Fair Labor Standards Act is a United States law that sets the minimum (least possible) wage and the length of the standard workweek for most employees in the country. It applies to employees of firms that do business in more than one state and have annual sales of at least $500,000. It also sets minimum age requirements for all workers. The act was passed in 1938 and has been amended (changed) many times. A 1963 amendment, the Equal Pay Act, requires that men and women be paid equally for equal work. The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor enforces the act.
Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act as part of the New Deal, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s program to end the Great Depression. The act originally set a minimum wage of 25 cents an hour. Amendments have raised the wage repeatedly.
The act at first limited the standard workweek to 44 hours. The workweek was reduced to 40 hours—the current length—by 1940. Time worked beyond the 40-hour limit is called overtime. Employees are entitled to be paid wages at a rate of 11/2 times their regular rate for overtime.
The Fair Labor Standards Act bans the employment of children less than 14 years old, except for certain types of jobs. Children under 14 can deliver papers, baby-sit, work in a business owned solely by their parents, or work in limited employment in certain agricultural jobs. Jobs as actors or performers have no age limitation for children. Children 14 or 15 years old are prohibited from working in factories or during school hours. People less than 18 years old may not work in jobs declared hazardous by the U.S. secretary of labor. Such occupations include mining and certain factory jobs.
See also Child labor; Minimum wage; Wages and hours.
