Paid by the Hour? 5 Things You Need to Know About the ‘Comp Time’ Bill

[jtown1123]

If you’re one of the 59% of U.S. workers paid by the hour who counts on overtime to stretch your paycheck, it’s time to tell House Republicans, “Don’t cut my overtime with your so-called Working Families Flexibility Act (H.R. 1406).”

The bill would allow employers to stop giving workers any extra pay for overtime work and instead substitute “comp time.”

What would that mean for most workers?

1. “Comp Time” means a pay cut—Workers compensated with time off rather than cash would see a reduction in their take-home pay.

2. “Comp Time” means mandatory overtime—“Comp time” legislation would make mandatory overtime less expensive for employers. Under “comp time” legislation, employers may be able to receive the benefits of overtime work at no additional cost to themselves.

3. “Comp Time” means more unpredictable work schedules for employees—Making mandatory overtime cheaper for employers would keep workers on the job longer and result in more unpredictable worker schedules and, for workers with children, higher day care costs.

READ THE REST: http://go.aflcio.org/overtimebill

[Taverner]

1. I do overtime all the time, and I'm hourly, and I don't get paid for it

Welcome to the world of contracting..

[jeff47]

9. The fact that you are getting shat upon doesn't mean you should pull other people under the flow.

[Taverner]

18. I think you missed my point - I don't exactly like being shat upon

And yes, I am being shat upon

But today's contractor job market has made us all so fearful of losing our jobs, we don't complain

And the company I work for was just rated "Best Company to work for"

Irony

[leftyohiolib]

14. becareful while you're thinking 'i dont get it so i dont care if you lose it' there's someone

wondering why YOU get so much. it's pathetic, the let's-drag-everyone-down-to-the-level-I've- accepted-for-myself thinking. race to the bottom thanks, taverner

[Taverner]

17. I don't think you understand - I want to be paid overtime

I think we SHOULD be paid overtime

But in today's word, so many of us are afraid of losing our job, we don't complain

This is why every job should be a Union Job

[deurbano]

27. I understand what you're saying...

...and I'm sorry you aren't getting paid what you deserve.

My husband isn't a contract worker, but his company's new owners have made him "management".... which means he gets paid a little more for a lot more work and responsibility. (If he actually got paid for the extra hours he now works-- even at his regular hourly pay, not overtime-- it would add up to WAY more than the modest salary increase, which he probably would have attained by now under the old owners, anyway.)

The end of the month (inventory) is the worst. One time he stayed at work for 24 hours. Sometimes he spends all day Sunday at work. Wreaks havoc on family life... but when you're approaching 60 (with kids), it's hard to complain.

Lots of ways to screw those who actually DO the work...

[Taverner]

33. 'Tis why I am a Socialist nt

[deurbano]

40. Exactly...

My mom calls up to rant about out "Socialist" president, then gets even more freaked out when I reply, "I WISH..."

[Sadiedog]

2. Happens at my job now they call it adjusted work schedule. Nt

[lpbk2713]

3. They're still fighting FDR's New Deal.

They will never give up until workers pay the employers for the "privilege of working"

[Nye Bevan]

4. I believe the bill specifies that only employees who give consent are affected (nt)

[cui bono]

5. And those who don't will be forced out of the workplace somehow. n/t

[Fumesucker]

8. At will employment means you'll just be fired if you don't consent n/t

[jeff47]

10. Because I'm sure no boss would ever react negatively to employees who say "no". (nt)

[xtraxritical]

11. H1b

[LanternWaste]

44. Have you through your premise through...?

Have you through your premise through, and applied the obvious consequences to it...? Or do we simply get another bumper-sticker irrelevancy?

[Warpy]

6. The worst part is that the employee would never be allowed

to use all that comp time and that it would be made to disappear as it stayed unused. In all likelihood, he'd never see a minute of it or get paid for it when he quit.

It's a scam. We all know it's a scam.

