A comparison of the child labor provisions with the so-called wage and hours provisions contained in the Act discloses some important distinctions which should be mentioned.

(a) The child labor provisions contain no requirements in regard to wages. The wage and hours provisions, on the other hand, provide for minimum rates of pay for straight time and overtime pay at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for overtime hours worked. Except as provided in certain exemptions contained in the Act, these rates are required to be paid all employees subject to the wage and hours provisions, regardless of their age or sex. The fact therefore, that the employment of a particular child is prohibited by the child labor provisions or that certain shipments or deliveries may be proscribed on account of such employment, does not relieve the employer of the duties imposed by the wage and hours provisions to compensate the child in accordance with those requirements.

(b) There are important differences between the child labor provisions and the wage and hours provisions with respect to their general coverage. As pointed out in § 570.114, two separate and basically different coverage provisions are contained in section 12 relating to child labor. One of these provisions (section 12(c)), which applies to the employment by an employer of oppressive child labor in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, is similar to the wage and hours coverage provisions, which include employees engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce or employed in enterprises having employees so engaged. The other provision (section 12(a)), however, differs fundamentally in its basic concepts of coverage from the wage and hours provisions, as will be explained in §§ 570.104 to 570.111.

(c) Another distinction is that the exemptions provided by the Act from the minimum wage and/or overtime provisions are more numerous and differ from the exemptions granted from the child labor provisions. There are only eight specific child labor exemptions of which only two apply to the minimum wage and overtime pay requirements as well. These are the exemptions for employees engaged in the delivery of newspapers to the consumer and homeworkers engaged in the making of wreaths composed principally of evergreens. 3 Apart from these two exceptions, none of the specific exemptions from the minimum wage and/or overtime pay requirements applies to the child labor provisions. However, it should be noted that the exclusion of certain employers by section 3(d) 4 of the Act applies to the child labor provisions as well as the wage and hours provisions.