Section 18 provides, in part, that “no provision of this act relating to the employment of child labor shall justify noncompliance with any Federal or State law or municipal ordinance establishing a higher standard than the standard established under this act.” The child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, as amended, must be complied with as to the employment of minors within their general coverage and not excepted from their operation by special provision of the act itself regardless of any State, local, or other Federal law that may be applicable to the same employment. Furthermore, any administrative action pursuant to other laws, such as the issuance of a work permit to a minor or the referral by an employment agency of a minor to an employer does not necessarily relieve a person of liability under this act. Where such other legislation is applicable and does not contravene the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, however, nothing in the act, the regulations or the interpretations announced by the Secretary should be taken to override or nullify the provisions of these laws. Although compliance with other applicable legislation does not constitute compliance with the act unless the requirements of the act are thereby met, compliance with the act, on the other hand, does not relieve any person of liability under other laws that establish higher child labor standards than those prescribed by or pursuant to the act. Moreover, such laws, if at all applicable, continue to apply to the employment of all minors who either are not within the general coverage of the child labor provisions of the act or who are specifically excepted from their requirements.
[16 FR 7008, July 20, 1951. Redesignated at 28 FR 1634, Feb. 21, 1963, and further redesignated and amended at 36 FR 25156, Dec. 29, 1971. Redesignated at 75 FR 28459, May 20, 2010]