Minimum Wage Overview
Policy Issues and Demographics
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 is the basic Federalstatute dealing with minimum wages, overtime pay, child labor,industrial homework (commercial production at home), and relatedissues. The Aho has been comprehensively amended to raise theminimum on eight occasions: in 1949, 1955, 1961, 1966, 1974, 1977,1989, and 1996. Congress has dealt more narrowly with provisionsof the Act at other times.The general minimum wage under the FLSA, set by the 1996 FLSAamendments, is now $5.15 per hour. By the late 1990s, about 80million workers were subject to the wage requirements of the FLSA,though most were actually paid substantially in excess of…
