75 years ago today, President Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) into law. For the first time in history, the federal government guaranteed men and women a minimum wage and overtime pay, extending basic workplace protections to all as a matter of law — an important step forward for the labor movement and for women’s equality, as many state minimum wage laws enacted in previous decades had only applied to women. However, while not exclusively geared towards women, the FLSA has contributed greatly to the economic empowerment of women in this country.
The legislative victory of the FLSA came after years of negotiations spearheaded by the legendary Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins. After joining President Roosevelt in 1933 as the first female cabinet member in history, Secretary Perkins set out to establish a “floor under wages and a ceiling over hours” [PDF, p. 34] for all American workers. President Roosevelt shared her conviction: "Our Nation so richly endowed with natural resources and with a capable and industrious population should be able to devise ways and means of insuring to all our able-bodied working men and women a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.”
When Congress enacted the FLSA in 1938, it boldly promised workers fair wages and hours, but limited that promise in scope. A late version of the FLSA “contained the bare essentials [Secretary Perkins] could support” and Congress stripped the final version even further, resulting in a series of exemptions to limit the types of industries that needed to comply with the Act (like agriculture). However, the FLSA has been amended several times, and, with each amendment, Congress has renewed the effort to fully implement its original goal of a fair day’s pay for all working men and women — with varying degrees of success.
