camwyn | In honor of Democracy Day,

a message for my elected officials:

Sorry, sir, but it's me again. Have you been keeping up with the latest batch of resolutions? HR 1119 is the big stinker this time and I do hope you'll give it a long look.

See, I might be an exempt employee now, but I've worked for wages before rather than salaries. I had to work overtime back then, and as little as I liked getting the extra hours, the extra pay was awfully helpful in keeping my finances straight. I was a Kelly Temp at the time. I think that under the proposed House resolution temps would still be likely to get overtime pay - but that many, many workers throughout the US wouldn't. Comp time is a wonderful thing, I'll say that right now, but it's totally controlled by the employer and can be granted at inconvenient or useless times. It puts no extra money in the pockets of people who count on their overtime pay to make ends meet. It's practically a recipe for labor unrest among precisely the people who we need on strike least...

How many nurses in this country rely on overtime? How many of them would get offered comp time instead, grow angry, and walk out of our hospitals? What about - say - public sector unions? Police may not be permitted to strike under the NJ-PEER laws but they sure as hell have the power to call in sick if they get time off instead of extra money. And teachers - New Jersey's teachers don't exactly have the same sort of options for time off, now, do they?

Let's examine private sector workers as well. The people in this state who work in the food service industry are already up to their eyeballs in financial difficulty. Don't kid yourself, sir; I've seen the figures. People who work cash registers at McDonald's slave for minimum wage and cling onto overtime to make up for how very little that is. People who work 'front of the house' - wait staff - make less than Federal minimum so long as they get tips, and since that can't always be relied upon, the only thing left to fall back on is overtime. Someone offered overtime work only if they agree to comp time instead of cash (and don't think that won't happen!) is going to get the time, instead of the workers who need the money most.

Sir, I realise that this may seem like a good way for New Jersey businesses to benefit from having to pay out less, but in hard economic times like these I must urge you to reconsider the Resolution. What good are businesses going to have if their workers find themselves with less money to spend? How much good will any organization that pays people by the hour, rather than by the year, have if those who would be their customers take sharp cuts in pay? Comp time means New Jerseyans can head to Sandy Hook, perhaps, but ultimately not much else. If you don't get the money, you don't get anything to spend above and beyond what you need to live, and if you don't have money to spend then the economy squeaks to a halt. You don't want that, do you, Mr. Frelinghuysen?

Remember, sir, the economy is only going to get better if people have money to spend. Slicing this particular labor provision up may benefit companies briefly and stimulate some investment, but ultimately that investment will find itself empty of input monies. Please vote against HR 1119, for the sake of both the New Jersey economy and the economy of the nation in general.

Thank you, Representative Frelinghuysen. I appreciate your time and interest in reading this.