1. Registers of Land Offices in the States are paid a salary of $2,000 per annum, to which are added fees and commissions aggregating not more than a total, including the salary, of $3,600 per annum, in accordance with the act of August 22, 1935. These employees are on the same office-hour schedule as other employees. Should they be compensated for time and a half for overtime in excess of the 40-hour week on the basic salary of $2,000 per annum, and allowed 10% additional on fees and commissions aggregating not more than $1,600?

2. In the Civilian Public Service Camps (conscientious objector camps) the Selective Service System has established a work-day schedule from 7:30 a. m. to 5:00 p. m. with one hour for lunch, six days a week, Monday through Saturday. This amounts to an 82-hour day, or a 51-hour week. Some of these camps have been allocated to the Department of the Interior, the supervisory personnel being paid as employees of this Department from Selective Service funds, and being subject to the rules of the camp. Should overtime in excess of 48 hours be paid to the supervisory personnel on the regulation of the Selective Service System?

3. Does the regulation in the President's Order of December 26 providing in Section 2 for overtime compensation in addition to the regular work week for work "ordered or approved" mean that work in excess of the regular work week for which compensation may be paid must be ordered in advance by the proper officer, or may it be approved by that officer after the work is performed?

4. May the officer having authority to order or approve overtime in excess of the work week give approval in blanket form, or must the individual employees and the extent of overtime be specifically ordered or approved. For example, a heavy snow fall during the night may require the local park system, under jurisdiction of this Department, to continue working beyond the regular work day; or a flood or fire may require employees to work overtime. Similar occasions may arise which cannot be foreseen, and prior approval may not be possible.

5. Taking an employee of the local park system as an illustration of similar conditions elsewhere in the Department, it may be desirable to compensate an employee by giving him time off for overtime performed. May this be done, bearing in mind that an employee would be more valuable to the service with rest after long hours in emergencies than to have him continue on his regular duty without a day of rest?

6. Some of the employees of the Office of the High Commissioner to the Philippine Islands are interned in the Philippines, or are being held by the enemy. Salaries of some of these employees are being paid in the United States by allotments to individuals and banks. Are these employees entitled to overtime pay under Public Law 821?

7. During the critical fire season in the national parks, it is desirable to have one or more of the supervisory personnel of the Civilian Public Service Camps to supervise the stand-by fire protection crews over weekends. Formerly it had been the practice to grant compensatory time for Saturday afternoons, but now that Saturday is a full 8-hour working day, the question arises whether overtime compensation should be paid for fire duty which may require the supervisor to spend nights and Sundays during the periods of high fire danger.

8. Several bureaus of this Department have cooperative work with States and non-Federal organizations which raises the following questions in connection with overtime compensation or the 10% adjustment, whichever is appropriate : (a) If non-Federal funds are advanced and co-mingled with Federal funds, would the pay adjustment be on the total salary rate?

(b) If the funds are separate, and the cooperative agency pays its share direct to the employee, would the pay adjustment be on the Federal share only? (c) If the answer to (b) is in the affirmative, should employees be paid time and a half for overtime or the 10% increase?

The questions presented will be answered in the order stated, as follows:

1. Section 80, Title 43, U. S. Code, provides:

From and after September 1, 1935 the compensation of registers of distri land offices shall be a salary of $2,000 per annum each, and all fees and missions now allowed by law to such registers, but the salary, fees, and pe

missions of such registers shall not exceed $3,600 each per annum: Provided, That the salary of the register of the Juneau land district, Alaska, shall be $3,600 per annum. (R. S. §§ 2237, 2240; Oct. 28, 1921, ch. 114, § 1, 42 Stat. 208; May 21, 1928, ch. 661, 45 Stat. 684; Aug. 22, 1935, ch. 602, 49 Stat. 680.)

