Family Time Two very different bills regarding employee time off attempt to woo working families.

This election season, both parties are working hard to cozy up to working parents. Democrats are pushing to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and legalize employer use of comp time. A House Committee has passed a Republican-backed "Working Families Flexibility Act" whose comp time provisions are greatly preferred by small business.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires overtime pay for employees who work more than 40 hours a week. Many small-business owners would prefer to give these workers comp time instead, but that is prohibited under the FSLA. These employers also want employees to be able to work 60 hours one week and 20 the next, for an average of 40 hours per pay period, without paying them time and a half for the extra 20 hours they worked in the first week. The House bill (H.R. 2391), which passed a committee vote on June 26, allows that. For any hours worked beyond the averaged 40-hour weeks, an employee could take up to 30 days a year in comp time or cash that out at time-and-a-half whenever he or she wants.

The hitch, according to the Clinton administration, is that the employee couldn't use the comp time without employer approval. "Employees have to be in the driver's seat as to when they take comp time and how they utilize it," says Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. Reich notes the Clinton bill does not force businesses to offer comp time; it simply allows them to do so--thereby eliminating the FLSA restriction--if the employee can take the time whenever he or she wants as long as the employer is given two weeks' notice. (The Clinton proposal provides a maximum of 80 comp hours.)