Who Hijacked Our Country

Sunday, March 06, 2005

No More Overtime Pay?

The Senate has two competing measures for increasing the federal minimum wage. Both measures are amendments that may be inserted into the bankruptcy bill that’s currently being debated (more on the bankruptcy bill in a future post). And Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) is trying to insert an amendment that would eliminate weekly overtime pay.

The minimum wage is currently $5.15 an hour; the last increase was in September 1997. After adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage is now at its second lowest level of the past 45 years.

Ted Kennedy wants the minimum wage increased, in several stages, to $7.25 per hour by the middle of 2007. Santorum is pushing for an increase to just $6.25 an hour, in addition to eliminating weekly overtime pay. He wants to replace the 40-hour week with an 80-hour two-week period. In other words, an employee could be forced to work 50 or 60 hours in one week, with no overtime pay, as long as the total doesn’t exceed 80 hours in a 2-week period.

Christ, what’s next for the chopping block? Let’s see, these Child Labor laws sure are intrusive. Who needs a bunch of Socialistic bureaucrats meddling in the personal affairs of employers? And those wimpy safety regulations for coddling the workforce — don’t get me started…

3 Comments:

Blogger total said...

Why don't we just raise it to $15/ hour and eliminate poverty completely!

March 6, 2005 at 3:30 AM  
Blogger Kevin said...

Santorum is painfully irritating. He is especially irritating when he talks about gay marriage leading to men having sex with dogs or something weird like that. Now we have him hoping for the end of overtime pay. Go figure.

March 6, 2005 at 3:46 PM  
Blogger fm_illuminatus said...

Because john, then employers would have to pay EVERYONE $15 and hour, because they couldn't afford the higher wages, if the min wage is already so high.

March 6, 2005 at 4:34 PM  

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