A Brief Note On Wage And Price Control

than $5.15 an hour. Overtime pay at a rate of not less than one and

The Federal Labor Standard Act was originally being set by five individuals who would create a board, and had to keep the minimum wage under 1,200 per year, had to keep it under so many hours 40-50 per week, Items made by children were not prohibited to be sold, and they had to appoint an individual to consider the conditions in the work place of occupations before they were allowed to establish a specific wage standards. During this time, the Board went to a few stores (grocery, and clothing), and priced what it would cost for an individual to purchase food that would help them achieve the minimum required calories for a day for a week. Once the research was completed (didn 't take long since they only went to stores in a specific area) they took the information that was gathered and used that to come up with an amount.

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), also known as the Wagner Act, was enacted in Congress in 1935 and became one of the most important legacies of the New Deal. Prior to the passage of the NLRA, employers had been free to spy on, interrogate, discipline, discharge, and blacklist union members. Reversing years of federal opposition, the statute guaranteed the right of employees to organize labor unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to take part in strikes. The act also created a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to arbitrate deadlocked labor-management disputes, guarantee democratic union elections, and penalize unfair labor practices by employers. The law applied to all employees involved in the interstate

On June 16, 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced a plan to help raise the United States out of the Great Depression. At the heart of this plan was the idea that wages must be set and fair. “No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.”(Roosevelt) This plan became the Fair Labor Standards Act, which set the Federal Minimum wage. Minimum wage has increased, slowly, over the years, but has not kept up with its intended purpose. Raising the federal minimum wage to a "fair living wage" level will improve the lives of the working poor, without adverse economic consequences.

Ira Knight, who is an author of article “Let’s Make the Minimum Wage a Living Wage”, expresses an opinion that increasing the minimum wage would help all struggling workers and at the same time improve U.S economy. On the other side, Janice Steele in her article “Keep the Minimum Wage Where It Is” argues that raising the minimum wage would have bad effects on workers, consumers and small businesses. Ira Knight’s article seems to be the stronger of the two positions because her arguments are based on several recent studies, and last but not least, she had a personal experience with the minimum wage job.

Luckily, one of the New Deal programs, the Fair Labor Standard Act, which set down standards for the basic minimum wage and overtime pay while affecting most private and public employment, protected workers rights for them to not suffer like they had been suffering for the last years.

The minimum wage is not suitable for society because it is too low and due to this, employees tend to overwork with more than one job, which leads them to not be available for their families enough, and they are unable to make progress with this wage

In between the early 1900’s and late 1930’s laws regarding organized labor and laws protecting businesses were passed or declined. Different industries had different minimum wage requirements and some didn’t follow at all. When Franklin D. Roosevelt became president, one of the first things he did was sign a New Deal. The New Deal consisted of new proposed ideas and laws; many in particular pertained to labor. This was due to the happening of the Great Depression. The New Deal helped ban child labor, raise the minimum wage, and regulated the appropriate amount of hours a person should work.

Another one of the New Deal's contradictory reforms was the National Industrial Recovery Act. The principle was to establish minimum wages and prices and general labor regulations. On one hand, it sought to keep wage rates high and give the consumer greater purchasing power. On the other hand, it established hundreds of legally sanctioned industry-wide cartels that were allowed to establish standard wages, hours of operation and minimum prices on their own terms. The minimum prices meant that businesses would be prevented from underselling each other. The artificially high wages also meant that unemployment would continue to rise. High prices for goods were not the right path to take since the United States economy was in the biggest depression it had ever seen. In 1935, the Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional, on the grounds that the United States government had no right to regulate intrastate commerce, since it was a power usually granted to state governments. To replace parts of the NRA, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Board and

Considered to be a landmark, in 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act. The nation was experiencing social and economic development of judicial opposition and depression. This law set national minimum wages and maximum hours workers can be required to work. Incorporated into this law are overtime pay and established standards to prevent child-labor abuse. Consequently, in 1963 an amendment was made to this law, which prohibited wage discrimination against women.

Wilson established the War Industries Board (WIB) to coordinate industrial mobilization. Headed by Bernard Baruch, the WIB forced industries to comply with government plans. Herbert Hoover ran the Food Administration and promoted conservation through voluntary controls. The war allowed women to change from low paid domestic service to higher-paying industrial jobs because all the men was off fighting in the war and they needed the factories to stay in business. Even though the women were now doing what was considered a “man’s job” they still made less than the men. Also at the end of the war, nearly all women lost their war-related jobs so they had to go back to what was considered a “woman’s job” and let the man take back over. The war also brought a successful conclusion to the women’s suffrage

The next step in FDRs New Deal is recovery. The objective of the National Recovery Administration was to create codes for businesses to follow. These codes would then help to provide minimum wages for employees, restrict the number of hours worked to prevent over time and set prices and production levels. The goal was to fix the American economy by limiting competition, rising power purchased by the consumer and hiring unemployed workers back to work for them once more. By mid-1933, the new agency achieved the voluntary acceptance by nearly 600 industries of new codes. The new codes covered nearly 30 million workers. One problem was that the chief administrator was chosen because of his well-known service in the WIB during World War I. Sadly,

In the following video presented by NYTimes, “Labors Fifteen Dollar Wage Strategy,”A Mother describes the struggles she faces and key reasons to raise the minimum wage. By this, she described feeling depleted in the manner of working two jobs and still not being able to get out of debt. This highly affected her personal life including raising and being able to spend time with her family. As a result, the time spent with her daughter suffered from the long hours she worked. The speaker in the video claims that by attending the convention she can meet people going through her situation and not feel alone. Therefore, in the video it is said that childcare, food, and housing are necessities to live, which concludes the point of the speakers views

In 1892 Federal Government adopt an 8 hour workday and other wages standard for employee. In 1903 Congress create the U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor. In 1933 Congress passes the National Industrial Recovery Act covering private sector wage hour (Congressional Digest). “On Saturday, June 25, 1938, to avoid pocket vetoes 9 days after Congress had adjourned, President

The 1977 amendments, by eliminating the distinct lower minimum for large farming employers (although keeping the overtime exemption), set a new consistent wage agenda for all enclosed workers. The smallest went to $2.65 an hour in January 1978, $2.90 in January 1979, $3.10 in January 1980, and $3.35 in January 1981. The amendments alleviated the provisions for establishments allowed to provide work scholars at the smaller wage rate and permitted exceptional waivers for young kid’s 10to11 years old to work in agriculture. The overtime exemption for employees in hotels, motels, and bistros was eradicated. To allow for the effects of inflation, the $250,000 dollar capacity of sales coverage check for retail trade and service enterprises was expanded in phases to $362,500 after December 31, 1981.