Annual Customs
Capitol Police officers could count overtime toward pensions
The proposal would count some overtime as basic pay, which could raise pensions and survivor benefits for Capitol Police officers with at least 15 years of service.
Virginia Democrat Representative James R. Walkinshaw and Representative Steny H. Hoyer introduced the bill in the House. It would cover overtime paid on or after enactment, up to half the annual customs-officer maximum.
- Certain Capitol Police overtime could be added to retirement calculations.
- Only overtime paid after enactment would count.
- The credit would be capped at half the customs-officer overtime maximum.
- Officers would need at least 15 years of service before separation.
- For Capitol Police officers, overtime could start doing double duty: boosting a paycheck now and a retirement check later
Capitol Police officers could see some overtime count toward their pension instead of only boosting this year’s paycheck. A House bill would treat certain overtime as regular pay, which could increase future retirement and survivor benefits.
The change would apply to overtime paid under the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, as applied through the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995. In plain terms, the bill would treat some extra hours as part of the pay used to calculate a future pension, not just the pay that lands in the current paycheck.
The ceiling on the benefit
The proposal does not make every extra hour count. It would cover only overtime received on or after enactment, and only up to an amount equal to 50% of the annual statutory maximum overtime pay for customs officers.
There is also a service threshold. Under the bill, a Capitol Police member would need at least 15 years of service before separation for that overtime to be treated as basic pay in the retirement calculation. The same pay would also count in survivor annuity calculations if an officer dies before leaving service.
The effect is narrow, but it is tangible. For officers who rack up frequent extra shifts, the change could raise the base used to calculate retirement income without changing the way those hours are paid on the front end.