According to the New York Times, it came from an economist - Jared Bernstein - who had worked in the White House as the Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden.
Upon leaving wrote a report describing the benefits of increasing the number of people who qualify for overtime pay. His idea was to set the level to where it as in 1975 and inflation-adjust it to today, and keep it set at the level of inflation. They also allow white collar workers - executives - to be eligible for overtime.
- Click here for the report.
Increasing overtime pay fits within the overall goals of increasing middle class incomes.
Liberal interest groups have been pushing this proposal for some time. Their arguments can be sumarized here:
- fixoverime.org.
- What the New Proposed Overtime Rules Mean for Workers.
For more:
- Obama's new overtime rules: How they'd work and who they'd affect.
- One Industry That Will Hate Obama’s New Overtime Rules: The Media.
- Republicans will hate Obama’s new overtime rule, but they can’t do anything about it.
