The Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") is a federal law that sets out standards regarding the minimum wage, overtime pay, child labor standards and record keeping relating to full‑time and part‑time workers. FLSA standards apply to employees in the private workforce and in federal, state, and local governments. Under the FLSA employees are currently entitled to at least $6.55 an hour, and this will increase to $7.25 by July 2009. Additionally, overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in one workweek must be at least one and one half times an employee's regular rate of pay. The FLSA provides protections for fourteen to seventeen year-old workers and limits the types of jobs that youth under the age of eighteen can do. The FLSA also requires that employers keep accurate records of hours worked and wages paid to employees. Overtime violations occur frequently and employers often come up with creative and complicated methods of paying employees to confuse their employees and avoid paying overtime, including misclassifying employees as independent contractors, or as administrative, professional, or executive employees.

The FLSA also contains an anti-retaliation provision, which makes it unlawful for an employer “to discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any employee because such employee has filed any complaint or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this chapter, or has testified or is about to testify in any such proceeding, or has served or is about to serve on an industry committee.” What kind of activity falls within the scope of the anti-retaliation provision is unsettled in Texas. At least one federal court sitting in Texas has ruled that an internal complaint to one’s supervisor did not fall within the scope of the statute, but many other courts located in Texas have held otherwise. Whether certain conduct is covered by the anti-retaliation provision of the FLSA depends on a number of factors, including the state of the law at the time of the conduct.