Overtime compensation (time and a half) is designed to protect those workers who would otherwise be forced by their employers to work beyond 40 hours a week, or face losing their jobs. Its an economic "checks and balances" procedure to keep business owners from working their employees to death, what you would typically see in low wage service-oriented positions.
Bush's plan eliminated the overtime compensation for those that make good wages, to put more money into business development, hence fueling the economy.
What no one has pointed out is that overtime compensation (time and a half) does not eliminate straight time compensation. For example, if I earn $50 an hour (100K income threshhold), and I don't get the time-and-a-half, I'm still making $50 an hour for working overtime!! But if I'm making minimum wage, shouldn't I be compensated for working above the 40 threshhold? That was Bush's intent.
Something about this whole thing doesn't make sense anyway, because the low wage earners were numbered at 384,000 and the highs at 6 million. Last time I checked, there were some 130 million workers in the US. Do the rest make up the "gray" area?
