Boeing to cut contract-worker OT pay

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Boeing will stop paying overtime in January to some of its remaining contract computer workers earning more than $27.63 a hour. It had been one of the last employers not to take advantage of a state law that makes overtime pay optional for such workers.

Federal and state regulators in 1998 exempted "professional computer employees" from minimum-wage regulations, but Boeing had continued to pay overtime.

The exemption applies to computer programmers, systems analysts, software developers other highly skilled workers. It is limited to those earning more than $27.63 an hour or $57,470 a year.

Boeing has been altering its agreements with temporary agencies to phase out time-and-a-half pay for high-level computer employees. Instead, workers will earn straight-time pay for any work beyond 40 hours a week. The change does not apply to Boeing's permanent employees, company spokesman Bob Jorgensen said.

Erick Schirmer, Seattle branch manager for Addeco Technical, a contract-employee agency that specializes in high-level software workers, said Boeing has been his only client company to continue paying overtime since the state law changed.

"We certainly saw it coming," Schirmer said, adding that Boeing already had stopped overtime pay with most other temporary agencies. "It was a nice recruiting tool for us. A lot of people made a lot of money off of that."

Sixty percent of Addeco's workers are placed with Boeing. Schirmer said a lot of them earn more than $27.63 an hour and thus potentially stand to lose a significant chunk of their income. However, he said, business is down, so few workers are working more than 40 hours a week.

Marcus Courtney, president of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, said he was worried the decision would prompt Microsoft to do the same.

Yesterday, Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake declined to say whether the company still gives its contract workers premium pay for overtime work.

Boeing did not have an estimate of how many high-level computer workers, either permanent or contract, it has on the payroll.

Kyung M. Song can be reached at 206- 464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com.