§776.9. General scope of “in commerce” coverage. — Inbound Citations

(a) Under the principles stated in § 776.9, the wage and hours provisions of the Act apply typically, but not exclusively, to employees such, as those in the telephone, 29 telegraph, 30 television, radio, 31 transportation and shipping 32 industries, since these industries serve as the actual instrumentalities and channels of interstate and foreign commerce. Similarly, employees of such businesses as banking, insurance, newspaper publishing, 33 and others which regularly utilize the channels of interstate and foreign commerce in the course of their operations, are generally covered by the Act.

(a) Another large category of employees covered as “engaged in commerce” is comprised of employees performing the work involved in the maintenance, repair, or improvement of existing instrumentalities of commerce. (See the cases cited in footnote 28 to § 776.9. See also the discussion of coverage of employees engaged in building and construction work, in subpart B of this part.) Typical illustrations of instrumentalities of commerce include railroads, highways, city streets, pipe lines, telephone lines, electrical transmission lines, rivers, streams, or other waterways over which interstate or foreign commerce more or less regularly moves; airports; railroad, bus, truck, or steamship terminals; telephone exchanges, radio and television stations, post offices and express offices; bridges and ferries carrying traffic moving in interstate or foreign commerce (even though within a single State); bays, harbors, piers, wharves and docks used for shipping between a State and points outside; dams, dikes, revetments and levees which directly facilitate the uninterrupted movement of commerce by enhancing or improving the usefulness of waterways, railways, and highways through control of water depth, channels or flow in streams or through control of flood waters; warehouses or distribution depots devoted to the receipt and shipment of goods in interstate or foreign commerce; ships, vehicles, and aircraft regularly used in transportation of persons or goods in commerce; and similar fixed or movable facilities on which the flow of interstate and foreign commerce depends.