Compensation 273pay for thirteen months ( “ DCF Accused of Coercing Employees to Work
Overtime Without Pay, ” 2007; Chapman, 2007).
In 1985, the Supreme Court ruled in Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan
Transit Authority that the FLSA could be applied to state, county, and
municipal employees. This meant that public employers could no longer
use compensatory time in lieu of dollars and would have to pay over-
time. Because of the fi nancial burden this would cause, public agencies
petitioned Congress for relief. Congress reacted by amending the FLSA
with the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1985. Section 7(o) of the
FLSA authorizes compensatory time off as a form of overtime. It applies
only to public sector agencies. To be legal under the FLSA, compensatory
time must be one-and-a-half hours for each hour worked; personnel who
are not sworn (that is, public employees other than sworn offi cers such as
police, fi re, and corrections) may have no more than 240 hours of compen-
satory time on the books at any one time, and sworn personnel can accrue
no more than 480 hours of compensatory time at any one time. Nonsworn
and sworn personnel who reach the limits of 240 and 480 hours, respec-
tively, must receive cash for additional hours of overtime worked or use
some compensatory time off before accruing further overtime compensa-
tion in the form of compensatory time off.
The 1985 amendment also has special provisions for hospital employ-
ees and police and fi re offi cials who typically work nontraditional shifts.
Section 7( j) permits the use of a fourteen - day work period (instead of
the usual seven - day workweek) in the computation of overtime provisions.
Overtime is considered only if an employee works more than eighty hours
during the fourteen - day period.
Section 7(k) provides work periods up to twenty - eight days for public
safety offi cials. These offi cials do not have to be paid overtime until they
work more than 212 hours.
Nonprofi t employers must comply with the FLSA overtime provision
of one-and-a - half times an employee ’ s normal hourly rate of pay for each
hour that exceeds forty hours per week. Employees may elect compensa-
tory time in lieu of overtime, but it must be their choice and not imposed
by the employer.Equal Pay Act of 1963
In 1963, the FLSA was amended by the Equal Pay Act, which prohibits
unequal pay differences for men and women who are performing equal
work on jobs requiring equal skill, effort, and responsibility and performed