Several hundred labor activists marched outside the Labor Department to protest new overtime pay regulations, with two senators pledging to try to roll them back when Congress returns from recess.
Protesters, many wearing union T-shirts, carried signs such as "President Bush: Hands off my overtime pay," and chanted, "Come on all you billionaires, give us wages that are fair."
Estimates of how many workers will lose their overtime eligibility vary from 107,000 to 6 million. Calculations of workers who could become newly eligible range from very few to 1.3 million.
A report by the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-oriented think tank, estimated that nearly two million workers who are deemed "team leaders" will be ineligible for overtime pay under the new rules, along with about 920,000 workers without college degrees who will nonetheless be reclassified as "learned professionals."
Labor groups say the new rules are intended to reduce employers' costs by cutting the number of workers who are eligible for overtime pay.
``The middle class is getting a gut punch on overtime,'' said Democratic Senator Tom Harkin, who has fought unsuccessfully to block the rules.
About 11.6 million workers receive overtime pay for working more than 40 hours a week, the Labor Department has said. In all, about 115 million workers are covered by the overtime rules in the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.
The Bush administration and business groups say the new rules are a needed update to outmoded and often confusing regulations that have not been changed in decades, and eliminate a costly source of litigation.
A number of companies, including retail giant Wal-Mart, have faced lawsuits alleging illegal denial of overtime pay.
The Bush administration says the new rules deny overtime pay only to a few hundred thousand Americans, while 1.3 million more white-collar workers currently under salary will be eligible for overtime pay for working more than 40 hours per week.
The Labor Department says the new rules provide clarity.
"Under the new rules, workers will know their overtime rights, employers will know their responsibilities and the department can more vigorously enforce these protections," Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said.
Changes are aimed at white-collar workers, and the Labor Department says manual laborers and other blue-collar workers won't be affected.
But Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry blasted the new rules as leading to a "pay cut" for some six million wage-earners.
"This is only the latest insult to America's middle class who are paying a higher tax burden, while at the same time wages are declining and families are paying skyrocketing costs for health care, energy and college tuition," Kerry said in a statement.
Kerry's presidential campaign released a report that estimated the new rules could cause a police lieutenant to see his annual pay decrease by US$10,000, while a computer programmer could lose US9,000 a year.
"The fight is not over yet," said Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
Congress reconvenes Sept. 7, but critics of the rules acknowledge a repeal is a long shot, given the threat of a veto by President George W. Bush.
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