Must-Read: Steven Greenhouse: Jeb Bush ‘Should Be Embarrassed’ by His Overtime Pay Claims
Must-Read: : Jeb Bush ‘Should Be Embarrassed’ by His Overtime Pay Claims: “Jeb Bush… said Barack Obama’s proposal to expand overtime pay…
…would result in “less overtime pay” and “less wages earned”…. Daniel Hamermesh, a University of Texas labor economist, said: “He’s just 100% wrong,” adding that “there will be more overtime pay and more total earnings” and “there’s a huge amount of evidence employers will use more workers”…. Indeed, a Goldman Sachs study estimated that employers would hire 120,000 more workers in response to Obama’s overtime changes. And a similar study commissioned by the National Retail Federation–a fierce opponent of the proposed overtime rules–estimated that as a result of the new salary threshold, employers in the restaurant and retail industries would hire 117,500 new part-time workers… cost the increased US retail and restaurant industries $9.5bn a year, unless those industries made money-saving changes in response…. Jared Bernstein, former chief economist for vice-president Joe Biden and a senior economist with the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said… “If employers want to avoid overtime pay, they hire more workers on straight time and that creates new jobs,” Bernstein said. “Even staunch opponents agree with that and disagree with Mr Bush.”…
Ross Eisenbrey, a vice-president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center research group, said: “Bush should be embarrassed about how misinformed he was.” Eisenbrey said the proposed rules do nothing whatsoever to bar employers from paying bonuses…. Michael Strain, a labor economist at the right-of-center American Enterprise Institute, sympathized with Bush’s sentiments on the overtime rule. “In general what he seems to be saying is that this will place restrictions on firms, how they operate and how they structure their compensation packages,” he said. “In some cases the impact will be positive, and in some cases, negative”…