Burgess Owens: “this amendment provides that employees who lose their overtime protection as a result of this legislation will have a…”

“this amendment provides that employees who lose their overtime protection as a result of this legislation will have a right to choose whether or not they will work overtime. They will have the right and not the employer. Employers would be prohibited from requiring those sales people to work in excess of 40 hours a week, or 8 hours a day. The proponents of H.R. 2888 as we have heard tonight contend that workers want to work overtime without overtime pay. For 60 years Americans have had this protection in place for inside sales people and sales have gone very well. The economy has boomed. Why fix it if it is not broken already? We have a working situation here. But they say that workers want to work overtime without overtime pay. They have overtime pay now. Workers are dying to give it up. They have stated repeatedly that this legislation is intended to help workers. I have said that is not the case. I submit that claims that this legislation will help workers are wholly false. This legislation will help employers, but it will harm workers.”