The Working Families Flexibility Act: Nothing But Empty Promises

Last week we submitted comments in opposition to The Working Families Flexibility Act, the “comp time in lieu of overtime” bill that went to the House Education and the Workforce Committee’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections for a markup last Wednesday. And now we can’t get the song “Promises, Promises” out of our heads.

You made me promises, promises
You knew you'd never keep
Promises, promises
Why do I believe?

The Working Families Flexibility Act is filled with empty promises. Instead of providing flexibility, it would take hard-earned overtime pay out of workers’ pockets in exchange for the elusive promise of compensatory time off. While the bill’s supporters claim that there is nothing coercive about offering a comp time alternative to overtime pay, they do so against a backdrop of rampant violations of low-wage workers’ rights to overtime. In a study of low-wage workers in major cities, 76% said they worked overtime without being paid time and one-half.  It is a safe bet that enacting a comp time law would give rise to a whole new category of wage and hour abuses. 

The language of the bill itself makes clear that it leaves a huge amount of discretion to the employer. Here are a couple of examples:

Comp time is on the employer’s time

After a request, an employer can deny the use of comp time if it will “unduly disrupt the operations,” and an employer is only required to permit use of comp time “within a reasonable period” after a request. This same language in the public sector comp time law has been interpreted as permitting employers to deny workers’ requests for specific days off. That’s a big problem since specific life events—doctor’s appointments, school conferences, moving—usually happen on specific days.

Comp time can go up in smoke

Although a worker might have been storing up comp time as the worker’s sole source of leave for a crucial reason, such as undergoing surgery, the employer can decide to “cash out” the worker’s comp time for any reason at all.

Worst of all – workers will feel forced to accept comp time

Workers know if they don’t say yes to comp time, someone else will. As Representative Joe Courtney (CT) asked at the hearing, why would employers pay overtime when they not only have employees who are willing to take comp time, but they ultimately control when employees use comp time? Given how little bargaining power workers have in the private sector today, comp time has the potential to mean the end of overtime pay, which has been crucial to allowing many working families to move into the middle class.

Workers need clear, robust workplace standards—like the 7 paid sick days provided by the Healthy Families Act—and more stringent enforcement of wage and hour violations. Workers DON’T NEED a bill that chips away at hard-won worker protections, leaving them with only empty promises.