The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was passed to protect workers from abuse during the Industrial Revolution. It established a living wage, overtime pay, and laws for the employment of minors. Amendments have expanded protections and raised the minimum wage.
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is a bill passed to protect workers from the kinds of abuses that occurred during the Industrial Revolution. During this time, companies paid workers very little wages, yet people, especially new immigrants, had no choice but to take the jobs to provide for their families. The Fair Labor Standards Act was passed to protect those workers and to ensure that employers paid a fair and reasonable wage.
The original provisions set forth in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 applied to any business that engaged in or affected interstate commerce. The reason for this restriction was that it was a passed federal law and federal laws do not have broad power to govern businesses. The federal government gets the power to pass such legislation from the Interstate Commerce Clause in the United States Constitution, which gives it the power to regulate matters relating to interstate commerce.
The 1938 act contained three main provisions. First, it established rules to ensure that people received a living wage. Second, it imposed specific wage rules for overtime. Thirdly, it created specific laws related to the employment of minors.
Under the bill’s living wage provisions, the Fair Labor Standards Act establishes a federal minimum wage that applies nationwide. Employers were required to pay every worker at least the minimum wage. The starting minimum wage established by law was $0.40 United States Dollars (USD) per hour.
The living wage provisions also guaranteed employees to work overtime, paid on a time-and-a-half basis. This meant that if a worker worked more than 40 hours in a given week, he was paid one-and-a-half times for those hours. So, if a worker was making $0.40 USD per hour, for every hour he worked more than 40 hours a week, he was paid $0.60 USD.
The act also established rules for the employment of minors. The law establishes rules that limit the use of children in “oppressive child labour”. This included placing restrictions on the number of hours a child worked and banning them from engaging in extremely hazardous or hazardous work.
There have been many amendments to the initial Fair Labor Standards Act since its passage in 1938. For example, in a 1949 amendment, the minimum wage was raised to $0.75 USD per hour. In 1963, the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act was passed, requiring men and women to receive equal wages for equal work.
Other amendments passed over the years have expanded the law to include more businesses and organizations and to provide broader protections for workers and minors. The minimum wage has also been raised numerous times, including a 2007 change to $7.25 USD. These laws are all designed to ensure that the worker is protected.
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