Information pertaining to Overtime
Press releases, background information, and articles
Update on Overtime Pay Protection (updated February 15, 2005)
Despite strenuous objections from the public and Democrats in Congress, new overtime regulations defining who an administrative, executive, or professional employee exempt from the overtime pay requirements went into effect on August 23, 2004. Although the Bush Administration insists that they will not strip overtime pay from many workers that now rely on it, scrutiny of the regulations reveals that millions of workers stand to lose their right to overtime pay. On five separate occasions, majorities in the House or the Senate, voted against implementing the Bush Administration regulations. Despite this the Republican leadership successfully thwarted the majority will by preventing votes on the overtime issue on key appropriations bills.
“A significant number of employees may be adversely affected by the new regulations. When you start to read the fine print, you see that overtime pay for potentially millions of employees making between $23,660 and $100,000 is at risk, including employees working in financial services, chefs, computer programmers, route drivers, assistant retail managers, pre-school teachers, team leaders, and many other categories of employees. The regulations raise serious questions about whether registered nurses will continue to receive overtime pay . . . far from clarifying the law, the Department’s new regulation opens a floodgate of new litigation, confusion, and fear by employers and employees. The Department even admits that the new regulations will prompt employers to begin scrutinizing the overtime status of 2.4 million employees.” -- Representative George Miller
“This regulation is going to decrease the rights of workers and do very little if anything to decrease the litigation that employers are experiencing. What I want you to know is that most of the flaws in this regulation are going to negatively affect workers earning between $23,660 and $100,000 per year. Many of these employees work in businesses that the Department has identified as low-wage industries. Some of them are: nursery school teachers, nurses, chefs, team leaders, outside sales people, and financial service employees.” -- Karen Dulaney Smith, Wage and Hour Investigator with the Department of Labor from 1987 to 1999
- Press Releases
- Background Information
- News Articles
Press Releases
- Press Release -- September 9, 2004
By Wide Margin, House Again Repudiates Bush Administration Efforts to Cut Workers' Overtime Pay
- Press Release -- August 23, 2004
Representative Miller Statement on New Anti-Overtime Rules; ‘President Bush does not have the interests of American workers at heart’
- Press Release -- July 14, 2004
House Republicans Vote to Cut Workers' Pay; Once Again, GOP Lawmakers Attack Workers’ Overtime Pay Protections
- Press Release -- July 14, 2004
New Reports Show How Bush Overtime Changes Will Force Millions of Workers to Work More Hours For Less Pay; At appropriations markup today, Democrats will again attempt to save overtime pay
- Press Release -- July 13, 2004
Independent Report Confirms That New Labor Department Regulations Will Jeopardize Overtime Pay for "Large Numbers of Workers"
- Press Release -- April 28, 2004
Statement by Representative George Miller: Hearing on “Assessing the Impact of the Labor Department's Final Overtime Regulations on Workers and Employers”; Also see Testimony of Karen Dulaney Smith, Wage and Hour Consultant
- Press Release -- April 20, 2004
Bush Plan Still Cuts Overtime Pay
- Press Release -- January 22, 2004
Statement on Overtime from Representative George Miller
- Press Release -- January 9, 2004
Representative Miller Demands Labor Secretary Chao Repudiate Advice to Employers on How to Game New Overtime Pay Laws; To Counter Chao, Miller Plans to Post Information on Web Page for Employees on How They Can Get the Overtime Pay They’ve Earned
- Press Release -- October 30, 2003
Statement by George Miller: Support the Rights of Employees to Overtime Pay, Support the Harkin Amendment
- Press Release -- October 2, 2003
Miller Hails Vote to Protect Overtime Pay
- Press Release -- October 2, 2003
Miller and House Democrats Today Urge Congress to Stop the Bush Plan to Take Away Overtime Pay
- Press Release -- September 10, 2003
Miller Comments on Senate Passage of Harkin Overtime Amendment
- Press Release -- July 10, 2003
House Republicans Vote to Take Overtime Pay from Millions of Middle Class Employees; House votes with a razor thin margin against a Democratic effort to stop the President’s proposed overtime pay rules
- Press Release -- July 9, 2003
Fight in the House to Save Overtime Pay For Millions of Working Families; Representatives Obey and Miller Plan to Offer Amendment to Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill
- Press Release -- July 8, 2003
