By Leigh Strope, The Associated Press
and John Eckberg, The Cincinnati Enquirer

Republicans embraced election-year revisions to the nation's overtime rules Tuesday, saying changes to an earlier Bush administration plan will take extra pay away from fewer white-collar workers.

But local unions were not buying it.

CHANGES

Highlights of the Labor Department's new rules on overtime pay for white-collar workers, and what critics say: • PLAN: White-collar workers earning $455 a week ($23,660 annually) or less are eligible for overtime pay for working more than 40 hours a week. CRITICS: The 1.3 million figure is suspect. Administration documents suggest employers can avoid paying workers more by cutting hourly wages and adding overtime to equal the original salary; or by raising salaries to the new $23,660 annual threshold. • PLAN: White-collar workers earning $100,000 or more a year who also perform any administrative, professional or executive duties are exempt from overtime pay. CRITICS: There is no "highly compensated test" in current law, so moving the threshold to $100,000 from the $65,000 initially proposed is just making a very bad idea a bit better. . • PLAN: Changes to duties that determine whether an employee is a professional, executive or administrative and exempt from overtime will result in "very few, if any" workers losing overtime. CRITICS: Sme of the changes clearly expand the definitions to cover more workers. • PLAN: Jobs identified as generally exempt from overtime pay include pharmacists, funeral directors, embalmers, journalists, financial services industry workers, insurance claims adjusters, human resource managers, management consultants, executive and administrative assistants, purchasing agents, registered or certified medical technologists, dental hygienists, physician assistants, accountants, chefs, athletic trainers with degrees or specialized training, computer system analysts, programmers and software engineers.

"I think it's outrageous for the present administration to go ahead with plans to cut overtime for workers," said V. Daniel Radford, executive secretary of the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council, which represents 90,000 families.

"The regulations do not favor workers but favor the contributors to the Bush campaign and some in corporate America who have no regard for working families," Radford said.

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said however that "few, if any" workers would lose their overtime pay protections.

Chao said that while about 107,000 white-collar workers earning $100,000 or more a year could lose their eligibility, that's fewer than in a draft proposal issued 13 months ago. Also, about 1.3 million lower-wage, white-collar workers will be newly eligible for overtime, she said.

Workers who gain overtime protections include lower-wage retail and restaurant managers. Middle-income workers, such as office workers, cooks, inspectors, paralegals, licensed practical nurses and technicians, "will have their rights better protected," the labor department said.

Police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians will not lose overtime protections.

The revisions would permit those earning up to $100,000 a year to continue collecting overtime pay if they log more than 40 hours a week.

Workers losing overtime pay include pharmacists, funeral directors and financial-services experts. Labor Department officials said legal challenges and case law have made clear that those jobs are exempt from overtime.

The revisions, which do not need congressional approval, will take effect in 120 days, and that, too, disturbs Radford.

"We have an economy on the uptick, but it's still struggling," the local union leader said. "By eliminating overtime for workers who need and deserve it, that will make job creation more stagnant than it is now."

Rick Calloway, director of operations in Cincinnati for four Fudd-ruckers Restaurants, said the rules will have very little impact on his businesses.

"We try not to have any overtime at all," Calloway said. "Of 116 restaurants nationwide, maybe 10 a week have overtime, and that's only an hour or two per restaurant."

National Democrats expressed skepticism about the overall changes. The administration, said Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, "simply is not trustworthy on the issue."

"It's possible that the administration has had an election-year conversion on overtime, but I hope you'll pardon me if I remain skeptical," said Harkin. He led Senate opposition to the earlier version of the proposed regulations.

When the overtime plan was first issued in March 2003, the Bush administration drew ferocious criticism from organized labor, Democrats and some Republicans over concerns that millions of workers would lose overtime pay.

It marked the first comprehensive revision of the 1938 Fair Labor Standard Act regulations on white-collar rules in five decades. The guidelines were drawn up at the urging of businesses and employer groups.

"Employers have spent too many years trying to shoehorn modern jobs into regulations that haven't been updated since Elvis was a teenager," said Katherine Lugar, the National Retail Federation's vice president for legislative and political affairs.

The regulations could save employers $250 million to $500 million annually in penalties or damages from related lawsuits, Labor officials said. One-time costs to put the rules in place are estimated at about $70 million.

Department officials said the initial proposal would have cut overtime for 644,000 workers, though the draft itself said 1.5 million to 2.7 million workers "will be more readily identified as exempt." Labor unions and Democrats said the figure was closer to 8 million.

U.S. Rep. John A. Boehner, R-West Chester, who chairs the House Workforce Committee, has scheduled Chao to appear before the committee April 28 to evaluate the measure.

Boehner spokesman Steve Forde said revisions showed how President Bush was intent on modernizing outdated laws.

"They've done so in an exceedingly open way," Forde said. "More than 75,000 public comments were received on draft regulations."

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is married to Chao, said Democrats should be pleased that most of their concerns were addressed in the final plan.

"I would hope Senator Harkin would be pleased that the regulation that was issued incorporated many of his concerns," McConnell said. "Maybe he'll change his position."

Harkin and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said they would continue to try to block portions of the regulation that could take away overtime pay from workers.