What is the law regarding the use of flex time instead of paying overtime?

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What is the law regarding the use of flex time instead of paying overtime?

I work at a private school as a non-exempt salaried employee. This year they have started making us do time sheets which I know should be a must to protect everyone, however they have started making us use flex time instead of paying us overtime for extra hours. We are not to refer to it as comp time and we must take it in the same week that we worked the overtime. I feel a bit uneasy about it. They refuse to pay, we have to take the hours off in the same week no matter what and we have to be careful about what we call it. Am I being paranoid?

Asked on February 22, 2019 under Employment Labor Law, Texas

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 5 years ago | Contributor

It is illegal: if you are non-exempt, that literally means you are not exempt from overtime--that is, when you work more then 40 hours in a work week, you must receive overtime for all all time past 40 hours. Flex or comp time is not a legally valid alternative. Your employer, which controls your hours, is free to not let you work more than 40 hours in a week if it wants--but that's the only way to control overtime. If you do work more 40 hours, you must get overtime. If you don't, you could contact your state department of labor to file a complaint.


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