It’s called the “Working Families Flexibility Act,” but it would accommodate only employers and could cheat families. The bill, which the House recently passed, would supposedly let employees who work overtime choose paid time off rather than time-and-a-half wages.

But the time off would come at the convenience of employers, who would have 13 months to schedule it.

This is not allowed under current law, for good reason: Most employers would prefer to postpone pay whenever possible, and employees are likely to go along with their boss’s wishes regardless of their own. Current law avoids any such coercion by requiring overtime to be paid in the pay period it’s earned.

The Republican bill would not only make employees vulnerable to wage delays, but to wage theft. An employer could deny a time-off request by deeming it “unduly” disruptive — a vague standard that basically gives employers total control over when the time off is taken. If an employee tires of waiting and asks, instead, for the pay, employers could take up to 30 days to honor the request. If any employee quits or a company goes out of business, unpaid overtime could be difficult or impossible to extract from the employer.