Evelyn Brennan, age 16, of McAllen, Texas, for her question:
WHAT IS THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT?
The Fair Labor Standards Act is a measure that was enacted by the United States Congress in 1938. It was designed to eliminate labor conditions that are injurious to workers' health and that hurt their efficiency. It also was supposed to end unfair methods of competition based on these conditions. It is called the Federal Wage and Hour Law.
The act prohibited the introduction into interstate commerce of goods produced in violation of its provisions.
When the law first was passed, it provided for a minimum wage of 25 cents an hour. It also required the payment of overtime at a rate of at least time and one half of the regular rate of pay for hours exceeding 44 hours in any work week. It also prohibited oppressive child labor.
A subsequent increase of the minimum wage to 40 cents and a decrease in the maximum non overtime hours to 40 was incorporated in the original law.
Over the years the act has been amended periodically to raise the minimum wage, reduce the hours that could be worked without overtime pay and extend the coverage to many more low income workers.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 also amended the Fair Labor Standards Act by prohibiting wage differentials based on sex. By 1981 the minimum wage had been raised to $3.35 per hour.
The act contains exemptions from its provisions for executive, administrative, professional and academic employees. Certain farm workers, full time students, learners anti apprentices, handicapped workers and workers in some specialized or seasonal employment are also exempt from the law's provisions.
The act also gives partial exemptions from the overtime pay provisions for workers in industries that are found by the secretary of labor to be seasonal, as well as for persons working under union contracts specifying certain hours.
Oppressive child labor is generally definer as the employment of children under the age of 16, except for children between 14 and 16 years of age working under non hazardous conditions that do not interfere with their schooling, health or well being.
The minimum age for employment in hazardous occupations is 18.
Children of any age may be employed as theatrical performers and may work in agriculture outside school hours.
Enforcement is the responsibility of the wage and hour division of the U.S. Department of Labor. Willful violations of the law are punishable by fines and imprisonment.
As the minimum wage has risen, the law has increasingly come under attack. Critics contend that the minimum wage limits employment opportunities for many people, especially the young and the elderly. The majority of workers, however, favor a minimum wage as necessary to maintaining an adequate standard of living.
There's now an active movement advocating hourly rate increases over the next few years that would reach a rate of more than $5 per hour by 1990.