There is a popular (and incorrect!) belief that all employers can provide employees compensatory time off in lieu of paying overtime ("comp time"). While public employers can use compensatory time in lieu of paying overtime (with certain limitations), private employers who provide their employees with compensatory time off will mostly find themselves caught in a real legal snafu.

Employers with compensatory time off policies generally have employees who work overtime "bank" any hours in excess of forty in a workweek to be used later as compensatory time off. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allows for public employers to use compensatory time off instead of paying overtime (generally, with a limit of 240 hours). Unfortunately, neither the FLSA or the Illinois Minimum Wage Law extend the ability to use compensatory time off to private employers. In fact, the Illinois Department of Labor's website specifically cautions that the use of compensatory time off by private sector employers is ILLEGAL.

Wessels Sherman was honored as a sponsor of the DuPage Symphony Orchestra for the 2017-18 Season on February 10, 2018. Their concerts are at the beautiful Wentz Concert Hall in Naperville.

Some Illinois employers may have neutral absenteeism policies that "administratively terminate" any employee who has failed to return to work from a medical leave of absence after a stated period of time such as one year or some other period of time set by the company.

This kind of policy is not advisable because it is probably a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In a class action suit a number of years ago against a major employer by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) it was argued by the EEOC that such a policy violated the ADA. The case settled for over six million dollars. The EEOC alleged that employers are required to assess medical leaves of absences under the Americans with Disabilities Act on an individual employee basis, rather than by following a set rule for all employees.

Thus, the prudent employer should have a personal leave of absence policy to be assessed by the employer on a case-by-case basis with no stated set limits (e.g., 12 weeks).

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