Comp time for nonexempts?

Caroliso

I've recently seen and heard of a couple of policies where employers allow comp time for nonexempt employees on a voluntary basis, up to a certain limit, and even allow it to carry over and be paid upon termination.

This is completely against anything I understand about FLSA, and I'm wondering if I'm missing something. Have the regs changed/loosened?

marc

For non-exempts, an election can be made to get the equivalent of time and a half off in comp time instead of OT pay.

I believe it is only illegal to offer comp time for exempt EEs outside of the public sector.

I'll bet some FLSA experts will chime in.

Irie

I was under the impression that comp time for non-exempts was not allowed in the private sector but that overtime had to paid for any hours worked over 40 in a week. I'm off to see if I can find something in the regs.

Caroliso

that's my understanding too, but maybe I'm not clear on the concept of public vs private. The two companies I've heard from with comp time policies are a private university and a public television company. I would call them not-for-profit, which I think is different from public, correct?

njjel

In NJ an hourly employee must be paid for "all hours worked" in a work week. therefore, comp time is not legal in NJ for hourly employees. Our exempt ee's however can earn (by contract) up to 35 additional hours in comp time per year. Anything they work over that is not compensated.

System

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 02-17-07 AT 10:55AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Re: your question:

"The two companies I've heard from with comp time policies are a private university and a public television company. I would call them not-for-profit, which I think is different from public, correct?"

Generally, that is correct ... non-profit corporations are private sector employers, incorporated under state corporation statutes, and with tax-exemption (if they are tax-exempt) granted by the IRS. The caveat with your two examples as I see it would be that the "public television company" may or may not be a separately incorporated entity ... some are structured as departments of a university, for example, which MAY make it a public sector entity.

The other issue raised by your question would be that if, in fact, both the "private university" and the "public television company" are actually private sector employers (either profit or non-profit), then they should not have "comp time" policies, unless the policies PROHIBIT comp time, as it is not allowable under FLSA for private sector employers.

marc

This feature - 1 1/2 comp time in lieu of OT pay, is for State of Nevada EEs, not for private employers.

Thanks for those private emails to clear this up.

dbutton111

For non-exempt employees in the private sector (non-government basically) they MUST be paid overtime for any hours worked in a work week. Now some companies consider working 9 hours on Monday as 1 hour of "comp time" that the employee can take off later in that same week - so say they work 7 hours on Friday. That is fine, overtime is calculated based on hours worked in an entire week (with the execption of a few states like CA where OT is calculated daily). But the "comp time" can not cross work weeks.

Exempt employees, comp time is fine.