The American Worker - Protecting American Workers

The Fair Labor Standards Act

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) offers protection for full- and part-time workers in the private sector and in federal, state, and local government jobs, covering minimum wages, overtime pay, employer recordkeeping, and child labor. Local fire and police employees typically are not covered by the FLSA. It was passed in 1938 and has been amended many times over the years.

THE MINIMUM WAGE. The FLSA established a federal hourly minimum wage that U.S. employers must honor for all nonsupervisory, nonfarm, private sector and government employees. Most states have their own minimum wage as well; those in thirteen states are higher than the federal minimum, three are lower, and seven have no minimum wage law. In states with minimum wages that differ from the federal, the employer must pay the higher of the two. In 2005 the minimum wage was $5.15 per hour.

There are, however, exceptions to the minimum wage law. Employers may apply for sub-minimum wage certificates for disabled workers, full-time students, workers under age twenty who are in their first ninety days of employment, workers who receive tips, and student-learners. Lawmakers reasoned that exempting employers from paying the minimum wage to certain workers—the disabled and students, for example—encourages them to hire more of those workers who may otherwise be at a disadvantage. Employers may not, however, displace other workers in order to hire those subject to the sub-minimum wage. Other workers exempt from the minimum wage include professional and administrative employees, certain workers in the fishing industry, certain seasonal employees, babysitters, and certain farm workers.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2003, 59.6%, or about 72.9 million people, were hourly wage workers (Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2003, http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2003.htm). Of those, 2.1 million (2.9%) were paid hourly rates at or below the minimum wage. Women, people under age twenty-five, part-time workers, and those without a college degree were the groups most likely to earn the minimum wage or less. About 3% of white hourly-paid workers earned minimum wage or less in 2003. For African-American hourly-paid workers, the figure was 2.7%, and for Asian-Americans in the lowest wage category, the figure was 2%. Jobs in the service sector—particularly those related to food service—had the highest rate (about 10% of the total) of workers making $5.15 or less an hour. In some cases, however, those who work in food and beverage service jobs also earn tips, which supplement their hourly wages.

CHILD LABOR LAWS. In an agricultural economy children typically begin working on the family farm or are apprenticed out to other farms at early ages. In the American colonial period, children as young as three whose parents couldn't afford to support them were apprenticed out to work. This was the case in the United States until the early nineteenth century, when the Industrial Revolution permanently changed the American economy and way of life. Because they were considered easier to manage, less likely to unionize, and could be paid far less than adults, children became desirable as workers in the industrial economy, particularly in factories, mines, cotton fields, and the textile industry. With no laws to regulate children's work, and no mandatory school attendance, the use of children as a cheap labor source became a widely accepted practice. Children as young as six worked thirteen-hour days, six days a week. They frequently suffered from hunger and malnutrition, work-related injuries, and diseases. Although social reformers began to campaign for child labor laws in the mid-nineteenth century, and the National Child Labor Committee was formed in 1904, it was not until the passage of the FLSA in 1938 that child labor in the United States was finally regulated by the federal government.

For the most part the FLSA prohibits employers from hiring children under the age of sixteen, although fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds are allowed to work at nonmining, non-manufacturing jobs as long as the hours worked don't interfere with time spent in school and are not hazardous to their health and well-being. The FLSA also prohibits anyone under age eighteen from working at jobs considered dangerous. Babysitting, delivering newspapers, and working in the entertainment industry are all specifically exempted from the provisions of the FLSA, and children of migrant farm workers often are not protected by the legislation because of the transient nature of their families' lives.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was formed in 1971 to institute and monitor safety regulations in the workplace. Focusing mainly on industries with high rates of work-related injuries and illnesses, OSHA works directly with employers and employees to ensure that health and safety standards are followed. In fiscal year 2005 OSHA had approximately 2,220 employees, including 1,100 workplace inspectors, and a budget of $468.1 million.

When OSHA was created in 1971 there were approximately 56 million workers in the United States and 3.5 million workplaces; as of December 2004, the American workforce comprised 115 million workers and 7.2 million workplaces. During that time OSHA's enforcement of safety standards resulted in a 60% reduction in workplace fatalities and a 40% reduction in job-related injuries and illnesses. From 2002 to 2003 job-related deaths increased slightly, to 5,559, because of an additional 114 deaths among self-employed people and 61 deaths due to workplace violence. The overall worker fatality rate was four deaths per 100,000 employees. The number of work-related injuries and illnesses declined between 2002 and 2003, to five per one hundred workers, or 4.4 million people (www.osha.gov/as/opa/oshafacts).

Whistleblower Protection Laws

A whistleblower is a person who reports unlawful activity in the workplace to the authorities. At one time whistleblowers were subject to demotion, threats, harassment, and firing if their reports were discovered by their employers, who wanted to prevent public scandals and avoid facing criminal and civil charges. But in 1989 the federal government passed the Whistleblower Protection Act to protect employees who report evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the workplace. In May 2002 President George W. Bush signed the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation (NoFEAR) Act, which strengthened protections for whistleblowers by requiring federal agencies to be accountable for violations of whistleblower laws. Some states have their own additional whistleblower protection laws.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces federal workplace discrimination laws. It is composed of five commissioners and a general counsel who are appointed by the U.S. president and approved by the Senate. In addition to its enforcement role, the EEOC has a training institute to educate employers on workplace discrimination and help them comply with the laws. The federal antidiscrimination laws that fall under the EEOC's watch are:

• The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which protects men and women who perform approximately equal work in the same workplace from gender-based wage discrimination;
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, including sexual harassment and discrimination against pregnant women;
• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which protects individuals who are forty years of age or older. The ADEA applies to both employees and job applicants;
• Titles I and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which prohibit employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in the private sector, as well as in state and local governments. The ADA applies to people with both physical and mental impairments;
• Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities who work in the federal government; and
• The Civil Rights Act of 1991, which, among other things, provides monetary damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.

In fiscal year 2003 the EEOC received the following charges from American employees:

• 19,124 complaints of age discrimination
• 15,377 complaints of discrimination against disabled employees
• 1,167 complaints of wage inequality
• 8,450 complaints of discrimination based on national origin
• 4,649 complaints of pregnancy-based discrimination
• 28,526 complaints of race discrimination
• 2,532 complaints of religious discrimination
• 24,362 complaints of gender discrimination
• 13,566 charges of sexual harassment (15% of those who filed charges were male)