Fair Labor Standards Act

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Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, ch. 676, 52 Stat. 1060 (June 25, 1938), codified as Chapter 8 of title 29 of the United States Code, Template:Usc through Template:Usc (the FLSA), is United States federal law. The FLSA establishes a national minimum wage (see Template:Usc), guarantees time and a half for overtime in certain jobs (see Template:Usc), and prohibits most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor," a term defined in the statute (see Template:Usc and Template:Usc).

The law originally contained a large number of special industry exemptions, many of which were designed to protect traditional pay practices in small, rural businesses. The bulk of these exemptions have been repealed. Currently, the most important issues relate to the so-called "white collar" exemptions applicable to professional, administrative and executive employees.

The FLSA is administered by the Wage & Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor, which conducts audits and workplace inspections. See generally Template:Usc. The Administrator of the Wage & Hour Division has no unilateral enforcement authority, but may bring a lawsuit in federal court. As a practical matter, this is relatively rare. The FLSA provides for direct federal actions by employees. The FLSA, at Template:Usc, provides that workers who are underpaid can recover not only the minimum wages and liquidated damages due to them, but also an equal amount as liquidated damages. They can also recover reasonable attorney fees. At Template:Usc, the FLSA prohibits retaliation against employees who make complaints and requires employers to keep records of the hours worked by all employees, even those who are exempt.

The most contentious issues in recent years relate to technical employees, such as computer programmers, who have a significant degree of specialized knowledge without formal academic credentials. Such employees often exercise no direct management or even administrative authority, and so are arguably ineligible for any of the FLSA white collar exemptions. By legislative amendment, some employees of this sort are now exempt from the overtime provisions of the FLSA, but many unsettled issues remain.

On August 23, 2004, controversial changes to the FLSA's overtime regulations went into effect, making substantial modifications to the definition of an "exempt" employee. These changes were sought by business interests and the Bush administration, which claimed that the laws needed clarification and that few workers would be affected. The Bush administration called the new regulations "FairPlay." But other organizations, such as the AFL-CIO, claimed the changes would make millions of additional workers ineligible to obtain relief under the FLSA for overtime pay. Attempts in Congress to overturn the new regulations were unsuccessful.

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External links

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