The limitation of $3,600 per annum fixed by that statute on the total compensation (salaries and fees) of a register of a land office relates to the basic compensation (salaries and fees). There may be paid in addition to such basic compensation-notwithstanding the total would exceed $3,600 per annum-the amount of additional compensation authorized by joint resolution of December 22, 1942, 56 Stat. 1068, Public Law 821, pursuant to the overtime formula based on $2,000 per annum salary and pursuant to the 10 percent formula based on the earned fees, subject, of course, to the limitation prescribed by the said joint resolution that both classes of increases in compensation are limited to the first $2,900 per annum of the employee's total compensation. (The limitation of $5,000 per annum is not involved here.) See the last paragraph of decision dated December 22, 1942, B-31220, 22 Comp. Gen. 570, to the Clerk, House of Representatives and, also, question and answer 6, relating to fourthclass postmasters, in decision of January 8, 1943, B-31488, 22 Comp. Gen. 627, to the Postmaster General. Compare 13 Comp. Gen. 21. Accordingly, if a register works in excess of 40 hours per week under an administrative order issued under section 1 of the President's regulations, he may be paid additional compensation pursuant to the overtime formula on the basis of $2,000 per annum which is paid on a time basis for full-time service, and, also, additional compensation pursuant to the 10 percent formula on not to exceed $900 ($2,900 less $2,000 per annum) fees earned during a year. As a register is required by section 89, Title 43, U. S. Code, to submit monthly returns of the moneys collected and the fees earned, the $900 maximum of the fees earned during the year that may be increased by 10 percent should be divided by 12 and the register paid additional compensation on a 10 percent basis on only $75, or less, of the fees earned for each month, subject to any necessary adjustment as of April 30, 1943— the expiration date of the statute-so that the register will receive the total increase of 10 percent on all fees actually earned not to exceed the rate of $900 per annum.

2. Section 1 of the President's regulations, Executive Order No. 9289, dated December 26, 1942, provides:

SECTION 1. Heads of Executive departments and agencies, or such officers or employees as they may designate, shall establish official hours of duty and a regular workweek for each employee or group of employees. No employee shall be required to work in excess of the officially established hours of duty except upon the order of the head of the department or agency or of such officer or employee as has been delegated specific authority to require such additional work.

If, as stated in question 2, the supervisory employees of the Department of the Interior are subject to the rules established by the Selective Service regulations regarding the hours of work at the camps, the Selective Service regulations may be regarded as tantamount to an administrative order establishing "official hours of duty and a regular workweek" of 51 hours per week for such employees within the meaning of the above-quoted regulation and they would be entitled to additional compensation pursuant to the overtime formula on that basis.

3. Section 2 of the President's regulations, E. O. 9289, provides:

SECTION 2. Overtime compensation for employment in excess of 40 hours during an officially established regular workweek, and for work ordered or approved in addition to the regular workweek so established shall be paid at the rate of one and one-half times the employee's regular rate of compensation, subject to the following limitations:

(a) No overtime compensation shall be paid on any part of an employee's basic rate of compensation in excess of $2,900 per annum;

(b) Each employee shall be paid only such overtime compensation or portion thereof as will not cause his aggregate compensation, composed of his basic rate of compensation and his overtime compensation, to exceed a rate of $5,000 per annum.

For the purpose of computing overtime compensation the pay for one hour shall be considered to be % of the employee's pay for one day and the pay for one day shall be considered to be 360 of the employee's per-annum salary.

The words, "ordered or approved", would appear to have substantially the same legal import as the words, "authorized or approved", which are commonly used in regulations and statutes, and mean that the action may be authorized either in advance or approved after the act has been performed. That is to say, the word, "approved", denotes administrative action after the fact. Compare, for instance, sections 5, 6, and 7 of the Standardized Government Travel Regulations and the provisions of the act of October 10, 1940, 54 Stat. 1105, and the President's regulations thereunder, Executive Order No. 8588, dated November 7, 1940, concerning the shipment of household goods. Hence, for the purposes of the law here involved, the words "ordered or approved" appearing in section 2 of the President's regulations, above quoted, may be regarded as having the same effect as the words, "authorized or approved" as used in the other regulations above referred to. Hence, work in excess of the regular workweek for which additional compensation may be paid may be either ordered in advance or approved by the proper official after the work is performed.

4. Overtime in excess of the workweek may be ordered or approved in blanket form, that is, for a group or class of employees. It is unnecessary that each employee be given a separate and distinct order or that each employee's overtime work must be administratively approved.

5. In the consideration of this question it is assumed (1) that the involved employees are not of the class covered by section 7 of the

President's regulations, infra, who are entitled to a 10 percent increase in compensation regardless of the hours worked per week, and (2) that the proposed compensatory time off from duty is for extra work in excess of the "official hours of duty and a regular workweek" administratively established pursuant to section 1 of the President's regulations, which is understood to be 48 hours per week for the Department of the Interior. If, due to administrative necessity, an employee be granted time off from duty during the administratively established workweek corresponding to the time in addition thereto that he was required to work, such time off from duty constitutes a part of the officially established workweek the same as though the employee were on duty and, accordingly, he would not work in excess of the administratively established workweek. See question and answer 3, decision of January 8, 1943, B-31488, 22 Comp. Gen. 627, to the Postmaster General, and the decisions therein cited. Subject to the foregoing, this question is answered in the affirmative.

