On the recordJuly 23, 2015
I rise today to talk about the Department of Labor's proposal to provide overtime pay to more Americans, a step that could affect as many as 90,000 middle-class workers in Minnesota and nearly 5 million around the country. Right now, if someone makes more than $450 a week, or about $24,000 a year, there is a very good chance they don't qualify for overtime pay, and that is below the current poverty line for a family of four. The newly proposed regulations would raise that level to $970 a week, or about $50,000 annually. That means that a salaried worker earning less than that amount will be able to benefit from overtime pay regardless of the duties that he or she performs. This change would benefit an enormous number of Americans whose wages have remained virtually unchanged while the cost of education, childcare, and retirement have risen steadily over the past decade. Last month, we saw the 64th straight month of private sector job growth since the Great Depression. Our economy overall is getting stronger, but too much of that prosperity is going to people at the top. Middle-class families and those aspiring to be in the middle class simply are not reaping the benefits. In fact, America's wealth gap between middle-income and upper-income families is at its highest level--the gap--since 1983. The gap between the highest and lowest earners is at its greatest since before the Great Depression. This kind of inequality is not just bad for those workers.…
