Short_Term_Impact

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: Revolutionizing the Rights of Workers

Short Term Impact

Rise in employment in the U.S

    The Fair Labor Standards Act brought changes to workers all across the United States. Overtime pay discouraged employers from having their employees work long overtime hours and encouraged them to hire more employees instead. This resulted in more job opportunities for the millions of unemployed workers, and is directly correlated to the decrease in unemployment across the United States, one of the main goals of the New Deal as a whole. 

"The idea is simply for employers to hire more men to do the existing work by reducing the work-hours of each man's week and at the same time paying a living wage for the shorter week."             -  Franklin D. Roosevelt, quoted from his statement on the National Industrial Recovery Act, 1933

A graph showing the percentage of unemployed workers in the United States during the Great Depression (1929-1942)
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Unemployment Rate for United States, Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis, 


Economic Relief, Improving Labor Conditions, and the Abolishment of Oppressive Child Labor

    Another result of the laws passed in the Fair Labor Standards Act was immediate economic relief for the U.S. economy. Additionally, Congress saw substantial progress made on their goal of eliminating “labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers.” Lastly, the FLSA abolished oppressive child labor, a prevalent issue in America regarding children’s health and education.

"All but the hopelessly reactionary will agree that to conserve our primary resources of man power, government must have some control over maximum hours, minimum wages, the evil of child labor and the exploitation of unorganized labor."            
​​​​​​​ - Franklin D. Roosevelt, quoted from his speech A Fair Day's Pay for a Fairday's Work (May 24th, 1937)

Old Evils of Child Labor Curbed by Wage-Hour Law​​​​​​​, c. 1939, New York Times

Political cartoon of a kid returning home from a factory after the signing of the FLSA

Old Evils of Child Labor Curbed by Wage-Hour Law​​​​​​​, c. 1939, New York Times