Did you really think I would let the crazies spread their chicanery about pay and overtime?  Especially after we celebrated our freedom.  Really?

First, let’s review the situation that has obtained since the 1970’s.   This rule stipulated that employers could designate someone a manager- and, as long as they paid them more than $23,660, they never owed that person a dime of overtime.

Let’s consider this.   Assume the person NEVER works overtime.  And, gets two week’s vacation.   (Yup. I can fly to the moon unaided, too.)  That means these folks- who never earn overtime are being paid $ 11.83 an hour.  And, with our raising of the minimum wage- which still doesn’t make that a “living wage”, these folks are being paid “bupkas”  (that’s Yiddish for a word that doesn’t belong in my blog).    And, these “managers” are being forced to pay overtime fees for their daycare for their kids ornot being home when their kids may need them, etc.

So, President Obama has decided to promulgate a regulation that changes the no-overtime rule to those who will make $ 50,440 a year.    That’s $ 25.22  an hour.

Now, you know that any manager who is making $ 11.83 an hour is neither much of a manager nor highly regarded by his/her employer.   Yet, the fat cats (and the Republican Party establishment; oh, wait, I am repeating myself to some degree) are absolutely livid that this will kill employment.

Really?

There are basically three scenarios.

• The employer will raise the wages for the current manager
• The employer will pay the overtime rates
• The employer will hire a second person for the extra hours

Let’s get real.  There has been virtually no change in wage rates in several years- because the employers have not been pressured to do so.  Because the states and SCOTUS have been pushing back against unions, because folks are worried they will lose their jobs (which has not recovered since employers fired many and forced others to work overtime and do the jobs of the laid off with no additional compensation) for the past few years.  The employer is not about to raise the wages of the current manager.   Who really isn’t a manager anyway- just designated so to afford the employer the ability to NOT pay overtime and force the employee to do work for free.

What it will do is force a CHEAP employer to hire a second person.  You notice I have no doubt that this entity will not want to pay overtime.  Which will cost them at least 50% more an hour.

And, you know what?   That’s not so bad.  We can use more employees.  It’s my educated guess that the average (underpaid- the ones at the low end of the pay scale) “manager” has been working 50 hours a week forever.  So, now there will be the need for folks to work 10 hours more.

It’s entirely possible that the employer won’t be able to hire as many folks as needed to cover those 10 hours.  Especially, if these underpaid grunts were really doing any management- opening or closing the shop, filing out the daily reports, etc.

So, there will be overtime- or higher paid employees.  Either way, the existing “manager” is not being hurt.  He/she is not being paid less.  He/she is either being paid more or working the number of hours for which compensation is truly paid.

In case you didn’t figure it out, that’s exactly what America needs.

And, exactly what President Obama expects to happen.

Sometimes, even a President can get the right policy out there.