6. Section 2 of the act of March 7, 1942, Public Law 490, 56 Stat. 144, provides, in pertinent part:

SEO. 2. Any person who is in active service and is officially reported as missing, missing in action, interned in a neutral country, or captured by an enemy shall, while so absent, be entitled to receive or to have credited to his account the same pay and allowances to which such person was entitled at the time of the beginning of the absence or may become entitled to thereafter. supplied.]

*

* [Italics

In decision of January 21, 1943, B-31789, 22 Comp. Gen. 683, to the Secretary of Labor, it was stated:

While an overtime formula is stated in the earlier statutes certain provisions of which have been extended by Public Law 821, approved December 22, 1942, the proper concept of the law based upon all of its provisions, including both the overtime formula for increased hours of duty as well as the authority for payment of additional compensation on a 10 percent basis for employees who are not required to work additional time, and its legislative history, is that an increase in compensation is authorized for employees coming within the purview of the law because of the war emergency and the increased cost of living. General Regulations No. 54, Supplement 14, of this office, dated December 29, 1942, and the accompanying salary tables, were issued on the basis of the above-stated concept.

Accordingly, referring to the italicized portion of the quoted statute and having regard for the view expressed in the decision, supra, it is concluded that if the office of High Commissioner of the Philippine Islands which has been established in this country is now regularly working in excess of 40 hours per week pursuant to an administrative order issued under section 1 of the President's regulations, the question may be answered in the affirmative subject to the other terms and conditions of the act of March 7, 1942. 22 Comp. Gen. 134; id. 192. Of course, those employees, if any, who were paid in accordance with local prevailing native wage rates for the Philippine Islands would be excluded entirely from the benefits of the

joint resolution of December 22, 1942. See exception (d) to the second proviso of section 1 of that statute. See, also, decision of January 20, 1943, B-31744, 22 Comp. Gen. 678, to the Secretary of State.

7. There would be for administrative consideration whether the employees mentioned in this question fall within the purview of section 7 of the President's regulations, providing:

SECTION 7. Employees such as certain forest-fire lookouts, forest guards, and lighthouse keepers the nature of whose work (as determined by the head of the department or agency concerned) requires them to remain at or within the confines of their posts of duty for more than 40 hours per week but does not require that all of their time be devoted to actual work shall be considered to have intermittent or irregular hours of duty within the meaning of the last proviso of section 1 of the said Senate Joint Resolution 170, 77th Congress.

If it be administratively determined that the involved employees do not fall within the purview of section 7 of the regulations, then it is within administrative discretion either (1) to grant compensatory time off from duty for work in excess of the regular workweek established by administrative order (see answer to question 5, supra), or (2) to pay additional overtime compensation "for fire duty which may require the supervisor to spend nights and Sundays during the periods of high fire danger", subject, of course, to the conditions of the law which must be met generally to entitle to overtime pay.

8. In decision of January 25, 1943, B-31805, 22 Comp. Gen. 702, to Mr. C. A. Wolfe, Authorized Certifying Officer, Department of Agriculture, the joint resolution of December 22, 1942, was applied to cooperative employees with the understanding that they "are Federal employees who work under the supervision of the Federal Government during the entire period of their service, and that a portion of their total salary rate is contributed by a State." It was stated in that decision, on the basis of the above understanding, as follows:

The formulas provided by the statute for paying additional compensation operate upon the "earned basic compensation." Likewise, retirement deductions are required by the Civil Service Retirement Act to be computed upon basic compensation. Also, compensation deductions under the Economy Act of June 30, 1932, and as amended by subsequent laws, were required to be made from the basic compensation. In applying the retirement act to cooperative employees of the class here under consideration, retirement deductions are required to be made from the total rate of compensation fixed by the Federal Government for the Federal position, including the portion of the salary paid by a State or other cooperating agency. 27 Comp. Dec. 59; 1 Comp. Gen. 371; 11 id. 187. Also, Economy Act deductions were required to be made from the total salaries or basic compensation of such cooperative employees. 12 Comp. Gen. 248, 258, 312. Compare 12 Comp. Gen. 220, 651.

Accordingly, for the purpose of applying the formulas for increasing compensation and the salary limitations under the new law, the total salary rate of $4,600 per annum, apparently fixed under the Classification Act, properly is to be regarded as the earned basic compensation of Dr. Barre, and $3,300, apparently fixed under the Classification Act for the Federal position occupied by Mr. Weaver properly is to be regarded as his basic compensation. Assuming that, pursuant to an administrative order issued Secretary of Agriculture, the involved employees worked a fe