Opinion ID: 2608724
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the background of the flsa and the alaska act

Text: Before undertaking an analysis of the preemption issue, it is necessary to set forth some background information regarding the FLSA and the Alaska Act. The FLSA, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 201-219, sets forth the national minimum wage, the maximum workweek and rules concerning child labor. The congressional findings and declaration of policy in the act are as follows: (a) The Congress finds that the existence, in industries engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, of labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers (1) causes commerce and the channels and instrumentalities of commerce to be used to spread and perpetuate such labor conditions among the workers of the several States; (2) burdens commerce and the free flow of goods in commerce; (3) constitutes an unfair method of competition in commerce; (4) leads to labor disputes burdening and obstructing commerce and the free flow of goods in commerce; and (5) interferes with the orderly and fair marketing of goods in commerce. That Congress further finds that the employment of persons in domestic service in households affects commerce. (b) It is declared to be the policy of this chapter, through the exercise by Congress of its power to regulate commerce among the several States and with foreign nations, to correct and as rapidly as practicable to eliminate the conditions above referred to in such industries without substantially curtailing employment or earning power. 29 U.S.C.A. § 202 (West 1978). A recent law review gave the following factual background on the FLSA: The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) was the original anti-poverty law, enacted by Congress as the country was struggling out of throes of the Great Depression. To stimulate the devastated economy, wage and hour controls were placed upon employment of the nation's work force, resulting in a minimum wage floor and a maximum hours limitation on the workweek. The premise that the FLSA's main thrust was directed at alleviating the Depression's destitution of the nation's workers was reiterated as recently as 1966. During deliberations on the proposed 1966 amendments to the FLSA, the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare commented: The Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted in 1938 to meet the economic and social problems of that era. Low wages, long working hours and high unemployment plagued the Nation, which was then in the midst of an unprecedented depression. The policy of the act, as set forth therein, was to correct and as rapidly as practicable to eliminate labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency and general well-being of workers. [4] The most important amendment to the FLSA and the one central to this appeal is the Portal-to-Portal Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 251-262. The United States Supreme Court's decision in Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 328 U.S. 680, 66 S.Ct. 1187, 90 L.Ed. 1515, reh. denied, 329 U.S. 822, 67 S.Ct. 25, 91 L.Ed. 699 (1946) held that employers were liable for pay to employees not only for customary work hours but also for time spent on the employer's premises getting to and from work. Large numbers of suits were instituted, with potential liability in the billions. Finding this enormous potential liability to be a threat to the national economy, Congress in 1947 passed the Portal-to-Portal Act extinguishing any right to such pay. [5] This act also changed certain procedures as to claims under the FLSA, creating a national statute of limitations, establishing a good faith defense of reliance on prior regulations, and making the liquidated damages discretionary in the absence of bad faith. [6] The Alaska Act, AS 23.10.050-.150, enacted in 1959 (ch. 171 SLA 1959), has similar purposes to the federal act and is based upon it. McGinnis v. Stevens, 543 P.2d 1221, 1238-39 (Alaska 1975), appeal after remand, 570 P.2d 735 (Alaska 1977). AS 23.10.050 provides: It is the public policy of the state to (1) establish minimum wage and overtime compensation standards for workers at levels consistent with their health, efficiency and general well-being, and (2) safeguard existing minimum wage and overtime compensation standards which are adequate to maintain the health, efficiency and general well-being of workers against the unfair competition of wage and hour standards which do not provide adequate standards of living. The distinctive provisions of the Alaska Act which are important to the present case are: (1) the Alaska Act provides for fifty cents higher minimum wage than the federal minimum; [7] (2) the Alaska Act provides for payment of one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for any hours worked in excess of forty hours per week or eight hours per day [8] while the FLSA requires such payment only for hours worked in excess of forty hours per week; [9] (3) the Alaska Act contains no good faith exception to the mandatory award of liquidated damages, [10] whereas the FLSA provides that such an award is discretionary if the employer acted in good faith; [11] (4) under Alaska procedure the Alaska Act would be enforced by opt-out class actions [12] while the FLSA allows only opt-in class actions. [13] Additionally, the Alaska Act applies to both employees covered by the FLSA and those who are, because of insufficient connections to interstate commerce, exempt from the FLSA. [14] The above discussion demonstrates that the FLSA and the Alaska Act were both enacted for the same purposes: i.e., to establish minimum wage, maximum workweek, and overtime compensation standards which are adequate to maintain the health, efficiency and general well-being of workers. Even though it can be said that the Alaska Act supplements the FLSA because they have similar purposes, the Alaska Act may nevertheless be preempted by the FLSA to the extent that it frustrates the purpose of the FLSA. [15] Consequently, we turn to the question of whether the Alaska Act is preempted by the FLSA.