Defined term
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
The Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq.) is the federal wage-and-hour statute — minimum wage, overtime for non-exempt employees, child labor, and the exemption framework.
The FLSA's central premise is that all employees are non-exempt — overtime-eligible at time-and-a-half above 40 hours per workweek — unless they meet a specific exemption. The white-collar exemptions (executive, administrative, professional, computer-employee, outside-sales) each require salary-basis, salary-level, and duties tests.
The duties test is where most exemption defenses fail. "Manager" titles applied to employees performing mostly non-exempt work do not survive scrutiny. Misclassification exposure is two or three years of unpaid overtime, liquidated damages doubling, and the FLSA fee-shifting provision under § 216(b). Collective FLSA actions can be among the most expensive employment claims a small employer faces.
Statutes
- 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-219
- 29 U.S.C. § 216(b)