Polis Offers Overtime Amendment for Puerto Rico Debt Bill

Press Release

Today, Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) offered an amendment in the Committee for Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (H.R. 5278) to ensure that the U.S. Department of Labor overtime rule is fairly and uniformly applied to all U.S. citizens, including those who live in Puerto Rico.

The new rule requires that employees who earn under $47,476 per year receive overtime benefits when working over 40 hours a week. The Puerto Rico debt bill currently creates a two-year exemption to the Department of Labor's overtime rule for residents of Puerto Rico. Polis's amendment would eliminate that two-year exemption and allow the overtime rule to be fully implemented in Puerto Rico.

"For too long, workers have been putting in more and more hours without receiving the compensation they deserve," said Rep. Polis. "Puerto Ricans, like all hardworking citizens, deserve access to the new overtime protections. It's a dangerous precedent to set that Puerto Ricans, or any member of a territory of the United States, don't deserve the same workforce protections as someone in Colorado."

Despite Polis's efforts to move the amendment forward, it was not adopted by the Committee on Natural Resources.

Polis is the senior member of the Education and Workforce Committee, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions, and serves on the Natural Resources Committee.

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