When Was the Fair Labor Standards Act Passed and Signed?

Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act on June 13, 1938, when the House approved the final conference version by a vote of 291 to 89. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law on June 25, 1938, and its wage, hour, and child labor rules took effect on October 24, 1938.¹²

The Three Dates That Matter in 1938

Three dates are commonly cited for the FLSA, and each marks a different step.

On May 24, 1938, the full House voted 314 to 97 to approve an earlier version of the bill after a discharge petition forced it out of committee. A House–Senate conference committee then reconciled the two chambers’ texts.¹

On June 13, 1938, the House adopted the conference report 291 to 89, clearing the final legislative hurdle.¹

On June 25, 1938, Roosevelt signed the bill, adding it to the United States Code as 29 U.S.C. Chapter 8.²

On October 24, 1938, enforcement began. The four-month delay gave employers time to adjust payroll systems and let the newly created Wage and Hour Division prepare federal inspectors. The Department of Labor still marks this date as the true start of federal oversight of industrial labor standards.³

Why Passage Took More Than a Year

Roosevelt first proposed federal wage-and-hour legislation in 1937, and the fight to move it through Congress became one of the bitterest of the New Deal era. Southern legislators opposed a uniform national wage floor because cheaper labor gave their region a competitive advantage over the industrial North. The House Labor Committee approved an early version, but the House Rules Committee bottled it up and kept it off the floor for months. Only a discharge petition broke the impasse.¹

The compromises that finally secured passage shaped what the law looked like when Roosevelt signed it. Regional pay differentials, broad exemptions for agricultural and domestic workers, and carve-outs for seasonal seafood work all bought votes from rural-district representatives. Millions of workers were left outside the new protections as a result.⁴

What the 1938 Law Required When It Took Effect

Minimum Wage

The original statute set a federal minimum wage of $0.25 per hour for workers engaged in interstate commerce or producing goods for interstate commerce. The rate was designed to rise in scheduled steps over the following years.⁵

Maximum Workweek

The maximum workweek started at 44 hours in 1938, with a scheduled reduction to 40 hours by 1940. Any hours beyond the cap triggered overtime pay.⁶

Child Labor

The act banned oppressive child labor in covered industries. Children under 16 could not work in manufacturing or mining, and workers had to be at least 18 to perform jobs the Secretary of Labor classified as particularly hazardous.⁷

Penalties

Willful violations carried a fine of up to $10,000, imprisonment for up to six months, or both, though imprisonment applied only after a prior conviction for the same type of offense.⁸

Who Was Left Out

Agricultural workers were excluded entirely, a carve-out that disproportionately affected Black workers in the South. Domestic service workers were also left out, along with seasonal employees in fishing and first processing of seafood. Executive, administrative, and professional employees were exempt on the theory that salaried white-collar workers did not need the same protections as hourly laborers.⁴

The Law Passed in 1938 Is Not the Law in Force Today

The 1938 dates identify when the FLSA became law, but the statute has been amended repeatedly since. Later Congresses closed some of the original gaps and changed the numbers.⁶

The 1947 Portal-to-Portal Act clarified that commuting and certain pre- and post-shift activities are not paid time, and it set a two-year statute of limitations for wage claims.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was folded into the FLSA at 29 U.S.C. § 206(d), prohibiting sex-based pay discrimination for equal work.⁹
The 1966 amendments brought in hospital and school employees and created the tip credit.
The 1974 amendments extended coverage to domestic service workers and most federal, state, and local government employees, closing two of the largest 1938 gaps.¹⁰
The federal minimum wage has moved from $0.25 in 1938 to $7.25, where it has stood since 2009.¹¹

The 40-hour workweek that arrived by 1940 has not moved since. The Wage and Hour Division created alongside the original law still administers the statute today.¹²

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: Maximum Struggle for a Minimum Wage
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC Ch. 8 – Fair Labor Standards
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Wage and Hour Division History
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 213 – Exemptions
5
U.S. Department of Labor. History of Federal Minimum Wage Rates Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
6
Congress.gov. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): An Overview
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43: Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Equal Pay Act of 1963, as Amended
10
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 552 – Application of the Fair Labor Standards Act to Domestic Service
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 206 – Minimum Wage
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 207 – Maximum Hours