Burgess Owens: “the message of this bill this morning is to the workers of America, ``The Republicans want your overtime pay,'' from the…”

“the message of this bill this morning is to the workers of America, ``The Republicans want your overtime pay,'' from the same people who brought us streamlining, downsizing, the tremendous gap in income. The same people who have attacked the National Labor Relations Board, who have attacked OSHA, who refused to pass a minimum wage bill, they now want your overtime. As the ranking member of the committee responsible for this legislation, I have listened to the hearings. We have debated at markups, and the bill is flawed at its center, and that is the assumption that you can have mutual consent between the employer and the employee as to whether they want overtime in terms of dollars or whether they want it in terms of comp time. There is no mutual consent possible when the employer has an incentive to keep the money. You can invest the money that you do not pay in overtime. Overtime wages that are not paid can be invested. So the great incentive will be to keep the money and to force all workers to take comp time.”