Employers should Pay less for Overtime hours from Planck's Constant

Timnah Ancient Copper Mine
and The Red Canyon
Photo Credit: forumsci.co.il

On 770 ABC Radio this evening I heard Jerry Agar talking about the outrageous overtime that NY State Workers get paid, some of them making almost 3 times as much as their base salaries. The only problem with employees working an extra shift is that you get less work out of them during overtime. I suspect that most NY State workers stretch their work day so that they only get 4 hours of work done in a day, requiring an extra 8 hours in order to get the original day's work done. List this under "Scam".

During Summer Break in 1966 from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, I took a job working construction at the Timna Copper Mine in the Eilat Desert, fabled site of King Solomon's Mines. I was paid 75 cents an hour. There came a time when our boss needed some extra work done cleaning a fire-damaged night club nearby. Our shift had just ended and he asked for volunteers.

"How much overtime will we get?" asked Ira, an American friend working with me.
"I'll pay you 75 cents an hours, same as always," said the Israeli Construction Foreman.
"Wait, shouldn't we get more than that for overtime?" Ira interjected.
"Why should you get more? You are tired. I should pay you less."
"But I'm not tired!" responded Ira.
"If you are not tired after working all day for me then you have been slacking and therefore owe me money. I am being generous paying you the same when you can't give me 100% of your effort. Anyway, take it or leave it."

It was hard to argue with the foreman's logic. I and the others took it. The Job? Scraping black soot off the stucco walls of the night club with tiny brushes. The vinyl couches in the nightclub caught fire and the entire interior of the club was covered in a quarter inch layer of what looked like black chalk. It was the second most unpleasant job I ever had.