Sanders effort to increase overtime earnings for Americans
Sanders, Murray & Other Senators Push For End to Overtime Rule to Protect Workers
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, today asked President Obama to immediately make changes to labor laws that would end the practice of workers being denied overtime pay simply because they are labeled “supervisors.”
In many cases, those “supervisors” may be paid as little as $23,660 a year but receive no overtime when they work more than 40 hours a week.
Sanders’ call for the law change came in a letter written with Sen. Patty Murray and XXX other senators.
“We need to change outdated overtime rules so that businesses can’t shirk their responsibility simply by labeling workers earning as little as $24,000 a year as supervisors,” Sanders said. “Updating these rules could increase the take-home pay of an estimated 24 million workers who are now making less than $57,000 a year. I believe this reform is essential to helping middle-class families and I am pleased that so many of my colleagues agree.”
“Too many Americans are working longer and harder without anything to show for their efforts in their paychecks,” the senators wrote in the letter that also was sent to U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
“These long hours are straining middle-class workers and their families. Since the 1970s, average salaries for middle-class individuals have dropped even while salaried workers have increased the hours they spend on the job. Strengthening overtime protections will help millions of middle class families,” the senators wrote.
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Contact: Vince Morris (202) 224-3728
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