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Mary Fallin is trying to become even more unpopular…

2:38 PM EDT on October 3, 2016

Last week, Morning Consult released a poll that ranked Mary Fallin as the 9th-least popular Governor in the country. Her disapproval rating was a dismal 53%. That almost puts her in Obama territory.

Such a dismal ranking shouldn’t be a big of surprise for TLO readers. As we know, Mary’s priorities and loyalties have always been to the wealthy GOP donors, special interest groups and energy companies who funded her campaign. Unless a tornado plows through and she gets to say “Oklahoma Standard” at a photo-op, she just doesn’t seem to care about the Oklahoma people all that much. As a result, Oklahoma now deals with an education funding and budget crisis, botched executions, man-made earthquakes, stagnant economy, prison overcrowding, hospital closures, mental health crisis, low incomes, crumbling infrastructure, trailers being parked on the Governor’s Mansion yard, oil field prayers, etc.

Normally when a politician deals with low approval numbers, they try to do things to change them. Not Mary Fallin. She doubles down. For example, last week she penned an editorial in The Oklahoman that came out strongly against new laws that would give more Oklahomans the opportunity the earn overtime pay, because you know, ensuring that workers are treated and compensated fairly by employers is against her values.

Via The Oklahoman:

Last week, Oklahoma joined 20 other states in a legal challenge of the federal Department of Labor's new overtime rule that is set to take effect in December. It's another example of how Oklahoma's elected officials are working to protect the state's small businesses.

The new overtime rule requires employers pay their salaried employees who earn less than $47,500 a year overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a week. This roughly doubles the previous threshold.

As the owner of a fledgling small business that always feels like it’s a month or two away from going under (advertise today!), I appreciate Mary Fallin’s desire to protect small businesses. That being said, shouldn’t elected officials be more focused on protecting workers from manipulative businesses that use shady practices and dated rules to avoid paying employees the income they deserve?

Obviously, the answer to that question is “No.” Instead of demanding employees be paid for time worked, she thinks workers should simply be honored and content with the prestige associated with having a job…

The rule hurts small-business owners who rely on their salaried managers to work until the job gets done even if that means working beyond 40 hours a week during busy times. In return for this commitment, salaried employees get the flexibility, prestige and perks that come with being such an integral part of the business.

The regulation [a.k.a. law that ensures employees will be compensated fairly] will also hurt employees. According to Jeffrey Miron of Harvard University, salaried employees will be shifted back to hourly ones so that employers can more easily account for labor costs. This means they will lose the benefits that come with being salaried. It also will cause some employers to reduce job opportunities in order to cover the increased labor costs associated with the rule.

There you go. If we make reasonable reform to overtime pay laws, businesses that treat their employees like shit will not be able to hire new employees. Fear! Fear!! Fear!!!!!! Also, employees will lose the benefits that come with being salaried, like, uhm, not getting paid overtime for the extra work you put in?

Here's some more:

Consider how the regulation hurts a small business with two salaried managers earning $40,000 a year. Increasing the employees' salaries to the new threshold of $47,500 — a roughly 20 percent raise — isn't feasible for many low-margin employers. But shifting them to hourly employees reduces the value they can create for the business and for themselves. There is no painless way to comply with the regulation.

Let’s give the Mary Fallin staffer who wrote this editorial – I'm guessing Michael McNutt -- some credit. That’s a nice hypothetical situation that I’m sure will happen to three or four legitimate businesses out there. In other news, if you own a small business, have two salaried managers on staff making $40,000 a year, demand they work over 40 hours a week, and can’t afford to give them a $7,500 raise or simply make them hourly employees so they can qualify for overtime, guess what, you probably deserve to go out of business.

Anyway, you can read the rest of the editorial here. I’d encourage you to share it (or our write up) on social media. That way, more hardworking Oklahomans who go above and beyond for their employers each day will see that Mary Fallin really doesn’t give a shit about them. By doing that, maybe we can get her disapproval rating up to 60%. Let’s make it happen. #OklahomaStandard.

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