At a campaign rally in Tucson, Arizona last week, former President Trump made a policy announcement that will excite many in the working class: Trump promised that if elected president in November, he would seek to remove income tax on the overtime wages people earn once they breach the 40 hour threshold where overtime pay kicks in. “The people who work overtime are among the hardest working citizens in our country, and for too long, no one in Washington has been looking out for them,” Trump said.
In an economy where any gains by working people are immediately vaporized by inflation and cost of living increases, this bonus for those Americans doing the hard yards when called upon for overtime hours is a welcome idea. There’s only one problem: Millions of us are going to be left out of this boon, because we alone don’t get paid overtime. I’m talking about America’s 3 million truck drivers, who are discriminated against by an exemption to overtime pay regulations as set forth in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
Most of us truckers regularly put in 60 to 70 hours a week, week in and week out, making sure America’s economy continues to function. Yet the vast majority of truckers do not get paid overtime at all due to the exemption.
A trucker sits in his cab as truck drivers and supporters gather one day before a ‘People’s Convoy’ departs for Washington, DC, to protest COVID-19 mandates on February 22, 2022 in Adelanto, California. The protestors are calling for a full re-opening of the country and are scheduled to arrive in Washington, DC, on March 5.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
But there’s an easy way for President Trump to include us: There has been a bill before the last two sessions of Congress called the Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act, which seeks to remove the exemption in the Fair Labor Standards Act preventing us from earning the overtime pay that all other hourly workers are entitled to. This bill has mass support from many pro-trucker organizations, including the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association and the Teamsters, whose leader, Sean O’Brien, recently broke with the rest of the labor movement by daring to speak at the Republican National Convention.
Yet the GOT Act has become stuck in committee, and it will probably die on the floor this year due to the election. If either party wanted to secure the votes of America’s roughly 3.5 million truckers, they could combine Trump’s overtime pay tax relief with the GOT Act, and thus serve up a deserved acknowledgement to America’s truckers that they are as an important a link in the supply chain as everyone observed during COVID.
Truckers work on average 60 hours a week or more, and often spend incredible amounts of time away from home, missing out on family and community that most other people take for granted. Yet trucker wages have stagnated; adjusted for inflation, we are earning half of what we earned in 1980. Corporate lobby groups like the American Trucking Association (ATA) who oppose the GOT Act would have us believe that there is a truck driver shortage, yet America issues 450,000 CDLs a year. Where do all of the extra truckers go if we get 450,000 new drivers a year?
If a future President Trump (or Harris!) were to implement both the GOT Act and the removal of taxes on overtime, a number of problems would be solved. Truckers would be paid the overtime pay we have been denied for over 80 years, and then those drivers, along with other workers in all sectors of the economy would have more money in our pockets to spend. Also, we would see way less turnover, and therefore less perceived necessity for the taxpayer to finance the seemingly endless training of new drivers. It might also help safety on the roads – new drivers are far more likely to be involved in collisions, and if we kept more experienced drivers on the road by paying them what they deserve and letting them keep all of their overtime pay, they would be far less likely to quit.
It just so happens that this week is Truck Driver Appreciation Week. Instead of spending money on advertising or companies hosting barbecues most truckers miss out on because they’re on the road, let’s instead embrace a policy change that would show some real support for drivers.
This simple income tax incentive, matched with the removal of one line from the Fair Labor Standards Act, would properly reward the hardest working members of society, cost employers nothing, and see more income available for working class families across the board, which can only be a positive for the rest of the economy.
Truck drivers, for once, would feel like the appreciation for them isn’t merely a slogan.
America often thinks of itself as a place founded on the puritan work ethic, and that hard work ought to be rewarded. The combination of these two policies would help that mythos remain true after years of losses for the average working American.
Gord Magill is a trucker, writer, and commentator, and can be found at www.autonomoustruckers.substack.com.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
