Amending Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (IT Professionals READ THIS)

     Currently there is a bill (S.1747) to amend  the fair labor standards act of 1938 which would exempt IT professionals from overtime pay. This means that an IT professional can be forced to work an unlimited amount of hours without receiving additional pay for doing so.

     Surprisingly, I am torn about this. The small government-minded person in me says this is a good thing, as forcing companies to pay people extra for more than 40 hours a week is bad, as it is not the federal government's job to do so (at least as it was intentioned)

     But obviously, as an IT Professional, there is a part of me that is definitely opposed to this idea. Why just IT professionals? Is the government going to start playing favorites, dictating that teachers are exempt too? Librarians? Police? Military? (in full disclosure I have no idea how the military is paid) Does the government have something against IT Professionals? Do they think we are overpaid? The highest paid IT professional I know makes MUCH less than the lowest paid US senator. Who is overpaid again? I guess it would be hard to get overtime if you take an incredible amount of vacation time. If I took that much time off and my employer was historically upset with my performance, I probably wouldn't be employed for much longer, especially making the salary of $174,000.
   
     When you give the government the power to dictate these things for a certain group of people, in this case IT Professionals, you give the government power to dictate these things for ALL groups of people. History has shown this time and time again. This is the same for torture, indefinite detentions, murder, war, and countless other atrocities that governments across the world commit to this day. If you allow the government to control certain aspects of your life, it will attempt to control all aspects of your life.

     I would strongly consider contacting your senator if you do not think the government has the right to play favorites between professionals (or even inject themselves into private enterprise at all) as it is a very slippery slope to a corrupt system of state-controlled crony capitalism.