Fair Labor Act Of 1938
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938:
Maximum Struggle for a Minimum Wage
When he felt the time was ripe,
Secretary of Labor Perkins,
'What happened to that
nice unconstitutional bill
you had tucked away?'
On Saturday, June 25, 1938, to avoid pocket vetoes 9 days after Congress had adjourned, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 121 bills. Among these bills was a landmark law in the Nation's social and economic development -- Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). Against a history of judicial opposition, the depression-born FLSA had survived, not unscathed, more than a year of Congressional altercation. In its final form, the act applied to industries whose combined employment represented ...
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a wage of $11 a week is going to have a disastrous effect on all American industry."2 In light of the social legislation of 1978, Americans today may be astonished that a law with such moderate standards could have been thought so revolutionary.
Courting disaster
The Supreme Court had been one of the major obstacles to wage-hour and child-labor laws. Among notable cases is the 1918 case of Hammer v. Dagenhart in which the Court by one vote held unconstitutional a Federal child-labor law. Similarly in Adkins v. Children's Hospital in 1923, the Court by a narrow margin voided the District of Columbia law that set minimum wages for women. During the 1930's, the Court's action on social legislation was even more devastating.3
New Deal promise. In 1933, under the "New Deal" program, Roosevelt's advisers developed a National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA).4 The act suspended antitrust laws so that industries could enforce fair-trade codes resulting in less competition and higher ...
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the code abolished child labor in the textile industry." He added: "After years of fruitless effort and discussion, this ancient atrocity went out in a day."7
A crushing blow. On "Black Monday," May 27, 1935, the Supreme Court disarmed the NRA as the major depression-fighting weapon of the New Deal. The 1935 case of Schechter Corp. v. United States tested the constitutionality of the NRA by questioning a code to improve the sordid conditions under which chickens were slaughtered and sold to retail kosher butchers.8 All nine justices agreed that the act was an unconstitutional delegation of government power to private interests. Even the liberal Benjamin Cardozo thought it was "delegation ...
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Fair Labor Act Of 1938. (2006, October 2). Retrieved June 27, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Fair-Labor-Act-Of-1938/53292
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"Fair Labor Act Of 1938." Essayworld.com. October 2, 2006. Accessed June 27, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Fair-Labor-Act-Of-1938/53292.
"Fair Labor Act Of 1938." Essayworld.com. October 2, 2006. Accessed June 27, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Fair-Labor-Act-Of-1938/53292.
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