But Big Labor efforts to gum up the works on disclosure reform pale in comparison to the misinformation campaign launched against another Chao initiative ? the proposed new rules on eligibility for overtime. Almost as soon as the new rules were published, a study followed from the pro-union Economic Policy Institute that claimed 6 million workers would lose overtime protection under the new rules. According to the Heritage Foundation, the EPI's analysis is "riddled with inaccuracies" and should be discounted by the general public and policymakers.
The fact is, nationwide, as the Heritage Foundation reports, nearly 1.3 million low-income white-collar workers who do not currently receive overtime protections would become eligible under the new regulations.
The rules are updates to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which, among other things, established the 40-hour workweek and mandated that non-executive employees required to work more than 40 hours per week receive time-and-a-half pay. The rules relate to who is considered a supervisor or executive ? and thus not eligible or exempt from the time-and-a-half requirement ? and who is not.
Most of the 15 pages of new rules are aimed at clarifying and simplifying the tests for which employees are considered overtime eligible to update them to fit the modern workplace. Many of the regulations affected have not been updated for 50 years, and changes in the workplace have brought considerable confusion and opportunity for abuse. For example, employers can designate workers who make as little as $8,060 per year as supervisors and thus get around paying them overtime. The rules raise that $23,660, which will make hundreds of thousands of low-level supervisors, such as those who work at burger joints and ice cream shops, eligible for overtime.
There have been numerous attempts in Congress and elsewhere to overturn these basic, fair concepts designed to protect the "little guy," and those who oppose the new rules still could hold the Labor Department appropriations legislation hostage.
Bill O'Reilly frequently asks the question, "Who's Looking Out For You?" When it comes to workers, that someone is Elaine Chao.