Commentary: House Bill on Comp Time Good for Families

In this season in which we designate a Sunday in May to celebrate moms and a Sunday in June for dads, it is fitting that lawmakers recently passed a bill that offers working parents flexibility in their schedules.

The House of Representatives earlier this month passed the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2017, which allows companies to offer compensatory time off instead of overtime pay to employees who work more than 40 hours a week.

Under the bill, employees would receive one and a half hours of comp time for each overtime hour they worked. This would enable them to have an extra bank of occasional time to use with their families, or for vacations, or even paid maternity leave—up to an accumulation of 160 hours.

The Senate version needs to clear committee before going to the floor.

Opponents of comp time say the choice of time off or pay would lead to employers pressuring workers to take comp time to save money. But the bill requires a written agreement about whether compensation will be in hours or dollars.

It includes other protections as well.

If employees change their minds and decide they want pay instead of time off, the employer has to give them their pay within 30 days. It allows workers to switch comp-time balances for pay at any time.

Firms have to give monetary compensation for unused comp-time balances no later than one month after the end of the calendar year. If workers decide to choose comp time in the hope of taking a summer vacation, but do not get around to it, they automatically get their overtime cash at the end of the year.

The law would benefit all hourly workers, as well as salaried workers below a certain income threshold, and upper-income workers who must receive overtime, such as sales or computer employees.

Diana Furchtgott-Roth is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and director of the Economics21 program.