Pittsburgh Metro Area Postal Workers
AFL-CIO
400 Epicenter
1414 Brighton Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15212

To Whom It May Concern:

We received your letter signed by 47 members of the Pittsburgh Metro Area Postal Workers Union. Secretary Chao has asked me to respond to your letter concerning overtime pay and the Department of Labor's proposed changes to the regulations enforcing the "white collar exemption" under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA).

In enacting the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, Congress included a provision stating that certain "white collar" workers are exempt from overtime pay, but left it to the Secretary of Labor to define who was covered by this exemption. The last time this definition was updated was 1949, and many jobs described under the current regulations no longer exist given the many changes in the American workplace. Moreover, the salary test, currently only $155 per week, has not been adjusted since the mid-1970s.

The Department of Labor has proposed revisions in these regulations that would actually extend overtime pay to an estimated 1.3 million more workers. The Department of Labor's proposal is intended to simplify the current regulations that cause many workers to be misclassified as exempt from overtime and which often result in long and costly court proceedings to resolve.

The Department is currently in the middle of the rulemaking process. During the comment period, which closed on June 30, 2003, we received almost 80,000 public comments on the proposed changes. We will read and consider all of these comments carefully. We take this public process very seriously and hope that it will be allowed to move forward.

Thank you for taking the time to write. We appreciate your input. Sincerely,


Tammy D. McCutchen
Administrator