| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Contact: | |
| August 6, 2015 | Joseph Rendeiro | |
| (202) 776-1566; jrendeiro@nclr.org | ||
| Jennifer Molina | ||
| jmolina1@americanprogressaction.org |
Website Launches to Encourage Millions of Latinos to Support Proposed Federal Rule on Overtime Pay
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Millions of Latino workers fighting for fair wages have a new tool at their disposal: MisHorasExtras.org, a Spanish language companion site to FixOvertime.org, which allows users to weigh in on a new proposal to expand federal overtime pay protections. The proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Labor, which would raise the overtime threshold to $50,440 per year in 2016, could help increase pay for nearly 2.1 million Latinos.
If the proposed rule is implemented, all salaried workers who earn about $50,000 per year or less will be compensated at 1.5 times their regular rate for working beyond the standard 40-hour workweek. MisHorasExtras.org represents a collaboration between NCLR (National Council of La Raza), the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The site seeks to give Spanish speakers the opportunity to submit comment letters on the proposed overtime ruling to Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez before the September 4 deadline.
“This online tool makes it easy for our community to speak directly to Secretary Perez about the importance of overtime protections,” said Eric Rodriguez, Vice President of the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation at NCLR. “Millions of Americans, including many Latinos, work well beyond 40 hours a week but barely make enough to afford basic needs. This proposed rule will help ensure that hardworking Americans are being fairly compensated for the extra hours that they put in on the job, while helping lift many struggling families out of poverty and into the middle class.”
Today, only about 8 percent of salaried workers are covered by overtime protections, in stark contrast to nearly 62 percent who were covered in 1975. Analysis from EPI predicts about 13.5 million workers will benefit from the proposal, including almost 7 million women, 6 million parents, 2.1 million Latinos and 1.5 million Blacks.
NCLR—the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States—works to improve opportunities for Latinos. For more information on NCLR, please visit www.nclr.org, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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