In addition to the middle class, this is also the problem for agencies and employer's like them. Many of the local contracting body-shops have this problem.
I was well paid at my last agency job and I had fun working there, but they take advantage of people - and more importantly - they manage like retards. Why? Because they've got a workforce that is not protected by the overtime.
And in fact, you can see it. When they have a contractor resource - where they do have to pay for every hour worked, they tend to limit that contractor's hours or the contractor gets relatively rich off their inability to manage the projects.
The brands they represent deserve better, not just the people. By not having a 1 to 1 cost for people putting in more hours, management is not kept in check by expense, and you get project killing churn instead of decisions.
This article talks about the declining middle class and that's important. But here in thriving San Francisco the challenge is working well. Regardless of team size or the depth of the company's pockets, Parkinson's law is ever present. Work will expand to fill the time and more and more and more. Because what we do is "soft" there can always be more of it.
In the past, overtime would have kept this in check. 2 decades ago, it was so hard to do anything on a network that the massive effort involved to do anything kept this in check. But now, things are terribly complex, but they are at least "doable."
Despite what most business retard thinks, bringing back overtime would make companies work smarter. It would be good for everyone except the actual retards because today, they can hide behind the volunteer labor of the salaried.
