Fair Labor Standards Act

“ The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 enacted a comprehensive scheme providing for minimum wages and overtime pay for workers 'engaged in' or 'in the production of goods for' interstate and foreign commerce. ”

“ In General.— The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is amended— (A) by striking sections 5 and 8; and (B) in section 6 (a) , by striking paragraph (3) and redesignating paragraphs (4) and (5) as paragraphs (3) and (4) , respectively. ”

“ At trial, the district court instructed the jury that "an employee has participated in protected activity if the employee has either complained to superiors regarding any issues related to the Fair Labor Standards Act or requested information from the government about minimum wages or overtime compensation." ”

“ As originally passed in 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act exempted from coverage 'any employee engaged in any retail or service establishment the greater part of whose selling or servicing is in intrastate commerce.' [3] In 1949 Congress substituted a three-part definition for this provision. ”

“ Without more specific provisions than this Act contains, we cannot interpret it as excluding, or as granting, authority to executive officers to exclude, employees in such plants from the benefits of the general wage and hour provisions which Congress has established in the Walsh-Healey Act and more fully and recently in the Fair Labor Standards Act. ”

“ This clause shall specify that, as a condition of payment, the minimum wage to be paid to workers employed in the performance of the contract or any covered subcontract thereunder, including workers whose wages are calculated pursuant to special certificates issued under section 14 (c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 214 (c) ) , shall be at least:
$15.00 per hour, beginning January 30, 2022 ”

“ Not only is it important to be heedful of what these cases are really about; it is no less important to be mindful of what they are not about. The problem before us is not the applicability of the Fair Labor Standards Act to work done under all Government contracts, or even to work under all varieties of war production contracts, cost-plus-fixed-fee or otherwise. ”

“ My disagreement rests on the belief that Congress has expressly withheld jurisdiction from District Courts to make awards against employers in favor of employees for 'wages' lost as a result of unlawful discharges, in injunction actions, such as this, brought by the Secretary of Labor under § 17 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 52 Stat. ”

“ Argued: Jan. 11, 1943. --- Decided: Feb 1, 1943
This is another case in which we must define the scope of the Fair Labor Standards Act. [1] 52 Stat. 1060, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq. ”

“ We have made great strides toward the objectives of the National Industrial Recovery Act, for not only have several millions of our unemployed been restored to work, but industry is organizing itself with a greater understanding that reasonable profits can be earned while at the same time protection can be assured to guarantee to labor adequate pay and proper conditions of work. Child labor is abolished. Uniform standards of hours and wages apply today to 95 percent of industrial employment within the field of the National Industrial Recovery Act. ”

“ If we want to keep our economy running in high gear, we must be sure that every group has the incentive to make its full contribution to the national welfare. At present, the working men and women of the Nation are unfairly discriminated against by a statute that abridges their rights, curtails their constructive efforts, and hampers our system of free collective bargaining. That statute is the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, sometimes called the Taft-Hartley Act. ”

“ On the wage-workers falls the burthen of class law. On what, then, depends the wiping out of such law? Certainly on nothing else so much as on the force of the wage-workers themselves. To deprive their opponents of unjust legal advantages, and to invest themselves with just rights of which they have been deprived, is a task, outside their labor organizations, to be accomplished mainly by the wage-workers. It is their task as citizens—their political task. With direct legislation and local self-government, it is, in considerable degree, a feasible, even an easy, task. ”

“ The objections to the Senate bill in the House were such that a new measure was reported establishing fixed minimum wages and maximum hours and granting the Secretary of Labor only the power to declare that a particular industry was 'an industry affecting commerce' and so subject to the Act. ”

“ He concluded that neither wage rates in collective labor agreements nor wages paid by employers maintaining voluntary minimum wage standards required a classification within the industry, and finally he concluded that the Industry Committee's recommendations 'are made in accordance with law, are supported by the evidence adduced at the hearing, and taking into consideration the same factors as are required to be considered by the Industry Committee, the prescribed 32 1/2 cent wage will carry out the purposes of § 8 of the Act'. ”

“ The program of labor and social legislation included the limitation of the use of the injunction in labor disputes, prohibition of child labor, minimum wage standards for women, the establishment of minimum standards as to health and safety of employees and conditions of labor generally, the creation of a labor department at Washington, and the improvement of country life. ”

“ The drastic amendment of the Factory Acts, to secure (a) a safe and healthy work-place for every worker, (b) the prevention of overwork for all women and young persons, (c) the abolition of all wage-labor by children under 14, (d) compulsory technical instruction by extension of the half-time arrangements to all workers under 18?
7. The direct employment of labor by all public authorities whenever possible; and, whenever it is not possible, employment only of fair houses, prohibition of sub-contracting, and payment of trade-union rates of wages? ”

“ A minimum wage, including cost of living for dependents as well as for individuals involved, has justice at its base, but requires for its application less a blanket sum indicated by law than a wages-board or other form of discriminating commission with power to adjust flexibly, with due consideration of place and of quality of work, the wages to the task. Conditions of labor should be "good" in all cases, and what is good should be fixed by disinterested persons. ”

“ Application of the lower state rates made it impossible for federal authority to require, or to enable, carriers to collect interstate rates lawfully established as just and reasonable. The policy and provisions of the New York State Labor Relations Act (Labor Law, § 700 et seq.) are in substance precisely the same as the national policy and the National Labor Relations Act. The State's interest, purpose, and ability to safeguard against possible interruption of production and service by labor disputes are not less than those of the federal government. ”

“ I also recommend that minimum wage protection be extended to several groups of workers not now covered. The need for a decent standard of living is by no means limited to those workers who happen to be covered by the act as it now stands. It is particularly vital at this period of readjustment in the national economy and readjustment in employment of labor to extend minimum wage protection as far as possible. ”