The Fair Labor Standards Act

Paper Summary:

The paper explains the purpose of the Fair Labor Standards Act that was to protect the workers of America from being taken advantage of through excessive and unpaid overtime. The paper discusses, however, the recent legislation that placed exemptions upon the act thus failing the majority of individuals who need the protection, while protecting those who already were making sufficient income. The paper contends this act has effectively become another tool of modern capitalism with which to maintain the status quo.

Outline:
The Fair Labor Standards Act
The Erosion of the Fair Labor Standards Act
Exemptions
Requirements of Exempt Compensation
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The purpose of the Fair Labor Standards Act is to protect the workers of America from being taken advantage of through excessive and unpaid overtime. While the act at its base was and is well-intended, as will be discussed in the next passage, recent legislation has placed exemptions upon the act, thus ruling out a great majority of those employees who need the protection. Having struggled for more than one hundred years prior to the establishment of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, the United States' labor movement was finally successful in obtaining both the eight-hour day and the forty-hour work week. The Act attempted and for the most part protected each of these objectives of labor, by using the legislative stick of overtime pay, which was set at one and a half hours of pay for each hour worked over forty in a given week."

Sample of Sources Used:

• McKendall, Miriam J.; Santeusanio, David J. "." Chronicle of Higher Education. 51.38, (2005) p. B17.
• "Compliance Assistance - Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)" U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved on 31 July 2007, from:
• Lee, Edler. Industrial & Labor Relations Review. 59.3, (2006) pp. 507-509.

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