There’s a quip in the HR world that goes like this: A good employer provides generous benefits, while a great employer actually allows employees to use them. Cleveland police officers in a recent court case complained that when they accepted compensatory time off instead of overtime pay, they were then barred from using the time.
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations adopted in 1985, intended to save money for public agencies, have been particularly controversial for police forces. How could municipalities save money, departments like Cleveland’s argued, if they incurred still more overtime obligations to allow officers to take comp time? The need to pay more overtime has repeatedly been cited as an “undue disruption” of operations. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit reviewed opinion letters and interpretive regulations from the Department of Labor, which all said that incurring more overtime obligations did not qualify as an undue disruption. Only such operational difficulties as inadequate police coverage to ensure public safety qualify as disruptions, those documents say. So appellate judges sent the case back to the lower court for reconsideration.
Busy professionals need plain-English analyses of complex wage and hour regulations. Compensation.BLR.com puts the answers to tough FLSA issues at your fingertips. This online product also includes salary survey data by state and region so that you can ensure that your compensation plans remain competitive.
To find competitive benefit and salary data for your state or region, visit the Salary Center at Compensation.BLR.com. With BLR's accurate pay rate data on hundreds of jobs in all states and regions your company will be able to retain valuable workers, attract new employees, and improve profitability. You’ll also find reliable rate ranges, salary data, performance appraisal tool, and state regulatory analysis.
The Library has more current resources on pay rates like these:
Job Pricing: What are you worth?
Non-exempt employees compensation data
State and regional compensation pay rates
Annual employee benefit survey rates