The Fair Labor Standards Act: Recommendations to Improve Compliance

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 19381 ("FLSA") has been characterized as the original anti-poverty law. Enacted to correct "labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living" and applied to workers engaged in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for interstate commerce, the FLSA set a minimum wage and provided that people working over a maximum number of hours per week must be paid at least one and one-half times their regular rate of pay. The FLSA also limited the use in interstate commerce of goods produced by oppressive child labor.