Handyman authorizing private-sector employers and employees
A section authorizing private-sector employers and employees to have an agreement or understanding permitting the use of compensatory time off in lieu of overtime pay. At the moment, this is not permitted under the FLSA for non-exempt employees in the private sector – most must receive overtime premium pay for all hours worked over 40 hours in a single workweek, even if they would rather have paid time off instead.
There have been some proposals in this area in recent years, but they have tended to be unduly complicated and/or too narrowly focused, and in some ways they threatened adverse consequences that outweighed the advantages. One possibility would be to adopt an appropriate version of the current FLSA public-sector compensatory-time provision to cover private employers. Another might be to allow employees and employers to reach an understanding or agreement that overtime compensation will be due only after the employee has worked more than 160 hours in four consecutive workweeks.