Santorum Min. Wage Proposal Worse Than Nothing
Living Wage / From Economic Policy Institute
Posted by DavidSwanson on Mar 04, 2005 - 03:48 PM
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Santorum Min. Wage Proposal Worse Than Nothing
By EPI, ILCA Associate Member
The minimum wage amendment proposed by Sen. Rick Santorum, which is
expected to come to a vote on Monday, would harm far more workers than
it helps.
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that a straightforward raise of
$1.10 in the minimum wage could directly benefit, at most, about 1.8
million workers.
The Santorum proposal, however, is anything but straightforward. Other
provisions would take away minimum wage eligibility, overtime rights,
and would overrule higher state standards for workers who earn tips.
Many millions of workers would stand to lose pay and protections to
which current law entitles them.
· WEAKENING FLSA COVERAGE: Employees of businesses with revenues of more
than $500,000 and all workers who engage in interstate commerce now have
important protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act, such as the
right to be paid a minimum wage and to receive overtime pay when they
work more than 40 hours a week. The Santorum amendment eliminates FLSA
protections for all workers at businesses with revenues up to
$1,000,000. In 1997, 6.8 million employees worked at firms with revenues
of between $500,000 and $1 million.
· CUTTING OVERTIME PAY: The amendment abolishes the 40-hour work week
and replaces it with an 80-hour, two-week work period. Today, those who
work 50 hours in one week and 30 the next receive 10 hours of time-and-
a-half overtime pay. Under the amendment, such workers would no longer
get overtime pay, making mandatory overtime cheaper for employers. This
change encourages employers to overwork employees in busy periods and
cut their hours when things are less busy—leaving workers less able to
control their work hours and to balance work and family. Construction
workers, for example, whose work hours often vary from week to week,
will be particularly hard hit. Currently about 100 million workers are
eligible to receive overtime pay.
· WORKING FOR TIPS ONLY: The Santorum amendment forces states and local
governments to adopt a 100% tip credit. In other words, employers will
be allowed, under state law, to pay nothing to tipped employees, as long
as their tips from customers add up to the minimum wage. In convoluted
language, the Santorum amendment prohibits states and local governments
from enforcing any state or local minimum wage law or ordinance that
requires any part of tipped employees’ wages to be paid in cash by the
employer. Even states that have eliminated the tip credit entirely, and
that require restaurant workers and other tipped employees to be paid
the minimum wage by their employers, will have their laws overridden by
the Santorum amendment. Tipped employees include a wide range of workers
such as taxi drivers, porters, hotel cleaning staff, and the like.
Restaurant wait staff alone currently number about 2 million.
· WEAKENING SAFETY & OTHER PROTECTIONS: The Santorum amendment excuses
millions of employers from paying fines for violations of federal safety
and health, pension, and labor regulations. First violations of
“information collection requirements” – even if knowing and willful –
will be excused for the more than 5 million businesses with revenues
under $7 million a year. Information collection requirements include a
broad class of notices and postings required in order to inform and
protect employees, such as hazardous material warnings, training
requirements, and information about pension and health benefit plans.
To view EPI’s Minimum Wage Issue Guide, click here.
For interviews and information, contact Nancy Coleman, Karen Conner, or
Stephaan Harris at 202-775-8810. For more on current EPI releases and to
sign up to receive releases on your beat, visit our online Newsroom. For
how to describe EPI, click here.
If the hyperlinks (above) don't work, copy and paste these addresses
into your browser:
Minimum Wage Issue Guide:
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/issueguides_minwage_minwage
Newsroom: http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/newsroom_index
Describing EPI:
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/newsroom_describing_epi
The Economic Policy Institute is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan
research institute – or “think tank” – that researches the impact of
economic trends and policies on working people in the United States and
around the world.
Economic Policy Institute
Communications Department
1660 L Street, N.W. Suite 1200
Washington, D.C. 20036
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This article is from ILCA Online
http://www.ilcaonline.org/
The URL for this story is:
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?
op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2014
http://snipurl.com/d9kr
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"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is
the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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