To open the discussion, can you give some background into the Fair Labor Standards Act and the obligations it establishes for employers? The federal FLSA (29 USC §201 et seq.) was a landmark law enacted in 1938 to establish a minimum wage for workers and restrict exploitive child labour. The history of federal, state and industry efforts to institute pro-labour legislation is fascinating. Briefly, prior to 1938, the Supreme Court had expressed profound hostility toward wage and hour laws; as examples, it held that a federal child labour law was an unconstitutional imposition on state authority under the guise of commerce power1 and struck down a District of Columbia law that set minimum wages for women and children, finding it an intolerable legislative interference with freedom of contract.2 President Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, was an indispensable ally in pushing through an ultimately successful bill that, though greatly changed, was revolutionary in linking minimum wages to subsistence levels and basic decency. She was also the first woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet. In an interesting aside, Arkansas’s new female governor recently signed a bill into law that rolls back several state child labour protections. Today, the FLSA establishes wage, hour, record-keeping, and youth labor standards for many types of enterprises including those engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for interstate commerce. As one example, a construction business may be subject to the FLSA if it has two or more employees and annual gross sales of $500,000 or more. Restaurant businesses with annual gross sales from one or more establishments that total at least $500,000 are also subject to the FLSA. Generally, FLSA standards include a minimum wage of $7.25, overtime pay for more than 40 hours in a workweek, and protections against retaliation and pay discrimination based on sex. The underlying policy of the law is to deter and prevent “labor conditions Exploring Wage and Hour Disputes in California The regulation of wages and hours is one of the foundational aspects of employment law, and one that often gives rise to disputes levied at employers. Marian Birge, a highly experienced employment lawyer practicing in California, offers an informed perspective on the basis of wage and hour protections for employees in the state and illustrates where employers most often fall short of legal requirements. Expert Insight EXPERT INSIGHT 57
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