[flamin lib]

12. You type faster than I do. Many people get sick time and

vacation time that evaporates if not used and work load prevents using the time.

[lapislzi]

41. Oh, yes. Danced that dance.

Blackout dates (any time you want to use the time). It magically vanishes at the end of the calendar year. Must use within same pay period--never mind that the O/T occurred on the last day of the pay period.

Looks great on paper. It's a big shell game.

[Kingofalldems]

7. Ayn Randian economics

RW has wanted this for years.

[AllyCat]

13. All they have to do is give it some snazzy title like this and get the press corpse

to talk about it like it's the greatest thing ever and Americans pass it on over so they can watch Dancing with the Stars. People have not one clue what these corporate shills will do to us if we don't fight.

What a country this has turned out to be...

Fight this people!!

[leftyohiolib]

16. it'll sound like when they were introducing the 401k's. i remember being on a team

that was warning people that this was going to be a pension killer. I heard a lot of "sounds great why should I let the government handle my money". I wish I could find them now

[HiPointDem]

36. i remember those assholes too.

[leftyohiolib]

15. the excusing of this here makes me want to vomit in my lap - anyone who thinks this is ok

should be ashamed of themselves

[Ilsa]

24. "excusing of it here" ... Where? DU or

Congress? I hope you mean Congress because I haven't read of anyone excusing it on DU.

[hobbit709]

19. How much will that comp time get you at the grocery? That's always my question.

[watoos]

20. If workers have one penny, Republicans will fight to transfer it to the tower dwellers.

[alarimer]

21. The dirty little secret is that many employees are already in this situation.

Most state employees, for instance. I've worked for several states and it's been the same. The one HUGE difference is that we do get to use the time off. I'm exempt, now. I still get comp time, but it's straight time, not time and a half.

But still, this is a HORRIBLE bill. And the situation should not be allowed even for public employees. If they don't want to pay overtime, they should just make sure they don't work more than 40 hours. But that would mean hiring more people.

This bill, if it passes, will also raise unemployment. Think about it. If you don't have to pay overtime, you can make someone work an unlimited number of overtime hours. This means you can make one person do the work of two (or more). At least until the break. But still it means overall hiring will go down.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I HATE Republicans. I hate them with every fiber of my being. Uncaring, selfish assholes, the lot. And people who vote for them are vile.

[jeff47]

25. Yep, I happen to know Home Deopt already does this

despite it being explicitly against the law. But complaining gets you fired. So no one complains.

[Swede Atlanta]

22. I am not conceptually opposed to the idea of compensatory time in lieu of overtime......

But there are many pre-requisites before this becomes possible:

(1) The provision is a 1/1 "excess hours worked" to "earned leave time"
(2) The number of excess hours in exchange for earned leave are capped by work week, work month, etc. Anything above those limits are subject to normal overtime pay standards
(3) Employees are able to take their earned leave time within a reasonable amount of time after accrual
(4) Terminated employees (for cause or voluntary) are paid out for their earned leave time

These are things to which employers will never agree. They want this on the cheap and know they can screw around with employees' lives if this ever goes through.

[Ruby the Liberal]

29. Can I add 'use it or lose it' clauses?

I work with an hourly employee who had accrued 64 hours of comp time in 2012 that she did not use. Due to staffing shortages, her November/December vacation requests were denied, AND she was ONLY allowed to roll 40 of the 64 hours into 2013, with the caveat that she use that rolled time by 3/31.

We moved heaven and earth to get her the last week of March off, but she got hosed on 24 of those hours. No comp - they are just gone. *poof*

[RockaFowler]

42. I have Use it or Lose it here

Hate that because they don't allow vacations on certain days, weeks or months. So all you are left with is September & part of April. I lost 2 weeks of vacation because they fired (or let go) everyone in my department except for 2 of us. And well if one of us was out the other had to do all of the work. And it would have been impossible. I asked for those days in my paycheck at least, but I was denied that. So from now on I will take all of my time off and not answer any phone calls from them on my days off. I'm off the clock. Since they don't want to pay me when I am on the clock my entire time, I will make sure that I only give them 40 hours a week!! That's it!!