House Democrats Call for Congressional Hearings on Proposed Changes to Overtime
- Press Release -- June 30, 2003
Over 100 Lawmakers Urge Secretary Chao to Withdraw Regulations that Will Curtail Overtime Pay for Millions of Workers
- Press Release -- June 3, 2003
Statement from Congressman George Miller from a News Conference Regarding Republican
Legislation To Weaken Overtime Law
- Press Release -- March 27, 2003
Bush Administration Admits Its New Overtime Regulations Would Deny Overtime Pay to 640,000 Office Employees Earning on Average $50,000 per year
Background Information
- Statement -- 9/13/2004
Statement by Representative Miller on the House Floor regarding overtime pay and pay cuts for middle class families
- Letter -- September 8, 2004 (pdf file)
Letter of support to the Obey Labor/HHS overtime amendment from the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, AFL-CIO, CLC
- Letter -- September 8, 2004 (pdf file)
International Brotherhood of Teamsters letter of support on the Obey Amendment on overtime to the Labor/HHS bill
- Letter -- September 8, 2004 (pdf file)
Letter in opposition to H.R. 5006, the Fiscal Year 2005 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, from the American Federation of Teachers
- Letter -- September 8, 2004 (pdf file)
Letter of support for the Obey Amendment regarding the Department of Labor's proposed regulatory changes to the overtime eligibility rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act from organizations representing working women
- Letter -- September 8, 2004 (pdf file)
United Steelworkers of America letter of support for the Obey Overtime Amendment on Labor/HHS
- Letter -- September 8, 2004 (pdf file)
Letter of support for the Obey Amendment from organizations that advocate civil rights
- Report -- July 26, 2004 (pdf file)
Overworked, Underpaid, and Under Attack: The Bush Administration Plan to Deny Overtime Pay to 6 Million Americans; A report by the Democratic Staff of the House Appropriations and House Education and Workforce Committees
- Chart -- April 2004
Does the Department of Labor's Final Overtime Regulation Still Contain Overtime Cuts?
- Statement -- July 10, 2003
Statement by George Miller on the House Floor regarding the Obey-Miller Overtime Amendment
- Dear Colleague Letter -- July 9, 2003
Save Overtime Pay for Millions of Working Families; Support Obey/Miller Amendment to Labor/HHS Amendment
- Report by the Economic Policy Institute -- June 26, 2003
Eliminating the right to overtime pay; Department of Labor proposal means lower pay, longer hours for millions of workers
- Dear Colleague Letter -- May 5, 2003
Comp Time: Work More, Earn Less
News Articles
- Editorial from the St. Petersburg Times -- September 20, 2004
New rules threaten workers
- Article from the Associated Press -- September 15, 2004
Senate Panel Votes to Derail New Overtime Rules
- Article from the New York Times -- September 10, 2004
House Votes to Block Administration's Rules on Overtime
- Article from the Los Angeles Times -- September 10, 2004
Defying Bush, House Votes to Block New Overtime Rules
- Article from the Wall Street Journal -- September 10, 2004
House Votes to Bar Enforcing
of New Overtime Rules
- Article from the Associated Press -- September 10, 2004
House Votes to Overturn New Overtime Rules
- Article from the New York Times -- April 4, 2004
Altering of Worker Time Cards Spurs Growing Number of Suits
- Article from the Daily Labor Report -- December 12, 2003
Pursuit of Overtime Changes Illustrates Power of 'Special Interests,' Democrats Say
- Editorial from the New York Times -- October 8, 2003
Time and a Half in the Capitol
- Article from Wall Street Journal -- October 3, 2003
House, in Shift, Votes to Reject Changes to Overtime-Pay Rules
- Article from the Washington Post -- October 3, 2003
In a Switch, House Rejects Bush Overtime Proposal; 7 in GOP Reverse Earlier Support of New Rules
- Article from the Los Angeles Times -- October 3, 2003
House Opposes Bush Overtime Proposal; Lawmakers abandon their backing of a regulation that would deny extra pay for many workers. Democrats cheer the rare victory
- Article from the New York Times -- October 3, 2003
House Rebuffs the White House Over Rules to Limit Overtime Pay
- Article from the New York Times -- September 13, 2003
Democrats Find Some Traction on Capitol Hill
- Article from the Los Angeles Times -- September 11, 2003
Senate Opposes White House Rewrite of Overtime Rules; Six Republicans join Democrats against a plan to reduce those eligible for extra pay
- Article from the New York Times -- September 11, 2003
Senate Democrats Block New Rules on Overtime
- Article from the Washington Post -- September 11, 2003
Senate Blocks Overtime Revamp; 54 to 45 Vote Is Rare Victory for Democrats, Labor
- Editorial from the New York Times -- July 3, 2003
The Quiet Shift in Overtime
- Editorial by Bob Herbert from the New York Times -- July 3, 2003
Picking Workers' Pockets
|