Among my buddies in the top one percent, today is the most wonderful day of the year. It's Christmas for Capitalists!
"Wait," you're probably saying to yourself, "I didn't know October 25th is a holiday." But it is—today is Pay Freedom Day, the day that you likely start working for free. Let me explain.
I've written about the importance of a strong overtime threshold for the average American. I call it the minimum-wage increase for the middle class (read more here: crooked.com/articles/beat-…)
The Obama administration tried to raise the overtime threshold in 2016, but the Trump administration killed the revision. So if you earn more than $23,660 annually, the federal government says you aren't eligible for overtime pay.
You likely don't earn time-and-a-half for any hour you work over 40 hours a week. In fact, you probably don't earn anything for working more than 40 hours in a week.
Gallup says the average American works 49 hours per week. If that's you, you have officially done a full year's worth of work today. Congratulations!
And since you don't earn overtime pay, and since you've already worked a full year of 40-hour workweeks as of today, that means every hour you work for the rest of the year is an hour worked for free.
Corporations and my wealthy pals are giddy because starting today, they get more than two months of free labor out of you—all because Donald Trump kept the overtime threshold unnaturally low.
It didn’t used to be this way. When America’s economy was at its strongest, 62% of all Americans were covered by overtime protections. Now, just 8% of you are.
How can you get your time back? Well, if you live in Washington, @GovInslee's administration is considering restoring the threshold. You can show your support here: workingwa.org/overtime
States around the country are considering the restoration of sensible overtime thresholds. (Looking at you, Pennsylvania.)
If you work more or less than 49 hours a week and you want to figure out your own personal Pay Freedom Day, our friends @workingwa made a great calculator here: jotform.com/workingwa/myfr…
Here in America, we believe that your time is money. And part of that agreement means that if you work more than forty hours per week, you should earn time and a half for your labor.
This isn't penny-ante stuff, here. We’re talking about billions of dollars a year that belongs to you. Nobody should work for free.
We should abolish Pay Freedom Day once and for all. It’s time to #RestoreOT.
