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Sunday, March 06, 2005

Next up: The return of child labor, then slavery
Posted by Jill | 8:57 AM

With Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum calling for an end to the 40-hour work week, can the return of child labor be far behind?

Of course few of us in jobs classified as "exempt" work only 40 hours, but the concept still applies to non-exempt jobs in which overtime pay kicks in after 40 hours -- the so-called "McJobs" that seem to be the unfortunate wave of the future for many, if not most Americans. As part of any increase to the Federally-mandated minimum wage, Santorum, who likes to think of himself as a Christian, has proposed an amendment that would, in essence, get rid of overtime pay.

The Santorum amendment would change the 40-hour workweek to an 80-hour two-week period. This means that employers could assign workers to 50 hours one week and 30 the next or even 60 hours one week and 20 the next -- just to get around having to pay overtime.

Currently about 100 million Americans are eligible for overtime pay. But of course, what are 100 million Americans as compared to those nice fat corporate campaign donations?

And here's another one he wants to see: The end of tips as an adjunct to pay. He proposes that if aggregate tips are equal to the minimum wage, the employer won't have to pay any wages at all. Gee whiz, even India can't compete with slavery. Currently restaurant wait staff alone constitutes over 2 million American workers.

Santorum ought to be ashamed of himself; and he sure as hell ought not to show his face in any church that claims to have a man who preached compassion for the poor as his messiah. Anyone who votes for this amendment deserves to be tossed out on his ear in 2006 -- assuming the voting machines will record a vote for anyone else.

Hey, Bush voters! You wanted this, you got it.

(via Daily Kos)

UPDATE: Nathan Newman documents the atrocities.
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