Fair Labor Standards Act facts for kids
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (often called FLSA or the Wages and Hours Bill) is an important U.S. federal law. It helps protect workers across the country.
What the FLSA Does
The FLSA brought in several big changes for workers. It set a maximum workweek of 44 hours at first, which was then lowered to 40 hours by 1940. This meant most people couldn't be made to work more than 40 hours a week without extra pay.
The law also created a national minimum wage. This was 25 cents an hour when it first started. This was the lowest amount an employer could pay their workers.
Another important rule was about "time-and-a-half" pay for overtime. If certain workers had to work more than their regular hours, they had to be paid 1.5 times their normal hourly wage for those extra hours.
The FLSA also made it illegal for most businesses to use "oppressive child labor." This means it stopped children from working in jobs that were harmful or kept them from going to school. For example, children under 18 cannot do certain dangerous jobs. Also, children under 16 cannot work during school hours.
To make sure these rules were followed, the FLSA created a special group called the Wage and Hour Division. This group is part of the United States Department of Labor.
This law applies to most workers and businesses that operate across different states or make things for sale.
How the FLSA Was Created
The idea for the FLSA started in 1932 with Senator Hugo Black. He later became a judge on the Supreme Court in 1937. Senator Black first suggested that employers should only make people work 30 hours a week. However, this idea faced a lot of pushback.
In 1938, a new version of Black's idea was passed. This version set an eight-hour day and a 40-hour workweek. It also allowed workers to earn extra pay for up to four hours of overtime. The law made it clear that workers must get the minimum wage. Overtime pay had to be one-and-a-half times their regular pay.
About 700,000 workers were affected by the FLSA when it first became law. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt thought it was one of the most important laws passed during the New Deal. He said it was as important as the Social Security Act of 1935.
Related Pages
Images for kids
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A poster from the Department of Labor that tells employees about their rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
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This graph shows the history of the U.S. federal minimum wage. The lower line shows the actual dollar amount, and the top line shows what that money is worth when adjusted for inflation (in 2020 dollars).
