Fwd: Comp time should not replace overtime

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Economic Policy Institute" <newsletter@epi.org>
Date: Apr 9, 2017 8:07 AM
Subject: Comp time should not replace overtime
To: <johnwshc@gmail.com>
Cc:

EPI News—Our most important stories this week False choice for workers—Flexibility or overtime pay In February, the Working Families Flexibility Act was introduced; this legislation would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to allow private-sector employers to get out of the requirement to pay overtime and instead give hourly employees comp time. In a new policy memo, EPI's Ross Eisenbrey and Celine McNicholas explain that the bill does not give working families more flexibility—it simply lets employers delay paying any wages for overtime work for as long as 13 months. Share this policy memo: Overtime already protects working people more than comp time would. Share Tweet Wall Street advisers vs. working people Investment advisers are bilking Americans out of $46 million a day because the Department of Labor has delayed implementation of the fiduciary rule, which requires financial advisers to work in their clients' best interests. The Trump administration wants to reexamine and possibly kill the rule. EPI's Heidi Shierholz notes that the only beneficiary of delaying or killing the fiduciary rule is the financial industry. She urges people to submit public comments to the Department of Labor to tell the Trump administration to side with working people rather than with the finance industry. H-1B guest-worker program needs reform to make it fairer to migrant and American workers EPI's Daniel Costa analyzes the major flaws in the H-1B guest-worker visa program and describes the reforms needed to stop abuse of the H-1B system by unscrupulous employers. The biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B program, says Costa, are outsourcing companies that have hijacked the system—using between one-third and one-half of the visas—to replace thousands of U.S. workers with much-lower-paid H-1B workers while also sending tech jobs abroad. You can't mansplain away the gender pay gap April 4th was Equal Pay Day, a reminder that a significant pay gap still exists between men and women in our country. Equal Pay Day is April 4th because it marks when a typical woman's earnings catch up to what a man earned in the previous year. A new Economic Snapshot shows that, on average in 2016, women were paid 22 percent less than men, even after controlling for race and ethnicity, education, experience, and location. From the EPI blog Policy Watch: Amid a busy week, Congress and the president find time to roll back protections for working people By Celine McNicholas What to Watch on Jobs Day: The Fed should keep their foot off the brake and let the economy reach genuine full employment By Elise Gould Stop looking to the federal government on early childhood education By Elaine Weiss Workers are never better off under comp time than overtime—and they are typically worse off By Heidi Shierholz Trump administration trade policy review misses the big picture By Robert E. Scott Unions help narrow the gender wage gap By Celine McNicholas, Elise Gould EPI in the news In a story about Equal Pay Day, CBS Moneywatch cited EPI research that finds "women's pay lags that of men with similar education and experience after they have children, even though men see no corresponding fatherhood penalty." | Equal Pay Day: 5 key points about the gender wage gap » Vox featured a chart with EPI data showing that "median wages for white women at $17.70 an hour have now outpaced those of all black and Hispanic workers," but "all women still lag far behind white men, who made $21.86 in median wages last year." | The gender and racial wage gap, in one chart » EPI's Heidi Shierholz and NELP's Raj Nayak wrote an op-ed in Fortune about the Trump administration's 60-day delay of the fiduciary rule, noting that the delay would cost investors $181 million this year. | President Trump's directive just cost investors $181 million this year » In a story about President Trump's preliminary renegotiation of NAFTA, The Washington Post cited EPI research finding that, from 1994 to 2010, roughly 700,000 jobs were lost due to the trade agreement. | Trump just kicked off NAFTA renegotiation. Here's what history tells us about how that'll go. » NBC News interviewed EPI's Elise Gould about the gender pay gap: "At the bottom, there's just so far down women's wages can go. They are protected by some degree by the minimum wage," said Gould. "But as you move up, women are not occupying places at the top the way men are. The wage gap at the top is much larger." | Trump pulls back Obama-era protections for women workers » Share this newsletter: EPI News—Comp time should not replace overtime Share

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