The Fair Labor Standards Act was signed into law in 1938, establishing federal wage and hour provisions in the United States. The Act, which at the time only applied to certain industries, set the standard workweek at 44 hours, set the minimum wage at 25 cents per hour and banned oppressive child labor. Since then, the Act has been amended many times but continues to set the federal minimum wage, establish overtime requirements and provide restrictions on child labor. Most recently, President Bush signed a bill scheduling three phased increases to the federal minimum wage, up to $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.

Overtime

The FLSA requires that all non-exempt employees receive overtime pay for any time worked above 40 hours per week at a rate of at least one and a half times the regular rate of pay. The FLSA details a list of exemptions from this overtime requirement.

Learn more about state and federal overtime laws.

Learn more about exempt v. non-exempt.

Employment Relationship

The FLSA distinguishes an “employment relationship” from a contractual working agreement. This distinction is used in determining whether or not an employee is correctly classified as an independent contractor.

Learn more about independant contractors.

Hours Worked

The FLSA provides general information concerning compensable time. For example, under the FLSA employers are required to compensate employees for short breaks. The FLSA has also been used to determine whether time spent in preliminary and/or post-work tasks, such as changing in and out of protective gear (“donning and doffing”), are compensable.

Learn more about donning and doffing.

Tips

Under the FLSA, employers may apply tip earnings toward the balance of their minimum wage obligation, provided they pay tipped employees a cash wage of at least $2.13 an hour and they notify the employees of the tip arrangement. Any monetary difference between the combined tip credit and the federal minimum wage must be covered by the employer.

Learn more about state and federal laws relating to tipped employees.

Girard Gibbs LLP is a law firm based in San Francisco, California. Our employment lawyers are highly knowledgeable about employee rights under federal and California employment law, and actively pursue claims on behalf of employees whose rights have been violated. If you would like to learn more about the FLSA, or that your employee rights have otherwise been violated, please fill out the form below or call us toll free at (866) 981-4800 for a consultation without charge.

Important Note: This summary is intended to provide a basic overview of the typical types of employment cases handled by our firm. It is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.