The Fair Labor Standards Act
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was passed by Congress on June 25th,
1938. The main objective of the act was to eliminate “labor
conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standards of
living necessary for health, efficiency and well-being of workers,”[1]
who engaged directly or indirectly in interstate commerce, including
those involved in production of goods bound for such commerce.
A major provision of the act established a maximum work week and
minimum wage. Initially, the minimum wage was $0.25 per hour, along
with a maximum workweek of 44 hours for the first year, 42 for the
second year and 40 thereafter. Minimum wages of $0.25 per hour were
established for the first year, $0.30 for the second year, and $0.40
over a period of the next six years.
Other provisions set standards for overtime compensation and banned
products of child labor from interstate commerce. A Wage and Hour
Division (WHD) was also created by the Department of Labor. The
purpose of this division was to accelerate the raising standards
within an industry if, a committee recommended change.
The Fair Labor Standards Act has been amended repeatedly in subsequent
decades, with changes expanding the classes of workers covered,
raising the minimum wage, redefining regular-time work, raising
overtime payments to encourage the hiring of new workers, and
equalizing pay scales for men and women.
FLSA Regulations and Non-Regulations
While the FLSA does set basic minimum wage, overtime pay standards,
and regulates the employment of minors, there are a number of
employment practices which FLSA does not r...
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... 9. Fair Labor Standards Act, www.infoplease.com, 6/11/04
10. Senate passes important tax bill with overtime amendments attached
by Bill Leonard, Society for Human Resources Management, www.shrm.org,
5/19/04.
11. DOL issues proposal for changing overtime exemption requirements,
by Staff reports, Society for Human Resource Management, www.shrm.org,
6/11/04
12. What does the Fair Labor Standards Act not Require?, by elaws,
www.dol.gov/elaws, 6/11/04
13. Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act, by US
Department of Labor, revised 10/96, www.dol.gov/esa/public/whd_org.htm,
pages 1-10.
14. Fair Labor Standards Act, www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk, 6/11/04
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[1] Fair Labor Standards Act; www.inforplease.com, June 11, 2004.
Even the president said, "Something has to be done about the elimination of child labor and long hours and starvation wages" (Roosevelt). People worked to their breaking points and then still not being able to provide for their families. People were paid “starvation wages”, which are wages that are not high enough to pay for necessities (“Merriam-Webster”). Hoovervilles, otherwise known as hobo-camps or squatter-camps, began to arise (“Hoovervilles”). Obviously, extreme poverty and famine were a huge problem. The government got involved. FDR stated, "Do not let any calamity-howling executive with an income of $1,000 a day, ...tell you...that a wage of $11 a week is going to have a disastrous effect on all American industry" (Roosevelt). As a result, the Fair Labor Standards Act went into effect. Moreover, the Fair Labor Standards Act established minimum wage to prevent starvation wages, record keeping to avoid long hours, and regulations on child labor to prevent the labor abuse of children (“Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938”). It also put standards on how much employers had to provide. For example, things such as vacation, sick days, or raises are not required underneath the Fair Labor Standards Act (“Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938”). Through placing regulations on labor practices, the Fair Labor Standards Act helped people begin to have rights in their jobs, therefore making work be little
United States Department of Labor. "U.S. Department of Labor - Wage and Hour Division - U.S. Department of Labor-General Information on the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)." U.S. Department of Labor - Wage and Hour Division -
Unlike any president before him, President Roosevelt faced the Great Depression and created the New Deal to try and ensure the economic and political wealth of the United States. In 1935, the federal government guaranteed unions the right to organize and bargain collectively, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established minimum wage and maximum outs. Beginning in 1933, the government also helped rural and agricultural American with development programs and assume responsibility for the economy of the United States. Essentially, the New Deal sought to ensure that the benefits of American capitalism were spread equally amongst the many diverse peoples of the United States. Even though Roosevelt's New Deal failed to cure completely the economy of the Great Depression, his governmental policies during it established a new norm for succeeding governments to
President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted the FLSA on June 25, 1938. It was signed in as a federal labor law to provide criteria for governing general labor practices such as overtime, minimum wages, child labor protections and equal pay. The Fair Labor Standards Act is a long and extensive document in and of itself. It defines many exceptions and exemptions. For purposes of this paper the portion of the FLSA that will be concentrated on is the difference between exempt and non-exempt employees.
