Labor Legislation in the 20th Century
Much of what we know about the improvements in the workforce came from 20th century advancements with the workforce that we know today. Important developments came in the form of methodology and data collection efforts. The 20th century was a remarkable period for the American workers. Despite the initial stages of labor management, working conditions, wages and benefits improved over the last century with the workforce increasing six fold over the period (Gould, 1986). This research will focus on impacts of National Relations Labor Act (NLRA) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) enacted in the 20th century, including major circumstances that led to the intent of the legislation. In
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The law was enacted on July 5, 1935 (Gould, 1986).
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
Considered to be a landmark, in 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act. The nation was experiencing social and economic development of judicial opposition and depression. This law set national minimum wages and maximum hours workers can be required to work. Incorporated into this law are overtime pay and established standards to prevent child-labor abuse. Consequently, in 1963 an amendment was made to this law, which prohibited wage discrimination against women.
Implications Surrounding the Law
NLRA was considered to be the law that affected the relationship among the federal government and private enterprise; this measure considerably increased the government’s powers to arbitrate in labor relations. Prior to this law, employers had the emancipation to chastise, spy on, question for no reason and fire union members. Work stoppages commenced in the mid 1930’s (Gould, 1986), which included striking by factory and industrial occupational workers. By the time the strikes came to a halt, America had a more conservative Congress. This Congress led to balance the power between employers and unions. While the Wagner Act addressed only unfair labor practices by employers, it was added to the enactment of
Since the enactment of the Wagner Act, there has been a dramatic change in the way employment is handled between managers and employees. Employees have been given more of a chance to decide what they want at work, and are able to negotiate with their employers. They have the opportunity to discuss wage, hours, over time, etc. Previously, employees had little to no say in decisions that were made regarding their employment and basically had to be “yes men” for the employers. It prevented employers from firing people in unions, as well as people who were sympathetic to unions. Retracting these laws that have been put into place would be an egregious error. They are there in order to protect employees, regardless of whether they are in a
During the early stages of the Twentieth Century, the labor force was focused more on industrial jobs than agricultural jobs as technology was evolving. About 24 million Americans ranging from 10 years and above were employed. The number of women working in the workforce was about 19 percent as children in the workforce was about 6 percent of the labor force. The work force was dominated by men as culture deemed them to be superior than women. Children worked as some parents couldn’t provide enough for their families, so they sent their children off to work in dangerous conditions. As the second industrial revolution was nearing its end, many people were employed in factories which received low pay and dangerous conditions as the average week was 53 hours. At the start of the 20th Century, only 15 percent of people that got injured in the workplace were successful in suing their employer and received money for the damages. This type of exposure of human labor would cause a shift in the labor force as
than $5.15 an hour. Overtime pay at a rate of not less than one and
After the civil war, up until the early 1900s, the need for a larger workforce grew as industrialization expanded. Samuel Slater brought the industrial revolution from England, and even since then, there were people trying to get better working conditions. Due to the growth in population by immigrants and expansion of industrialization, the working conditions became worse and worse, causing workers to suffer. Many people fought to solve this problem and changed many American’s lives for the better.
In 1936 by President Roosevelt who signed the Fair Labor Standard Act(FLSA) making a federal minimum wage of .25 cents an hour (equivalent to $4.18 today)(Grossman) in order to maintain a “minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency and general well-being, without substantially curtailing employment”. This wage only affected about 20% of the entire labor force. The Fair labor Standards act was not always looked at being the best way to go, when it was enacted just like in today 's society it was fought against to raise the minimum wage. Many corporations were arguing against the creation of the
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), also known as the Wagner Act, was enacted in Congress in 1935 and became one of the most important legacies of the New Deal. Prior to the passage of the NLRA, employers had been free to spy on, interrogate, discipline, discharge, and blacklist union members. Reversing years of federal opposition, the statute guaranteed the right of employees to organize labor unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to take part in strikes. The act also created a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to arbitrate deadlocked labor-management disputes, guarantee democratic union elections, and penalize unfair labor practices by employers. The law applied to all employees involved in the interstate
These actions are similar to the actions taken by Theodore Roosevelt during the progressive era. The ideas of the National Recovery Administration contains ideas that further the ideas and events during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency. During his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt intervened in the coal strike of 1902, where he showed strong support for the workers. This is similar to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies that involved the Federal Government directly helping the working class people. Furthermore, the progressive era showed strong support “for legislation regulating child labor and workplace safety” (Reform). Through the National Recovery Administration, child labor was ended (The Great). Even after the Supreme Court ruled the National Recovery Administration unconstitutional in the Schechter case, the basic principles of both the progressive era labor union reforms and the National Recovery Administration were carried through in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This new act readministered many of the regulations issued by the National Recovery Administration; this act “set a minimum wage, maximum working hours, and forbade children under 16 from working” (The Great). Similarly, by 1910 of the progressive era, state laws were already established that regulated the minimum age for children to work at an age between 12 and 16 and also set a maximum length to a workday and a
