With new federal overtime rules set to take effect today, a lot of people are confused as to who should be paid overtime and who shouldn't.

On Monday, new federal rules detailing which workers get time-and-a-half and which ones don't are due to take effect. The changes mark the first major overhaul of the federal overtime law in more than 50 years. In response, employers and employees alike are scrambling to figure out what they mean.

With some 500 pages of legalese to pour over, the task isn't easy. [...]

Look on the bright side: the previous rules spelled out these and other exemptions in roughly 30,000 words. The new guidelines take only 13,000.

You can't tell me that 500 pages and tens of thousands of words just to say who gets overtime and who doesn't isn't too much government meddling. It seems to me that all this regulation could easily be scrapped.

Far be it if for me to simplify things, but I would think you could just leave it up to the employee and employer. Just like salary and benefits are negotiated depending on who has the clout in the relationship, so could overtime pay. If you have a rare skillset or there is a high demand for your labor, you could negotiate overtime pay. Likewise, during periods of high unemployment when labor is cheap, employers could get away without paying overtime.

Why should the government have any say in what price I charge for my labor? If I want to work for free or charge doubletime, it should be my business and the business of my employer.

UPDATE: Not surprisingly, Neal Boortz and I are on the exact same page.