Complimenting both Obama and Trump for expanded overtime pay

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Yes, I wish to compliment both President Obama and President Trump for pretty much the same policy of expanding who qualifies for overtime pay.

The threshold had been about $23,000. The Labor Dept. during the tail end of the Obama years was going to raise this to about $47,000, but a federal judge ruled that the Labor Dept. had overstepped their authority.

The Labor Dept. during the Trump years did raise this threshold to about $35,000, or $35,568 to be exact, effective Jan. 1, 2020.

So, for about thirteen months now, even if someone is a hundred percent appropriately classified as salaried, if they make less than $35,568 for the year, they’re still eligible for time-and-a-half for overtime.

I think this is potentially very promising public policy, because it spreads out available jobs.

This is Andy Yang speaking in favor of a $1,000 a month Universal Income for every adult in the United States, rich and poor alike. And he’s basically saying we’d pay for it through taxing tech companies and a VAT (Value Added Tax) at about half the European level.

Please see 1:05 in the video in which he’s saying, This is a move we have to make.

Even if you do not agree with his solution, he’s very solid on the problem definition phase. The loss of jobs is a very serious problem indeed. No way that it isn’t. And I’d add, the loss of middle-income jobs is particularly serious.

Universal Income is going to be a tough sell even if it has a certain beauty of simplicity, and even if in some way(s) it’s the theoretical “best” response.

That’s why I think it’s important to talk about additional changes we might make to help rebuild the American middle class — such as smart changes in overtime law as above. Yeah, think about a higher threshold. Spread out available jobs.