[FreeJoe]

37. Been there

My first professional job was with a local government agency that was allowed to do basically this. I think the comp time might have been 1.5x, but I'm not sure (it's been a long time). I really liked it. I only got 2 weeks of vacation. I was young and single and the extra time off was much more important to me than the extra money would have been.

Now days, I'm "exempt", so I put in 10-20 hours of overtime per week with no direct compensation. I'm not really complaining though because I'm compensated and treated well.

I had an interesting history with the FLSA. I once had to quit a job after taking the CFO to task because they were refusing to pay my staff overtime, making the ridiculous claim that they were exempt. That even included my 20 year old admin assistant. My parting gift was to explain to my staff how to sue the company for back pay when they quit. Sadly, they were all eventually replaced by H1B employees that didn't have the same flexibility to leave.

I also once managed a team that was primarily exempt with a couple of non-exempt employees. We were responsible for a bunch of nightly processes. Most of the time that just meant being near your phone/pager in case something went wrong and then working to fix it when it did. I was never really sure how being "on call" impacted non-exempt employees, so I just rotated the on call roll through the exempt staff. It made sense for some other reasons, but I would have had to work out the details if the non-exempt people had stayed that way much longer.

[Xithras]

43. It's common here in California.

The #1 difference is that our STATE law prevents employers from ever eliminating "earned wages". Comp time cannot legally expire, ever, and employers are required to payout any unused comp time when the employee leaves. Those protections alone make it a viable alternative and lots of employees like it (functionally, it's 90 minutes of paid vacation time for every hour of overtime you work).

In practice, business abuse of comp time is actually fairly uncommon. Instead of paying an hour of overtime, they have to give the employee an hour and a half of paid leave. If that occurs, the employer then has to schedule a second worker at their regular wage to cover the shift of the first employee while they're out. Functionally, this means that the employer is paying 2.5x the base wage for every hour of over/comp time the employee uses, which is why many employers simply refuse to permit allow it.

I really don't have a problem with it so long as the protections you mentioned are all in place. 1) it can't expire. Ever. 2) There has to be a maximum limit to the number of comp hours earned. 3) There has to be a maximum amount of time in which the comp time can sit idle. If the employee can't/wont use it, the employee must be paid in cash for the unused time. 4) Unused leave must be paid when the employee leaves.

I just looked up the bill, and it looks like it covers all of those.

[livingonearth]

23. This is a perfect example of right-wing hypocrisy.

They always go around saying "keep government out of business", until they want something like this. Then all of a sudden, they're just fine with big government.

[Ilsa]

26. This would be dangerous in healthcare.

They'll work the same staff to exhaustion so they don't have to train more new employees. Patient care will suffer even more.

[Ruby the Liberal]

28. Is there anything in this poison pill that mandates

That unused "comp time" be paid at time and a half (or even 'time') at the point of separation of service?

[on point]

30. OT is usually paid at time and a half. Comp time is usually paid as straight time

Which is another way to rip you off

[nineteen50]

31. Profit

before people.

[markiv]

32. 'comp time', you'll never get the chance to take off

before it expires

[HiPointDem]

34. kr

[BlueCheese]

35. We should just call it "chained overtime"...

That will get people to support it.

[blackspade]

38. There is nothing beneath these......

Assholes.

The thing is, with comp time, a company can have rules that limit comp time to a maximum number of hours, like they do sick and vacation time now. This is an effort to remove overtime from Federal regulations and put it under company control.

Long term, the goal is to create a dependent underclass and a class of managers that are only slightly better well off to oversee them. High above will be the 1% sitting on the mountain of wealth that the rest of society actually created.

[BlueToTheBone]

39. Would comp time be time and a half? Or straight across

the board hour for hour? Screwed twice that way.