Relevance?

The Fair Labor Standards Act has a great legacy in the United States. It developed child labor laws, overtime payments, and a minimum wage policy that has lasted for decades. But since its development in 1938, there have been a lot of discussions over what is considered fair minimum wage. More recently in the US, there have been fast food strikes by employees petitioning for a raise in minimum wage salaries at fast food restaurants. Minimum wage is a rising topic in discussions among Americans, and it all began with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

How does minimum wage affect the United States today? When it was first developed, it gave opportunity and money to many people who were not being paid what they should have been. There were thousands of workers who were putting in hours of hard labor, and their hourly payment was not worthy. The FLSA created an equal basis for all non-farming jobs. In today's society, there are rising problems with minimum wage policies. There are many people who are paid minimum wage that deserve more. 

Taco Bell Workers protesting

Since the development of minimum wage in 1938 during the Great Depression, the economy has significantly picked up, inflation has risen, and so has the minimum wage. But there have been many people in different industries that are discussing whether or not the current United States minimum wage is sufficient for living. In the fast food trade, there have been strikes to increase minimum wage for workers because they believe it will be an incentive for better quality of work, while not being threatened by anti-Union sentiments. The strikes have begun to sweep across the country, spreading the message that minimum wage is not always as beneficial as it might seem to be. "The protests have expanded greatly since November 2012, when 200 fast-food workers engaged in a one-day strike at more than 20 restaurants in New York City, the first such walkout in the history of the nation’s fast-food industry" (Greenhouse, NY Times, 2013). 

In addition to the fast food strikes that are sweeping across the country, many states are reconsidering the minimum wage per state. In Massachusetts recently, legislators have been discussing increasing minimum wage for workers from $8 an hour to $11 an hour. Although Massachusetts already has one of the highest minimum wage rates in the country, many legislators believe that an increase in minimum wage (and an adjustment in inflation) will really help low-income workers lives better lives. On the flip-side, a raise in minimum wage might lead to job loss for many workers because the employers can no longer afford to pay their employees the new rate. 

Minimum wage throughout the United States is constantly a discussed topic because it impacts millions of workers across the country. There are many people who believe that they are not being paid enough for the work that they do, and other people believe that the work that is being done is not worth more that minimum wage. 

There are many states that have a higher minimum wage than Massachusetts, but Massachusetts is one of the only states that might actually change minimum wage rates. I predict that within the next ten years, the conversation revolving around insufficient wage rates will rise, and more people will be paid at a higher rate. 

Readers Theatre Script

September 19^th, 1937

Ever since I was a young child, I have been working. My name is Grace Smith, and I am a young and loving mother and wife. My family and I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and we have been struggling terribly for the last fifteen years or so. I grew up in a small home in Western Massachusetts, but recently moved to the city with my family in hope that my husband could get a new job. This so called economic depression that is happening right now has been such a burden on my poor family. My husband was laid off from his job at the mill, and we somehow found enough saved up money to move to Brooklyn. I am so proud of my son Charles though. He is such a smart and loving boy that he told me that he will try to find a job in the area so we can maybe “live in a nice house just like the people we see in the movies.” Children are always being hired by factory managers because they can be paid a lot less than an adult would be. I would know: I worked in a mill in a town in Massachusetts for 18 years, and barely got enough money to pay for a pack of gum each week. But I think something exciting is about to happen in the United States soon. I’ve been seeing articles in the paper recently about the government trying to lift the country back up on its feet. They want to help people get their jobs back, or even develop new ways for people to work. Roosevelt, our beloved president, has been telling us on his radio program that they want to make a new standard of working where children under a certain age will not be allowed to work, there will be a required minimum wage for employees, and there will be a legal limit on the amount of work a person could do in one day. That way, they will have to pay extra for the extra hours that a worker puts in in a day. Roosevelt wants to name this law the Fair Labor Standards Act, and that is probably won’t be enacted until next year. This law might really change my family’s life. I am constantly worrying about Charles’ safety out at the factories, so now he wont be allowed to work and be paid nothing for it. My husband will hopefully be able to find a job in the meantime, and eventually be paid fairly for the hard work that he has done. But I did hear that people working on farms, which are mostly the Negros, are not going to be included under this law for whatever reason. All I can do is cross my fingers that his law gets passed so my family can maybe find some peace of mind.

           

50 YEARS LATER

Hi there! My name is Samuel, and I am my father Charles’s son, and my Grandma Grace’s third grandson. Grandma Grace used to always tell me stories about how she grew up during the Great Depression, which I learned all about at school. I never realized how important the New Deal policies were to working people at the time, even the Fair Labor Standards Act. I take it for granted that children are not working factory jobs and that I am getting paid minimum wage at the local grocery store. But at the time, my grandfather and dad were treated unfairly. Because the FLSA is so important to economic structure in the United States, its still in place today, and I’ve come to appreciate what many people have taken for granted.

Overview

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. 

