St. Thomas Law Review
Article Title
The Disenfranchisement of Federal Employee: Why the Federal Government Does not Follow the Fair Labor Standards Act
Abstract
The largest employer in the nation is violating the bedrock of employment law. Although several laws govern the regulation of overtime in the federal sector, federal employees are often unaware of them. The Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA" or "Act") regulates overtime provisions in employment in the private and public sectors. The FLSA provides for overtime to be paid at a rate of time and one-half of the employee's normal hourly rate. Federal statutes regulate overtime pay with regard to federal employees. These statutes call for an overtime rate for certain employees that is less than the required time and one-half of the employee's normal hourly rate. Thus, many federal employees are not receiving the time and one-half overtime pay of their normal hourly rate for hours they work in excess of forty hours a week. Instead, the federal government offers far less for overtime compared to what most of these employees may earn every hour at their normal hourly rate. In addition, the federal government offers its employees only hour for hour compensation by way of compensatory time in lieu of overtime pay. However, when state and local governments offer compensatory time in lieu of overtime, they are required to offer it at a rate of time and one-half for every hour worked. This paper will examine the FLSA to determine the legality of the federal government's practice of granting overtime at a level that is less than time and one-half of the federal employee's base hourly rate. Section one will follow a fictitious federal employee and her request for overtime compensation. Section two will review the history of the FLSA and the 1974 amendment. The FLSA developed a maximum number of hours that employees covered by the Act could work without being compensated by at least time and one-half of their normal hourly rate. Section three will consider the exemptions to the FLSA as they relate to the federal employee. Section four will examine how the status of an employee is determined. Section five will scrutinize the overtime policy of the federal government. Section six will deal with the inconsistency between the premium pay provisions in the federal government and the FLSA. Section seven will evaluate the regulations governing compensatory time in lieu of overtime in the federal government. Finally, section eight concludes by showing that the federal government violates the FLSA and considers the reasons for such a violation.