The Fair Labor Standards Act: Keeping You Mostly Out Of The Breadline Since 1938

With all the divisive controversy around Arizona’s new immigration law still running rampant across America’s collective conscience, it’s no surprise that conversations about the topic often turn to the ever-present high unemployment rate.  The two issues seem to go hand-in-hand, like peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, or milk and Pepsi.  The primary reason, it seems, for this phenomenon is the belief that illegal immigrants steal jobs from hard-working employable Americans.  Though the truth is that the jobs they’re hired for aren’t necessarily of the highest caliber, as most Americans likely aren’t clamoring to pick corn for a dollar an hour.  The other major disadvantage illegal immigrants don’t receive is protection under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Passed in 1938, the FLSA established a national minimum wage as well as guaranteed overtime pay for all American employees.

The FLSA passage into law was a major victory for American workers everywhere.  However the most ironic part is that despite the hard-fought battle to turn the bill into law, many Americans today are unfamiliar with the protections it provides to employees. 

Therefore, being the conscientious wonderful guy that I am, I’ve taken the time to explain these two major FLSA functions, as well as how the FLSA can punish employers who violate it:

·        Overtime: Everyone knows the concept of time and a half, but I’m certain a significantly smaller percentage of those people are aware that the FLSA was what originated it.  Simply put, federal law requires all employees who work more than 40 hours a week to be paid 1.5 times their standard wage for every hour worked over 40 hours.  For example, if you’re wage is $20 an hour, your overtime pay would $30 an hour (20 x 1.5 = 30).

·        Overtime Violation: If an employer refuses to pay their workers overtime, then they are in violation of FLSA’s overtime provision and can be subject to both criminal and civil lawsuits.  Criminal penalties can consist of both fines up to $10,000 and imprisonment up to 6 months, as well as court orders to comply with the FLSA and to also pay back overtime wages.  Civil lawsuits filed by harmed employees are limited to recovery of back wages and liquidated damages (meaning a set amount of additional money to be paid to the employee for violating the FLSA in the first place).  There are exceptions to this rule.  Salaried workers, typically categorized as white collar employees, aren’t required to be paid overtime regardless of the number of hours they work.  This is because they receive a salary which is paid irrespective to their total work.  Salaries under the FLSA are required to have overtime already factored into an employee’s annual pay.  Also government workers have specific laws that determine their overtime pay regulation which can vary from job to job.

·        Minimum Wage: Again, this is a concept many people are familiar with, but probably less know that the FLSA created it.  It can seem crazy now, but prior to 1938 there were no laws in place at a national level which required workers be paid a minimum amount of money for their work.  Some states had their own minimum wage laws, but the amounts set varied wildly from state to state.  The FLSA changed all of this by requiring every employer regardless of the state they lived in to pay their employees minimum amount of money per hour.  Currently that amount is at least $7.25 an hour.  The best part is that under the FLSA, states still had the right to adjust the minimum hourly wage for their state, but could only adjust it upward.  So it’s either set wages at $7.25 or set it for more.

·        Minimum Wage Violation: The civil and criminal penalties for minimum wage violators are the same as those for overtime violators.  The differences here are regarding the minimum wage exceptions.  Workers who receive tips from their jobs can be paid less than minimum wage as long as the wage plus tips equal to at least $5.15 an hour.  Why is that amount less than $7.25?  Who knows?  Perhaps it’s because people believe waiters can usually make more than minimum wage with tips.  Regardless, it’s just another reason why tipping should be banned (please no hate mail; it’s just what I believe).  Also trainees aren’t required to be paid minimum wage either as long employer follows certain FLSA guidelines.

However, from a legal perspective, the most important aspect of the FLSA is that it places the burden of proof on those filing the lawsuits.  This means plaintiffs who wish to sue their employers for violating FLSA regulations are responsible for convincing the court or jury that their employer actually did something wrong.  It’s probably for this reason why the latest LegalMatch statistics have shown an uptick in the amount of clients seeking employment law specialists.  That, and you know, probably all the xenophobia, too.  But maybe I’m just over-thinking it. . .

By: Andrew Dat

Comments

[Briansparks0211]

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