Legislation that would allow private sector employers to offer
their employees compensatory time off in lieu of overtime was
reintroduced in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Notably,
the Working Families Flexibility Act (H.R. 1406) was introduced by Republican
lawmakers, increasing the odds that this bill will advance in the
House this term.
This measure would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to
permit private-sector employees to opt for paid time off at a rate
of at least one-and-one-half hours of compensatory time per hour of
overtime pay earned. This "comp time" option has long
been available to public sector employees, and has proven to be
very popular.
By way of example, an employee who works 48 hours per week would
receive either 8 hours of pay at a rate of time-and-one-half or 12
hours of paid leave. This act would not change how overtime is
calculated. To be eligible to choose comp time, employees would
have to have worked at least 1,000
