On October 20th Senator Kay Hagen (D-NC) introduced the Computer Professionals Update Act (CPU Act) for consideration in the Senate. The bill seeks to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to expand the overtime exception for hourly workers to cover a wide swath of IT workers, including security specialists, software programers, and database administrators. Many of these workers are salaried employees, and thus already exempt from overtime requirements. However, there are still many IT workers that are paid on an hourly basis, as this admittedly unscientific survey shows.
The bill is co-sponsored by three Republican senators and one other Democratic senator, and has been assigned to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. While the passage of this bill is far from certain–most bills die in committee–the question of why this bill was introduced still looms. I suggest that Sen. Hagen is motivated by something beyond the typical IT worker: the growing video game industry in her home state of North Carolina.
North Carolina has at least fourteen game developers and publishers within its boarders, including the amazingly successful Gears of War developer Epic Games. As evidence of North Carolina’s push for part of the video game pie, the state recently enacted a fifteen percent tax credit for game developers. Should the Federal overtime exemption pass, the State would be able to further aid one of its major growth industries.
The question of overtime hours has been a hot button issue in the game design industry for the last few years, starting when a game developer’s spouse spoke out about the working conditions at Electronic Arts. As recently as July of this year game developers have been complaining of unfair wage practices during grueling production schedules. In an industry where twelve hour workdays are common, having a Federal law that exempts all your key employees from overtime pay may help the bottom line. Many people may dream of working in the video game and technology industry, but should this bill pass some entry level workers may lose out on some important legal protections.
As a final point, it is interesting that none of the co-sponsors are from the technology hot beds of California and Washington. North Carolina’s Technology Triangle may be growing, but without the support of the giants of the technology world it is doubtful that this bill completes its journey into law. This is definitely a bill for any budding tech workers to keep an eye on.