The FLSA Employment Law and Its Application in the Workplace Research

The FLSA Employment Law and Its Application in the Workplace
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The FLSA Employment Law and Its Application in the Workplace
Employment laws are significant since they set proper standards that cultivate a good relationship between employers and employees. Without these regulations, there exists no mutual benefit between firm owners and workers. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) refers to the United States of America (USA) law that protects employees against unfair treatment in the workplace or poor pay practices. In particular, it establishes various labor regulations to ensure that workers are benefiting from the services they provide. The FLSA was implemented in 1938 and has undergone numerous critical changes so that it can include different upcoming things. Besides, the business and employment sector is highly dynamic, and that is the reason why the law ought to be modified to address arising issues. The paper elaborates on the importance of FLSA by using two cases, namely Longcrier v. HL-A Co., Inc. and Fair v. Communications Unlimited, Inc. 
The FLSA covers numerous things, but the primary ones are child labor standards, minimum wages, recordkeeping, and overtime pay eligibility. These are the core factors where employees might disagree with their employers. For instance, many business owners want to maximize their profits, which sometimes means reducing the firm’s expenses. That way, they might decrease workers’ pay or make them work overtime without pay. Other employers might pay their employees below the minimum wages or hire children who are not aware of the correct pay they should get from the services they offer. The FLSA covers workers in the private or public sector. The federal government has set the minimum wage to be $7.25 per hour (U.S. Department of Labor, 2020). As such, the FLSA requires employers to pay their workers above the set federal or state minimum wage. Based on this employment law, employees should work for a maximum of 40 hours per workweek. If they offer their services above that hourly limit, they should be paid 1.5 times of the pay per hour. However, the FLSA does not require employers to pay their workers during holidays, weekends, or regular resting days. Additionally, the FLSA child labor section safeguards minors’ educational opportunities by prohibiting business owners from hiring them in jobs that are detrimental to their well-being or health.
The Longcrier v. HL-A Co., Inc. case is an excellent example of how the FLSA should be applied to protect employees’ rights. Indeed, it involves six plaintiffs who brought claims against HL-A Co. Inc. The defendant allegedly violated the FLSA requirement for nonexempt workers who were employed in various capacities of its automobile parts manufacturing plant located in Selma, Alabama. Notably, nonexempt employees mean those who are earning the federal minimum wages and are subject to overtime pay. According to the Amended Complaint, the three primary FLSA regulations that HL-A had violated include the failure to pay plaintiffs overtime, adopting a round policy that favored the company by oppressing workers, and scheduled overtime wor...