The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) was passed in 1938 as part of the economic recovery after the Great Depression.  The FLSA aimed to create greater number of jobs that paid a minimum wage—which in 1938 was $0.25/hr—and it also created a “penalty” by requiring time-and-a-half overtime with the idea was that this overtime penalty would give employers an incentive to spread the work among more employees rather than making fewer employees work longer hours. 

Thus, FLSA establishes a minimum wage for every hour worked by covered (non-exempt) employees.  And, perhaps more importantly, the FLSA contains overtime provisions requiring payment of overtime wage (one-and-half times the regular rate) for every hour worked over 40 hours in a workweek.   Finally, the FLSA also regulates child labor, guarantees equal pay regardless of sex, and imposes certain recordkeeping requirements on employers. 

The FLSA does not limit the hours worked, except for minors.  Instead, it requires overtime pay for any hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek.  And since overtime provisions of the FLSA apply only to non-exempt employees, the threshold question therefore is, whether the FLSA covers the employer and the employee.

The Covered (non-exempt) employees must be paid a minimum wage of not less than $5.85 per hour, unless the state and local laws have minimum wage that is higher than that mandated by the FLSA, in that case the state or local laws control.  The U.S. Congress has made periodic minimum wage adjustments over time under the FLSA.  

Even though FLSA makes certain white-color and other employees exempt from the overtime requirements of the FLSA, they are still subject to the equal pay and some recordkeeping provisions of the FLSA. 

The FLSA allows an employee to bring an action against his current or former employer for violations of the Act on his or her own behalf and on behalf of other similarly situated employees.  A two-year statute-of-limitations applies to violations of the FLSA, however, if the violations are willful then a three-year statute-of-limitation applies.   That is, an employee can recover two years (three years for willful violations) of unpaid wages and/or overtime, liquidated damages, and attorney’s fees.  Thus, employees do not have to pay attorneys fees in cases involving FLSA violations.

Common Violations and Overtime Scams

A large number of companies are violating the FLSA.  For the most common violations of the FLSA or overtime scams click here.  Some of these common violations are:

Off-The-Clock Work:  Employees perform work for which the employer fails to compensate.  For example, employer may require employees to come before the “official start time” and make the employees perform job related activities, such as pre-shift meetings, changing clothes, or gathering tools, or preparing machines or your work station.

	Short Changing Hours (Working During Breaks):  Many employers provide lunch or meal breaks but, if during these meal breaks the employees  are regularly required to perform job-related tasks (even inactive tasks such as watching a machine), then the lunch break must be considered hours worked and compensated. Check here to check if your state requires a rest or meal break.
	Misclassifying Employees as Exempt:  Since exempt employees don’t have to be paid overtime, employers often try to fit employees into exempt categories. To determine whether you are properly classified as exempt, examine your specific job duties and responsibilities.

Miscalculation of Overtime Wages: Overtime pay must be one-and-a-half times the “regular rate” of pay.  It is quite common for employers to miscalculate the overtime wages because employers often fail to include the all additional payments made to the employees in the calculation of regular rate of pay.

Click here for common violations of labor laws in specific jobs or specific industries.

FLSA Coverage

Under the FLSA, the central question is whether an employer or employee is covered by the act.  Click here to learn more about who is covered under the FLSA.  Not all workers are covered by the FLSA, and even for workers who are covered, there are certain exemptions from FLSA.

Exemptions (from Overtime) under the FLSA  

Some employees are exempt from the overtime pay provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). That is, non-exempt employees are entitled overtime, whereas the exempt employees are not. For more information on exemptions under the FLSA, click here.

Different Methods of Payment

The FLSA does not dictate a particular form in which wages must be paid, therefore the employers and employees can agree on any of the various different methods for payment of wages. However, the FLSA does require that an employer must meet the minimum wage and overtime requirements no matter what the form of the payments.

Additional FLSA Information

You can get the FLSA posters and guides from the Department of Labor at the following links:

	FLSA Reference Guide From Department of Labor  (pdf Format)
	U.S. Department of Labor - Wage and Hour Fact Sheets

You can read a more complete history of the Fair Labor Standards Act here. 

In addition to the FLSA, the U.S. Congress has enacted various other Federal Labor Laws for the protection of employees, and to govern employee-employer relationships. We have provided an overview of other federal laws, and links to other federal labor related laws. 

Although the FLSA is just one of the labor standards laws, however, it is one of the oldest and thus has shaped the direction of many later laws.  For example, Equal Pay Act, which requires equal pay for equal work regardless of sex, was included in the FLSA in 1963. Additionally, even though the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, is an Act independent of the FLSA, however, it incorporates the remedial scheme of the FLSA, and thus provides employees with the remedies and damages under the FLSA. Finally, there are laws for the protection of employees working federally funded projects—such as the Davis-Bacon Act, the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, the Service Contract Act; and the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act are.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not dictate a particular form in which wages much be paid, therefore the employers and employees can agree on any of the various different methods for payment of wages. However, the FLSA does require that an employer must meet the minimum wage and overtime requirements no matter in what form the payments are made.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) requires that overtime earned by a non-exempt employee must be paid at not less than one and one-half times the employee’s “regular rate.” Sounds simple, but that’s not always the case. The FLSA does not require employers to pay non-exempt employees on the basis of an hourly rate. Employee may be paid, and earnings may be computed on a salary, commission or any other basis. However, any overtime pay due must be computed on the basis of a “regular rate” derived from the employee’s earnings.

Read a brief discussion of interaction and overlap of the FLSA and the various other federal labor laws here.

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