Atrophied Rights: Maximum Hours Labor Standards under the FLSA and Illinois Law

This article examines the evolving political history of, and then compares, the FLSA and Illinois maximum hours labor standards. It shows that worker rights to shorter work hours have steadily atrophied under the FLSA. Illinois law has moved in the opposite direction, providing workers with increasingly more generous (albeit, not particularly strong) statutory rights to shorter work hours than the FLSA. Employers in Illinois must therefore (presently) adhere to the Illinois, rather than the federal, maximum hours labor standards.