Newspaper Overtime Rules Under Review

By: Randy Dotinga Under new regulations proposed by the Labor Department, workers in a variety of newsroom jobs would become ineligible for overtime and have to get straight salaries like their bosses, regardless of how many hours they work.

The proposed new salary regulations are currently foundering in Congress, but labor advocates aren't ready to declare victory.

The proposed rules are "a very ominous development," said Linda Foley, president of the Newspaper Guild, a union representing some 30,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada. "We're fighting very hard to make sure they don't go into effect."

Publishers generally support the new rules, as does the Newspaper Association of America.

Many union contracts, but not all, include provisions that guarantee overtime pay for non-management workers. But non-union workers must rely on state laws and, if they don't provide much protection, federal laws.

Under the current rules, first enacted in 1938, employers must pay time-and-a-half pay to employees who work more than 40 hours a week. There are just three exceptions -- executive, administrative, and professional workers. "The idea is that there are some people who need [overtime], and some people who don't," said David A. Larson, professor at the Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minn.

The laws are confusing and provide no "bright line" to separate overtime-worthy employees from their colleagues, he said. In general, however, interpretations of the federal regulations have been good to newsroom employees. Reporters, copy editors, and photographers typically are not considered "professionals" -- who must "consistently exercise discretion and independent judgment" -- meaning they must be paid overtime for extra hours.

The proposed rules eliminate the wording about discretion and "independent judgment" and instead say that if your job requires you to have learned lots of things, either through schooling or a combination of schooling and work experience, you're off the overtime train.

The Democrats say the regulations, proposed earlier this year, would add 8 million workers to the rolls of the overtime-exempt. The Bush Administration contends that there would actually be a net gain of people eligible for overtime because the rules would require extra pay for extra work for anyone who makes under $22,000 a year. (The current cutoff is $8,060. Workers who make less than that, even if they're in an exempt group, must get paid overtime; any white-collar worker who makes over $65,000 is automatically ineligible.)

"The administration's argument is that their work has changed, compensation has changed, and the rules need to be updated accordingly," said Michael M. Harris, professor of management and organizational behavior at the University of Missouri at St. Louis.

The NAA didn't make a representative available to speak on the overtime issue by press time, but did provide a copy of a 13-page letter in favor of the regulations that the organization sent to the Department of Labor on June 30.

In the letter, the NAA -- which represents newspapers serving 90% of all newspaper readers in the country -- firmly supports the new regulations. Outdated federal rules that were drafted in the 1940s and 1950s "fail to provide appropriate guidance to employers, and further confuse employers and ... courts," the NAA states. Among other things, the NAA points out that the regulations refer to jobs like "rewrite man" and "leg man" that no longer exist.

The federal contention that reporters deserve an exemption because they learn on the job "is no longer operative," says the NAA, following up with statistics about how many journalists get training in college. "The professional status of journalists throughout the country is indisputable."

Not surprisingly, the president of the Newspaper Guild has other ideas. If the regulations are approved, they'll "put pressure on employees across the industry," Foley said. "It won't be uncommon for people to work 50-, 60- or 70-hour weeks without additional compensation."

Less pay will translate into less money funneled into 401(k)s and pensions and fewer vacation days, Foley said. "We'll drive more good people away from the industry. It'll be too hard to maintain a life and be able to work for a living as a journalist."

Just this week, the Senate blocked the Bush Administration from putting the new overtime regulations into effect, but the House has supported it. According to news reports, the ultimate fate of the regulations remains up in the air.