Hour Wage Child Labor Overtime 

Recordkeeping Davis-Bacon Act 

Labor Law Enforcement Hours 

Worked Last Paycheck 

Minimum Wage Prevailing 

Wages Construction Workers 

Family Leave Service Contract 

Act Government Contracts 

Farm Labor Wage Child Labor 

Overtime Recordkeeping 

Davis-Bacon Act Labor Law 

Enforcement Hours Worked 

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Wage and Hour

U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour 

Division (WHD) is responsible for administering and 

enforcing some of the nation’s most comprehensive 

federal labor laws. Collectively, these laws cover most 

private, state, and local government employment 

throughout the United States and its territories. 

These labor laws range from some of the first labor 

protections passed by Congress to some of the most 

recent. WHD has over 200 district, field, and area offices 

across the country with trained personnel available to 

assist workers. WHD administers and enforces the law 

regardless of immigration status. Many states also have 

similar labor law protections. Employers must comply 

with both federal and state law. 
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

The FLSA establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, 

recordkeeping, and child labor standards affecting most 

full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and 

in Federal, State, and local governments.

» Minimum Wage: Generally, employers must pay 

most employees the federal minimum wage for all 

hours worked. 

» Overtime: Overtime pay must be at a rate of one 

and one-half times the regular rate of pay for all 

hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

» Hours Worked: Hours worked generally include all 

the time during which an employee is required to 

be on duty, or on the employer’s premises, or at any 

prescribed place of work. 

» Recordkeeping: Employers must keep employee time 

and payroll records. 

» Poster: Employers must also display an official 

poster outlining the requirements of the FLSA.

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WAGES
Child Labor

Federal child labor laws were enacted to ensure that 

when young people work, the work is safe and does 

not jeopardize their health, well-being or educational 

opportunities. (These provisions also provide limited 

exemptions.)

Employment of Minors in Non-agricultural Jobs:

» Youths 18 and older can perform any job, whether 

hazardous or not, for unlimited hours

» Youths 16 and 17 years old may perform any 

non-hazardous job for unlimited hours

» Youths 14 and 15 years old may work outside 

school hours in any non-hazardous jobs for: 

- No more than 3 hours on a school day, 18 hours 

in a school week

- 8 hours on a non-school day, or 40 hours in a 

non-school week

- Work may not begin before 7 a.m., or end after 

7 p.m., except from June 1 through Labor Day, 

when evening hours are extended to 9 p.m. 

Fourteen is the minimum age for most non-farm work. 

However, at any age, minors may deliver newspapers; 

perform in radio, television, movie, or theatrical 

productions; work for parents in their solely owned 

non-farm business (except in manufacturing or on 

hazardous jobs); or gather evergreens and make 

evergreen wreaths.

Regulations governing child labor in farm jobs differ 

somewhat from those pertaining to non-agricultural jobs.

Child Labor
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

Covered employers must grant eligible employees up 

to a total of 12 workweeks of job-protected, unpaid 

leave during any 12-month period for one or more of 

the following reasons:

» the birth and care of the newborn child of the 

employee; 

» the placement with the employee of a son or 

daughter for adoption or foster care; 

» to care for an immediate family member (spouse, 

child, or parent) with a serious health condition;

» to take medical leave when the employee is unable 

to work because of a serious health condition. 

» In addition, eligible employees of covered employers 

are allowed to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected 

leave in the applicable 12-month period to address 

certain qualifying exigencies arising out of the fact 

that the eligible employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent, the covered military member, is on 

active duty, or has been notified of an impending 

call or order to active duty, in the National Guard 

or Reserves, in support of a contingency operation. 

The amendments also allow eligible employees to 

take up to 26 weeks of job-protected leave during a 

single 12-month period to care for a covered service 

member with a serious injury or illness incurred in 

the line of duty on active duty. 

Family 

and Medical 

Leave Act
The Davis-Bacon and Related Acts (DBRA)

apply to contractors and subcontractors performing 

on federally funded or assisted contracts in excess 

of $2,000 for the construction, alteration, or repair 

(including painting and decorating) of public buildings 

or public works. The contractors or subcontractors must 

pay their laborers and mechanics employed under the 

contract no less than the locally prevailing wages and 

fringe benefits for corresponding work on similar projects 

in the area. 

The McNamara-O-Hara Service Contract Act 

(SCA) requires contractors and subcontractors 

performing services under prime contracts in 

excess of $2,500 to pay service employees in various 

classes no less than the wage rates and fringe benefits 

found prevailing in the locality, or the rates (including 

prospective increases) contained in a predecessor 

contractor’s collective bargaining agreement. This Act 

applies only to contracts for services awarded by the 

federal or District of Columbia governments. 

