Should White Collar Workers Be Paid?

For centuries, there has been a common relationship between employers and employees. Over the course of that time, the workplace and the jobs within it have evolved as new jobs were created, ways to execute tasks became more advanced and laws were enacted to put into place fair employment for those in the workforce. In 1938, congress would pass and President Roosevelt would sign the Wages and Hours Bill, more commonly known as the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). This federal statute introduced a 44 hour, seven day work week, established the national minimum wage, guaranteed overtime pay in specific types of jobs at a rate of “time and a half”, and it defines oppressive child labor, which prohibits most employment of minors. The FLSA applies to those employees engaged in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, unless the employer can claim an exemption from coverage.

How will the new FLSA laws affect you? If you are making $47,476 a year or less, the new FLSA laws require your employer to pay you overtime after you work over forty hours in a week. If you are making over $47,476 a year you will not be paid overtime because your are considered overtime exempt. Being overtime exempt means you make enough money for your employer to legally not pay you overtime.

Many case in USA suffering from the very low hourly payment according to Talk poverty: As wages go down, the percentage of workers relying on public assistance gets higher: 60 percent of workers earning less than $7.42—only slightly higher than the $7.25 federal minimum wage—receive some form of means-tested public assistance. Overall, 70 percent of the benefits in programs meant to aid non-elderly low-income households—programs like food stamps, Medicaid, and the Earned Income Tax Credits—go to working families.and it help some people get out of the food stamp Because the low minim wage many low income worker live with their children under a poverty.

Recently President Obama, because of the lack of effort and action by congress, has used executive action to implement the raising of the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour for new federal contracts, effective 2015. This, naturally, has brought out commentary, studies

Believe it or not, before 1938, there was a time when children as young as 8-10 years old (sometimes even younger) would be forced to work until midnight or later in America during the time of the industrial revolution (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2001). There were simply no laws to regulate the maximum number of hours that children could work, how old they had to be, or how much they had to at least be paid. Thus, in 1938, Congress invoked its constitutional powers to regulate interstate commerce and passed a law known as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that addresses these malpractices by employers.

One of the main factor associated with the FLSA is that it protects the rights of minors working ensuring that they are allocated only so many working hours per week, and setting an age restriction for those whom are legally able to work within the United States from the age of 10 to 16 years of age. This provision provides guidelines as to the amount of hours they may work during a school week and weekends. By doing so this places employers at a restriction from trying to work our youth as if they are full time adults.

There are many women that work hard and earn less than males because there women Alot of people think it’s unfair and some think it’s resonable. Woman construction workers only get paid 77 cents for every dollar earned by men it might not seem like a lot off but it adds up over time. Also race depends on how much the people get paid. In 1963 the Equal pay act was passed and it helped a lot of women get paid more but it still wasn’t enough. Women lose alot of money once it adds up they end up losing “nearly $5000,000 in earnings over the course of her career”. Lower earnings make it harder for women and their famililes and it should not be that way they should be able earn equally for what they have worked for.

By law all workers should also not work for more than 48 hours a week on average over 17 weeks. This does not apply to workers under 18. They should not work for more than 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week.

One major aspect of the Fair Labor Standards Act as of December 2016 is the overtime

The Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, was initiated in 1938 to inaugurate minimum wage and overtime pay, documentation and worker registration, and child labor standards. It currently states that all employees are authorized to a minimum wage of no less than $7.25 per hour. It also explains that overtime pay is to not be less than one and a half times the regular pay after the 40 hours of required work per week. There is no restriction on the amount of hours that employees 16 years or older are able to work in a week and does not necessitate overtime pay for work on the weekends, holidays, or established days of break, except if overtime is worked on those days.

Lastly, the third principle is that economic considerations of the employer should also be taken to account when considering just wage. This argument stems from the theory that without an economically healthy employer, opportunities for good paying jobs might be limited. Wages are an essential part of the overall budget of an organization, though the economic health of the institution should be kept in mind as well. Institution or employers who are in a tough financial situation must adjust paying living wages accordingly. Pope Puis affirms this thought and states, "in determining the amount of the wage, the condition of a business and of the one carrying it on must also be taken into account; for it would be unjust to demand excessive wages

Even though Salaries traditionally reward certain professions, in fact sitting in the bank, or even playing a sport and getting paid is unfair. What most people think is that white collar jobs should get payed more than hands on jobs. That is not fair because “sitting in a chair” jobs are more comfortable that standing and actually moving jobs and I feel like maybe there could be a little decrease in the “sitting in a chair” jobs and that little money could be transferred to the jobs that are “hands on”.

I believe that construction workers should get paid more for many reasons these are some reasons on why I think that construction workers should get paid more.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), also known as the federal wage and hour law, covers laws regarding: equal pay to equal work, child-labor, requirements for record keeping, minimum wage rates, and overtime pay. In the hospitality business, the FLSA requires all hotel and motel employees to be paid 1.5 times their normal wage rate for every more that is worked over 40 hours per week. Since hotels are open 24/7, the FLSA does not require employees to get paid extra for working on weekend like other businesses would. However, some Union companies have different policies that favor the employees more, and in this case, the company would follow the union rules instead of those set by the FLSA. In cases that state laws differ from federal, hotel would comply with the laws that provide greater benefits for the employees. “The FLSA requires employee to be paid for all time worked, including fractions of an hour” (Cote). Many employers will not compute each minute nor second worked but instead will break the hour into

When pay is relatively high compared with the work being performed, I tend to put forth more effort. However, when pay is low in comparison to the work, my effort tends to stay moderate, rather than high. Although my effort may still be acceptable, it is no longer the highest performance. When these low pay situations have occurred, they were usually accompanied by looking for work somewhere else. When I do not feel I am fairly compensated for my work, I may put forth less effort. If an organization uses practices such as direct compensation, provides promotion opportunities, or other benefits; it may reward and encourage employee behavior and prompt greater discretionary effort (Boxall, Guthrie, Paauwe, & Chowhan, 2016). Employees who are