NRF turns up the heat on Obama’s overtime pay proposal

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation upped its criticism of President Obama’s proposal to extend overtime pay, saying it would turn “professionals into clock-watchers.”



“President Obama has been working hard all week to sell this new proposal,” said David French, senior VP for government relations, NRF. “The irony is that if he came under the new overtime rules he would have already hit 40 hours by now and his boss would have told him to clock out with the job half-done. We think managers are professionals who should be able to make their own decisions.”



French went on to say that the plan is not about expanding the middle class, but about “turning salaried professionals into clock-watchers.” “Retailers believe careers are the path to success, not time clocks.”





NRF said that its research has found that most workers would see no increase in take-home pay because the tight economy would force employers to reduce hours or base pay to compensate for the added expense, and that the majority of managers surveyed oppose overtime expansion.