The Tragedy of Labor Laws
So I was listening to this awful radio "discussion" about the Department of Labor's new "Fairpay" system of overtime regulations. As this DOL representative sat there and droned on and on about how much we "need" this and "need" that, the mindless host could only sit there and ask questions about certain details. Never was the question asked, "who decides what is 'fair'? Shouldn't that be a subjective term, defined by an agreement between employer and employee?"
The official DOL site says, "It's designed to help you understand the Department's new FairPay rules that strengthen overtime protections. Under the new FairPay rules, workers earning less than $23,660 per year or $455 per week are guaranteed overtime protection. This will strengthen overtime rights for 6.7 million American workers, including 1.3 million low-wage workers who were denied overtime under the old rules"
Guaranteed overtime "protection"? And what happens when this drives up the cost of your employment, and your employer instead decides to let you go? That's not "protection". It's yet another act of aggression, wherein the government attempts to distort the free market with regulations that are meant to help the lowest-income-earners; instead, it hurts them, just like the minimum wage.
For example, if I'm getting paid $455/week with no overtime, then, that is what I am worth to the company. This is what we have agreed upon. I am willing to exchange my services for $455/week. If I don't feel that this is "fair", then I can quit and get a job elsewhere. However, if the government steps in and demands that the "cost" of my services be artificially inflated, then, what happens if the company is unable to meet those cost requirements? The people with the lowest incomes and least responsibility are let go. This in turn frees up more capital with which to meet the "Fairpay" requirements for the other workers. Who loses?
The site also says that this will "strengthen overtime rights..." What rights? Since when does anyone have a "right" to overtime? Oddly enough, while employers no longer have the right to pay their employers what they agree upon, they do have the right to fire them. Is this not contradictory? If I am making $455 per week, then, that's $455 that I would not have had if the employer did not exist. OT is not a right. It's a privilege that is earned or demanded.
The official DOL site says, "It's designed to help you understand the Department's new FairPay rules that strengthen overtime protections. Under the new FairPay rules, workers earning less than $23,660 per year or $455 per week are guaranteed overtime protection. This will strengthen overtime rights for 6.7 million American workers, including 1.3 million low-wage workers who were denied overtime under the old rules"
Guaranteed overtime "protection"? And what happens when this drives up the cost of your employment, and your employer instead decides to let you go? That's not "protection". It's yet another act of aggression, wherein the government attempts to distort the free market with regulations that are meant to help the lowest-income-earners; instead, it hurts them, just like the minimum wage.
For example, if I'm getting paid $455/week with no overtime, then, that is what I am worth to the company. This is what we have agreed upon. I am willing to exchange my services for $455/week. If I don't feel that this is "fair", then I can quit and get a job elsewhere. However, if the government steps in and demands that the "cost" of my services be artificially inflated, then, what happens if the company is unable to meet those cost requirements? The people with the lowest incomes and least responsibility are let go. This in turn frees up more capital with which to meet the "Fairpay" requirements for the other workers. Who loses?
The site also says that this will "strengthen overtime rights..." What rights? Since when does anyone have a "right" to overtime? Oddly enough, while employers no longer have the right to pay their employers what they agree upon, they do have the right to fire them. Is this not contradictory? If I am making $455 per week, then, that's $455 that I would not have had if the employer did not exist. OT is not a right. It's a privilege that is earned or demanded.
posted by Evan Williams at 11:17 AM
10 Comments:
Once again, like on the seatbelt discussion on Radley's site, you make too much sense.
Overtime laws are a bunch of crap. Heck, I'd rather even negotiate by the hour. My first 5 hours of overtime in a week might be worth, hell, nothing - or maybe a couple cans of Coke and a candy bar. I might do it for the fun of the job. The next 5 might be worth straight time. The next 5 time-and-half, and so on. Someone else might want time-and-a-half for the first 2 hours and triple time thereafter. The company and each employee should be free to negotiate it however they want.
My wife never likes my response when I tell her there is a meeting abroad. "Well, they'll take your schedule into account, right, and what we have going on? They can't force you to go, right?"
My answer, "They never force me to do anything. If they insist that I go when I'm unwilling to, either they or I are free to end our employment agreement. They can fire me; I can quit."
Freedom means freedom, and the more I read of opponents to it, I'm starting to think people are just really afraid: "Make rules to make me safe, even if it means putting me in a straight-jacket and making me stare at a blank wall all day long since it's not offensive."
Yes, people are scared, especially when it comes to jobs and health care. This fear is the chink in the armor of freedom, which the tyrannical majority exploits to the highest degree possible.
This all goes back to value judgements. Who is the best arbiter of value? The individual. Thus, the individual should be able to form an agreement with another individual (or group of individuals) which pleases both sides. The precise point at which they agree is the place where the word "fair" is defined, in earnest. "Fairness" is not and cannot be objective without first stomping liberty. The only way to objectify fairness is to confiscate the ability of individuals to make their own value judgements when it comes to their own wealth (and subsequently, what they're willing to trade for other people's wealth). This is what labor laws do, precisely, inequivically.
So, to conclude, theft of liberty and freedom is inherent in any government action which seeks to objectify the definition of "fairness" under the law. Look at the examples. Min wage. OT laws. Discrimination laws. Bowing to the unions. OSHA. etc, etc. All involve taking away people's freedom to voluntarily enter into a mutually agreed-upon contract.
And the only reason pols are allowed to get away with it is fear. Fear of losing their job, fear of not making enough money, fear of getting hurt, fear of making a decision that they may regret. And people have come to believe that the government is reliable enough to make the right decisions for them, and thus, they have become dependent on the government to do so. And this only begets more tyranny.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hi Evan,
Saw the link to you site from TheAgitator and thought I would wander over.
I agree with you views and have some of my own on my own blog here:
http://americasoutback.typepad.com/blog/2004/08/overtime.html
Nice to see one of the better commenters over on Radley's site has his own blog
Garth http://americasoutback.typepad.com
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