[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 3]
[Revised as of July 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR783.42]

[Page 659-660]
 
                             TITLE 29--LABOR
 
         CHAPTER V--WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
 
PART 783_APPLICATION OF THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT TO EMPLOYEES EMPLOYED 
AS SEAMEN--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 783.42  Vessels neither ``documented'' nor ``numbered''.

    An ``American vessel'' on which employment as a seaman is subject to 
the minimum wage under the provisions of section 6(b)(2) and section 
13(a)(14) is not limited by the language of the Act

[[Page 660]]

to those vessels which are ``documented'' or ``numbered'' as described 
above in Sec. Sec. 783.40 and 783.41. Since the term ``American 
vessel'' has traditionally been applied to regularly documented vessels 
(see U.S. v. Rogers, 27 Fed. Cas. 890; Badger v. Entierrez, 111 U.S. 
734; 18 Op. A.G. 234 (1885); 48 Am. Jur. 40), the inclusion of numbered 
vessels in the statutory definition of ``American vessel'' would 
indicate that the work ``includes'' is used in the sense of 
``embracing'', as an enlargement and not as a word of limitation. The 
term may therefore apply to other vessels that do not fall within the 
illustrations given. For example, neither the documenting laws nor the 
numbering laws apply to vessels plying the purely internal waters of a 
State which do not join up with navigable waters touching on another 
State (19 CFR 3.5(a)(4); 33 CFR 2.10-5), but, nevertheless, the Fair 
Labor Standards Act does apply in those areas and it clearly would not 
comport with the remedial purpose of the Act to exclude from its minimum 
wage provisions seamen engaged in commerce or in the production of goods 
for commerce in those areas though the vessels are not documented or 
numbered. On the contrary, the legislative history shows the affirmative 
purpose to improve, though to a limited extent, the status of seamen 
(Sen. Rep. No. 145, 87th Cong., 1st sess., p. 32, 50).

                     Computation of Wages and Hours