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Fair Labor Standards Act (minimum wage, child labor ban)
June 25, 1938· Law or policy· Laws, labor & antitrust
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
The 1938 federal law that set a national minimum wage, a standard 40-hour week with overtime pay, and child-labor limits.
See it on the Innovation & Wealth map →What happened
Signed June 25, 1938, and championed by Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, it set a minimum wage of 25 cents an hour (roughly $6 today), rising to 40 cents; a workweek falling to 40 hours by 1940, with time-and-a-half for overtime; and a minimum age of 16 for most jobs, 18 for hazardous ones. It first covered about a fifth of workers; farmworkers, domestic workers and many retail jobs were excluded. The federal minimum has been $7.25 since 2009.
Impact on society and the economy
It set the floor most US jobs still rest on, including the 40-hour week. Low-wage workers gained; employers in low-wage regions, especially the South, lost a cost advantage.
How we know
The statute and its amendments, Labor Department records, United States v. Darby Lumber (1941), and decades of economic studies on minimum-wage effects.
Still debated
Economists still debate whether higher minimum wages cost jobs for the least skilled, and how far contractor and gig work slip outside the law.
Connections (4)
▸Child labor in mills and mines was largely outlawed in the US by Fair Labor Standards Act (minimum wage, child labor ban)Well documented
The connection
Around 1900 about 1.75 million American children aged 10 to 15 worked, many in mills and mines. Reformers, armed with Lewis Hine's photographs, won a 1916 federal ban, but the Supreme Court struck it down in 1918. The FLSA finally set 16 as the minimum age for most jobs and 18 for hazardous ones; the Court upheld it in 1941.
When and how
United States, 1904–1941: the National Child Labor Committee, photographer Lewis Hine, Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, and the Supreme Court in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918) and United States v. Darby (1941).
How we know
Census counts of working children, Hine's photographs, the statute's child-labor sections and the Darby ruling document the link.
Debates
Child labor was already falling thanks to school laws, higher wages and new machines, so how much the FLSA itself ended it is debated. Farm work stayed largely exempt.
▸The New Deal included Fair Labor Standards Act (minimum wage, child labor ban)Well documented
The connection
After his 1936 landslide, Roosevelt pushed for national wage and hour standards, the last major New Deal law. Southern Democrats resisted, fearing loss of their low-wage advantage, and won exemptions for farm and domestic work, jobs held by many Black workers. After a year of fights, Congress passed it in June 1938.
When and how
Washington, 1937–1938; Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, Senator Hugo Black, Representative Mary Norton, who steered it through the House, and President Roosevelt.
How we know
Legislative history, the law's text and exemptions, and the Supreme Court's 1941 ruling upholding it.
Debates
How far the exemptions were racially motivated versus driven by regional economics is debated; most historians see both at work.
▸Fair Labor Standards Act (minimum wage, child labor ban) excludes contractor drivers in Uber and the gig economyDebated
The connection
The FLSA's minimum wage and overtime rules protect employees, not independent contractors. Uber classifies drivers as contractors, so they get no guaranteed minimum wage, overtime or benefits, and Uber avoids payroll taxes. The Labor Department's test for who counts as an employee has flipped between administrations, in 2021, 2024 and again in 2025.
When and how
Federal courts and the Labor Department since about 2015; states fought too, as with California's AB5 law (2019) and Uber-backed Proposition 22 (2020), which exempted app drivers.
How sure are we?
Labor Department rules and court cases document the classification fight; the Supreme Court has never ruled on how the FLSA applies to app drivers.
Debates
Whether drivers are truly independent businesses or employees in disguise, and how to weigh surveys showing most value flexibility against low pay after costs.
▸British Factory Acts were echoed a century later by Fair Labor Standards Act (minimum wage, child labor ban)Mostly agreed
The connection
Britain's Factory Act of 1833 barred children under 9 from textile mills, limited older children's hours and created paid inspectors; the 1847 Ten Hours Act capped the workday for women and teenagers. About a century later the FLSA set similar federal floors in the US: a minimum working age, standard hours and enforcement by inspectors.
When and how
Britain, 1802–1878; American states from the 1830s, starting with Massachusetts; Washington, 1938. Reformers such as Florence Kelley studied British and European laws.
How sure are we?
The provisions run parallel and reformers cited British precedent, but direct borrowing is a matter of interpretation; Kelley translated Engels's book on English factory conditions.
Debates
Did US reformers copy British models or respond independently to the same industrial problems? Most historians see both; the century gap partly reflects US constitutional limits.