Introduction: According to Mike Deblieux in his book "Legal Issues for Managers" (1996), the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is best known because it establishes the federal minimum wage. The FLSA is the most important and most far-reaching law guaranteeing a worker's right to be paid fairly. The widespread application of the FLSA is that almost every employer in the Unites States is subject to some aspect of the FLSA, and almost every employee receives some benefit and enjoys some specific protection as a result of the passage of this federal law as well as frequent amendments which have expanded the protections afforded to American workers. The FLSA also requires employers to pay nonexempt employees overtime at a rate of at least one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over forty hours in a workweek. The FLSA does not permit non-exempt employees to waive their right to be paid overtime. The FLSA requires employers to pay non exempt employees for all hours work, whether the time worked was authorized or not.
The FLSA also addresses issues including pay for On-Call time, for Training time, for Travel time, and for Compensatory time. The FLSA places numerous restrictions on the employment of minors. The FLSA also requires employers to pay women and men similar pay for similar work performed under similar circumstances (Deblieux, 1996).
According to Dana Shilling in her book "The Complete Guide to Human Resources and the Law" (1998), passage of the FLSA in 1938 established working-condition requirements for most workers engaging in or producing goods for interstate commerce. The FSLA set minimum wages, maximum hours, and overtime standards that employers were required to follow. Additionally, this act set national rules for child labor. Child labor legislation had been evolving for some time in State houses, but falling real wages during the Great Depression precipitated a national restrict...