Thomas E. Petri: “while the minimum wage debate is important, what we are not debating is more important. For the 20th time since the…”

“while the minimum wage debate is important, what we are not debating is more important. For the 20th time since the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act, we will debate the part of that act that affects less than 10 percent of the American work force. For the 20th time we will ignore the remainder of the statute--its overtime provisions--that affect 90 percent of the work force. The original minimum wage was 25 cents. In failing to update the act's overtime provisions, we are left with provisions that have as much relevance to today's workforce needs as a 25-cent wage would to today's economy. Employers and employees can't ignore these provisions. Rather, they must shoehorn their weekly operations into a construct that was designed for the workplace of the 1930's, not the 1990's, let alone the 21st century. For example, when an employee works more than 40 hours in a week, the law requires her to be compensated for overtime with money. However, many workers would prefer to be paid with more time off rather than money. State, local, and Federal employees have such a choice. Yet, by law, private sector employees do not. In addition, many employees resent being strapped to the traditional 40-hour week concept. They prefer more flexible arrangement such as "9/80" schedules that allow employees to compress 80 hours into 9 workdays over a 2-week period. That way, they can take every other Friday off.”