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Breaking: U.S. House Passes Overtime/'Comp Time' Bill


Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the Working Families Flexibility Act by a 229 - 197 vote, mainly along party lines.  Under this bill, employees in the private sector who work more than 40 hours in a week would have the choice of either getting paid time and a half pay (per hour) for overtime hours worked or receive time and a half compensation time (per hour) for overtime hours worked.  This bill is not necessarily a new concept as it takes a provision offered to federal workers (since 1985) and extends it to hourly workers in the private sector.

According to the language of this bill, employers would have to opt in to implement this 'either/or' policy.  Note, however, that the choice of whether to receive overtime pay or comp time would be solely the decision of that particular employee.  If the employee chose comp time but decided later on that they would rather receive overtime pay, they could choose to 'cash out' and the employer would be required to make all salary payments within 30 days.

Republicans (who support the bill), argued this bill is necessary to give employees more freedom and discretion to choose their method of payment if they worked overtime hours.  The argument follows that working parents might prefer comp time to spend with their children, rather than getting overtime pay.  Consequently, this bill would provide these hourly workers that freedom to choose.  However, Democrats have pointed out that employers might try and strong arm employees into making a decision and employees eligible to pick between overtime pay and comp time might not actually have the flexibility this bill was intended to create.  Further, since employers normally control work schedules, they could dictate and rearrange schedules so as to minimize an employee's ability to actually earn overtime (and thus prevent employees from even having an option to pick overtime pay or comp time).

For those wondering if this bill will now become law, I caution you to hold on for a minute.  The Senate must still pass the legislation and there is no guarantee that will happen.  Keep in mind Democrats could filibuster the legislation.  As well, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not indicated his position on the issue although he has previously supported a similar measure.  Prior attempts to pass this type of overtime/'comp time' legislation have managed to pass the House only to get bogged down in the upper chamber and ultimately fail to make its way to the President's desk.  But the one difference this time?  Republicans (who are pushing this bill) have majority control of the House and Senate and the Trump Administration has indicated its support of the bill.  We are not at the finish line yet, but this bill certainly stands a chance.



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