Column by Gary M. Wisenbaker
Tallahassee, Fla.—While the country’s social engineer-in-chief President Barack Obama issued transgender bathroom orders and threats to the nation’s school districts, his Department of Labor took advantage of the distraction to fundamentally change the dynamics of the American workplace.
Up until the DOL issued its new edict governing overtime pay this week, salaried—not “on the clock”—employees paid less than $47,476 a year did not automatically qualify for overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours a week. Now they do.
The former threshold was $23,660. The new rule will affect 4.2 million employees.
What the Socialist-Democrats cannot accomplish through the legislative branch or other constitutional routes (like, say, raising the minimum wage), they will do by fiat or regulation.
And this the administration did.
It did so by revising the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), passed by Congress in 1938. FLSA had three objectives: prohibit child labor, enact a minimum wage, and require that workers putting in more than 40 hours in a single week be paid time and a half for each incremental hour. Noble objectives, certainly.
It is now being used to erode middle class stability by further weakening the bargaining rights of employers and employees. Not so noble.
You see, Middle America is basically middle management. And the newly raised salary threshold amount is one of middle management’s benchmarks.
Breaking into middle management from hourly status is a step toward upper management, just like earning minimum wage is the training ground for higher wages. It is a natural progression rightly governed by the market place.
Salaried positions in this stratum are useful to employee and employer alike. Time cards don’t have to be kept; workers have more control over the when, where, and how of getting their job done. It is performance based: bonuses and other benefits (like “comp days” and vacation pay) are awarded to those who excel and exhibit drive and ambition in their job.
It contributes to the development of workplace leadership skills and judgment.
The DOL’s action will end all this.
The flexibility presently enjoyed by the employee to work the way he or she deems best will vanish. Working remotely will also vanish as there will be no effective way to track time. And with the 40 hour cut off, bonuses and other benefits are sure to be eliminated.
Look for businesses to take defensive actions. Salaried employees will see their wages or time cut back so that should that 50 hour week pop up their compensation will still be the same. Positions will be eliminated or tasks reassigned to obviate the need for 40 plus hour weeks.
And some may even find themselves cut to part time status (30 hours) and while this might also include new hires, those new positions will be part time and inferior overall, but such jobs are the crowning achievement of this administration.
Exactly how these results are beneficial to any class or race of Americans, as the DOL suggests, tortures the imagination.
This DOL mandate is a direct assault on not only the American middle class but the fundamental right to enter into private employment contracts as well, a cornerstone of a free market economy.
That this administration would push such a profound change in the market place comes as no surprise.
The Socialist-Democrats truly believe in the equality of poverty and disincentivisation. It is how governments control the citizenry. And work place achievement is a direct and proximate threat to that goal.
Their goal is to nationalize (and therefore regulate) as many relationships as possible, from healthcare to the workplace.
And this must end.
Gary M. Wisenbaker is a corporate communications and political consultant. He can be contacted at gary@blackstonestrategy.com
