Can Non-profit Companies Offer Comp Time?

Comp time defined

Comp time, or compensatory time, is time off with pay instead of overtime pay. For instance, if an employee works 50 hours in a week, instead of paying overtime for the extra hours, the employee could get extra, paid time off the in the next few weeks.

General rule

Under the Fair Labor Standars Act, private sector employers can only give comp time to non-exempt employees.

If your non-profit is a private company, then you usually can't offer your non-exempt employee compensatory time.

Exempt or non-exempt

If you're not sure whether your employee is exempt, this answer details the difference.

State laws

Before you decide to give your employee compensatory time, you should verify if your state permits compensatory time.

For example, California law provides that public, and some private sector employees, can receive comp time instead of overtime. However, as SHRM notes, California law on compensatory time conflicts with current federal law. You may want to seek legal counsel before deciding whether you can offer comp time to employees.

Helpful links

Comp Time - workplacefairness.org

Comp Time - about.com

State Labor Offices - dol.gov

This communication is for informational purposes only; it is not legal, tax or accounting advice; and is not an offer to sell, buy or procure insurance.

This post may contain hyperlinks to websites operated by parties other than TriNet. Such hyperlinks are provided for reference only. TriNet does not control such web sites and is not responsible for their content. Inclusion of such hyperlinks on TriNet.com does not necessarily imply any endorsement of the material on such websites or association with their operators.