President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), creating federal rules for a minimum wage, limits on long workweeks through overtime pay, and restrictions on “oppressive child labor.” The law initially applied to a limited share of the workforce, reflecting political compromises, but it set a national baseline for wage labor standards.
The FLSA’s core wage-and-hour protections became enforceable, marking the start of active federal oversight of minimum pay, maximum straight-time hours, and child labor limits in covered industries. This shift mattered because it moved wage labor standards from mainly state or industry practice into federal law and enforcement.
The FLSA’s phased schedule reduced the maximum workweek (before overtime premiums applied) from 44 hours to 42 hours for covered workers. This step showed how the law aimed to discourage extremely long weeks by making additional hours more costly for employers.
The final phase of the original schedule took effect, establishing a 40-hour week as the main federal benchmark for overtime eligibility in covered jobs. Employers could still schedule longer weeks, but hours beyond the threshold generally required premium pay, shaping modern expectations about “full-time” work.
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the FLSA, ruling it was a constitutional use of Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce. This decision strengthened federal authority to set labor standards tied to goods made for interstate markets and reduced the risk that the FLSA would be struck down.
Congress passed the Portal-to-Portal Act to clarify what counts as compensable work time under the FLSA, especially for “preliminary” and “postliminary” activities. The law aimed to reduce unexpected liabilities for employers after court rulings suggested some commuting-related or preparatory activities might be payable.
Congress amended the FLSA to raise the federal minimum wage from 40 cents to 75 cents per hour and broaden coverage to additional workers (including in air transport). The changes reflected postwar debates about pay standards in a growing economy and adjusted the law to new labor-market realities.
The higher minimum wage enacted in 1949 took effect after the law’s implementation period, making 75 cents per hour the enforceable federal floor for covered workers. This mattered because the “effective date” is when pay practices legally had to change, not just when Congress passed the bill.
Congress passed, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed, FLSA amendments raising the federal minimum wage to $1.00 per hour. The law kept the basic framework of the FLSA in place while increasing the wage floor, showing how the FLSA was being updated through periodic legislative adjustments.
The $1.00 minimum wage level enacted in 1955 became enforceable for covered workers. This event is a clear marker of how minimum wage policy in the mid-20th century often combined a “became law” date with a later “effective” date for compliance.
The Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1961 became law, expanding FLSA coverage through the idea of “enterprise coverage,” meaning certain businesses could be covered based on the enterprise as a whole rather than only on individual workers’ direct interstate-commerce activities. The amendments also expanded coverage in retail trade and raised minimum wage rates on a scheduled basis.
The Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1966 became law, further widening coverage—such as to more public-sector-related settings and major industries like construction—and lowering the sales-volume threshold used for enterprise coverage. These changes helped move the FLSA from narrower New Deal-era coverage toward a broader national wage-and-hour system.
Wage labor and the Fair Labor Standards Act in the United States (1938–1960s)