Time Credits

Anecdote time: Recently I went off to buy a Zip drive. I had to drive to a store that took me 30 minutes to get there, as the nearer stores to my home were out of stock. I purchased my drive, for which I had rung ahead and reserved, and took another 30 minutes driving home. When I opened the box, it turned out I was given a display box by accident (everything was there, sans Zip drive. And, no, I couldn't tell by weight)! Replacing the drive took another hour or so, and I constantly thought to myself "This is one hour I could be doing stuff!" (not actual quote, censored for your protection).

Time Credits are universally accepted by companies and institutions (like schools) that allow a bearer to legally take time off from whatever they are meant to be doing, that they have lost time due to certain factors (important overrun meeting would be valid, sleeping in if it requires punctuality is not). They would often be given out as a form of knowledgable compensation (i.e. they know, or you persuade them to acknowledge your time loss as their fault), or maybe as rewards.

Also, in some way, credits could be exchanged for cash, because as the saying goes: "Time means money, people". However, this should not work in reverse, and anyway this could pose problems: should we pay someone $5000 an hour while someone only gets minimum wage?