U.S. Department of Labor
Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor
Individual Coverage
Individual coverage depends on the nature of your work. An employee is covered on an individual basis in every workweek in which he or she performs any work constituting engagement in interstate or foreign commerce, or the production of goods for interstate or foreign commerce, including any closely related process or occupation directly essential to such production. The terms in italics will be defined later in this section.
The workweek is the standard used when determining if the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) applies. An employee may be individually covered in one workweek and not covered in the following workweek. Also, some employees of an employer may be individually covered by the FLSA, and others not.
Section 12(a) of the FLSA covers youth employed in or about an establishment in which goods are produced for commerce. Under this provision, the youth does not have to be personally engaged in the production of goods for interstate commerce to be protected by the child labor provisions of the FLSA. As long as somewhere in or about the establishment where the youth is employed, or within 30 days of the youth's employment, goods are produced and removed for shipment in commerce, the youth is protected by the child labor provisions of the FLSA. Use the FLSA Child Labor Rules Advisor to find more information on the child labor provisions of the FLSA.
