The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is a federal law that sets standards for minimum wage, overtime pay, and child labor in the United States. It was enacted during the Great Depression in an effort to improve working conditions and wages for American workers, and it has had a significant impact on the way wages and employment are regulated in the country.
Before the FLSA, many workers were subject to long hours, low wages, and hazardous working conditions. There were no federal laws that set minimum wages or regulated child labor, and workers had little recourse if they were mistreated by their employers. The FLSA changed this by establishing minimum wages and overtime pay for certain types of workers, and by prohibiting the employment of children under the age of 16 in certain occupations.
The FLSA established the first federal minimum wage of 25 cents per hour. This was a significant increase for many workers, who had previously earned as little as a few cents per hour. The act also required employers to pay time and a half for any hours worked over 40 hours per week, which helped to prevent workers from being overworked and underpaid.
The FLSA also had a major impact on child labor in the United States. Before the act was passed, children as young as six years old were often employed in factories and mines, where they were subject to hazardous working conditions and low wages. The FLSA prohibited the employment of children under the age of 16 in certain occupations, such as manufacturing and mining, and it also established strict regulations on the hours and conditions under which children could be employed.
The FLSA has been amended several times since it was first passed, and it now covers most workers in the United States. It has helped to improve working conditions and wages for millions of workers, and it has had a lasting impact on the way labor is regulated in the country. While there have been some criticisms of the act, it remains an important piece of legislation that has helped to ensure that American workers are treated fairly and paid a living wage.
APUSH VOC:24 Flashcards
Schlesinger, The Age of Roosevelt Boston, Mass. Archived from PDF on September 10, 2008. As a workforce, you expect them to perform all work that is essential to the business. Can the canning factories of Indiana and Connecticut of New York continue to exist and meet such competitive labor costs? Although such employees work in positions bearing titles previously used to determine exempt status such as "executive assistant" , the 2004 amendment to the FLSA now requires that an exemption must be predicated upon actual job function and not job title. As a result, often the law will not be found in one place neatly identified by its popular name.
It was a means of communicating with the people on how he would take on the depression. To determine whether or not you need to pay your employees overtime for any hours they work over their contracted working hours you first need to determine what their FLSA status is. No objection to the order of the Administrator shall be considered by the court unless such objection shall have been urged before the Administrator or unless there were reasonable grounds for failure so to do. VII New York, Random House, 1937 , p. NRA exceeded their power of interstate commerece and lost the case.
It held that Congress had improperly delegated legislative authority to the National Industrial Recovery Administration and that the federal government had exceeded its jurisdiction because Schecter was not engaged in interstate commerce. Sustaining an indictment under the FLSA, Chief Justice Stone, writing for a unanimous Court, stated: The motive and purpose of the present regulation are plainly to make effective the congressional conception of public policy that interstate commerce should not be made the instrument of competition in the distribution of goods produced under substandard labor conditions, which competition is injurious to the commerce and to the States from and to which the commerce flows. The Tipaldo decision was among the most unpopular ever rendered by the Supreme Court. During the 1936 presidential campaign, President Roosevelt abandoned any effort to court the business community, which had not been cooperative with his New Deal, and took to referring to businessmen as "this. This was a landmark statute as, before this time, working conditions were often harsh and unfavorable.
American political leader who used her stature as First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945 to promote her husband's Franklin D. Based on some past experiences, many union leaders feared that a minimum wage might become a maximum and that wage boards would intervene in areas which they wanted reserved for labor-management negotiations. An employer may designate that their workweek begins at a given day and hour and continues until that same day and hour seven days later. Why is the Fair Labor Standards Act important? Almost every change sought exemptions, narrowed coverage, lowered standards, weakened administration, limited investigation, or in some other way worked to weaken the bill. I now hope and urge that these Members will keep faith with me, as I have kept faith with them, and sign the petition. Footnote The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, ch.
It enforces, among other acts, the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisors Act. Jonathan Grossman was the Historian for the U. Of course, this isn't always the case; some legislation deals with a fairly narrow range of related concerns. Contractors define their own rates and payment terms, and issue invoices for all completed work. This will help you remain FSLA compliant in the eyes of the law.
These had a reassuring and steadying effect on the public and boosted confidence. In 1937, President Franklin D. Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. He tried to pave the way for such legislation in his speeches and new conferences in which he spoke of the breakdown of child labor provisions, minimum wages, and maximum hour standards after the demise of the NRA codes. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: An Act to Provide Tax Relief for Small Businesses, to Protect Jobs, to Create Opportunities, to Increase the Take Home Pay of Workers, to Amend the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 Relating to the Payment of Wages to Employees Who Use Employer Owned Vehicles, and to Amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to Increase the Minimum Wage Rate and to Prevent Job Loss by Providing Flexibility to Employers in Complying with Minimum Wage and Overtime Requirements under that Act. It was modeled after the War Finance Corporation of World War I. The Administrator shall furnish the committee with adequate legal, stenographic, clerical, and other assistance, and shall by rules and regulations prescribe the procedure to be followed by the committee.
I do not see how any Member of this House can enjoy his Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow if he fails to put his name to that petition this afternoon. This includes the right to a minimum wage , overtime pay regulations , and employer record-keeping requirements. Wage-hour legislation was a campaign issue in the 1936 Presidential race. May 27, 1935: supreme court ruled down NRA when regulating a poultry business. There was no major anti-trust program. The most bitter controversy raged over labor standards in the South. Employers are permitted to have a policy that calls for paying exempt employees when they work overtime.
Social Welfare History Project Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
The January and May victories of New Deal advocated in the South brought home to Southern Congressmen the message of how their constituents felt about fair labor standards. Child labor The fifth major provision included in the Fair Labor Standards Act relates to child labor. Proponents of the wage-hour, child-labor bill pressed the attack. Congress then sent the bill to the President. The amendment exempted state and local governments from paying overtime for special detail work performed by fire-protection, law-enforcement, and prison-security employees.
The surviving proposal as approved by the conference committee finally passed the House on June 13, 1938, by a vote of 291 to 89. . What is the history of the Department of Labor? Pole worked resourcefully pinpointed the issues that bothered some Congressmen, and identified a large number of Senators and Representatives who could be counted on to vote favorably. Retrieved April 9, 2014. Non-Exempt status attaches to the job, not the incumbent. All of these conditions must be met or the employer will be subject to penalties from the U. No person shall be imprisoned under this subsection except for an offense committed after the conviction of such person for a prior offense under this subsection.
