The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is a federal statute that established a national minimum wage.
Wage Hour laws encompass far more information than just a hourly rate of pay. Many of us look at the minimum wage posters and never read the fine print.
The state and federal labor laws can cause confusion to legal laymen (even with DLSE employees) and this can lead to exploitation of low pay workers.
In some cases like mine (CA 12-91951 LM) that is the employers intent. As part of team resident apartment manager position I was paid solely in lodging credits against minimum wage. Due to my own lack of legal knowledge I accepted a job that technically paid me $0.00/hr and lined my ex-bosses pockets with cash and defrauded my family.
See: 26 U.S.C § 119, CA IWC Order 5-2001-10