Government

Contracts
Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)

Prohibits most private employers from using lie detector 

tests, either for pre-employment screening or during the 

course of employment. Employers generally may not 

require or request any employee or job applicant to take 

a lie detector test, or discharge, discipline, or discriminate 

against an employee or job applicant for refusing to take 

a test or for exercising other rights under the Act. Subject 

to restrictions, the Act permits polygraph (a type of lie 

detector) tests to be administered to certain job applicants 

of security service firms (armored car, alarm, and guard) 

and of pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors and 

dispensers. Subject to restrictions, the Act also permits 

polygraph testing of certain employees of private 

firms who are reasonably suspected of involvement 

in a workplace incident (theft, embezzlement, etc.) 

that resulted in specific economic loss or injury to 

the employer.

Lie Detector 

Tests
Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA)

The wage garnishment provisions of the CCPA protect 

employees from discharge by their employers because 

their wages have been garnished for any one debt, 

and limits the amount of an employee’s earnings 

that may be garnished in any one week. CCPA also 

applies to all employers and individuals who receive 

earnings for personal services (including wages, salaries, 

commissions, bonuses and income from a pension or 

retirement program, but ordinarily not including tips).

WAGE

Garnishments
Agricultural Employment

There are many acts that the Wage and Hour Division 

administers and enforces to help protect different types 

of agricultural workers. 

The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Protection 

Act (MSPA) – protects migrant and seasonal agricultural 

workers by establishing employment standards related 

to wages, housing, transportation, disclosures, and 

recordkeeping. MSPA also requires farm labor contractors 

to register with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) 

and obtain a certificate of registration. A farm labor 

contractor must be specifically authorized to provide 

housing or transportation to migrant or seasonal workers 

prior to providing the housing and transportation. Persons 

employed by farm labor contractors to perform farm labor 

contracting activities also must register with DOL. 

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Agricultur

al 

Employment
The Field Sanitation Provisions of the Occupational 

Safety and Health Act (OSHAct) – were enacted to 

assure safe and healthful working conditions for working 

men and women. The Occupational Safety and Health 

Administration issued regulations establishing minimum 

standards for field sanitation in covered agricultural 

settings. These standards required covered employers to 

provide toilets, potable water, hand-washing facilities, 

and information regarding good hygiene practices.

The H-2A Visa program – establishes standards related 

to hiring employees, wages, housing, transportation, 

and recordkeeping for employers of temporary, nonimmigrant agricultural workers. The employer must file

 an application with the U.S. Department of Labor’s 

Employment and Training Administration, stating, among 

other things, that there are not sufficient workers who 

are able, willing, qualified, and available, and that the 

employment of aliens will not adversely affect the wages 

and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers. Any employer using H-2A workers must have initially 

attempted to find U.S. workers to fill these jobs. H-2A 

workers and U.S. workers in corresponding 

employment must be paid special rates of pay that vary 

by locality, provided housing and transportation from 

that housing to the job site if their employment requires 

them to be away from their residence overnight, and 

guaranteed employment for at least 3⁄4 of the work 

period specified in the contract. 

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Agricultur

al 

Employment 

(continued)
Immigration

WHD is responsible for administering and enforcing 

various worker protection provisions of the Immigration 

and Nationality Act that extend protections to different 

types of nonimmigrant workers. This includes the H-1B 

program, which allows an employer to temporarily employ 

a foreign worker in the U.S. on a nonimmigrant basis in a 

specialty occupation or as a fashion model of distinguish 

merit and ability. A specialty occupation requires the 

theoretical and practical application of a body of 

specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or the 

equivalent in the specific specialty (e.g., sciences, medicine 

and health care, education, and business specialties, etc). 

Employers must file a Labor Condition Application (LCA) 

Immigration

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Immigration

(continued)

with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and 

Training Administration and attest that they will pay the 

nonimmigrant the greater of the actual wage paid to 

similarly employed employees or the prevailing wage for 

that occupation; will provide working conditions that do 

not adversely affect similarly employed employees; and 

that there is no strike or lockout in the job occupation. 

The employer must also provide a copy of the LCA to the 

representative of the bargaining unit or if there is no 

bargaining unit post the LCA in two conspicuous locations 

at the worksite. 

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Mission

“To promote and achieve compliance with labor 

standards to protect and enhance the welfare 

of the Nation’s workforce.”
For assistance contact us at 

1-866-4-USWAGE 

(1-866-487-9243)

TTY: 1-877-889-5627 

www.wagehour.dol.gov

WH-1489