II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1158
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide compensatory
time for employees in the private sector.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH26, 2025
Mr. L
EE(for himself, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr. CRAMER, Mrs. CAPITO, and Mrs.
B
LACKBURN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re-
ferred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide
compensatory time for employees in the private sector.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Working Families 4
Flexibility Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. COMPENSATORY TIME. 6
Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 7
(29 U.S.C. 207) is amended by inserting after subsection 8
(q) the following: 9
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‘‘(r) COMPENSATORY TIMEOFF FORPRIVATEEM-1
PLOYEES.— 2
‘‘(1) G
ENERAL RULE.—An employee may re-3
ceive, in accordance with this subsection and in lieu 4
of monetary overtime compensation, compensatory 5
time off at a rate not less than one and one-half 6
hours for each hour of employment for which over-7
time compensation is required by this section. 8
‘‘(2) C
ONDITIONS.—An employer may provide 9
compensatory time to employees under paragraph 10
(1) only if such time is provided in accordance 11
with— 12
‘‘(A) applicable provisions of a collective 13
bargaining agreement between the employer 14
and the labor organization that has been cer-15
tified or recognized as the representative of the 16
employees under applicable law; or 17
‘‘(B) in the case of employees who are not 18
represented by a labor organization that has 19
been certified or recognized as the representa-20
tive of such employees under applicable law, an 21
agreement arrived at between the employer and 22
employee before the performance of the work 23
and affirmed by a written or otherwise 24
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verifiable record maintained in accordance with 1
section 11(c)— 2
‘‘(i) in which the employer has offered 3
and the employee has chosen to receive 4
compensatory time in lieu of monetary 5
overtime compensation; and 6
‘‘(ii) entered into knowingly and vol-7
untarily by such employees and not as a 8
condition of employment. 9
No employee may receive or agree to receive com-10
pensatory time off under this subsection unless the 11
employee has worked at least 1,000 hours for the 12
employee’s employer during a period of continuous 13
employment with the employer in the 12-month pe-14
riod before the date of agreement or receipt of com-15
pensatory time off. 16
‘‘(3) H
OUR LIMIT.— 17
‘‘(A) M
AXIMUM HOURS .—An employee 18
may accrue not more than 160 hours of com-19
pensatory time. 20
‘‘(B) C
OMPENSATION DATE .—Not later 21
than January 31 of each calendar year, the em-22
ployee’s employer shall provide monetary com-23
pensation for any unused compensatory time off 24
accrued during the preceding calendar year that 25
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was not used prior to December 31 of the pre-1
ceding year at the rate prescribed by paragraph 2
(6). An employer may designate and commu-3
nicate to the employer’s employees a 12-month 4
period other than the calendar year, in which 5
case such compensation shall be provided not 6
later than 31 days after the end of such 12- 7
month period. 8
‘‘(C) E
XCESS OF 80 HOURS .—The em-9
ployer may provide monetary compensation for 10
an employee’s unused compensatory time in ex-11
cess of 80 hours at any time after giving the 12
employee at least 30 days notice. Such com-13
pensation shall be provided at the rate pre-14
scribed by paragraph (6). 15
‘‘(D) P
OLICY.—Except where a collective 16
bargaining agreement provides otherwise, an 17
employer that has adopted a policy offering 18
compensatory time to employees may dis-19
continue such policy upon giving employees 30 20
days notice. 21
‘‘(E) W
RITTEN REQUEST.—An employee 22
may withdraw an agreement described in para-23
graph (2)(B) at any time. An employee may 24
also request in writing that monetary com-25
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pensation be provided, at any time, for all com-1
pensatory time accrued that has not yet been 2
used. Within 30 days of receiving the written 3
request, the employer shall provide the em-4
ployee the monetary compensation due in ac-5
cordance with paragraph (6). 6
‘‘(4) P
RIVATE EMPLOYER ACTIONS .—An em-7
ployer that provides compensatory time under para-8
graph (1) to employees shall not directly or indi-9
rectly intimidate, threaten, or coerce or attempt to 10
intimidate, threaten, or coerce any employee for the 11
purpose of— 12
‘‘(A) interfering with such employee’s 13
