Political Quotes

On the recordDecember 1, 2016
Mr. President, I appreciate the comments made by my colleague from Minnesota. He has been a strong champion for America's workers and believes we should make this Nation and our economy work for working Americans. His leadership on this overtime rule is certainly much appreciated. Today should be a day of celebration. It should be a day in which 4 million American workers who work overtime without getting paid but earn very modest salaries were going to get rewarded for their overtime work--get paid for their overtime work--but instead those 4 million Americans are getting scrooged. You all remember the story of Ebenezer Scrooge. He made a lot of money as a very successful businessman. He enjoyed counting his coins while treating his workers in a terrible fashion and paying them as little as he could get away with. That is exactly what is at stake with this overtime rule. The vision of the overtime rule was that when you had a very well-paid manager who was clearly earning far more than they would if they were earning a more modest amount plus overtime, you could reduce the complexity of tracking their overtime hours and instead simply pay them a salary without compensation for overtime. The key to that was that it was a very well-paid worker or manager and not someone earning near the bottom of the scale and barely making more than minimum wage. As I said, today should be a day of celebration with the overtime rule being modified so that it would catch up with inflation.…
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Jeff Merkley
Democratic · Oregon

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