When the Bush administration first amended FLSA laws, employers reconsidered how to classify workers to ensure compliance with “white collar” exemption regulations (who gets overtime and who doesn’t). Apparently, all that classifying didn’t do a lot of good because an alarming number of workers are suing for overtime pay at the gentle suggestion of their lawyers. Business Week noted that “companies have collectively paid out more than $1 billion annually to resolve these claims, which are usually brought on behalf of large groups of employees. What’s more, companies can get hit again and again with suits on behalf of different groups of workers or for alleged violations of different provisions of a complex tapestry of laws.”
The Business Week article highlights the dissonance between Depression-era laws established to protect factory workers and our 21st century economy, questioning to whom these laws should apply:
Generally, workers with jobs that require independent judgment have not been entitled to overtime pay. But with businesses embracing efficiency and quality-control initiatives, more and more tasks, even in offices, are becoming standardized, tightly choreographed routines. That’s just one of several factors blurring the traditional blue-collar/white-collar divide. Then there’s technology: In an always-on, telecommuting world, when does the workday begin and end?
If you take a look at the Business Week Blog, exploring the same topic, you’ll see a collection of varying answers to the question: is overtime really necessary? Commenters made some strong points about the problems associated with re-categorizing employees. The obvious question seems to be: If we’re all modern-day factory workers in a way, then what should be the bench-mark to decide who gets overtime and who doesn’t?
Perhaps we need to look a little deeper at why certain salaried employees are requiring so much time to exercise “independent judgment.” Studies show a majority of employees waste nearly a fifth of the work day. Is this why we’re all working so much overtime? Or perhaps employers just expect too much from their employees without creating and implementing systems that ensures results are produced within manageable time-frames. What’s your take?
(Late Night at the Office image by System One Gang)
