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The Right to Earn Enough: The Fair Labor Standards Act

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The Political Economy of a Living Wage

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in American Economic History ((AEH))

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Abstract

In 1938, the New Deal enacted the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to establish a minimum wage. This chapter will survey the legal and political obstacles that had to be overcome to pass minimum wage legislation in the USA and review the arguments that overcame those obstacles. It will describe the legislative history of the FLSA and the way it produced a minimum wage that did not equate to a living wage. Unions were especially in favor of a living minimum wage as this chapter will describe. The AFL, however, did not want the FLSA to interfere with collective bargaining, while the CIO saw it with a consumerist perspective that higher wages would increase consumption and bring a recovery.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s City, Maryland, USA

    Donald Stabile

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Stabile, D. (2016). The Right to Earn Enough: The Fair Labor Standards Act. In: The Political Economy of a Living Wage. Palgrave Studies in American Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32473-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32473-9_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-32472-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-32473-9

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