No Overtime

The headline doesn't refer to our hopes that this election doesn't go into OT like the primary or the 2000 presidential election. Rather, it refers to Kris Kobach's position on overtime for six million American workers. (Check the list to see if you could be one of them.)

Dan J. Smith of The Olathe Daily News has a story on this rarely discussed topic in this race: the Bush Administration's changes to overtime laws.*

The changes make it possible for employers to deny workers "time and a half" pay for work beyond the 40 hour work week. Overtime pay is an important part of many low-income families' budgets, particularly since some would still qualify for food stamps even if they made the maximum allowable under the new threshold.

While more low-income workers supposedly become eligible for overtime under the new rules, the Bush Administration published tips for employers on how to avoid paying overtime to these workers.

Kobach supports these new rules. Dennis Moore opposes them.


* The ODN uses the same link for their stories each day, so this story may be about something completely different by the time you go there.