The Myth of Compensatory Time

Employers will often tell employees that they can get "comp time" if they put in a long week. Even though this practice is widespread, it generally violates the FLSA unless the employer is a governmental entity. The FLSA looks at the actual hours an employee works in a seven day period (the "workweek") to determine what an employee should be paid. If you are getting "comp time" then you may have a claim for unpaid wages.

For example, if you work 50 hours in a week and you are told that you can have time off in some other week to offset the extra 10 hours, this is probably a violation of the law. You are supposed to be paid overtime for the 10 hours you worked in the first week. This practice may be cheating you out of thousands of dollars per year. In fact, most employers don't keep track of the hours and probably never repay the "comp time" that has been banked when an employee quits the job.

If you have been getting "comp time" instead of overtime pay and would like discuss this matter with a lawyer, please call us or fill out our questionnaire and we will call you.