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Adapted from Minimum Wage and Maximum Hours Standards Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1988 Report to the Congress under Section 4(d)(1)
of the FLSA.
Early in the administration of the FLSA, it became apparent that application of the statutory minimum wage was likely to produce undesirable
effects upon the economies of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands if applied to all of their covered industries. Consequently on June 26, 1940, an amendment was enacted prescribing the establishment of special industry committees to determine, and issue through wage orders, the minimum wage levels applicable in
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The rates established by industry committees could be less than the statutory rates applicable elsewhere in the
United States.
On May 14, 1947, the FLSA was amended by the Portal-to-Portal Act. This
legislation was significant because it resolved some issues as to what
constitutes compensable hours worked under FLSA. Matters involving underground
travel in coal mines and make-ready practices in factories had been decided
earlier in a number of U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
Subsequent amendments to the FLSA have extended the law's coverage to
additional employees and raised the level of the minimum wage. In 1949, the
minimum wage was raised from 40 cents an hour to 75 cents an hour for all
workers and minimum wage coverage was expanded to include workers in the air
transport industry. The 1949 amendments also eliminated industry committees
except in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. A specific section was added
granting the Wage and Hour Administrator in the U.S. Department of Labor
authorization to control the incidence of exploitative industrial homework. A
1955 amendment increased the minimum wage to $1.00 an hour with no changes in
coverage.
The 1961 amendments greatly expanded the FLSA's scope in the retail
trade sector and increased the minimum for previously covered workers to $1.15
an hour effective September 1961 and to $1.25 an hour in September 1963. The
minimum for workers newly subject to the Act was set at $1.00 an hour effective
September 1961, $1.15 an hour in September 1964, and $1.25 an hour in September
1965. Retail and service establishments were allowed to employ fulltime
students at wages of no more than 15 percent below the minimum with proper
certification from the Department of Labor. The amendments extended coverage to
employees of retail trade enterprises with sales exceeding $1 million annually,
although individual establishments within those covered enterprises were exempt
if their annual sales fell below $250,000. The concept of enterprise coverage
was introduced by the 1961 amendments. Those amendments extended coverage in
the retail trade industry from an established 250,000 workers to 2.2 million.
Congress further broadened coverage with amendments in 1966 by lowering
the enterprise sales volume test to $500,000, effective February 1967, with a
further cut to $250,000 effective February 1969. The 1966 amendments also
extended coverage to public schools, nursing homes, laundries, and the entire
construction industry. Farms were subject to coverage for the first time if
their employment reached 500 or more man days of labor in the previous year's
peak quarter. The minimum wage went to $1.00 an hour effective February 1967
for newly covered nonfarm workers, $1.15 in February 1968, $1.30 in February
1969, $1.45 in February 1970, and $1.60 in February 1971. Increases for newly
subject farm workers stopped at $1.30. The 1966 amendments extended the
fulltime student certification program to covered agricultural employers and
to institutions of higher learning.
In 1974, Congress included under the FLSA all no supervisory employees
of Federal, State, and local governments and many domestic workers.
(Subsequently, in 1976, in National League of Cities v. Usery,
the Supreme Court held that the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the
FLSA could not constitutionally apply to State and local government employees
engaged in traditional government functions.) The minimum wage increased to
$2.00 an hour in 1974, $2.10 in 1975, and $2.30 in 1976 for all except farm
workers, whose minimum initially rose to $1.60. Parity with nonfarm workers was
reached at $2.30 with the 1977 amendments.
The 1977 amendments, by eliminating the separate lower minimum for large
agricultural employers (although retaining the overtime exemption), set a new
uniform wage schedule for all covered workers. The minimum went to $2.65 an
hour in January 1978, $2.90 in January 1979, $3.10 in January 1980, and $3.35
in January 1981. The amendments eased the provisions for establishments
permitted to employ students at the lower wage rate and allowed special waivers
for children 10to11 years old to work in agriculture. The overtime exemption
for employees in hotels, motels, and restaurants was eliminated. To allow for
the effects of inflation, the $250,000 dollar volume of sales coverage test for
retail trade and service enterprises was increased in stages to $362,500 after
December 31, 1981.
As a result of the Supreme Court's 1985 decision in Garcia v.
San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority et.al., Congress passed
amendments changing the application of FLSA to public sector employees.
Specifically, these amendments permit State and local governments to compensate
their employees for overtime hours worked with compensatory time off in lieu of
overtime pay, at a rate of 1 1/2 hours for each hour of overtime worked.
The 1989 amendments established a single annual dollar volume
test of $500,000 for enterprise coverage of both retail and no retail businesses. At the same time, the amendments eliminated the minimum wage and
overtime pay exemption for small retail firms. Thus, employees of small retail
businesses became subject to minimum wage and overtime pay in any workweek in which they engage in commerce or the production of goods for commerce. The minimum wage was raised to $3.80 an hour beginning April 1, 1990, and to $4.25
an hour beginning April 1, 1991. The amendments also established a training wage provision (at 85% of the minimum wage, but not less than $3.35 an hour)
for employees under the age of twenty, a provision that expired in 1993. Finally, the amendments established an overtime exception for time spent by
employees in remedial education and civil money penalties for willful or
repeated violations of the minimum wage or overtime pay requirements of the
law.
In 1990, Congress enacted legislation requiring regulations to be issued providing a
special overtime exemption for certain highly skilled professionals in the computer
field who receive not less than 6 and one-half times the applicable minimum wage.
The 1996 amendments increased the minimum wage to $4.75 an hour on October
1, 1996, and to $5.15 an hour on September 1, 1997. The amendments also
established a youth sub minimum wage of $4.25 an hour for newly hired employees
under age 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days after being
hired by their employer; revised the tip credit provisions to allow employers
to pay qualifying tipped employees no less than $2.13 per hour if they received
the remainder of the statutory minimum wage in tips; set the hourly compensation
test for qualifying computer related professional employees at $27.63 an
hour; and amended the Portal-to-Portal Act to allow employers and employees
to agree on the use of employer provided vehicles for commuting to and from
work, at the beginning and end of the work day, without counting the commuting
time as compensable working time if certain conditions are met.
The 2007 amendments increased the minimum wage to $5.85 per hour effective July 24, 2007;
$6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008; and $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.
A separate provision of the bill brings about phased increases to the minimum wages
in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands and in American Samoa, with the goal
of bringing the minimum wages in those locations up to
the general federal minimum wage over a number of years.
Where to Obtain Additional Information
This publication is for general information and is not to be considered
in the same light as official statements of position contained in the regulations.
For additional information, visit our Wage-Hour website: http://www.wagehour.dol.gov
and/or call our Wage-Hour toll-free information and helpline, available
8am to 5pm in your time zone, 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243).
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