House Committee Approves Comp Time Bill


By Leigh Strope
WASHINGTON (AP)

Published 4/9/2003

Employers who now are required by law to pay some workers overtime would be able to offer paid time off instead under legislation approved Wednesday by a House committee.

The bill, approved 27-22 by the House Education and Workforce Committee, is the latest Republican effort to revamp overtime pay requirements in the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. House leaders want a floor vote by early May.

Business groups, emboldened by Republican control of Congress and the executive branch, have stepped up lobbying for revisions to the law, which requires pay at 150 percent of the hourly rate for some workers logging more than 40 hours a week.

It currently is illegal for private companies to offer paid time off as an option to overtime pay to millions of workers covered by the law.



Republicans say the bill provides flexibility to workers who are increasingly juggling demands of career and family. It would let workers accrue compensatory time off to attend parent-teacher conferences, school events or whatever they choose.

"The concept is a very simple one," said Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., the bill's sponsor. "If workers have to work overtime, they should be allowed to choose how they will be compensated - with more money or more time off."

Time off would be calculated at a rate of 1.5 hours for each hour worked beyond 40 hours per week. Workers could accrue up to 160 hours of comp time annually, and companies would have to pay cash for unused time at the end of the year.

But Democrats and labor unions opposing the bill say workers will lose money and work longer hours. They say employers will start assigning overtime to workers who agree to choose comp time. The bill also would allow employers to decide when the time off could be taken.

Opponents say the current overtime law acts as a protection to the 40-hour work week because companies wanting more work from their employees now have to pay premium pay - and often think twice about it.

"No single change to our labor laws would do more to undermine the standard of living of Americans than to weaken or eliminate the overtime requirement," said Rep. George Miller of California, the committee's top Democrat.

The legislation coincides with the Labor Department's drastic overhaul of the regulations that determine what jobs must receive overtime pay. The plan would make millions of low-income workers eligible for the time-and-a-half hourly rate, but thousands of professionals would lose their extra income. Nearly 22 million workers could be affected.

Committee Democrats tried to block the Labor Department's proposal, but failed.