The Fair Labor Standards Act, which was passed in 1938, is a federal law that pertains to the United States Law. The law was passed in order to establish fair wages and to ensure that child labor was unfair and not necessary. Throughout the years, the law has been amended to keep up with changing times, inflation, and wages. The most recent amendment occurred in 2007 when President Bush was in office. He signed another bill into law that ensured fair minimum wages. It is called the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. The provision allows for the Fair Standards Labor Act to increase minimum wages.
The law is a federal standard to enforce a fair and equal minimum wage and to establish who works full time or part time hours. The law also had guidelines for eligible employees who work overtime hours. If an employee is eligible for overtime pay, they should be paid one and half times the regular pay wage. Some states have higher minimum wages than the federal standard, lower minimum wages, and no minimum wage law at all. However, a majority of states do enforce the standard Federal minimum wage payment. The federal standard is $7.25 an hour.
Illinois is one state in which the minimum wage is higher than the federal standard. By next month of 2010, the minimum wage will increase to $8.25 an hour. An employer has the right to pay employees that are 18 years or younger $0.50 less than the minimum. Employees who earn tips are also paid less because they make up the difference in tips. Employees who earn tips are to be paid $4.80 an hour. The minimum wage has continually increased in Illinois over the years. In 2008, the wage increased by $0.25 every year. If you are beginning a new job, an employer can pay the new employee a $0.50 less than the minimum for the first three months of employment.
The Fair Labor Standards Act does not define how many hours are considered to be qualified as full or part time work. The act allows the employer to define how the hours are qualified. Most employers define a full time position as working 30 to 40 hours per week. Part time work is generally qualified as 15 to 25 hours. A lot of employers will not schedule their employees more than 32 hours per week because they do not want them to go into overtime. If you are on salary basis this is not always true, and some employees do not pay overtime but give annual bonuses.
About the Author: Brooke Haley marketing associate at Millon & Peskin, Chicago workers compensation lawyer that practice in the areas of Civil Litigation, Workers’ Compensation, and Personal Injury. Millon & Peskin is a General Civil Litigation Practice with the goal of representing the interests of injured workers, throughout all applicable Courts within the State of Illinois. For more information, please visit http://www.millonpeskin.com.
