Q.  An employee worked several hours of overtime last week. Can I offer him compensatory time off, to use in the future, rather than pay him overtime?

A.  Currently, unless you are a public-sector employer, the answer is no. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employees who are not exempt must be paid overtime pay (one and one-half times their regular pay rate) for all hours worked over 40 in a work week.

That may soon change, however.