Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a labor law that defines the employees covered under the Act and determines the standard working hours and wage standard requirement. It also decides on what employees' records should be maintained as well as requiring for equal pay to all employees performing similar tasks regardless of their gender. Overtime is determined under the Act as any hours worked, which are more than the standard working hours (Goldman, Corrada & Goldman, 2011).
FLSA provides various provisions regarding fair treatment of employees on overtime. Employees should receive payment for every time that they offer their services to the employers. The provisions of the Act regarding overtime, therefore, include the need for organizations to establish a workweek that need not coincide with a calendar week. The act abolishes the averaging of work week hours, and that rather than paying on a weekly basis employers should set a seven-day week of work.
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FLSA also requires that employers pay compensation for overtime if the work exceeds forty working hours. Another provision of the Act is that employers and employees should not enter into any agreement that sets the employers free from paying overtime compensation. This would be regarded as the violation of FLSA. The Act provides that the pay on overtime is payable to an employee once forty hours have been exceeded in a certain working week (Whittaker, 2002). In instances where an employee performs more than one job that are not similar, and whose pay rate is different, all the working hours should be combined and any hours beyond the forty working hours per week should still be treated as overtime.
The pre-eminence of the state over federal law is governed by Supremacy clause which provides that state laws must be in agreement with federal laws, and if any state provision conflicts with the federal legislation, the state law should be considered void. Examples of lawsuits, in this case, include the ruling made in Gibbons v. Ogden and Swift & Co. v. Wickham where in both cases the state laws were regarded as void. The exemptions of FLSA include sales employees who are payable on a commission basis, drivers and their helpers, mechanics, and loaders, as well as recreational and seasonal establishments.
In summary, FLSA is applied to ensure fair treatment of employees by the employers. It has a broad scope and offers various provisions regarding overtime. Employers should, therefore, ensure that employees are compensated for the overtime hours worked.
References
Goldman, A. L., Corrada, R. L., & Goldman, A. L. (2011). Labor law in the USA . Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International.
Whittaker, W. G. (2002). The Fair Labor Standards Act . New York: Novinka Books.
