House Works Overtime

Perhaps a little something (WSJ - subscription) for workers to smile about.

The House voted to bar the Bush administration from enforcing new wage rules that make it easier for employers to deny overtime pay to white-collar and administrative workers.

The White House has threatened to veto the prohibition to keep the rules in effect. But in a rare victory to organized labor, 22 Republicans broke ranks on the 223-193 vote, despite strong pressure from their party leadership.

The Senate seems to support a similar move in what could be an important defeat to Big-Business-BushCo. A key quote came in discussions yesterday from Rep. Robert Andrews, an New Jersey Democrat:

"Overtime is not a gift from America's employers. It is the right of American workers."