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S. 1725

SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 2

Amends sections 3(d) and 3(e) of the Fair Labor Standards Act to include under the definitions of "employer" and "employee" the United States and any state or political subdivision of a state. This would extend minimum wage coverage to an estimated 4.9 million federal, state and local government employees (1.7 million federal, 3.2 million state and local government). Military personnel, professional, executive and administrative personnel, employees in non-competitive positions, and volunteer-type employees, such as Peace Corps and VISTA, would not be included in the extension of coverage. The extension of coverage would be limited to minimum wage; existing overtime coverage under the Act would not be changed.

SECTION 3

Amends section 6(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act to raise the minimum wage for non-agricultural employees to $2.30 an hour in five steps over a four-year period. The minimum wage would be raised to $1.80 an hour on the effective date of these amendments (60 days after enactment); to $2.00 an hour one year later; to $2.10 two years after the effective date; to $2.20 three years after the effective date; and to $2.30 four years after the effective date. These increases would apply equally to all non-agricultural employees within the coverage of the Act, regardless of when they were first covered.

Amends section 6(a) (5) of the Act to raise the minimum wage for agricultural employees to $1.50 an hour during the first year after the effective date of these amendments, $1.70 an hour during the second year, and $1.90 an hour thereafter.

SECTION 4

Amends section 6(a) of the Fair Labor Standards Act to retain the present minimum wage of $1.60 an hour for employees in the Canal Zone.

SECTION 5

Amends section 6(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act to raise the minimum wage in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands by three 1212 percent increases over the most recent wage order rate, the first increase to be effective either 60 days after enactment of the bill or one year after the effective date of the most recent wage order, whichever is later. The second increase would be effective one year after the first; the third increase would be effective one year after the second.

SECTION 6

Amends section 12 of the Fair Labor Standards Act to authorize the Secretary of Labor to require employers to obtain proof of age from any employee. This would facilitate enforcement of the child labor provisions of the Act.

SECTION 7

Amends section 13 (c) (1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which relates to child labor in agriculture, to prohibit employment of children under 12 except on farms owned or operated by parents; and to prohibit employment of children aged 12 and 13 except with written consent of their parents, or on farms where their parents are employed. Amends section 13 (d) of the Act to extend the existing child labor exemption for newsboys delivering daily newspapers, to newsboys delivering advertising materials published by weekly and semi-weekly

newspapers.

SECTION 8

Amends section 14(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act to establish a special minimum wage rate for youth under 18 and full-time students of 85 percent of the applicable minimum wage or $1.60 an hour ($1.30 an hour for agricultural employment), whichever is higher. The special minimum wage for the same employees in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa would be 85 percent of the industry wage order rate applicable to them, but not less than the rate in effect immediately prior to the effective date of the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1973.

Non-students under 18 would qualify for the "youth differential" rate only during their first 6 months of employment on a job. Fulltime students would qualify for the differential rate (a) while employed at the educational institution they are attending; or (b) while employed part-time (not in excess of 20 hours per week) at any job. The existing requirement in the Act that employers receive Labor Department certification prior to employment of youth at the special minimum rate would be removed. The Secretary of Labor would be required to issue regulations insuring against displacement of adult workers. Employers violating the terms of the youth differential provision would be subject to existing civil and criminal penalty provisions of the Act.

SECTION 9

Amends section 16 of the Fair Labor Standards Act to provide for a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for each violation of the child labor provisions of section 12 of the Act.

SECTION 10

Amends section 16(c) to allow the Secretary of Labor to bring suit to recover unpaid minimum wages or overtime compensation and an equal amount of liquidated damages without requiring a written request from an employee. In addition, this amendment would allow the

Secretary to bring such actions even though the suit might involve issues of law that have not been finally settled by the courts.

SECTION 11

Amends the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (P.L. 90-202) to extend its coverage to federal, state and local government employees.

SECTION 12

Requires the Secretary of Labor to undertake a comprehensive review of the minimum wage and overtime exemptions under section 13 of the Fair Labor Standards Act and to submit to Congress within three years a report containing recommendations as to whether each exemption should be continued, removed or modified.

SECTION 13

Technical amendments.

SECTION 14

Provides that the amendments made by this Act would become effective sixty days after enactment, and authorizes Secretary of Labor to promulgate regulations necessary to carry out such amendments.

90-988 O 73-7

CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

In compliance with subsection (4) of rule XXIX of the Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law are shown as follows. (existing law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets, new matter is printed in italic, existing law in which no change is proposed is shown in roman):

FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT AS AMENDED

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938."

FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF POLICY

SEC. 2. (a) The Congress hereby 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 wellbeing 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.

(b) It is hereby declared to be the policy of this Act, 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.

DEFINITIONS

SEC. 3. As used in this Act

(a) "Person" means an individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, legal representative, or any organized group of persons.

(b) "Commerce" means trade, commerce, transportation, transmission, or communication among the several States or between any State and any place outside thereof.

(c) "State" means any State of the United States or the District of Columbia or any Territory or possession of the United States.

(d) "Employer" includes any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an [employee but shall not include] employee, including the United States [or] and any State or

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