Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
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Cite as: 529 U. S. 576 (2000)

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Opinion of the Court

for the excess hours at a rate not less than 11⁄2 times their
regular hourly wage. § 207(a)(1). Although this require-
ment did not initially apply to public-sector employers, Con-
gress amended the FLSA to subject States and their political
subdivisions to its constraints, at ﬁrst on a limited basis, see
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1966, Pub. L. 89–601,
§ 102(b), 80 Stat. 831 (extending the FLSA to certain catego-
ries of state and local employees), and then more broadly, see
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1974, Pub. L. 93–259,
§§ 6(a)(1)–(2), 88 Stat. 58–59 (extending the FLSA to all state
and local employees, save elected ofﬁcials and their staffs).
States and their political subdivisions, however, did not feel
the full force of this latter extension until our decision in
Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 469
U. S. 528 (1985), which overruled our holding in National
League of Cities v. Usery, 426 U. S. 833 (1976), that the
FLSA could not constitutionally restrain traditional govern-
mental functions.

In the months following Garcia, Congress acted to miti-
gate the effects of applying the FLSA to States and their
political subdivisions, passing the Fair Labor Standards
Amendments of 1985, Pub. L. 99–150, 99 Stat. 787. See
generally Moreau v. Klevenhagen, 508 U. S. 22, 26 (1993).
Those amendments permit States and their political subdivi-
sions to compensate employees for overtime by granting
them compensatory time at a rate of 11⁄2 hours for every hour
worked. See 29 U. S. C. § 207(o)(1). To provide this form
of compensation, the employer must arrive at an agreement
or understanding with employees that compensatory time
will be granted instead of cash compensation.1
§ 207(o)(2);
29 CFR § 553.23 (1999).

1 Such an agreement or understanding need not be formally reached and
memorialized in writing, but instead can be arrived at informally, such as
when an employee works overtime knowing that the employer rewards
overtime with compensatory time. See 29 CFR § 553.23(c)(1) (1999).