Overtime change picking up speed despite criticism
Numbers on how many lose time-and-a-half pay differ
By BRUCE ALPERT
Newhouse News Service

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is moving ahead with plans to revamp the nation's overtime laws this month, rejecting opposition from labor groups that dispute White House estimates on how many workers will lose the right to time-and-a-half pay for putting in more than 40 hours a week.

How the administration deals with the issue will not only affect the household incomes of many Americans and the bottom lines of employers but could emerge as an issue in a presidential campaign already dominated by the question of whether administration trade policies are hurting workers.

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao recently rejected a call by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to delay implementation of the rules so a study could be done to determine whether the administration or its critics are right. Such a study would put off action until after the November presidential and congressional elections.

Chao said the new rules are designed to bring clarity to outdated regulations that are so difficult to interpret that issues of worker pay often are left to expensive and time-consuming litigation. Moreover, she said at a Senate hearing that the new rules provide guaranteed overtime to a group of workers who need it the most — those making up to $22,100 a year, an increase on the current ceiling of $8,060.