I guess there's a conservative counter-argument on the wings that this will "cut productivity" -- Cato Institute guy touches on it a bit.

You know what? Good. If what it takes to be productive is people working 65-hour weeks in order to stay "on par" in their industry, then, well, let's be more like the French -- second graph.

Conservatives criticized Mr. Obama’s impending action. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” said Daniel Mitchell, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute, who warned that employers might cut pay or use fewer workers. “If they push through something to make a certain class of workers more expensive, something will happen to adjust.”

This "certain class" of workers is people who work themselves to death to stay employed. I normally pay a good bit of attention to "conservative" economics, secondary considerations to government intervention and all that, I've read some good stuff from the Cato Institute -- but this is I guess just too far-sighted for me.

“I think the intent of the rule change is to make sure that people working overtime are fairly treated,” he said. “I think a potential side effect is that you may see more hiring in order to avoid overtime costs, which would be an awfully good thing right about now.”

Unfortunately that's a bit silly.