http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpmob043654888feb04,0,762218.storyAt the moment, Chao's prime offense is promotion of changes in overtime pay rules. They would deprive an estimated 8 million workers - such as secretaries, sales representatives, and medical or legal workers - of their right to time-and-a-half premium pay when they work more than 40 hours a week. Last month, Chao testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee that only 644,000 workers would lose that protection. But Economic Policy Institute economist Jared Bernstein explained how the Labor Department ignored large groups of affected workers to come up with its inaccurate, low-ball number.
Chao also insisted that the new rules would make 1.3 million new workers eligible for overtime pay, but Bernstein showed that fewer than 700,000 would benefit. Even many of those workers could be denied the premium overtime pay if employers follow the suggestions that the Labor Department helpfully provided. Departmental guidelines illustrate how employers could first lower workers' base pay, then add the overtime premium, so that the employers will pay no more than they do now.
The law was originally intended to exempt a small number of executive, administrative and highly educated professional employees from the requirement that their employers pay a premium for overtime.
But Chao's Labor Department vastly expanded the definition of what counts as professional training. Now the training that veterans received in the military could be used as an excuse to deny them overtime pay for such jobs as engineer, accountant or medical technologist.
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