Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Blog

Overtime Update is Win for Workers

The Department of Labor has finalized new overtime regulations this week that will put more money into the pocket of middle class families across our nation. This is a huge win for working families and will give a much-needed boost to the wages of millions of workers.

The new rule more than doubles the salary threshold, ensuring workers who make less than $47,500 are eligible for overtime. The Obama Administration heeded the call for action to ensure working people get paid for all the hours we work. Taking this step to restore overtime is one of the many ways we are beginning to change the rules of our economy that are rigged in favor of Wall Street.

Millions of workers will now receive a long overdue raise, healthier and more productive jobs, and be able to spend more time with our community and loved ones.

Over the past 40 years, overtime protections eroded as a result of inflation and lobbyists’ efforts to weaken them. The share of full-time workers qualifying for overtime based on their salaries plummeted from 62 percent in 1975 to 7 percent today—even though the protections are more important than ever.

Here are five quick things you should know about this rule that will help raise the wage for millions of hard-working Americans.

• Raise the salary threshold from $23,660 to $47,476 a year, or from $455 to $913 a week.
• Raise Americans’ wages by an estimated $12 billion over the next 10 years, with an average increase of $1.2 billion annually.
• Extend overtime protections to 4.2 million additional workers who are not currently eligible for overtime under federal law.
• Update the salary threshold every three years.
• More than half − 56 percent − are women, which translates into 2.4 million women either gaining overtime protections or getting a raise to the new threshold as a result of the rule.

Wisconsin CEOs Paid 276 Times Average Rank-and-File Worker

CEO pay for major companies in Wisconsin continues to soar as income inequality and outsourcing of good-paying American jobs increases. Outsourcing has become a hot presidential election topic with candidates calling out corporations who say they need to save money by sending jobs overseas. Meanwhile, according to the new AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch, the average Wisconsin CEO made $11.4 million per year in 2015 – 276 times more money than the average rank-and-file worker.

The Executive PayWatch website, the most comprehensive searchable online database tracking CEO pay, showed that in 2015, the average production and nonsupervisory worker earned approximately $36,900 per year, a wage that when adjusted for inflation, has remained stagnant for 50 years.

“These numbers demonstrate the unacceptable levels of income inequality that exist right here in Wisconsin and around the country,” said Phil Neuenfeldt, President of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO.  “The rules of the economy have been manipulated to benefit the super-rich. CEO pay continues to grow and grow as good jobs are shipped overseas and wages for the average worker stagnate.”

“This is a disgrace and we must stop Wall Street CEOs from continuing to profit on the backs of working people,” said Stephanie Bloomingdale, Secretary-Treasurer of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO. “We need to focus on raising wages for all, creating and keeping good jobs here in America and reversing these unfair and unjust trends.”  

How'd Your Legislator Vote?

Wisconsin AFL-CIO Releases 2015-16 Legislative Session Voting Record

Extensive scorecard details where lawmakers stand on issues important to workers, our families and our unions

 

The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO has compiled a legislative scorecard to grade how well state legislators have served working families in the 2015-2016 Wisconsin Legislative Session. The voting record tracks how lawmakers voted on issues of importance to workers, our families, and our unions.

“The Wisconsin AFL-CIO voting record will serve as an easily accessible and straightforward go-to guide for workers to see where politicians stand on working family issues,” said Phil Neuenfeldt, President of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. “Did your representative vote to create jobs and expand rights at work? Or, did they vote to pad their own pockets and advance the demands of high-paid lobbyists?  It is essential to a healthy democracy that we have transparency and this easy-to-review history of votes will serve as a clear record.”

In the Assembly, the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO tracked 16 key votes. In the Senate, 14 votes were analyzed. Lawmakers were graded (R for Right, W for Wrong) on how they voted on a variety of bills including bills that attacked workers’ rights, prioritized Buy Wisconsin and Made-in-America provisions, restored rights on the job, and deregulated campaign finance law.

• Three Legislators had a 0% voting record score: Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield), Sen. Frank Lasee (R-DePere), and Sen. Stephen Nass (R-Whitewater).

• Seven Senators had a 100% voting record score: Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton), Sen. Nikiya Harris (D-Milwaukee), Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee),  Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona), Sen. Janis Ringhand (D-Evansville), Sen. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse), and Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee).

• Twenty-one Democratic Assembly members had a 100% voting record score.

• Sixteen Republican Assembly members had a voting score less than 10%.

“This past legislative session Wisconsin families saw an onslaught of anti-worker, anti-family bills that were rammed through at lighting speed with little regard to time-honored democratic principles like public debate and adequate notice for hearings,” said Stephanie Bloomingdale, Secretary-Treasurer of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.