Iowa Senate Democrats are putting focus on a piece of legislation to recover overtime pay for state workers. 

Senator for District 14 Sarah Trone-Garriott says that 2,800 state workers saw their overtime pay cut in 2017. Trone-Garriott explains that Senate File 282 would revoke those changes and ensure that sick and vacation days count toward overtime calculations. She tells Racoon Valley Radio that change would not just help protect workers but also help Iowa’s ability to recruit and retain quality workers. 

“We need to be focusing on efforts to make sure that Iowans have more money in their pocket and that benefits their families. It benefits their communities. And so rather than some of the bills that we’ve been seeing attacking the LGBTQ community, let’s be focusing on some of these workforce issues, like making sure people get their overtime pay.”

She says that this bill provides specific forms of paid leave that will be counted as hours worked for purposes of calculating overtime. The piece of legislation remains in the senate subcommittee.