The U.S. Department of Labor wants to change the rules concerning overtime. At the same time, it’s helping employers figure out ways to dodge paying overtime altogether.

That makes it hard to trust the motives and intent of proposed changes to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.

The Bush administration claims the rules that govern overtime and workers’ pay need to be updated and the changes will give working families more flexibility. The new regulations would also increase the number of low-income workers who qualify for overtime.

But these changes are not about family flexibility, improving conditions for low-wage workers or updating standards. They are about depressing salaries, increasing employer flexibility and destroying the 40-hour workweek.

The changes aren’t all bad. A fast-food manager making less than $22,100 a year would become eligible for overtime. That’s a change we support and that could help as many as 1.3 million workers.

Other workers, however, would pay a significant price. According to the Economic Policy Institute, 8 million workers could lose overtime and even more would be indirectly affected.

The rule changes are full of loose language and exemptions that could cost many workers a substantial part of their paychecks.

The Associated Press sums up the outcome of the Labor Department’s recommendations this way: “Essentially, employees would be working more hours for the same pay.”

That’s a bad deal for working families.

A bipartisan group in Congress is trying to stop the new rules, despite heavy arm-twisting by the president. They should stand their ground.


Heroic actions


It was early Sunday morning, just after midnight, when Clayton Larochelle drove by a neighbor’s house on Pond Road in Lewiston.

He saw flames. The house was on fire.

Calling the fire department on his cell phone while kicking in a locked door, Larochelle probably saved the lives of a man and his three children.

Robert Moon Jr., who was asleep in the house when Larochelle burst in, told the Sun Journal that another five minutes and things could have gone very badly.

“If Clayton hadn’t shown up when he did, I wouldn’t have a family now,” Moon said.

It was late at night on a weekend. Larochelle could have missed the flames, intent on getting home. He could have been satisfied with just calling the fire department. But he wasn’t.

And because of his heroic action, Moon and his three children are still with us today.

We would all like to think that we would rush into a burning building to save lives. Hopefully, most of us will never have our courage tested in such a way. Larochelle did, and, luckily for the Moons, he passed the test.

Clayton Larochelle is a hero.
[email protected]