Movie theaters do have a labor costs advantage... >Currently, lower-level movie theater employees lack mandated overtime in 28 states. Theater chains nabbed th

Movie theaters do have a labor costs advantage... >Currently, lower-level movie theater employees lack mandated overtime in 28 states. Theater chains nabbed their Fair Labor Standards Act amendment in 1967 to exempt “any employee employed by an establishment which is a motion picture theater” from both minimum wage and overtime. The rationale for the exemption at the time was that theaters could not afford the labor costs because of low profit margins, poor box office and rising costs. While the minimum-wage exemption was removed in 1974, the overtime exemption has remained, to the puzzlement of labor experts.