In his never ending crusade to harm people who aren’t wealthy and well-connected, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, shown here sweeping up horse manure, joined a lawsuit against the federal government with twenty other states to stop new labor rules requiring businesses to pay overtime to white collar workers who make less than $913 a week or $47,476 a year. The move would expand overtime pay to around 100,000 Michigan workers and over 5 million nationwide. Right now overtime pay is restricted to workers who make less than $23,660 a year ($455 a week) which is just one and half times the poverty rate for a family of two and or less than the poverty rate for a family of four.
AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber blasted Schuette for the move.
This lawsuit is a slap in the face to working people in Michigan. By suing to stop the Obama administration’s new overtime rule, Bill Schuette is putting himself squarely on the side of corporate CEOs who want to continue denying overtime pay to Michigan’s working men and women. That’s just wrong.
This new rule is long overdue. Overtime protections have been gutted over the past four decades without a significant adjustment for inflation. The new rule will help protect wages from being eroded by rising costs, and ensure that working people get paid for the work they do.
Bill Schuette needs to stop carrying the water of big corporations, and start protecting the paychecks of Michigan workers.
It’s just another in a very long list of things that Schuette has done to ingratiate himself with corporate America using YOUR tax dollars. You can read a partial list of some of the other things he’s done HERE.
Remember this when Schuette comes knocking on your door for your vote when he runs for governor in 2018.
