The Fair Labor Standards Act, which requires overtime pay for worktime exceeding 40 hours in a workweek, needs to be strengthened, as the courts have opened loophole after loophole that allow employers to require employees to work for free. The House of Representatives last week passed the Working Families Flexibility Act, which would only weaken further the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Teresa Tritch offers a good analysis of this legislation for the New York Times: The Family Unfriendly Act.
Two points that are right on:
- The bill, in brief, is worse than meritless; it is a fraud.
- For employers, then, the bill is a way to impose extra work at no additional cost, effectively shifting what would otherwise be worker pay into corporate profits.