In this part, the task is to explain the role of the Fair Work Commission and the powers it is able to exercise in relation to this process. The Fair Work Commission is the self-governing national workplace relations tribunal and its main concern is to sustain a safety standard of salaries and working conditions, as well as other related areas such as workplace regulation and function (Australian Government, 2015).
Susan Kellar contends that she is entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act for work performed prior to the official start of her work shift. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of her employer, Summit Seating, because it found that Kellar's pre-shift activities were “preliminary,” that any work Kellar performed before her shift was “de minimis,” and that Summit did not know that Kellar was engaging in pre-shift work. While we disagree with the district court's conclusions regarding the “preliminary”
The FLSA began on a Saturday, June 25, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 121 bills, one of them being the landmark law in the Nation's social and economic development the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 ( Grossman, 1978). This law did not come easy, wage-hour and child-labor laws had made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1918 in Hammer v. Dagenhart in which the Court by one vote held unconstitutional a Federal child-labor law. Similarly in Adkins v. Children's Hospital in 1923, the Court voided the District of Columbia law that set minimum wages for women, during the 1930's the Court's action on other social legislation was even more devastating (Grossman, 1978). Then came the New Deal Promise in 1933, President Roosevelt's idea of suspending antitrust laws so that industries could enforce fair-traded codes resulting in less competition and higher wages; It was known as the National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA) ( Grossman, 1978). The President set out "to raise wages, create employment, and thus restore business," the Nation's employers signed more than 2.
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 fundamentally changed the cash welfare system in the United States. It cancelled Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) plan, replacing it with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). It abolished the entitlement status of welfare, provided states with strong incentives to impose time limits, and tied funding levels to the states’ success in moving welfare recipients into work. It is well known that caseloads plummeted during the 1990s and that employment rates of single mothers--the primary recipients of welfare in the United States—rose almost as fast (Shipler).
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was originally enacted in 1938. The law is enforced by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor, and includes 5 major provisions that protect employees. (TEXT) The five provisions include: coverage, minimum wage, overtime pay, youth employment, and record keeping. Coverage refers to the types of workers whom are protected by the FLSA. The FLSA also handles compensation issues like minimum wage, commissions, bonuses, expenses like room and board and other various deductions. To ensure that employees receive adequate compensation for working additional hours the FLSA has developed rules governing overtime pay. The Act also created and implemented rules governing youth
Transition: Last year the federal minimum wage celebrated its 75th birthday last week as part of the federal 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. The Act banned child labor, set a 44 hour maximum workweek, and guaranteed a minimum wage of 25 cents an hour. (Hitzik) Since then Congress has raised the rate 23 times. (USDOL)
The balancing act of family and work can be very difficult at times. At some point in everyone’s life, he or she will need to take time off of work to deal with family matters. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 was created to help employees find a balance between the challenging demands of work and home. This Act allows eligible workers that require time off for personal reasons or family emergencies up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave.
According to Principles of Macroeconomics by Gregory Mankiw, “The U.S. Congress first instituted a minimum wage with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938” (Mankiw 4-119). Minimum wage is used to set a limit of pay employers must pay their employees. Through the years the minimum wage has raised as productivity has raised. The minimum wage has constantly fluctuated and changed multiple times.
The ability for the federal government to regulate businesses’ activity is given in the Constitution. Article 1, Section 8 is known as the commerce clause; it states, “Congress shall have the Power…to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes” (Reed, 173). Through the commerce clause, the government is able to regulate business activity by the use of administrative agencies, which is defined as “a governmental regulatory body that controls and supervises a particular activity or area of public interest and administers and enforces a particular body of law related to that activity or interest” (Administrative Agency, 1). There are two types of regulatory authority that agencies may possess; quasi-legislative and/or quasi-judicial. Quasi-legislative means that agencies can make rules and regulations that have the same impact as a law created by federal legislation. Quasi-judicial authority gives agencies the power to make rulings, just like in federal courts.
(8) U.S. Dept. of Labor, Family and Medical Leave Act – Wage and Hour Division (WHD) (http://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/), 2013, Website
This law has had a massive effect as it now means in sport everyone is