The proposed changes to comp time are about cutting costs for employers, not improving the quality of life for workers.

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Bush Wants to Save Employers Billions—At Workers' Expense (1:07)
Bush's proposal to end overtime pay—which will cheat millions of workers—is backed by Big Business and its lobbyists, including groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business. The FLSA's current overtime rules protect workers from being forced to work more than 40 hours a week without being paid overtime. The Bush proposal allows employers to classify hundreds of thousands more workers as "exempt," making them ineligible for time-and-a-half pay after 40 hours of work per week. Exempting more workers from overtime pay means a pay cut for millions of America's workers. Under the Bush plan, even some working families who are eligible for food stamps would not be eligible for overtime pay.

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Unions and America's Workers Are Fighting Back to Stop the Attack on Overtime (1:05)
Overtime pay cuts being pushed by the Bush administration, Big Business and congressional Republicans are slated to go into effect for millions of workers as early as September. These changes mean that if workers receive overtime pay now, they might not in the future. To save the federal overtime pay protections now under attack, the AFL-CIO and union activists are launching a grassroots campaign that will include e-mail activism and a massive postcard mailing by union members this summer. We are encouraging all workers to get involved in this very important issue. Fax President George W. Bush and your legislators a letter today letting them know how important overtime pay is to you and your family and opposing any changes that will take away your overtime protections. You also can voice your opposition to Bush's attack on overtime pay by sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor before June 30. To learn more about taking action on this issue, visit www.unionvoice.org. America's workers already are struggling to keep their jobs and pay their bills in this failing economy. They deserve to be paid for overtime work and they should not be burdened with the threat of losing this hard-earned protection.

Visit the Media Center to hear audio clips of AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson's interview on overtime pay.