Sean Patrick Maloney: “I rise against the rule on H.R. 1 and the bill. I want to make it very clear that the bill before us today is not the…”

“I rise against the rule on H.R. 1 and the bill. I want to make it very clear that the bill before us today is not the President's proposal. The President's proposal would give workers real time off and expanded time off to go to school functions and medical visits and other activities. This does not. They call it the Working Families Flexibility Act, but unfortunately, it is neither flexible for workers, nor is it family friendly. Under the guise of giving workers flexibility in the workplace, H.R. 1 gives employers flexibility in deciding whether employees will be able to collect overtime pay and when they can take their accrued comp time. Many workers rely on overtime pay to make ends meet. This bill allows employers to find ways to intimidate workers who insist on getting paid overtime. That means that a single mother who relies on 5 extra hours of overtime pay each week may not get any overtime assignments, if the employer knows that another worker is willing to do the work for comp time. That does not help the single mother, it robs her of her ability to earn valuable overtime pay. The people who are affected by H.R. 1 are not usually in a powerful position, and are therefore unlikely to refuse their employers' requests to do them a favor by being paid in comp time instead of their valuable overtime pay. Two-thirds of covered employees make less than $10 an hour. Thirteen percent of workers get overtime pay each week. This money is not always extra.”