A couple of recent threads involved minimum wage, and it reminded me of the fact that some workers are specifically exempted from earning minimum wage.
We know that tipped workers may be exempt from the federal minimum wage, given the expectation that they will receive tips that would generate earnings above the minimum wage.
However, I learned recently that workers employed as staff at summer camps or recreational establishments also are exempt from minimum wage laws as per this:
I found out about this because Kid Cheesesteak is employed at a non profit Scout Camp, and will make way less than minimum wage for the time he’s there. I’m OK with it in his situation since he’s A) having a great time, and B) growing tremendously as a person, the money is kind of a bonus. OTOH, he is absolutely working, being responsible for his role, responsible for the kids, from morning to evening 5.5 days a week.
Note that the recreational business exemption doesn’t seem to specify any alternate MW, or any earnings at all, it simply states that these businesses (even for profit businesses) just don’t have to pay MW to their seasonal workers.
Is there some sort of definable reason why these workers aren’t deserving of minimum wage protection? I get that the economics around camps and summertime amusements might change dramatically if staff were guaranteed minimum wage, but we accept that for other businesses.
He does get 3 squares a day and “lodging” for his time, another reason I’m OK with the arraignment, but the law doesn’t require any such benefits, it just says if you’re closed for 5 months out of the year, your workers don’t get MW protection, which I find curious at best.
In the U.S. there is federal versus state, each with potentially different exemptions and different rationales for those exemptions.
The Federal Labor Standards Act is technically an act of Congress exercising its power to regulate interstate commerce. For that reason, and partly for practical purposes, many kinds of small time operations that don’t involve interstate commerce or domestic services and don’t clear the given thresholds in net are exempt.
Many of the seasonal, informal, and irregular jobs like babysitters and camp counselors and certain seasonal agricultural workers are exempt. There is a practical aspect as noted and that’s a big part of it. Another is that we tend to be more lenient when it comes to giving kids a foot in the door. I’m sure you are well aware of the national conspiracy to turn a blind eye to lemonade stand tax evasion.
But remember the reality is that these exemptions are the results of a political process - not everybody supports having a minimum wage and even the supporters when these laws were passed in the '30s tended to be racist. It’s no coincidence that the initial exemptions tended to be for jobs typically held by people of color. Even today you would be surprised at the number of labor laws which explicitly exclude domestic services. When you see exemptions for seasonal farm workers, rest assured those are there primarily as a political concession to agricultural interests, and probably a healthy dose of lingering 20th century institutional racism as well.
I can see why this could be a factor, but from the OP it sounds like the minimum wage exemption being discussed here applies in situations where this is not the case.
I know babysitter is always included in these lists but it’s not necessarily for the same reason as the others. Only casual ( defined as “irregular or intermittent” ) babysitting is exempt and the law says
The rationale for this exclusion is that
such persons are usually not dependent upon the income from rendering such services for their livelihood.
But I’m sure a big part of it is also that intermittent babysitters often aren’t really employees and often set their own prices. .
I’ve looked up the law, and the exemptions to minimum wage apply to the following:
“Exempt” employees, salaried professionals and executives
Seasonal Amusement / Camp
Fishermen
Agricultural employees including
a) very small farms <500 man days of labor per year
b) family members
c) piece rate employees
d) range production of livestock (whatever that means)
criminal investigator (cops who get paid availability pay)
computer professional (I presume similar to the first set of professionals)
Most of these make sense as they’re salaried professionals, fishermen who spend perhaps weeks on a ship, family members on the farm, piece work employees, or well paid police or computer pros. I assume the ‘range’ people are home on the range for extended periods.
Casual work seems to be a callous dismissal of the value of labor perceived as “women’s work”.
Curious exclusions in my mind are the employees of camps/amusements, small farms, small newspapers, and small phone companies. Seems like the last three are intended to prop up economically fragile businesses that are seen as important to society.
I suppose that’s also true for camps, they couldn’t survive paying minimum wage for all their employees, at least not at anything resembling the same cost to parents.
Minimum wage doesn’t really make sense for jobs that are paid by the job rather than by the hour, like someone who agrees to mow a lawn or paint a house for $X, regardless of how long it takes for them to do so.
Some of those jobs, like camp counselors, babysitters, and elder companions, include (but are not necessarily limited to) jobs that blur the line between hours present and hours worked, or between being paid by the hour vs by the job. A live-in companion or camp counselor may be required to be present 24 hours a day, but it doesn’t follow that they are doing, or should expect to be paid minimum wage for, 24 hours worth of work.
It’s not like the employees in these situations are forced into servitude for wages they don’t want to work for. The market also dictates what should be paid, with the big criteria being the availability of supply of labor.
Everywhere I’ve lived, babysitters generally make well above minimum wage on an hourly basis. My daughter generally makes $20/hour for babysitting, primarily because there is a lack of good quality child care from people that can drive to your home and watch your kids.
Given where unemployment rates are in the US, I would expect that many exempt jobs still have to pay more than minimum wage to get labor.
I’m sure that during periods of high unemployment, exempt jobs may be able to attract labor for less than the minimum wage. But it’s still up to the individual to accept a job at that rate.
It turns out that FDR was a MAJOR proponent of the Boy Scouts, and was instrumental in their purchase of the very scout camp where Kid Cheesesteak is employed.
It’s certainly possible that his personal interest in expanding the availability of summer camp played a part in making sure those camps remained economically viable.
I worked at a YWCA camp one summer and we were forbidden from taking tips.
It was actually a pretty exploitative arrangement: I had to run the camp store, teach a writing class, operate the old-fashioned switchboard, put out a weekly newsletter, and serve as a member of the church service planning committee. All for the princely sum, if I recall correctly, of $600 for 10 weeks, with one day off every other week, working out to about $1.15/hour, which even in 1977 was pretty awful pay. (And yes we got room and board, but that meant your own sleeping bag in a tent with 3-5 other people and a very limited, regimented menu.)
(Have deleted a couple of paragraphs further detailing the situation, because while it illuminates the fact that summer camp pay can be grossly unfair, I guess it would be a hijack. Bah!)