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The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage.

The Department of Labor states:

Under the FLSA, employees may not volunteer services to for-profit private sector employers.

https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/docs/volunteers.asp

Stack Exchange is a for-profit private sector employer.

Is it legal for Stack Exchange to not pay moderators minimum wage?

davidjhp
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  • I think the question would be whether moderation is a "service" to Stack Exchange. It's true that it does provide some benefit to the company, but for that matter so does posting questions and answers. Would it then follow that everyone who posts on SE should get paid? Surely not, but I don't know where or how that line is drawn. – Nate Eldredge Oct 20 '19 at 16:50

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Being a moderator does not make you an employee of stackexchange. There is no employee-employer relationship, as such, laws governing those relationships don't apply.

What constitutes an employee-employer relationship?

This can be difficult to answer. This question has been raised recently because of Uber. Uber drivers were suing uber for workers' rights violations, asserting that as drivers they were employees of uber, and demanded the same rights as workers everywhere.

Uber contested this, stating that the drivers were not employees, but users of the Uber app, and that technically all "drivers" were really carpoolers, and Uber offered a service to these carpoolers to find others to ride share with. As such Uber was selling a service to these drivers rather than hiring them.

I cannot remember the case name, but in the UK I believe it was held that certain factors determine if there is an employee-employer relationship, including: whether there was any remuneration for the work, what kind of remuneration was there, did one or both parties consider their relationship as employee-employer, was there any oral or written agreement purporting to be an employment contract, etc.

Shazamo Morebucks
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    The Department of Labor states that under the FLSA, people may not volunteer services to for-profit private sector employers. Is this not correct? https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/docs/volunteers.asp – davidjhp Oct 20 '19 at 16:22
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_BV_v_Aslam – richardb Oct 20 '19 at 16:44
  • @davidjhp may not volunteer to do work for which they're already employed. – mkennedy Oct 20 '19 at 21:24
  • @mkennedy "Under the FLSA, employees may not volunteer services to for-profit private sector employers. " Nothing about volunteering where you already work, just no volunteering for a non-governmental for profit. Period. – George White Oct 20 '19 at 23:17