Finally. Yes, finally, there is some sanity left in Washington D.C. If overtime pay is so bad for corporations, then they should go out and hire more workers. Oops! I don't think company executives want to add all those thousands of workers and their mandatory social and health benefits to their payrolls so I guess companies are stuck with having their workers put in overtime labour each month. Which in and of itself is not so bad!! Now, for some of us 'people' who do not enjoy the benefits of overtime wages, we are stuck working 20-30 hours of overtime each week without pay. Such is life in the corporate world.
Don't take me wrong: I am not complaining. I would rather have a job where I need to put in about 60-70 hours per week than not to have any job at all. Remember - living in Tokyo is not cheap!!! I figure that if I continue to live more than one-hour outside of Tokyo and draw the same salary, I'll be fine. However, if I should want to move closer to the office, I'll need to find a new job or somehow find the energy to put in 90 hours a week at work, take on more responsibility and thus, draw a higher salary.
Forgive me while I digress...
In my labour economics class, I remember drawing all those funny graphs and running numbers on a calculator (sorry, we didn't have computers back then!!!) to better understand that old trade-off between 'labour and leisure'. As many people cannot enjoy the benefits of leisure unless they are willing to do some labour, overtime wages offer such people some added incentive to continue slugging it out on the front lines of corporate America.
(NY Times.)
Excerpt Begins
"This is the place where making ends meet happens because people have overtime pay. Republicans cannot grasp that," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
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