The Burdens of Overtime Wage Laws
By: Stephen Carter
Sometimes I need to work more than forty hours a week, sometimes I want to work more than forty hours a week, either way it’s to get ahead and be a little more financially stable. Often though, I’m unable to do so.
People need more money for any number of reasons and there’s nothing wrong with that if they’re willing to work for it. Say my child broke her arm, that’s at least $500 or the transmission went out in my car, and that’s at least $1000, if you’re like me, that’s a big chunk of change. In order to overcome that burden I either need to reduce my expenses somewhere else, or increase my income, which would be a lot easier than cutting expenses.
So the next day I go up to my boss and tell her that I need some extra hours this week in order to help cover some extra expenses that unexpectedly came up. She sympathizes but says that she can’t help me out. Company policy states that overtime is only allowed in certain cases where the business really needs extra help. This policy is in place because they don’t want to or can’t afford to pay the extra time and a half for overtime.
What am I to do? Since the business I work for is unwilling or unable to pay me the extra money due to overtime laws, I am unable to obtain more than my standard forty hours. If I want to make extra money I now have to go through the process of finding another job that will be compatible with the schedule of my main job, which I will have to waste time and gas getting to, and will likely be paid less than what my other job pays.
I do appreciate what the overtime wage laws are trying to do for me, but as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If I could make an agreement with my company on a week to week basis to work more than forty hours for my standard pay, I’d be a lot better off and the business wouldn’t be able to exploit me. Instead of having to find a second compatible job that I’d have to spend time and gas driving to and make less money at, I could simply stay where I’m already at and just work a few extra hours each day until I reach the desired hours I need.
The overtime wage laws are really hurting those that they’re intended to help the most. The laws don’t necessarily need to be repealed, but we do need more choice in how we sell our labor to businesses so that we can be more financially stable during rough times.
