40 hours

H.R. 1406, The Working Families Flexibility Act, passed the House yesterday. In case you don't know, this is the bill designed to end the eight-hour workday and the forty-hour work week. From Truthout:

We have a jobs emergency and Republicans are trying to get rid of one of the laws that causes employers to hire more people. Go figure. When employers require workers to work more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week, they have to pay more than the regular wage for that extra time. This is a strong incentive to hire more people instead.

And when they don't hire more people, they pay a premium, which means regular people have more money to spend. Either way, it helps the economy. And of course, it really, really helps those workers.

Last year, USA Today took a look at overtime pay and found that productivity was rising, but as a result of squeezing workers for more hours. But employers were calling these workers "managers" to get out of paying overtime - and to get out of hiring more people.

Fortunately, Obama has said that he will veto the bill.

Yes, I remain infuriated with Obama -- over other issues. Yes, I remain grateful that Mitt Romney did not win the presidency.