President Trump talks a lot about bringing jobs back to the United States. About withdrawing from international trade agreements to protect American workers. About giving a boost to industries like coal to put more people back to work.
Don’t let his words fool you.
Every parent has told a child, “Actions speak louder than words.” That goes for adults too. And the truth is, Trump’s actions have actually done more to hurt workers than help them.
Overtime pay is a case in point. By law, if you’re not a manager you get paid time and a half after you work 40 hours in a week. If you’re a manager, you don’t.
So who counts as a manager, and who doesn’t? It depends on how much you earn. The Obama administration said, if you earned more than $47,800, you counted as a manager. If you earned less, you didn’t. That meant, you were entitled to overtime.
President Trump plans to rewrite the rule. His idea is to lower the minimum pay needed to be considered a manager. Remember, managers don’t get overtime.
As you can guess, Trumps friends in the business community are delighted. The change saves them lots of money because more people will be considered managers.
But the change may cost you.
Before President Obama adjusted the overtime rule to $47,800, it was $23,660. That means, if you earned $24,000 a year, you were considered management and were not allowed to get overtime pay.
Let’s be clear. A yearly income of $24,000 is $600 below the 2017 Federal Poverty Level for a family of four.
The $23,660 rule dates back to 2004. Is this what President Trump has in mind? Taking away overtime pay for 13 million middle-class workers. Even if Trump’s number is greater than $23,660, millions of workers will be prevented from earning overtime. One of them could be you.
As Representative Mark Takano, Democrat of California), observed, “The overtime salary threshold has been so low for so long that most employees are not even aware that they’re losing out on the pay or time with their families they earned.”
If you think President Trump is on your side, think again.