Bill could let employers offer time off instead of overtime pay

WASHINGTON -- The nation's overtime pay law took another hit Thursday as a House panel approved legislation that would let employers offer paid time off instead.

A House Workforce subcommittee voted 8-6 along party lines to approve the bill, which the full committee will take up next week. House leaders want a floor vote by early May.

Business groups, emboldened by complete Republican control of Congress and the federal executive branch, are pressing the Bush administration to rewrite the labor law requiring employers to pay an hourly rate of time-and-a-half to some workers who work more than 40 hours in a week.

Drastic overhaul

The Labor Department last week proposed a drastic overhaul of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime pay requirements, by making millions of low-income workers eligible for the time-and-a-half pay but cutting thousands of professionals off from it.

Nearly 22 million workers could be affected by the proposal.

The House bill goes a step further by loosening provisions in the law that mandate paid overtime to certain workers. It currently is illegal for private companies to offer compensatory time instead of overtime pay to certain workers.

Republicans say the bill would give flexibility to employers and their workers, who are increasingly juggling demands of career and family.

Having options

"Working adults are very concerned about spending more time with their families," said Judy Biggert, R-Ill., the bill's sponsor. "In fact, many would prefer to have time rather than money. At a minimum, workers want and expect to have options."

The bill would let workers choose paid time off or overtime pay -- both at a rate of time-and-a-half.

For example, if an employee worked 48 hours in a week, he could choose 8 hours of overtime pay or 12 hours of time off at straight pay.

Employees could accrue up to 160 hours of compensatory time off annually, and companies would be required to pay cash for any unused time at the end of the year.

But Democrats and labor unions opposing the bill say it will mean that workers will lose money and work longer hours. They say companies will use the law to coerce employees to work beyond their shifts without pay by promising eventual time off. The bill 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 they often think twice about it.

"It's wrong, and it's an assault on working families," said Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J. "It's not right. We're going to have a two-tiered society -- those who have and those who have not."