The New Deal Era was a time of rebuilding and reconstruction
of the United States. Millions of people had lost their jobs due to the Great
Depression of the 1930s, creating a country of despair and struggle. Franklin
D. Roosevelt developed the New Deal programs in order to attempt to pick up the
US and land it back on its feet. One the New Deal programs was the Fair Labor
Standards Act. This piece of legislation is a law that has lasted and thrived
in the United States ever since its development in 1938. While many New Deal
programs only lasted through the first half of the 1900s, the Fair Labor Standards Act forever changed the way Americans think about fair labor and
equal rights in the work force.
But what makes the FLSA so important? Because of the Great
Depression, not only did many people lose their jobs, but they also struggled
to find any sort of paying work. FDR realized that if he was going to start a
program that helped develop jobs for Americans, there should be some sort of
guidelines. There needed to be a standard to who can work, how many hours
people should be allowed to work, and how much people should be paid if they
work overtime. After researching the Fair Labor Standards Act a bit, I have
found that one of the most prominent aspects of its legislation is how it has
lasted as legitimate law in the US ever since its creation. Most New Deal
programs were initially made in order to create jobs for struggling Americans,
but have since died out because of the slow redevelopment of the economy. It not only had short term impacts on the US economy and working rights, but its legislation has made many long term impacts as well.
The photos below show propaganda posters that show dislike and support for the initial developments under the FLSA. Many companies did not like that the government was restricting children from working for their companies because that meant that there was a large sector of the workforce that was eliminated. At the same time, there were many people that were in support of the FLSA because it develop a sense of equality amongst workers throughout the United States. There were also problematic developments from the Fair Labor Standards Act, such as exempting agricultural workers from its policies. At the time of the New Deal, the people that were primarily working in agriculture were people of color, meaning that the minimum wage and overtime policies did not apply. There was still outright discrimination in the US, and it was perpetuated in underlying legislation.
There is a constant struggle of equal representation under government legislation in the United States. Many bills that are still passed today are not all encompassing to the needs of all genders and races. Because the FLSA is a law that is still used in today's workforce, its policies are still being discussed. In an article by Sheila Bapat, the demonstration of race inequalities are show through current day bills that are being passed in the American government. "On Tuesday, the Supreme Court struck down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), a critical piece of U.S. legislation addressing racial bias at the polls. Tuesday also marked the 75th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a major piece of New Deal legislation that extended minimum wage and overtime protections to most U.S. workers. Both events, though seemingly unrelated, reflect how Congress and the Supreme Court can perpetuate deep-seated problems of racism in the United States" (Bapat, 2013, rhrealitycheck.org). There is a large amount of rooted racism that often benefits the white man without any outward display of supremacy.
After researching the FLSA quite a bit, I have found that there are not many pieces of US government legislation that are all encompassing to all genders, classes, races, and abilities. It seems like most laws and bills are developed to create change and order in the lives of Americans, but in reality, there is often a group of people that is left out of those laws. The ability to access certain rights is sometimes problematic. In the case of the Fair Labor Standards Act, agricultural workers are not included in the minimum wage and overtime policies that were used for all other industrial workers.
The Fair Labor Standard Act not only impacts large groups of workers in the United States, but it impacts people on an individual level. Although I have never been employed full time by a company, my parents have seen some of the effects of the FLSA. My father owns his own graphic design business, and is therefore not covered under the FLSA policies. Any overtime work that he puts in does not get accounted for because his job the type of employment that the government supports under the FLSA. Other people throughout the US are individually affected through their types of jobs, and what individual businesses determine is overtime. At the same time, individual workers that fall under FLSA policies receive many benefits from overtime working and minimum wage. A good friend of mine works for UPS and often tries to clock in overtime hours in order to make more money.
Overall, the Fair Labor Standards Act, like any other governmental piece of legislation, has its benefits and downfalls. There is now a standard for the age of who can legally work in the US, therefore eliminating most child labor. People are generally paid fairly for the amount of hours that they work, and that level of payment in somewhat equally spread throughout the country. At the same time, there are underlying racial hierarchies that are present in the FLSA legislation that prevent some groups of people from being cove rent by legal payment rights. The FLSA is a policy that, although it was developed during 1938, is still thought of as an important law today.
