Raising the Overtime Threshold Will Benefit 13.5 American Workers

August 3, 2015 Paul Constant
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Overtime
The Economic Policy Institute's findings indicate that millions of families would benefit from these increased rules.

The Economic Policy Institute’s findings indicate that millions of families would benefit from these increased rules.

 

Back in November of 2014, Nick Hanauer wrote in Politico magazine that raising the overtime threshold would benefit “10.4 million middle-class Americans.” Today, the Economic Policy Institute released a report on the benefits of overtime, and their findings indicate that Hanauer’s estimate was low. The EPI says “13.5 million salaried workers would directly benefit” from President Obama’s proposed overtime raise. Among those enjoying the benefits of increased overtime?

  • 6.9 million women
  • 4.6 million parents and 9.2 million children
  • 1.6 million African-Americans and 2.1 million Hispanics
  • 3.8 million workers age 25 to 34
  • 3.4 million workers with a high school degree

These are groups that have traditionally suffered from income inequality. The benefits would begin instantaneously for workers who put in over 40 hours a week, and unemployment would likely decline soon after, once employers hire an adequate number of workers to cover the shifts that have until now been covered by overworked, underpaid employees.

If you want 13 and a half million Americans to benefit from increased overtime benefits, you should tell the Department of Labor that you approve of these new protections.

Rick Perry Actually Kinda Says Something That Could Maybe Be Construed as Halfway Correct for Once in His Life

August 3, 2015 Paul Constant
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2016, Policy
Rick Perry, the exact second his 2012 presidential campaign died.

Rick Perry, the exact second his 2012 presidential campaign died.

With a huge Republican presidential field like this one—17 candidates, last I counted—it’s remarkable that there are so few differences between them all. Most of them (including Donald Trump!) are completely aligned on things like the minimum wage (except for Santorum and Carson, they’re all against it) and Social Security (they’re against it, but they’re terrified of saying so in public) and regulations on financial institutions.

Well, actually, about that last thing: Vox’s Matthew Yglesias published a post praising former Texas Governor Rick Perry’s “surprisingly progressive agenda on Wall Street regulation.” Wait, what? Yglesias says Perry “credited Texas’s relatively strong weathering of the Great Recession in part to strict financial regulation.” In a speech last week, Perry boasted of Texas’s ability to “regulate, in an intelligent way, the use of a type of mortgage called ‘cash-out refinancing.'”

Perry wants to promote “a breakup of big multi-line financial conglomerates, with his fact sheet saying that ‘requiring banks to separate their commercial lending and investment banking practices should be considered.'” Yglesias points out that though Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders have encouraged similar ideas, Hillary Clinton has yet to embrace something like this. The rest of the ideas (which are just that—ideas, with very little policy specificity) are a weird blend of deregulation and regulation.

Now, don’t worry — Civic Skunkworks is not about to endorse Perry. I’m of the opinion that the best thing Perry ever did for this country was implode on a debate stage in 2012. But it’s interesting that Perry is now kinda-sorta playing on progressive turf; it’s the most recent sign that Republicans are absolutely befuddled by income inequality, and that they have no policies besides either a) the same old trickle-down BS that’s failed them consistently or b) some strange platypus-like mishmash of the progressive policies that need to happen to get the economy working again and policies that will keep their corporate donors happy. Those two concepts are entirely at odds, but Republicans are still forced to make them work, somehow.

But to call Rick Perry a stopped clock who’s right twice a day would be a disservice to stopped clocks. Perry’s desperately scrambling to stay relevant in an overcrowded presidential field, and his only recourse is to try to find some ground to stake out. While he’s headed in the right direction on a handful of policies, it’s important to remember that his motivations will always be coming from the wrong place.

Daily Clips: August 3rd, 2015

August 3, 2015 Nick Cassella
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Daily Clips

The minimum-wage is a “lunatic idea” supposedly: Robert Samuelson at the Washington Post wrote a critical column on the “populist crusade for a $15-an-hour minimum wage.” There’s nothing inherently wrong with criticizing a policy position like a higher minimum wage. What is wrong, however, is his C grade analysis on what will happen when a higher minimum wage is implemented:

With time, job losses would mount. Some companies would become unprofitable and shrink or close. Others would automate. Some start-ups would be scrapped. How many jobs would be lost is guesswork. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that a $10.10 minimum (President Obama’s proposal) would cut employment by about 500,000.

Feel like you’ve heard this same argument before? Well, you wouldn’t be wrong! Just last month David Brooks railed against a higher minimum wage by using this same CBO data. The problem? The CBO’s data showed a $10.10 minimum wage could cut employment, not would, as Goldy pointed out in a brilliantly written rebuttal to Brooks just a few weeks ago.

Hillary Clinton’s first ads come out: Last night, Hillary Clinton’s campaign uploaded the first two ads of her campaign. They will both debut later this week in both Iowa and New Hampshire, where they will engender rampant stabbings of the mute button by prospective voters.

The first ad, “Dorothy”, highlights Hilary’s mother and her resiliency in life. She says to the camera, “That’s why I’m doing this. That’s why I’ve always done this. For all the Dorothys.” You can see the full ad below and the other ad, “Family Strong”, here.

Immigration is pro-business: I know this isn’t exactly a “clip”, but I was so amazed by this tweet that I had to share it with you:

Surprise! Latinos do not like Trump: I hate this man and all that he represents, and it looks like three out of four Latinos  feel the same way! This data comes from a new NBC News/ Wall Street Journal/ Telemundo poll which shows that “sixty-nine percent of Latinos surveyed said that they believe Trump is hurting the Republican Party’s image, while just 12 percent said he is helping it.”

Obama’s clean power plan is a watershed moment in US politics: President Obama is set to announce his clean power plan today, which has been billed as the “strongest action ever on climate change by a US president.” The Guardian’s Adam Vaughan highlights the key parts of his plan:

The final rules propose a 32% cut in carbon emissions from power plants by 2030 on 2005 levels, up from the initial proposal of 30%. However states will only have to comply by 2022 rather than 2020 as originally proposed, and will be able submit their plans on meeting the targets by 2018 instead of 2017.

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