Unlike in the private sector, where the only legal method for paying overtime is monetary compensation at a 1.5 times the employee's regular hourly rate, public employers may pay overtime to their employees through "compensatory time."  Compensatory time is paid time, not unpaid time, off that the employee earns instead of overtime. Federal overtime laws place stringent restrictions on public employers that want to use compensatory time to pay for overtime. 

We discuss the possible legal claims if someone violates a statute, usually a criminal statute, that doesn't explicitly provide a right to sue for money damages in civil court. Whether the victim can also file a civil lawsuit for violation of that statute is a complicated question.