The U.S. House could vote in the coming weeks on a bill that would replace our guaranteed overtime pay system with a new “comp time” alternative.
The misleadingly-named “Working Families Flexibility Act” (H.R. 1180) is a serious concern. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, corporate human resource organizations and other big-business interests are lining up in support of the bill.
Make sure you know what’s at stake!
- Rather than paying overtime for extra hours worked, your employer could prioritize assigning extra work only to those who “chose” more time off rather than wages. While the bill says an employee can decline compensatory time off in lieu of overtime wages, many employers would simply start assigning extra hours of work to those who have shown they’ll accept comp time rather than pay.
- The “flexibility” is for employers. Want to use “comp time” to take care of your sick child or for extra time off during hunting season? There are no guarantees. Employers could reject any requests for time off that “unduly disrupt the operations of the employer” or that are not made “within a reasonable period.”
- It’s a blow to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. This law discourages employers from overworking employees by making it more expensive for them to do so. Workers fought hard to get it nearly 80 years ago. This new bill represents fundamental change to that long-standing law.
- We could see more mandatory overtime and unpredictable schedules. H.R. 1180 could encourage mandatory overtime by making it less expensive for employers.
- Our contracts will help . . . at first. Our collective bargaining agreements’ provisions on overtime will still have to be followed. But, if our employers see their competitors cutting costs through “comp time” arrangements, it won’t be long before this becomes one more contentious subject at the bargaining table.
If Congress wanted to get serious about making workplaces more family-friendly, there are ways they could do it. Unfortunately, this bill is not one of those ways. Read more on the problems with H.R. 1180 in this EPI report.
WHAT'S YOUR OVERTIME STORY?
We have stopped similar comp time bills over the past 20 years. Please help do it again.
First, we need your stories to share on Capitol Hill. Many who work there and represent us have no experience with how overtime is handled in our workplaces, but it’s critical in shaping their opinions on this bill.
Click here to share your workplace story.
We need to know: Is overtime mandatory at your workplace? It is already excessive? Has the assigning of overtime ever been unfair in your workplace? Do you depend on overtime wages to pay for certain expenses or simply to make ends meet?