Fair Labor Standards Act Law & Legal Definition

The Fair Labor Standards Act  is a federal statute originally passed in 1938 setting minimum hourly wages, and maximum daily and weekly work hours after which overtime rates must be paid. The Act also restricts child labor in industries engaged in interstate commerce. Public employees were included in the Act in 1974.

The Fair Labor Standards Act's (FLSA) basic requirements are:

• Payment of the minimum wage;
• Overtime pay for time worked over 40 hours in a workweek;
• Restrictions on the employment of children; and;
• Recordkeeping.;

In order for the FLSA to apply, there must be an employment relationship between an "employer" and an "employee." The FLSA also contains some exemptions from these basic rules. Some apply to specific types of businesses and others to specific kinds of work.

Although some states may have laws governing the following issues, the FLSA does not require:

• vacation, holiday, severance, or sick pay;
• meal or rest periods, holidays off, or vacations;
• premium pay for weekend or holiday work;
• pay raises or fringe benefits;
• a discharge notice, reason for discharge, or immediate payment of final wages to terminated employees; and
• pay stubs or "W-2"s.

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