Skip to content
Breadcrumbs

Texas Payroll/Personnel Resource

Note: To navigate this guide on a mobile device you must use the Table of Contents.

Overtime

This discussion of overtime applies to each employee who is subject to overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). Overtime provisions for employees of the Legislature, the lieutenant governor or legislative agencies are also discussed in this policy statement.

Background

An employee is entitled to compensation for overtime as provided by federal and state law. To the extent that federal law conflicts with state law, federal law controls, regardless of whether federal law prescribes a stricter rule.

State law says that an employee required to work more than 40 hours in a workweek is entitled to compensation for the excess hours, either by:

  • The agency allowing or requiring the employee to take compensatory time off at the rate of 1.5 hours for each hour of overtime.
    – or –
  • The employee receiving pay for the overtime at the rate of 1.5 times the employee’s regular rate of pay, at the discretion of the employing agency, in cases when granting compensatory time off is impractical.

For more rate of pay information in this policy statement, see Current Regular Rate of Pay Versus Regular Rate of Pay When Overtime Earned.

Credit Accumulations

With certain exceptions, an employee may not accumulate more than 240 hours of overtime credit that may be taken as compensatory leave.

An employee engaged in any of the following activities may accumulate no more than 480 hours of overtime credit that may be taken as compensatory leave, if the accumulation does not violate 29 U.S.C. Section 207(o)(3)(A):

  • A public safety activity
  • An emergency response activity
  • A seasonal activity

Note: In these instances, overtime credit means the number of hours computed by multiplying the number of overtime hours by 1.5 per Texas Government Code, Section 659.015(e).

When Employee Overtime Hours Exceed Amount of Overtime Credit

An employee must be paid for the number of overtime hours the employee works that causes the employee to exceed the amount of overtime credit the employee may accumulate.

The payment must be at 1.5 times the employee’s regular rate of pay. See Current Regular Rate of Pay Versus Regular Rate of Pay When Overtime Earned in this policy statement for more information.

Sources

Texas Government Code, Sections 659.015, 659.017; Code of Federal Regulations, Title 29.