What is Compensatory Time?
Comp time is when an employee works overtime and instead of getting paid overtime rate of 1.5 times their regular rate of pay on their next pay check, they will receive 1.5 hours of paid time off of work.
Comp time is currently against the law in California. When companies were allowed to offer comp time most were not offering it correctly. The issues that would arise were usually that the time was given at 1 hour of overtime worked only equaled 1 hour of time off paid instead of 1.5 hours. Or in some situation this time was granted off but still unpaid. Sadly other companies would not effectively track the time and so it was never given to employees correctly, if at all.
Working Families Flexibility Act
The Democratic House Committee on Education and the Workforce proposed the Working Families Flexibility Act stating that it would give employees more flexibility. Basically this bill allows Comp Time as it was intended, 1 hour of overtime worked equals either 1.5 hours of paid time off or the option to take the 1.5 times the regular rate of pay in your paycheck, or cash out balances at any time. This bill will not affect the “use or lose it law”. In California your paid time off can never be lost or disappear; the employer must either let you take time off or cash out its value to you. This bill makes no changes to that, so your time or money is never lost. In fact it goes a step further, requiring that employers cash out your Comp Time balance at the end of every year instead of allowing you to roll those hours over into the next year, thus ensuring that even if your time off requests are denied all year long you will still be able to receive the monetary equivalent in a timely manner.
Congressional representative Robert Andrews expressed concern that employees would be pressured into taking comp time instead of their preferred overtime pay and thus allowing employers to use their employees earned wages as a loan. Stay tuned to hear how the house will vote on this bill, as there are mixed reactions.
Labor law is complex; if you have any questions regarding your employment it is recommended that you contact a California labor law attorney who can help you understand your rights and in many cases will review your situation without charge.