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Overtime Rule Jeopardizes Crucial Services for Vulnerable Individuals, Families

All across the country, nonprofit organizations urged the Department of Labor to pursue a responsible approach to updating our nation’s overtime rules, and they warned of the dire consequences if the department failed to listen. Charitable organizations play an integral role in our communities, from serving disadvantaged youth and building homes for low-income families to helping people with disabilities and supporting our nation’s veterans. That is why it’s so alarming the Department of Labor flatly ignored their concerns and issued a rule that puts crucial services for countless Americans in jeopardy.

As Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) said during a hearing on the rule, nonprofits “help boost the quality of life for so many people and families every year … we should be working tirelessly to support [their] mission, not making it harder for [them] to succeed.” In response to Rep. Thompson’s remarks, Tina Sharby, chief human resources officer for Easter Seals New Hampshire, explained how the rule will undermine a vital program serving veterans and military families in need. 

  

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We’re looking at potentially having to develop an on-call system where only one of our care coordinators would be on-call for the week, because we cannot afford to pay the overtime—it’s a non-funded program that we run. The concern that we have about that is, now the person who needs the emergency help, maybe in the middle of the night, losing their home or thinking about suicide—they’re going to call that on-call person who might not be their care coordinator. They’re not going to want to talk to them. They want to talk to their care coordinator. That’s where we think that the services are really going to impact the individuals that we serve … It’s literally the difference between life and death.

This is just one example of how the administration’s flawed overtime rule hurts the very individuals they claim it will help. As Rep. Thompson said: "The pathway to greater opportunity and out of poverty is not an arbitrary executive branch dictation ... Those cookie cutters rarely work, they usually wind up with unintended consequences that make matters worse for people. And that’s what we’re trying to defend and push back on here."

To watch the full exchange between Rep. Thompson and Sharby, click here.

To learn more about the consequences of the department’s flawed overtime rule, click here.

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