The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes minimum wages, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labor standards that affect full- and part-time employees in the private sector and federal, state, and local governments. The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) administers and enforces the FLSA with respect to private employment, employment in state and local government, and federal employees of the Library of Congress, U.S. Postal Service, Postal Rate Commission, and Tennessee Valley Authority.

All employees of certain businesses whose employees engage in interstate commerce, produce goods for interstate commerce, or handle, sell, or otherwise process goods or materials transported or produced by a person for such commerce are covered by the FLSA. Special rules apply to employment with state and local government agencies that involve fire protection and law enforcement activities, volunteer service, and time off in lieu of cash overtime pay.

Covered, non-exempt workers are entitled to a minimum wage of 7.25 per hour as of July 24, 2009. Many states also have minimum wage laws. In cases where a worker is subject to both state and federal minimum wage laws, he or she is entitled to the higher minimum wage.

Non-exempt employees must receive overtime pay for more than 40 hours worked per workweek (each fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours – seven consecutive 24-hour periods) at a rate of at least one and a half times the regular hourly rate. There is no limit on the number of hours employees age 16 and older may work per workweek. The FLSA does not require overtime pay for work on weekends, holidays, or regular rest days unless overtime is performed on those days.

The FLSA requires employers to keep records of wages, hours worked, and other items as set forth in the DOL's recordkeeping regulations. Most of this information is of the type that employers keep in the normal course of business and in compliance with other laws and regulations.

The FLSA's child labor regulations are designed to protect the educational opportunities of minors and prohibit their employment in occupations and under conditions detrimental to their health or well-being. Records do not have to be kept in a specific form and time clocks are not required. The regulations include work hour restrictions for minors under 16 and lists of hazardous employment regulations for agricultural and non-agricultural occupations that have been declared by the Secretary of Labor to be too dangerous for minors.

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