On May 18th, President Obama announced that millions of workers in the U.S. making less than $47,476 annually would soon become eligible for overtime pay. This long overdue change to the law followed two years of thoughtful deliberation and public comment, in which progressive, pro-science groups nationwide, including the UAW, pushed hard for strong, common-sense updates to wage and overtime standards. We must not let Congress turn back progress for postdocs, research scientists and millions more across the country. Early-career researchers perform groundbreaking research that generates billions of dollars in economic growth, while often being paid less than $15 per hour.

In response to the new rules, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Francis Collins and U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez expressed their strong support for implementing fair pay for postdocs and the positive impact it will have on the future of research as a whole:

"Our nation should embrace the fact that increasing the salary threshold for postdocs represents an opportunity to encourage more of our brightest young minds to consider choosing careers in science. Biomedical science has never been more exciting or promising than now, and we need to do all we can to support the next generation of scientists" (Collins/Perez, Huffington Post, May 18, 2016).

Despite this, some Senate and House Republicans, urged on by powerful special interest groups, do not support fair pay for researchers and members of Congress are taking steps to block full implementation of these rules. These are some of the same groups who have fought legislation to address climate change and opposed increasing the minimum wage across the country.

We implore Congress to stop derailing critical updates to wage and overtime standards for postdocs, research scientists and millions of other workers. Don’t let politics prevent full implementation of the rules. Ensure fair pay for all workers and maintain excellence in University-based, publicly-funded research.

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