House GOP Votes To Abolish 40-Hour Work Week

From the Tennessee Democratic Party: 

The “Pay Working Families Less Act,” which Republicans tried to call the “Working Families Flexibility Act,” would cheat workers out of overtime pay, with no guarantee of paid vacation days when employees need to use them, and give working families less flexibility, not more. 

While House Republicans advertise the bill as aiming to help working families, independent evaluations have found that the bill will actually hurt them by undermining overtime pay and giving workers little flexibility. 

The nonpartisan National Partnership for Women and Families finds that “The mis-named Working Families Flexibility Act will mean a pay cut for workers without any guaranteed flexibility or time off” and that the proposal “erodes the basic guarantees of the Fair Labor Standards Act: fair pay for overtime work and time off from work.” 

A senior economist for the Center for Economic and Policy Research writes, “Its major effect would be to hamstring workers — likely increasing overtime hours for those who don’t want them and cutting pay for those who do.” 

Instead of working to expand the middle class with reforms that reward hard work, this bill drives down pay and rolls back workers’ benefits. Republicans have entered the American worker in a global race to the bottom. The only winner is big corporate special interests.