Question

Explain the Fair Labor Standards Act and why was the Act enacted?

Answer 1

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was enacted to ensure that workers within the public and the private sectors are treated fairly, both in terms of wages and in terms of work conditions. Without a fair law in place, workers would find little recourse in taking up a dispute with their employers.

Consider this - if there was no law for the benefit of workers which lists down the minimum wages and the working environment, employers can simply exploit their workers by making them work for 12 hours a day, underpay them, and still threaten them with their jobs. Employees/workers will relent, because they need that job to feed their families, right?

It is to prevent this type of exploitation that the FLSA was enacted. What it does is:

Minimum Pay: The law ensures that workers are adequately compensated for the work that they do. This ensures that workers are not exploited in any fashion by their employers. Also, it is beneficial for the employers as they don't have to pay exorbitant figures for their employees. It is all defined by law and regulated.

Working Hours is another aspect that is clearly defined in the FLSA. There are clear rules with respect to how many hours in a week a worker can be made to work, and there are clear provisions for overtime pay. This excess is at over 40 hours per week, where if any employee works for more than 40 hours, he/she has to be paid overtime. This ensures a proper work life balance for the employee

Ultimately, the FLSA gives both the employee and the employer a framework to operate within. While it is more inclined towards workers to prevent their exploitation, it also does justice by rationalising the wage standards so that employers do not have to exorbitantly reward their employees for work done - it is all regulated.

Hence, the FLSA was needed and enacted in order to ensure worker welfare, and also to ensure that there is a proper framework within which the industry & workers operate.