One way that business owners will sometimes pay overtime is by providing comp time. This is compensatory time off, which is paid. Instead of getting additional pay for the extra hours, the employee gets additional paid time off.
For example, the owner of a company may need some employees to stay late on a Friday so that they can finish up a project that is almost done. Rather than paying them the standard overtime rate of time and a half, the owner will just tell them that they can all come in late on Monday morning. This gives them some free time off, for which they will still be paid as normal, to make up for the extra hours that they put in.
It still needs to be time and a half
One of the most important things to remember in this situation is that employees still deserve time and a half for overtime hours. If an employee is earning $20 an hour, for example, they need to be paid $30 an hour when they are working overtime.
The same principle transfers over when paying the employee through comp time. They still need to get 1.5 hours off for every extra hour that they worked. So if the employees worked an extra four hours on Friday and were given four hours off on Monday, that could be a form of wage theft. The employees would deserve six hours of comp time.
Disputes can sometimes occur between employees and employers regarding how payments are made or how wage and hour laws apply. Those involved need to understand their legal options.