If defendant had paid plaintiffs time and one-half on 92% cents an hour for hours worked over 40 a week, he would have paid $1.3875 an hour for approximately 44 hours per man per week for work for which he received from the War Shipping Administration only $1.05 an hour; stated another way, defendant would have paid each plaintiff a total of $98.05 for the usual 84-hour workweek, although defendant received only $88.20 per man from the War Shipping Administration for such workweek. It was, of course, beyond the power of defendant to himself change the amount paid him by the government agency. Shortly prior to July 15, 1944, defendant was informed by a representative of the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor that that agency had reached the view that defendant “was engaged in interstate commerce, and was bound by the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act to pay his employees one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of forty per week.” He was advised by letter, according to defendant’s testimony, that “they figured, in going over the accounts of the claims that had been made, that I owed close to $3,000 overtime, but inasmuch as I had been able to collect only $1.05, that I was being exon*441erated from having to pay that . . . They told me they gave until July 15th to make arrangements whereby I could pay overtime . . . He said that the current rate would have to be set, whereby I would pay overtime, if I wished to stay in business . . . They told me I would have to change; . . . that I would have to pay time and a half for overtime, even if it meant lowering my basic rate. That is where I got the idea in the first place to stay in business.” (Italics added.) Defendant also testified that “As I was only able to collect $1.05, I had been exonerated from paying any penalty” for failure to pay time and a half on 92% cents an hour prior to July 16, 1944. He testified further that it was necessary that the men work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, because of the shortage of labor and the necessity of covering all the ships in port, and that “If we could have given them a day off, we could have paid a higher rate of wage.” Defendant does not dispute the labor department’s ruling that subsequent to July 16, 1944, he was bound by law to pay one and one-half times the basic rate for overtime.