The Fair Labor Standards Act

Have you ever wondered why you have to be a certain age to work at certain jobs? Or why do government inspect businesses. This is because of the Fair labor standard act. The industrial revolution and the government action called ‘’The Fair Labor Standard Act’’, passed in 1938. In order to understand what im talking about you have to know the background information. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, things in the United States changed quickly due to urbanization, the process of making an area more urban. Although urbanization brought some good changes, like new inventions that allowed goods to be produced more quickly and at a lower cost. Urbanization also brought some bad changes, for example, The Industrial Revolution( the time period where factories were booming and caused a lot of problems for the workers.)and kids working in factories.

A problem ( or a reason why government had to take action ) was that kids was working in factories and while they work they would often get caught in the machine because they wore baggy clothes and this would result in maiming, body parts ripped or burnt off. According to the child labor sub heading from the research that said “ young people of both sexes went to work in factories in their early teens, and some even before. It has been estimated that in the early decades of the 19th century, one out of every three American factory workers was between the ages of seven and 12.” Even though kids were hurt and injured they were still forced to come to work or they will be fired.

Also another problem is that the meat factories wasn’t up to code because inspectors would get paid off. Workers and mold would get mixed into the meat and sold for more money. But the part that sticks out the most was from the excerpt from “the jungle” by Upton Sinclair which said “There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats.” This stuck out because they would put rat poison out to kill the rats and the rats would get hungry and eat the meat and soon die inside the meat. The worker would then mix together the meat with died rats, rats poison, and rats droppings and use chemicals to cover the smell.

Can’t forget about the tenement housing, tenement housing means, a multi-occupancy building of any sort, particularly a run-down apartment building or slum building. There were 3 types of tenement housing, first was the .25 cent house which was really just one small room with no window, sinks, or toilets. Then was the. 75 cents house, also one room but it’s a tiny bit bigger than the .25 cent also had no sink, window, or toilets. Finally There was the 1.00 house had sinks but only in the hallway, where kids were sent to play in the dark and would often get stepped on, but also had no window or toilets. But the main problem with tenement houses was that they were made out of wood and they candles were made out of oil, unlike today where they made out of wax, tenement houses would easily catch on fire.

Lastly another problem would be The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. The triangle shirtwaist fire happened March 25, 1911, this is a problem because the fire spread through the Triangle Waist factory on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors. According to The article about the Triangle Shirtwaist fire on osha.gov many women died because “The building was fire proof but that only kept the fire inside the building. The building had only one fire escape, but it collapsed. Panicked workers struggled with doors that were locked by managers to prevent theft, or doors that opened the wrong way but there was a barrel of oil blocking it. Only a few buckets of water were on hand to douse the flames as it quickly spread. Also outside, firefighters’ ladders were too short to reach the top floors and ineffective safety nets ripped like paper, also firefighters were busy giving medical attention to the women who leapt to their fate.”

One of the solutions was that Teddy Roosevelt pass the Pure Food and Drugs Act, according to gda.gov the main purpose was to ban foreign and interstate traffic in adulterated or mislabeled food and drug products, and it directed the U.S. . This affected the meat industry the most because it made sure that the meat was properly made and stored.

Another solution was the Bureau of Corporations Act, according to The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica “ the bureau of corporations act Was created by Congress on February 14, 1903, during the Progressive Era. It acted as an investigatory agency within the Department of Commerce and Labor in the United States”. Which means that it have government the power to investigate business practices and build cases to shut factories down.

Also another solutions was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. According to ohiohistorycentral.org “the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, was an act, that authorized the federal government to break up any businesses that prohibited competition.” Which mean that this act gave government the power to break up trust,or two or more monopolies.

Lastly The Fair Labor Standards Act, according to ofm.wa.gov the fair labor standards act is “a federal law which establishes minimum wage, overtime pay eligibility, recordkeeping, and child labor standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in federal, state, and local governments.” Which mean that this act is the reason why you have to be a certain age to work at certain jobs and why everyone starts off at minimum wage. In conclusion because of the Industrial Revolution government now has the power to check businesses, kids are no longer allowed to work in factories, men and women both starts at minimum wage, in government inspect businesses from time to time