Don't be taken in by all the happy talk

By Sen. TOM HARKIN
KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE
To understand what the Bush administration is really up to, it pays to watch what they do, not what they say.
As the new Bush rule governing eligibility for overtime goes into effect, the administration is saying that it is acting to "strengthen overtime protections." The truth is that the administration's new overtime rule is designed to strip millions of workers of their right to time-and-a-half overtime pay. It is a frontal attack on the 40-hour workweek, pushed aggressively by the administration despite bipartisan opposition in Congress.
Since passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, overtime rights and the 40-hour workweek have been sacrosanct -- respected by presidents of both parties. Unfortunately Bush does not seem to value hard-working Americans and their right to overtime pay. Nor does this White House seem to care that the new rule will hurt job creation, which has all but ground to a halt in recent months.
If employers can more easily deny overtime pay, many will simply push their current employees to work longer hours without compensation.
Workers without overtime rights are twice as likely to work more than 40 hours a week. With million Americans out of work, why give employers a major new disincentive to hire new workers?
Happy talk
The new rule will deny time-and-a-half overtime pay to many workers earning as little as $23,660. Nonetheless, the administration's public posture is all smiles and happy talk, including the audacious claim that no workers earning less than $100,000 a year will lose their right to overtime.
This claim is demonstrably false. Last month, a study by the Economic Policy Institute concluded that at least 6 million U.S. workers will lose their right to overtime under the final rule. This includes nearly 2 million administrative workers who could lose their overtime rights if their boss simply gives them the title of "team leader," even if they will not supervise others.
EPI estimates that some 1.4 million workers earning as little as $23,660 will be reclassified as "executive" employees ineligible for overtime, even though they do little supervision and a great deal of manual or routine work. For example, an assistant manager at a McDonald's franchise who spends most of her time flipping burgers or filling orders, but spends, say, 10 percent of her time performing supervisory duties, could be ineligible for overtime.
Many people today work no more than 40 hours a week. So, they think the new rule does not affect them. However, under the new Bush regulations, they can now be "reclassified" and forced to work more than 40 hours a week with no time-and-a-half overtime pay.
The stakes for workers -- and for our economy -- are high. Bear in mind that time-and-a-half pay accounts for about 25 percent of the total income of Americans who work overtime. With average incomes declining and our consumer-driven economy still shaky, the proposed changes would slash the paychecks of millions or workers.
Administration's spin
American workers are fed up with the administration's schemes and spin.
They deserve an iron-clad guarantee that their overtime rights are safe.
If the Bush administration is sincere in its stated desire to preserve overtime, it can prove it by supporting my legislation to guarantee that workers who are entitled to overtime pay as a result of their job duties under the old rule will not lose that right under the new rule.
X Tom Harkin is a U.S. senator from Iowa. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.