Trump dumps overtime. His Ohio supporters declined to comment. • Ohio Capital Journal

ERIE, Pa. – Just like during rallies, former President Donald Trump spoke about many things on Sunday. He said that no one knows what a Marxist is. He claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris wants to legalize fentanyl. And he said American cities have been taken over by “migrant gangs and criminal thugs.”

None of these statements are even remotely true. But then Trump said something that sounded like this: that he hated paying overtime and he didn’t do it.

Like Trump tries attract the votes of the workers he must win, it seems counterproductive to discredit an 86-year-old law that could make the difference between paying the rent and eviction for some workers.

Two of his most prominent allies in Ohio, vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, are not talking about Trump’s comments. A spokesman for Democrat Moreno is a challenge, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, pointed to what he said was the senator’s long record of protecting and trying to expand overtime.

Trump is infamous for stiff people who work for him. They include undocumented workers on its golf courses.

On Sunday in Erie, Trump also bragged about not paying overtime, even though it is required by federal law.

“I know a lot about overtime,” Trump said. ‘I hated that they gave overtime. I hated it. I would get other people, I shouldn’t say this, but I would get other people in. I wouldn’t pay. I hate it.”

Overtime – the requirement that employers pay 150% of basic salary for every hour someone over 40 works in a week – was introduced in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. It applies to all workers who… US Department of Labor defines as “workers who use their hands, physical skills and energy to perform work that involves repetitive actions.”

But over the past four decades, the workforce has shifted dramatically from jobs that meet that definition, and many of those who work in other ways have lost their right to overtime.

Exempt from overtime requirements are jobs that consist primarily of clerical or computer work. The only exception was for those who earned less than $36,000 a year through July.

The percentage of workers covered by overtime wage requirements fell from 60% in 1975 to about 15% today. That means the average employee loses almost $18,000 a year that he or she would have made differently, Time Magazine reported in 2022.

During Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, Vance again made heavy use of his family’s working-class roots. But a spokesperson did not respond when asked whether the Ohio senator “hated” overtime like his billionaire running mate.

Also not responding was Moreno, a Cleveland businessman whose net worth is estimated somewhere in between $38 million and $173 million. The Republican Senate candidate and Trump supporter has his own problems when it comes to paying his employees overtime.

He was sued in 2017 by a Massachusetts employee who claimed Moreno refused to pay him overtime compensation he had earned. Moreno testified in the case that he monthly overtime data destroyed.

Brown, the senator challenging Moreno, has been a longtime advocate of strengthening overtime requirements, his office said.

Last year he introduced the Reinstating the Overtime Pay Act of 2023which he said would increase the share of employees eligible for overtime from 15% to 55%. And this year, the Labor Department Brown’s plan adopted to increase the salary threshold under which overtime is required from $36,000 to $44,000 in July, $59,000 on January 1, and updated every three years after 2027.

However, unlike a law passed by Congress, Labor Department rules can be overturned by a new administration.