Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA, ch. 676, 52 Stat. 1060, June 25, 1938, 29 U.S.C. ch. 8), is United States federal law. The FLSA established a national minimum wage,^[1] guaranteed time and a half for overtime in certain jobs,^[2] and prohibited most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor," a term defined in the statute.^[3] The United States Statutes at Large, commonly referred to as the Statutes at Large, is the official source for the laws and resolutions passed by Congress. ... June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 189 days remaining. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States. ... The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal Law of the United States. ... The minimum wage is the minimum rate a worker can legally be paid (usually per hour) as opposed to wages that are determined by the forces of supply and demand in a free market. ... Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours; these may be determined in several ways, by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society), by practices of a given trade or profession, by legislation, or by agreement between employers and workers or their representatives. ... Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... In law, a person who is not yet a legal adult is known as a minor (known in some places as an infant or juvenile). ...

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 The bulk of these exemptions have been repealed.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. Rural area in Dalarna, Sweden Qichun, a rural town in Hubei province, China Rural areas are sparsely settled places away from the influence of large cities and towns. ... White-collar workers perform tasks which are less laborious yet often more highly paid than blue-collar workers, who do manual work. ...

The FLSA is administered by the Wage & Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor, which conducts audits and workplace inspections.^[4] 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 United States Department of Labor is a Cabinet department of the United States government responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, re-employment services, and some economic statistics. ... Unilateralism is an antonym for multilateralism. ...

The FLSA provides that workers who are underpaid can recover not only the minimum wages and overtime wages due to them, but also an equal amount as liquidated damages. They can also recover reasonable attorney fees.^[5] The FLSA also 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.^[6]

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. In computing, a programmer is someone who does computer programming and develops computer software. ... Plato is credited with the inception of academia: the body of knowledge, its development and transmission across generations. ...

Amendments

The Act was amended in 1949 (October 26, 1949 - Fair Labor Standards Amendment, ch. 736, Pub.L. 81-393, 63 Stat. 910, 29 U.S.C. § 201) October 26 is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 66 days remaining. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The United States Statutes at Large, commonly referred to as the Statutes at Large, is the official source for the laws and resolutions passed by Congress. ... The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States. ...

The Fair Labor Standards Act was amended by the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in the payment of wages. Equal pay for women is an issue involving pay inequality between men and women. ...

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 "FairPay." 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. August 23 is the 235th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (236th in leap years), with 130 days remaining. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American businessman and politician, was elected in 2000 as the 43rd President of the United States of America, re-elected in 2004, and is currently serving his second term in that office. ... American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL-CIO, is Americas largest federation of unions, made up of 53 national and international (including Canadian) unions, together representing over 9 million workers. ...

Notes

The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States. ... The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States. ... The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States. ... The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States. ... The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States. ... The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States. ... The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States. ...

See also

• Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority
• Labor market
• Positive rights
• Wages
  • Living wage
  • Minimum Wage in the United States
    • List of U.S. state minimum wages
  • Maximum wage
  • Wage slave

Garcia v. ... Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning of the market for labour. ... A Positive right is a right, either moral or decreed by law, to be provided with something so that it is incumbent upon another to act, as opposed to a negative right which is a right to not be subject to the action of another. ... Living wage refers to the minimum hourly wage necessary for a person to achieve a basic standard of living. ... The minimum wage is the minimum rate a worker can legally be paid (usually per hour) as opposed to wages that are determined by the forces of supply and demand in a free market. ... Minimum Wage by State This is a list of the minimum wages (per hour) in each state of the USA and the District of Columbia for jobs covered by federal minimum wage laws. ... A maximum wage is an enforced limit to how much an individual can earn. ... Wage slavery is a term expressing disapproval of a condition where a person is compelled to work in return for payment of a wage. ...

External links

• U.S. Department of Labor page on the FLSA
  • Text of the FLSA in PDF format
• Purchasing power of minimum wage from 1958 to 2002, via fiscalpolicy.org
• AFL-CIO, American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations
  • Minimum wage, via aflcio.org
  • State minimum wages, via aflcio.org
  • 2004 changes in overtime regulations, via aflcio.org
• Average U.S. farm and non-farm wages compared to the minimum wage (1981 - 2004), via usda.gov
• Impact of Proposed Minimum-Wage Increase on Low-income Families, via cepr.net (Center for Economic and Policy Research)
• Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
• Center for Policy Alternatives, via stateaction.org
• The Economic Policy Institute (epinet.org)
  • Analysis of 2004 change in overtime regulations, via epinet.org
• Floridians for All
• Raising the National Minimum Wage: Information, Opinion, Research
• Workplace Fairness
  • Minimum wage, via workplacefairness.org
  • Overtime compensation, via workplacefairness.org
• Business & Legal Reports
  • Study Finds Many Day Laborers Exploited
  • Supreme Court Clarifies Wage and Hour Law
• Text of the Fair Labor Standards Act - FLSA - 29 U.S. Code Chapter 8