The End of Overtime

Overtime pay, “time and a half” by law, and sometimes higher by employer-labor agreement, has been one of the building bricks of the postwar middle class. The first working-class beneficiaries of this provision in the 1940’s were familiar with six-day workweeks, and for those who grew up on the family farm, a seven-day workweek. The 40-hour workweek was foremost a job-sharing measure to end the Great Depression, but was also recognized as a move that gave the workforce more time for rest and recreation. White collar professionals, domestic workers, and many small-boat mariners do not receive overtime pay. Over the decades, retail managers have also found themselves as “exempt” workers. At least one maritime officers’ union has switched contracts from overtime-eligible to pure salary. For those still eligible for overtime pay, the allure has lessened, especially among the youngest generations. Time-and-a-half doesn’t go as far as it used to. Oliver Anthony sung this year: “Overtme hours for bull---- pay”. Baby Boomers worked long hours to buy grown-up toys: seldom-used RVs and boats that are still in shape to be used by the next generation, no new payments needed. In the past, overtime hours were often voluntary, in that you opted to stay to finish a job, of signed up for an extra shift. But in a time of staffing shortage, mandatory overtime offers less flexibility. Where there might have been a sense of obligation for a sole breadwinner to earn a little more money after-hours, today’s more-than-likely two-income household must share domestic chores, and passing jokes in the air-conditioned control room may appear more enjoyable than Saturday diaper duty. To cope with these changes in expectations, factories that were once running 60-hour average workweeks are adapting to a two-shift schedule. As far as practices in deep-sea shipping, weekly workhours have probably increased in the past 50 years, with the reduction of dedicated positions such as Radio Officer, Purser, and Machinist. However, tours of duty on American ships have fallen from an average of 6 months to 3 months; work harder for fewer months per year. Reliable automation, like the new cargo winches onboard USNS Arctic requiring half the operators as older systems; and increasing the mean time between equipment failures, do hold promise for freeing up mariners’ time, while at sea.