As the United States endured the hardships of the Great Depression, the struggles of the working class grew and employers were able to take advantage of desperate workers by overloading hours and shrinking wages. In 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt, in his New Deal legislation, saw the opportunity to attend to the issues concerning workers involved in interstate commerce. The Fair Labor Standards Act was passed, and the President described it in the following way “Except for the Social Security Act, it (the FLSA) is the most far-reaching, far-sighted program for the benefit of workers ever adopted here or in any other country.” (Nordlund). The FLSA, as it is known, set a maximum number of
The Fair Labor Standards Act was first developed by Hugo Black, a senator from Alabama, in 1932. Senator Black saw a problem that existed with people in the workforce being overworked and underpaid and wanted to provide a solution. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a strong supporter of this effort and stood behind Senator Black. According to President Roosevelt, the FLSA was “the most far-reaching, far-sighted program for the benefit of workers ever adopted in this or any other country.” During this time, workers in several different industries were faced with
Imagine your parents died at work when you were a young child, and your family was in poverty. This happened all of the time in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s because of the lack of rights for workers. It was the job of many early labor unions of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s make working conditions for workers better. Early labor unions such as the Knights of Columbus, the American Federation of Labor, and the National Labor Union were all successful in creating rights for workers and making working conditions better. There are many ways that labor unions have affected modern day society.
The Fair Labor Standards Act was first introduced and passed on June 25, 1938 and became effective on October 24, 1938 within that bill minimum wage was first introduced (Grossman). The bill itself was an issue because the supreme court kept turning down the bill but after countless attempts, the bill was passed a year later. President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced that bill in hopes for fair pay as he states “all our able-bodied working men and women a fair day's pay for a fair day's work” (Roosevelt). President Roosevelt basically wanted to end the injustice and inequality many workers faced when receiving payment. Minimum wage has been and is currently an issue because of the augmentation on the cost of living and low income many workers
Unions were formed to protect and improve the rights of workers. Their first order of business was to establish the eight-hour workday and in 1866, the national labor union was formed. Labor movements were around before 1866, but few organized up until this point. Unions created an environment for workers with difficult tasks, creating better pay, safer work conditions, and sanitary work conditions. Unions made life better for many Americans in the private sector. Collective bargaining became the way in which employers and a group of employees reached agreements, coming to a common consensus. From 1866 to the early 1900’s Unions continued to make headways increasing membership and power. The real gains started in 1933 after several pieces of legislature, which saved banks, plantations, and farmers. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) proposed an important, and controversial, amendment to the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933. It insisted that language from the pro-labor Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932 be added to the simple declaration of the right to collective bargaining. The setbacks the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) suffered in Little Steel and textiles in the latter half of 1937, and in Congress from 1938 to 1940, despite the gains made by the AFL, by 1940 the amendment had stalled. WWII created a rapid buildup within the industrial complex, creating more work for women and African Americans, overshadowing the union’s inability to project their power
Also called the Landrum-Griffin Act, this law amended the Taft-Hartley Act to protect the rights of union members within their union and imposed new reporting requirements and codes of conduct on unions and employers. This was act created in response to the surge of corruption from various labor union officials who used violence as a way to quail the union opposition from employers and employees. Another process of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 was to stop labor unions from be infiltrated by communist. Furthermore, former members of the Communist party and former convicts were prevented from holding a union office for a period of five years after resigning their Communist party membership or being released from prison. (infoplease.com, 2011)
In 1936 by President Roosevelt who signed the Fair Labor Standard Act(FLSA) making a federal minimum wage of .25 cents an hour (equivalent to $4.18 today) in order to maintain a “minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency and general well-being, without substantially curtailing employment”. This wage only affected about 20% of the entire labor force. The Fair labor Standards act was not always looked at being the best way to go, when it was enacted just like in today 's society it was fought against to raise the minimum wage. Many corporations were arguing against the creation of the FLSA because many believed that raising the minimum wage would in fact lead to many to simply just lay people off just to avoid giving them raises, or they would rather just
The government introduced the National Labour Relations Act in 1935, later known as the Wagner Act, was the labour legislation in the USA, which provided legal rights for workers or labour unions. This was due to the unfair practices from the employers, such as sacking employees who joined trade unions, the business community did not agree with this, due to the manipulation of the Wagner Act.