PIRG and Overtime

I must admit to experiencing some amusement when I read the statement of May 18 from the executive director of U.S. PIRG regarding the Obama administration’s new overtime regulation:

U.S. PIRG previously submitted comments expressing our concern that the DOL overtime rule as proposed would have significant negative consequences for non-profit, cause-oriented organizations like ours. The final rule does nothing to address those concerns.

Doubling the minimum salary to $47,476 is especially unrealistic for non-profit, cause-oriented organizations. Organizations like ours rely on small donations from individuals to pay the bills. We can’t expect those individuals to double the amount they donate. Rather, to cover higher staffing costs forced upon us under the rule, we will be forced to hire fewer staff and limit the hours those staff can work – all while the well-funded special interests that we’re up against will simply spend more.

(Read the whole statement here. Bold mine.)

As a reminder, here’s the Wall Street Journal’sdescription of the overtime regulation, from May 17:

The rule will increase the annual salary threshold that generally determines who qualifies for overtime pay when they log more than 40 hours a week. It will likely have a sweeping effect on workers, employers and industries, including retailers, the fast-food industry, universities and nonprofits.

The threshold will be doubled to $47,476 a year from $23,660, a level last updated in 2004, administration officials said Tuesday. That means workers who earn annual salaries of less than $47,476 will be eligible for overtime pay, while eligibility for those with salaries of that much or more will depend on their job duties. Workers who are paid hourly are generally eligible for overtime no matter how much they make annually.

PIRG, a liberal advocacy and organizing group, is, of course, correct that the new overtime regulation is bad for their organization. I sympathize with their bristling in the face of the government’s efforts to impose from Labor Department HQ its preferred HR policies on their organization. It does make you chuckle, though, when the advocates of government micromanagement react so strongly against being micromanaged. 

If the new overtime regulation is bad policy for PIRG, it just might be bad policy for other organizations, too.