The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was passed in 1938 and it established the minimum wage, set limits on child labor, and required employers to pay overtime for hours worked over 40 in a week. The FLSA also created the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) under the U.S. Department of Labor to enforce these provisions.
In the early 1990s, a campaign was launched by the labor policy organization to revise the FLSA. The goal of the campaign was to make the law more flexible for workers and businesses, and to update it for the modern workplace.
One of the most significant amendments to the FLSA was the introduction of comp time. Comp time allows employees to accrue time off from work in lieu of overtime pay. For example, if an employee works 50 hours in one week, they may be able to