What is the FLSA?

There are billions of people on this planet that have paying jobs. In the United States, there is an overwhelming pressure to be a successful business person and to have a stable job. But after the Stock Market crash in 1929, this country went into a deep recession, also known as the Great Depression. Although there was an incredible amount of struggle from thousands of Americans, the United States Government attempted to created new programs that might help pull this country out of the deep hole that we had fallen into. One of these large programs was known as the WPA, or the Works Progress Administration. The WPA developed multiple programs that were used to give jobs and opportunities back to millions of American, while also regulating future jobs in order to prevent another horrible recession. This brings us to the popular WPA program, known as the Fair Labor Standards Act.

http://www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com/the-40-hour-work-week/

In 1938, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Fair Labor Standards act, which according to the Massachusetts AFL-CIO website, "...establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping, and child labor standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments." The FLSA really regulated paying jobs in the US, creating a new way of thinking about "getting a job." Still to this day, people can depend on having a minimum wage in the United States, instead of being paid by their boss at whatever rate they choose. It developed official standards for child laborers, like a starting age at which children can work, and the types of jobs that children can have. For more information about the FLSA, follow the link, click here.

Pictured Above: President Franklin D. Roosevelt at a "Fireside Chat" (http://202snewdeal.weebly.com/).

One of the main disadvantages of the Fair Labor Standards Act was how it was not very inclusive to people of color. The WPA programs generally did not include people of color, which made it not the most effective governmental policy. People of color did not have the same access to jobs as white people did, and they were also not given the same rights as white Americans were. Throughout the 1900s, there were many different Civil Rights movements to gain equal rights and freedom for black and Latino Americans. Although black Americans eventually gained their rights, there were still many restrictions for what they could do in terms of working opportunities.

Pictured Above: Children working after the FLSA was established (http://propresobama.org/).

Generally, the Fair Labor Standards Act was a very important part of the the Works Progress Administration because it made an overall, and lasting, standard for working Americans. These working policies have been extremely apparent in the United States ever since 1938. Although we often look back at the Great Depression as a time of suffering and distress, we can still appreciate the influential programs that were developed because of it. 

http://www.nothingnewpress.com/labor-day-history/

For child labor rates in the US today, please click here.

For more information about Child Labor in the United States, please watch: