Federal comp time rules let civilian government employees bank paid time off at an hour-for-hour rate instead of taking cash for approved overtime, but whether you can choose comp time, whether your agency can require it, and whether unused hours are paid out all depend on your Fair Labor Standards Act classification and your rate of basic pay. The framework comes primarily from 5 U.S.C. § 5543 and Office of Personnel Management regulations, with separate rules for travel and religious observance.
Who Earns Comp Time and Whether You Can Say No
Your FLSA classification is the single most important variable. Non-exempt and exempt employees earn comp time under different regulations, and the answer to “can my agency force this on me?” turns on the same distinction.
FLSA non-exempt employees are covered by 5 CFR 551.531. For this group, comp time is always voluntary. Your agency may grant it at your request, but it cannot substitute comp time for overtime pay against your wishes. If you want cash, you’re entitled to cash.
FLSA exempt employees earn comp time under 5 U.S.C. § 5543 and 5 CFR 550.114. For most exempt employees, comp time is also voluntary. The major exception is a pay threshold: if your rate of basic pay exceeds the maximum rate for GS-10, step 10 (including any locality or special rate), your agency can require you to take comp time instead of overtime pay for irregular or occasional overtime. On the 2026 General Schedule, the base rate for GS-10, step 10 is $75,479 before locality adjustments, so most exempt employees above that line can be compelled to accept comp time rather than a cash check.
Prevailing rate (wage grade) employees have a specific statutory protection. An agency head cannot require them to accept comp time in lieu of overtime pay.
How Comp Time Is Earned
Comp time doesn’t work retroactively. A supervisor or authorizing official has to approve the arrangement before you work the extra hours. If you put in overtime without prior authorization, you risk having those hours treated as unapproved, which can mean neither comp time nor overtime pay.
The accrual rate is one hour of comp time for each hour of overtime worked. This applies to both FLSA exempt and non-exempt federal employees under Title 5. That’s a different rule than the one for state and local government employees under the FLSA, who earn comp time at one and a half hours per overtime hour. Federal employees are trading at 1:1, which means you’re giving up the time-and-a-half cash value of an overtime hour for a single hour of future time off. That tradeoff is real, and it’s why many employees who have the choice prefer cash.
Flexible Work Schedules
If you work under an alternative work schedule with a flexible schedule under 5 U.S.C. § 6122, the rules loosen slightly. Under 5 U.S.C. § 6123(a)(1), your agency head may grant comp time for overtime worked on a flexible schedule whether or not those hours are irregular or occasional. Standard comp time under § 5543 is limited to irregular or occasional overtime, so flexible schedule comp time reaches a wider range of hours. It remains voluntary and still accrues hour for hour.
The 26 Pay Period Deadline
Every comp time hour has an expiration date. You must use accrued comp time by the end of the 26th pay period after the pay period in which you earned it, which works out to roughly one year. What happens if you don’t use it in time depends, again, on FLSA status.
For FLSA non-exempt employees, expired comp time must be paid out. The payout is calculated at the overtime rate that applied when you originally earned the hours, not at your current rate. The same mandatory payout applies if you transfer to another agency before using the balance.
For FLSA exempt employees, the agency has discretion. It can pay you for the unused hours or let them be forfeited, depending on internal policy. One exception cuts across that discretion: if you were unable to use the comp time because of an operational emergency beyond your control, the agency must pay you rather than let the hours disappear.
Using Comp Time and When Your Agency Can Deny a Request
You have the right to request time off to draw down your comp time, and supervisors should generally approve those requests. An agency can deny one when granting the time off would genuinely disrupt operations. Mere inconvenience isn’t enough. The agency has to be able to point to a real burden on service delivery during the period you asked off. If you’re pressing up against the 26 pay period deadline and your agency keeps saying no, that’s precisely the situation the “exigency of service” protection is meant to address for exempt employees, ensuring you get paid rather than losing the hours.
Many agencies require or strongly encourage employees to use comp time before annual leave. The logic is practical: comp time expires, and annual leave (up to carryover limits) does not. If you’re near the end of the leave year and at risk of losing “use or lose” annual leave, your supervisor can prioritize annual leave over comp time for scheduling.
What Happens to Comp Time When You Leave Federal Service
Separation is where the FLSA distinction hits hardest financially.
- FLSA non-exempt employees. Any unused comp time must be paid out in a lump sum on separation or transfer, calculated at the overtime rate in effect when the hours were earned.
- FLSA exempt employees. The agency’s policy controls, and forfeiture is possible. Payment is mandatory in two situations: you’re leaving to enter uniformed military service, or you’re separating because of an on-the-job injury with entitlement to workers’ compensation under 5 U.S.C. chapter 81.
If you’re an exempt employee planning to leave, check your agency’s comp time policy before you submit your resignation. Using the balance before your last day is the only guaranteed way to capture its full value where the policy allows forfeiture.
Compensatory Time Off for Travel Is a Separate Category
Compensatory time off for travel (CTOT) exists under 5 U.S.C. § 5550b and 5 CFR Part 550, Subpart N. You earn it for time spent traveling away from your official duty station when the travel isn’t otherwise compensable as work hours. Weekend travel to reach a temporary duty location is a common example. CTOT is available to all employees regardless of FLSA status or pay level, which makes it broader than standard comp time.
Your agency subtracts your normal home-to-work commute from creditable travel time, and travel between home and a transportation terminal within your official duty station counts as ordinary commuting with no CTOT credit.
CTOT carries the same 26 pay period use-or-lose deadline, but the consequence of missing it is harsher. Unused CTOT is forfeited. There is no payout, ever. The statute expressly prohibits payment for unused travel comp time under any circumstances, including separation. If you leave federal service with CTOT on the books, those hours are gone. That makes CTOT the first thing to schedule whenever you’re planning time off.
Religious Compensatory Time Off Works in Reverse
A third comp time category, under 5 U.S.C. § 5550a and 5 CFR Part 550, Subpart J, lets you work overtime hours to earn time off for religious observances required by your personal beliefs. It runs in both directions. You can bank hours up to 13 pay periods before the observance, or you can take the time off first and repay it by working the equivalent overtime within 13 pay periods afterward.
If you don’t work off a religious comp time debt, your agency will offset the negative balance by reducing your annual leave, credit hours, standard comp time, travel comp time, or time-off awards. If you separate or transfer with a negative religious comp time balance, the losing agency runs the same offset. Anything left after exhausting those categories becomes a charge of leave without pay and creates an indebtedness that flows into the agency’s debt collection process.
Filing a Claim if Your Agency Gets It Wrong
If you believe your agency miscalculated or failed to credit comp time you earned, where you go depends on your bargaining unit status.
Bargaining Unit Employees
If you were in a bargaining unit position covered by a collective bargaining agreement that didn’t specifically exclude compensation and leave from the grievance process, the negotiated grievance procedure is your exclusive administrative remedy. You cannot skip it and go directly to OPM. This rule applies as long as all three conditions were met at any point during the claim period: bargaining unit position, an active collective bargaining agreement, and no carve-out for pay and leave matters.
Non-Bargaining Unit Employees
If you weren’t in a bargaining unit, or your agreement excluded compensation from the grievance process, you can file with either your employing agency or with OPM, but not both at the same time. A claim to OPM has to be in writing, signed, and should include your contact information, a description of the claim and the amount sought, the name of the agency official who denied the claim, and a copy of the agency-level denial.
The FLSA Statute of Limitations
Claims arising under the FLSA carry a two-year statute of limitations, extended to three years if the violation was willful. Filing an administrative claim does not stop that clock from running on a potential court action, so treat an OPM filing as separate from preserving your right to sue.