"...Then think about this.
http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/workhours/overtime.htm
The link will take you to the US Department of Labor and this has been a law for many years."
And if the issue is not one of money, but time to rest, and time to spend with one's family?
Getting time-and-a-half will be small consolation for missing a child's Big Game or anything similar.
Really? What should those serving in the military be paid for missing their child's big game, their first step, their first word, or their birth?
The military doesn't get time and a half, they're paid by salary (which isn't much, even an E-6 only makes around 37,000/year), but we don't ***** about missing events like that.
Quick question.............................how much would you feel you were owed if you missed an event like that, and, more importantly, would you feel that people in the military should be paid what you thought you were owed if they missed that same event?
Let's leave the military out of this. They represent < 1/2 of 1% of the US population and are voluntarily engaged in national defense operations that are exempt from such considerations.
We are talking about the other 99.5% of the population; our civilians; engaged in peacetime pursuits; living their lives for themselves and their families; not their employers; and not subject to the same rigors which our military folk subject themselves to voluntarily.
This is not to denigrate the personal nor family lives of our brave military folk - I wore a green suit for Sammy myself and am pretty damned sympathetic - but they, themselves, will be the first to tell you that their 24 x 7 x 365 commitment is part and parcel of defending the nation; a commitment that they embrace voluntarily.
Giving an employer an ability to dictate a work schedule without rest only empowers that employer to revert back to the abusive behaviors that triggered the 1-day-of-rest law in the first place.
Civilians are not held to the same rigorous 24 x 7 x 365 standards of commitment and effort that someone in our military voluntarily submits to.
And there's no good reason on the face of God's green earth why they should be.
As to your question about what missing such an event is worth, well, I don't know...
If my bastard of an abusive-scheduling employer forces me to miss an event...
How much is missing my son's first Little League game worth to me?
How much is missing my daughter's first Dance Class performance worth to me?
How much is missing my grandchild's First Communion worth to me?
How much is missing my good friend's wedding worth to me?
How much is a day of rest worth, when you're run-down and been working too hard?
Some of that stuff is priceless - at least to folks for whom such things have meaning.
Money is damned important, but it's not everything.
Oftentimes, folks would rather have a day off than have the money.
And they're probably usually happier and healthier when working, the other 6 days.
Money is damned important, but it's not everything, to everybody.
But this is up to the folks of the great and sovereign State of Wisconsin.
If more people in the State of Wisconsin want to keep the law than there are people who want to overturn it, then I say leave the damned law alone.
At a minimum, I hope the Cheeseheads up there look very closely at who's doing the proposing, and what might lie behind that proposal, and what the long-term ramifications might be, before they buy into that particular line of fertilizer.