The Fair Labor Standards Act: History, Influence, and Future

Running head: THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT
The Fair Labor Standards Act
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1THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT
The Fair Labor Standards Act 1938 is the chosen U.S Federal Pay Regulations.
History of the Act
On 25 June, 1938, 121 bills were signed by President Franklin and the Fair Labor Standards
Act was one of them (Macpherson, 2017). During those times, this act was applied only to
the industries or companies whose combined employment was one-fifth of the total labor
force. Senator Hugo Black had drafted this bill in the year 1932. His proposal requires the
employers to accept the 34 hours workweek faced stiff resistance. In the year 1938,the bill
was revised again where the 34 hours workweek was changed to 40 hours and that allowed
the workers to earn more wage for working extra hours. According to this Act, the workers
must be paid with the minimum wage as well as the overtime pay should be a one and a half
times that of the regular pay.
Why it was created
It was created in order to protect the workers from the buses that were taking place at the time
of Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression. It was passed to create a minimum wage,
to protect the children in the workplace, to establish an overtime pay and to limit the amount
or number of working hours in a week (Reich, 2015). It was created to put a vault over the
working hours and a ground under the wages by establishing a final minimum of forty cents,
maximum of forty weekly working hours and disallowing the child labor which was
prevailing at those times (Harris & Krueger, 2015).
How it influenced the area of human resources and compensation
This act has mandated the employer concession with restrictions that is related to the
minimum wages, child labor, overtime provisions and the workplace safety. It manages the
employer compliance along with the laws of employment that was earlier affecting the