Experts Divided over Whether New Overtime Rules Will Help, Hurt Workers

NorthEast Medical Center, like most hospitals, pays nurses time- and-a-half for working more than 40 hours a week. It doesn't have to. The Fair Labor Standards Act generally says nurses are "professional" employees who don't have to be paid overtime. But there's a nursing sh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inKnight Ridder Tribune Business News p. 1
Main Author Veverka, Amber
Format Newsletter
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington Tribune Content Agency LLC 18.12.2003
Subjects
Economic recovery
Employees
Employers
Ford, Jamie
Labor standards
Nurses
Overtime pay
State laws
Supply & demand
Walden, Michael
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Summary:NorthEast Medical Center, like most hospitals, pays nurses time- and-a-half for working more than 40 hours a week. It doesn't have to. The Fair Labor Standards Act generally says nurses are "professional" employees who don't have to be paid overtime. But there's a nursing shortage nationwide, so nurses get extra pay for extra work. Backers of the Bush administration's proposed changes to overtime laws say they will. The changes would make overtime pay available to more low-wage workers and take it from some higher-paid white- collar workers. Depending on which side you believe, anywhere from 644,000 to 8 million workers would lose the pay under the proposal. Nurses such as NorthEast Medical's [Jamie Ford] are in an industry that, even during the recession, did give workers a lot of job choices. A nationwide shortage of nurses has meant RNs are in hot demand, even at places such as NorthEast, which has its own nursing school that helps fulfill some of those needs.