Will employers soon have overtime alternatives?
For the past forty years, government organizations have been able to capitalize on a loophole that was not available to companies in the private sector - state and federal departments could pay their employees compensatory time off (also known as comp time) instead of overtime rates for their extra time and attendance. This means that qualifying employers could offer vacation allowances in place of time-and-a-half wages. There are now proposals that aim to extend that coverage to all firms.
The House Subcommittee recently heard arguments about whether the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013 should move forward to give businesses the right to offer comp time as an alternative to overtime. If this legislation moves forward, employees can opt to accrue time off at a rate comparable to the pay they would have earned. For every hour of overtime, workers will get one-and-a-half credits of comp time. They can earn up to 160 hours a year through this plan, according to Thomson Reuters.
This is not the first time such a provision has been introduced. Similar allowances were proposed in the Work and Family Integration Act, the Family Friendly Workplace Act, the Family Time Flexibility Act and the Family Time and Workplace Flexibility Act - none of which were passed, the Kansas City Star reports.
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