Human Resource Blog

Comp time

I have used the term when an hourly employee misses his or her regular work hours for personal reasons, they make up the time in the same payroll week with comp time. so they do not lose the normal 40 hours of pay.

This use of the term *comp time* is unique to your company. Your policy is lawful as long as the work by an hourly employee is during the same payroll week. This is not really comp time — it is merely hours worked. Example: Juan normally works 7 am to 3pm Monday through Friday. This week, he must leave work at noon on Wednesday for a doctors appointment. He works an extra 3 hours on Friday, to make up for the lost time. As long as the exra hours are in the same payroll week, that is fine. Juan has still worked 40 hours in the payroll week, and is paid for the 40 hours that he works.

However, if the extra work occurred in a different payroll week, you would owe Juan overtime. Suppose Juan left early this Wednesday, working 37 hours this week. Next week, he worked 3 extra hours on Wednesday, totaling 43 hours. Under the federal FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act, hourly employees are entitled to overtime when they work more than 40 hours in the payroll week. So Juan would be entitled to 3 hours of overtime at 1.5 times his average rate during the second week. (This would be true, even if you had paid him for 40 hours the first week.)

Under the FLSA, some state and local government agencies can grant *comp time* to hourly employees instead of paying overtime. Suppose Maria is a state employee who works 42 hours this week. Instead of being paid overtime, Maria is paid for 40 hours this week and banks 3 hours of *comp time.* (That is 2 hrs. overtime x 1.5 = 3 hours of comp time.) During another payroll week, Maria can use her comp time to take 3 hours off with pay. This is the generally accepted use of the term *comp time* in the HR field. Note that such comp time is not lawful for a private employer who is subject to federal overtime law.