Issued May 18, 2016
WASHINGTON - In response to the U.S. Department of Labor’s announcement of new rules regarding overtime pay, SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry issued the following statement:
“Working women and men should be paid for the time they work, period. The Obama administration's decision to increase the overtime threshold is an enormous, in many cases life-changing, win for working people, from fast-food, retail and healthcare managers to post-doctoral associates and counselors.”
“In 1975, two-thirds of workers were covered by the salaried threshold for overtime pay. In the four decades since then, employers have taken advantage of more and more overworked and underpaid people who are just trying to sustain their families and get ahead. The time had long since come for these millions of people to be paid for the hours they work.
“What's more, this action will put more money in people's pockets and boost the economy. And it will boost women, African Americans, Latinos, people who are early in their careers and people who have modest education levels — the very people who have been hardest hit by the 40-year assault on working people built on phony trickle-down economics.”