rights under this subsection to request or not 14
request compensatory time off in lieu of pay-15
ment of monetary overtime compensation for 16
overtime hours; or 17
‘‘(B) requiring any employee to use such 18
compensatory time. 19
‘‘(5) T
ERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT .—An em-20
ployee who has accrued compensatory time off au-21
thorized to be provided under paragraph (1) shall, 22
upon the voluntary or involuntary termination of 23
employment, be paid for the unused compensatory 24
time in accordance with paragraph (6). 25
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‘‘(6) RATE OF COMPENSATION .— 1
‘‘(A) G
ENERAL RULE.—If compensation is 2
to be paid to an employee for accrued compen-3
satory time off, such compensation shall be paid 4
at a rate of compensation not less than— 5
‘‘(i) the regular rate received by such 6
employee when the compensatory time was 7
earned; or 8
‘‘(ii) the final regular rate received by 9
such employee, 10
whichever is higher. 11
‘‘(B) C
ONSIDERATION OF PAYMENT .—Any 12
payment owed to an employee under this sub-13
section for unused compensatory time shall be 14
considered unpaid overtime compensation. 15
‘‘(7) U
SE OF TIME.—An employee— 16
‘‘(A) who has accrued compensatory time 17
off authorized to be provided under paragraph 18
(1); and 19
‘‘(B) who has requested the use of such 20
compensatory time, 21
shall be permitted by the employee’s employer to use 22
such time within a reasonable period after making 23
the request if the use of the compensatory time does 24
not unduly disrupt the operations of the employer. 25
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‘‘(8) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub-1
section— 2
‘‘(A) the term ‘employee’ does not include 3
an employee of a public agency; and 4
‘‘(B) the terms ‘overtime compensation’, 5
‘compensatory time’, and ‘compensatory time 6
off’ shall have the meanings given such terms 7
by subsection (o)(7).’’. 8
SEC. 3. REMEDIES. 9
Section 16 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 10
(29 U.S.C. 216) is amended— 11
(1) in subsection (b), in the first sentence, by 12
striking ‘‘(b) Any employer’’ and inserting ‘‘(b) Ex-13
cept as provided in subsection (f), any employer’’; 14
and 15
(2) by adding at the end the following: 16
‘‘(f) An employer that violates section 7(r)(4) shall 17
be liable to the employee affected in the amount of the 18
rate of compensation (determined in accordance with sec-19
tion 7(r)(6)(A)) for each hour of compensatory time ac-20
crued by the employee and in an additional equal amount 21
as liquidated damages reduced by the amount of such rate 22
of compensation for each hour of compensatory time used 23
by such employee.’’. 24
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SEC. 4. NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES. 1
Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment 2
of this Act, the Secretary of Labor shall revise the mate-3
rials the Secretary provides, under regulations published 4
in section 516.4 of title 29, Code of Federal Regulations 5
(or any corresponding similar regulation or ruling), to em-6
ployers for purposes of a notice explaining the Fair Labor 7
Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) to employ-8
ees so that such notice reflects the amendments made to 9
such Act by this Act. 10
SEC. 5. GAO REPORT. 11
Beginning 2 years after the date of enactment of this 12
Act and each of the 3 years thereafter, the Comptroller 13
General shall submit a report to Congress providing, with 14
respect to the reporting period immediately prior to each 15
such report— 16
(1) data concerning the extent to which employ-17
ers provide compensatory time pursuant to section 18
7(r) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as 19
added by this Act, and the extent to which employ-20
ees opt to receive compensatory time; 21
(2) the number of complaints alleging a viola-22
tion of such section filed by any employee with the 23
Secretary of Labor; 24
(3) the number of enforcement actions com-25
menced by the Secretary or commenced by the Sec-26
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retary on behalf of any employee for alleged viola-1
tions of such section; 2
(4) the disposition or status of such complaints 3
and actions described in paragraphs (2) and (3); and 4
(5) an account of any unpaid wages, damages, 5
penalties, injunctive relief, or other remedies ob-6
tained or sought by the Secretary in connection with 7
such actions described in paragraph (3). 8
SEC. 6. SUNSET. 9
This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall 10
expire 5 years after the date of enactment of this Act. 11
Æ
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