[Content Note: Class warfare.]
"Changing the rules for overtime eligibility will, just like increasing the minimum wage, make employees more expensive and will force employers to look for ways to cover these increased costs."—Marc Freedman, executive director of labor law policy at the US Chamber of Commerce, on President Obama's proposal to increase the number of people who qualify for overtime.
Sure. Or: Employers could simply prioritize people over profits and flatten wages so that executives don't make hundreds of times as much as average workers in the same company.
Certainly there are cases, especially in very small businesses, where it's not feasible to significantly raise wages and/or pay additional overtime wages without raising prices on goods or services, but there are a lot of businesses where it would be totally feasible to raise wages and/or pay additional overtime wages while maintaining the same price of goods or services, if only corporate executives and/or shareholders were willing to give a little.
By which I mean: Accept slightly less profit in exchange for not continuing to viciously exploit workers.
And it's a sharp commentary on our national priorities that this isn't even considered a solution that's worthy of public discussion, so thoroughly certain are we all that it's never going to happen.
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