Senate bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act would eliminate overtime pay for many IT workers. [View all]

[cyberpj]

I saw this topic mentioned briefly here a while ago. Seeing this blog today reminded me I wanted to keep this topic in front of people whenever possible.

I'm married to an IT professional who's been 'in the business' for over 30 years. For most of that time he worked for a single employer. Much like the blog author, before around 2001 he used to get overtime, on-call pay, travel pay, meals reimbursement, etc. No luxury, that; for someone who frequently worked 60-80 hour weeks at multiple sites it was one of the reasons to put up with the demands of the job.

After 2001 he was promoted to 'exempt' which 'exempted' him from those benefits without changing his position or duties.

Since that time, he has been laid off twice and after finally finding new positions after each layoff, each one not only continued the 'exempt' practice but also each one offered lower pay.

So here we are, a few years away from retirement, and my highly knowledgeable IT Security and Networks Pro is making, maybe, 2/3 of his 2001 salary AND he's lost all hope of any OT or extra-duty pay while he's still required to work 60-80 hour weeks that include weekends. And let us not forget, folks, that all during that same timeframe, premiums for healthcare coverage have increased at ridiculous percentages every year until we are now paying 3 times the 2001 amount for health coverage.

In summary: Corporate policies have decimated reasonable pay practices and inflated healthcare costs to the extent that our income has continuously decreased over what should have been the prime increasing earnings years of a professional level career.

Now, as if corporations aren't already doing it on their own, this bill intends to make such practices an across-the-board law against reasonable pay practices for IT professionals. Add this to the ever-increasing H1B visa employees brought here to do this work for much less pay (because of claims that there aren't enough skilled US workers) and you will see that there is an agenda to gut the US IT industry in favor of the standard pay and practices of places like China and India.

Again: It's not just blue collar and state government jobs they're going after -- it's EVERYONE! Please help spread awareness about this bill with any of your contacts in IT --hell, with anyone! Because it appears that no worker in the US is ever to feel safe again. So be VERY CAREFUL about those college loans you may be taking, thinking you'll be paying them off with any high paying job!

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Senate Bill Has IT Pro Overtime Pay in Crosshairs
By Julio Urquidi February 27, 2012 10:20 AM

snip-
...Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) in North Carolina is sponsoring SB1747, a bill called the “Computer Professionals Update” (or “CPU Act”, for short). It amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 by increasing the IT workers “exempt” pool, thus eliminating overtime for a larger group of IT workers. The following section defines which of these added IT positions are:

“Section 13(a)(17) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 213(a)(17)) is amended to read as follows:

‘(17) any employee working in a computer or information technology occupation (including, but not limited to, work related to computers, information systems, components, networks, software, hardware, databases, security, internet, intranet, or websites) as an analyst, programmer, engineer, designer, developer, administrator, or other similarly skilled worker, whose primary duty is—

‘(A) the application of systems, network or database analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine or modify hardware, software, network, database, or system functional specifications;

‘(B) the design, development, documentation, analysis, creation, testing, securing, configuration, integration, debugging, modification of computer or information technology, or enabling continuity of systems and applications;

‘(C) directing the work of individuals performing duties described in subparagraph (A) or (B), including training such individuals or leading teams performing such duties; or

‘(D) a combination of duties described in subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C), the performance of which requires the same level of skill; who is compensated at an hourly rate of not less than $27.63 an hour or who is paid on a salary basis at a salary level as set forth by the Department of Labor in part 541 of title 29, Code of Federal Regulations. An employee described in this paragraph shall be considered an employee in a professional capacity pursuant to paragraph (1).’.

Basically, this means that DBA’s, software developers, system administrators, etc., pretty much everyone related to hands-on IT, would not be eligible for overtime at a Federal level if they make more than $27.64 an hour.

According to the Library of Congress’ Thomas website the CPU Act was introduced in October of 2011, yet if you ask around, not many know about the bill’s impact or existence. Currently, the bill is at the “Referred to Committee” stage of the legislative process and is in the hands of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which includes Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Al Franken (D-MN) and Kay Hagan(D-NC). Of course, members of this committee are also backed by contributors like Bank of America, AT&T Inc, Blue Cross and Citigroup so it’s pretty easy to figure out why some member of the committee could be influenced to support the Computer Professionals Update.

Link:
http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/it-careers-sb1747-kay-hagan-cpu-act-computer-professionals-update,1-103.html