Monday, March 17, 2014

Higher Overtime Pay, Hardship for Whom?

“That’s not FAIR!”

Remember saying that as a kid, maybe while playing a game with your friends?  Of course you have.  Today’s children can be heard saying the same thing—when they feel that a fellow playmate is taking undue advantage or doing something that just doesn’t measure-up to a sense of justice and fair-play in the game.  No doubt your own children have said it to you, if they felt that you were treating them unfairly with respect to their siblings, for example.  “How come he got the bigger piece?!”

Who doesn’t react vehemently when feeling unfairly treated?  Who doesn’t get angry when one believes that he or she is a victim of injustice?  As adults, we may no longer actually cry-out, “That’s not fair!”  Nevertheless, the feelings are the same, though we may have found a more mature and adult way of making the point.

In short, we all expect fair treatment.  We expect all players in this game called Life to play by the rules in a fair and just way—be it in sports, business, or politics.  Indeed, we expect that the rules themselves will establish fair and just practices so that the game can be played “on a level playing field.”  After all, it’s only fair!  Is it not?

So, what’s just and fair in the realm of business and the workplace?  Is it right, fair and just, that a low-level manager be asked to work long overtime hours, virtually doing what non-management low-wage payees do, and not get paid extra for it—just because they’re called a kind of manager, for example?  Or is it right that business owners and entrepreneurs be forced to pay higher wages, which, they feel, will result in having to downsize staff and/or lose income in the face of already thin-line profit margins?

What’s fair?  What’s just?

The business community is upset by Obama’s intention to take “executive action” to expand overtime pay.  And now, as usual, the whole debate takes on the form of a Right/Left power struggle: he’s wrong, I’m right, he’s an idiot, I know better, he’s against business, I’m for business, etc.  Is Obama anti-business?  Seriously, what president would ever be anti-business?  Okay, the intention may be good, perhaps the means is questionable, maybe, maybe not.

But what is the real issue?  The real issue is one of equality of opportunity as well as economic justice and fair-play.  The fundamental question is not simply what is good for business, but what is best—fair and right, good and just—for ALL economic stakeholders, employees and employers, business owners and clients, entrepreneurs and investors, and most especially the hard working (almost overworked) middle-class American family.  To rob Paul in order to pay Peter is wrong, but to give heavy economic advantage to Paul at the expense of Peter’s potential to do economically well is also wrong.

Why is it so difficult for our politicians to make good and wise economic decisions respecting our economy?  It’s simple: Tunnel vision!  A too narrow focus on special interest groups and local constituents; it’s a failure to see and adequately address the BIG picture.  Adding to that, greed, fear, territorialism and un-checked power and influence by hidden political forces, and so-on and so-forth, it’s rather amazing that anything good comes out of Washington at all.

As political maneuvering and power-plays take place between parties, which inevitably results in ecstatic winners and fuming losers, perhaps we voters should regularly ask ourselves the following: Which State or Congressional representative shows the most concern for all sides and is willing to do what is best for all parties involved?  Who is being most fair or is considering what is most just, respecting all economic stakeholders?  Who seems to be showing the most respect for the value of all groups concerned?  Whose economic policy gives consideration for the benefit of the many rather than the few?

In short, who is looking at the BIG picture and considering all levels of interests and needs, with a view toward a prosperous America as a whole, so as to lift up the majority of Americans and leave as few of us behind as possible?  For it is a question of economic justice and fairness for all stakeholders, all interested groups, and all individuals and parties involved.

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