Media Analysis

          In today's modern era, we are completely surrounded by media. We are constantly on our computers and cell phones looking videos, articles, pictures, and much more. One of the benefits of the over-exposure of media in our world today is being able to hear and see the voices of people of the past. Although the Fair Labor Standards Act was put in place in 1938, people are still able to access informative and interactive information about it through the media. When Franklin D. Roosevelt was in office as the President of the United States from 1933-1945, he developed his "Fireside Chats", which was a was for the President to inform the public about changes in the government. On June 23rd, 192, FDR released a chat about the FLS, which "we call the Wage Isnt Ours bill" (Fireside Chat 13pt1, Youtube). This media sample is a recording of Roosevelt's voice from 1939, and a picture of him posing at his desk. His words led the public to believe that the Fair Labor Standards Act is one of the best pieces of legislation that the United States has ever seen. "Without question, it starts us toward a better standard of living" (FDR, 2:50, youtube). The use of radio at the time of the New Deal was crucial because it was something that everyone could access, therefore making Americans believe that they were involved in the politics of the US. Because the information is told directly by the President of the United States, we are forced to accept his word as truth, rather than being able to see how the piece was developed in the first place. 

          Because the Fair Labor Standards Act is still extremely relevant to workers in the United States today, there is a continuing discussion about its policies today. Over the last 75 years, different problems have arisen under the FLSA rules and regulations. For example, there is a constant discussion about the payment of working 'overtime', and how one is protected under the FLSA policy of being paid 'time and a half'. More recently in the United States, the concept of suing (or filing a lawsuit) because of injustice is much more popular. In the media clip, "Fair Labor Standards Act", Jennifer George explains the more recent risks of lawsuits when paying workers (or not paying workers) for overtime. "An employee related lawsuit, or liability under the FLSA, can be initiated two ways: It can be initiated by an inspection (thats by the Wage and Hour division of the Department of Labor), or an employee can initiate a lawsuit on their own behalf, and the damages can be excessive" (George, 00:03:00). This video, like many other clips from the internet, is an informative discussion on how an average American can understand their place and rights under the FLSA. Jennifer George, the woman in the video, is an employment lawyer at the Isaac Brant Ledman & Teetor Law firm in Ohio, which is a respectable position form which viewers can respect. 
          Generally, the majority of the media information about the Fair Labor Standards Act are informational seminars and lectures about how to protect yourself under the policies of the FLSA. One film, titled "Webinar: Top 10 Myths About Fair Labor Standards Act", discussed how working people in the United States today can understand how to carefully protect themselves against policies mentioned in the FLSA. Since it is a "Webinar", or a web seminar, all people with the internet or a computer can access this information. The National Federation of Independent Business developed this Youtube video to educate the average American about pay rates.

           Since the development of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, there have been many adjustments and questions about its policies. Most media films are developed to educate the general public about the FLSA, how it impacts the business world, and how to protect yourself and others under (and against) its laws. 

  

Children and the FLSA

   

Children are such a crucial part of this world. They not only are the future of our country, but they bring joy and light into everyday. Before the Fair Labor Standards Act was developed in 1938, children were allowed to work in unfit conditions at young ages without any protection from the government. According to Todd Postol, in 1900 there were over 1.7 million child laborers in the United States, which did not even include children under the age of 10. "In New York state alone, one scholar has estimated, 400,000 children between the ages of 5 and 18 were in the labor force" (pg 349, Postol). If children are truely the ones that bring sunshine to our lives everyday, then how did the US government allow for such mistreatment of our children?

Child Labor in North Carolina Textile Mills

      Throughout the early 1900s, the United States federal government made many attempts at developing an effective child labor law. Some of the different laws they tried to successfully enact were the Voss Dangerous Trades Act of 1909, the Keating-Owen Act of 1916, and others. Around the same time, the National Child Labor Committee developed, which, "Over the next forty years, it would be in the forefront of the struggle to eliminate child labor in the United States" (pg 350, Postol). Finally in 1938, the government enacted the Fair Labor Standards Act, which seemed to have all of the ideas of the Keating-Owen Act and other previous ideas, but combined into one overarching child labor law. It was much more universal, and led the country to believe that abusive and unsafe child labor was a thing of the past. Unfortunately, the FLSA did not enforce the child labor rights over children working in migrant agriculture (which were primarily black American children).
     Because minimum wage was enacted for all industries in the United States and children were now restricted on working, many people lost jobs and opportunities. Although the changes to child labor in the US was beneficial in many ways, children were a primary form of income for families at that time, so families no longer had as steady of an income. The people that were affected the most from the FLSA were "...namely blacks, females, younger workers, and workers living in rural farm areas" (pg 23, Kau). Many people lost their jobs because their companies could not afford the new minimum wage for all of their workers.

Child Labor Campaigns

     In the United States today, many people are still marginalized in the workforce because of their race and age. During the era of the development of the Fair Labor Standards Act, Americans working in agricultural industries, who were primarily black, were not necessarily protected under the legislation of the new child labor laws. Today in America, black Americans are often not given the same opportunities for health protection under the United States government because of the many underlying structural divisions in our economy. The effects of the FLSA are still very apparent today, and resurface in many different ways.

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: