Fair Labor Standards Act - Essay Example

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) al Affiliation FLSA law has been in existence since 1938. The pre-existing conditions in the labor industry before were alarming with different work periods and wages for the workers. Although women and children were previously protected, there was a need to set basic work time and wage, to prevent exploitation and discrimination of employees’ by employers. FLSA law has been amended severally through other laws like the equal pay and minimum wage Acts according to the changing economy and social needs. The law protects children, student learners, people with disabilities and other workers in the labor industry. Failure to comply with the minimum wage and overtime payment provisions is a violation of FLSA, which makes offenders liable and for this, they incur severe civil money penalties. The DOL administers and enforces the laws through its agencies at the federal level. There are numerous litigations brought forth for violation of FLSA at the state and federal level, which shows that there is still negligence to comply with the law and more controversies with FLSA need to be addressed adequately, due to changes like technology that could affect the law and labor. Keywords: FLSA, Children, Minimum Wage, Overtime Payment, Violations, DOL, Employees, Cases, Exploitation, Discrimination, Protection 1. Introduction Employment and hiring of contractors has changed over time. Today, there are far numerous responsibilities to both the employer and employees than it was some six decades ago. The economic, political and social concerns call for solid laws and policies to cover for various needs in the labor industry. Most of them are initiated at the national level and are enforced through the local, state and federal labor organizations. The US department of Labor (DOL) plays a central role in administering the various employment and labor statues and regulations, to ensure a better employer and employee relationship in the midst of the changing labor environment. 1.1 Legal regulation of work in the United States There exist many legal regulations in the USA that the DOL has to enforce as its mandates to ensure multiple workplace activities and different categories of people (employers, businesses, workers, contractors, jobseekers, immigrants and even the retirees) are covered. The various federal regulations fall in categories such as health and safety, wages and hours, benefits and competitions, working conditions, immigration and discrimination policies among others. OSH Act is a workplace safety and health regulations administered by OSHA, which acts to ensure workplace compliance to the set standards. FECA law deals with compensation of workers and was established to ensure federal employees who suffer disability or even fatality as an injury while on duty are compensated. In line with compensation regulations, other laws focus on specific industries like employees in the department of energy and coal mine industries to assure them of their medical benefits, in case of exposure to cancerous radiations. The other category that is of key concern in this paper is the wages and hours worked. It is necessary that employers and workers have fair pay rule and realize that they too have rights against violations of their payment terms and agreements. CCPA law “limits the amount of an employees earnings that may be garnished and protects an employee from being fired if pay is garnished for only one debt” (DOL, 2009, p.1). In general, FLSA law, which is discussed further in this document, has been at the frontline in protecting workers rights to fair wages and working hours, by stating the recommended minimum wages and maximum working hours. 1.2 On the Fair Labor Standards Act 1.2.1 Historical background of the law Prior to the enactment FLSA in the United States, work time had for a long time remained a critical social issue that had caused a crisis in the labor industry. Different industrial workers had varying working durations than others and this was the main reason behind the steel strikes before 1920. According to Samuel, initiation of the Act was linked to the earliest labor movements in the wake of the 20th century, and with the support of William Green and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the new deal policy facilitated FLSA approval in 1938 after a long period to convince the congress and courts (2000). The working hours had previously been determined through individual state legislations, but it was only for specific groups of people. Its argued that the set legislations failed to meet the doctrine of the freedom of contract in the constitution; they only “limited the working hours of children, women and the minority men whose work deemed dangerous to themselves and the public” (Dechiara, 1993, p. 145). Since the Law’s passage, it has been amended several times to date at least in efforts to raise the minimum wages. The major change was brought forth by the equal pay Act that gave rise to the balanced pay system regardless of gender (“Equal Pay Act,” n.d.). 1.2.2. Protection of workers The law established the child labor rules and seeks to protect them against exploitation by employers. In helping minors acquire early employment experiences, FLSA ensures that the work does not risk their educational opportunities, wellbeing and health, by establishing the occupational standards for youths. The minimum age for child labor is 16 years and children can work for unlimited hours in any occupation, except for those that the secretary of defense declares hazardous; new hires under the age of 20 are eligible for subminimum wage, fulltime and student learners as under section 14(b) and (a) of FLSA should receive 85 and 75 percent of the basic minimum age respectively (Mayer & Bradley, 2012). All covered adult workers are provided with a basic minimum wage nationwide. States can raise the scale of the minimum wage, where the federal law aimed to raise the living standards. FLSA also sets the minimum working hours and declares that an employee’s hourly wages extra payment per hour of overtime work should be calculated one and a half times (Mayer & Bradley, 2012). It protects the workers with disabilities by offering SMW and ensures the tipped workers do not receive anything less than basic minimum wage. With the amendment of EPA, FLSA requires workers of both sexes to receive equal pay for jobs which require similar skills, effort, and responsibilities, and which are performed under same working conditions with a few exceptions of factors like seniority (DOL, n.d.). 1.2.3. Minimum Wage Violations Today, there are numerous FLSA litigations due to violations of the law’s provisions. Payment below the minimum wage is a violation of the worker’s rights. Currently, the minimum wage per hour is set at $7.25 and every employer covered by the FLSA should comply with the regulation (DOL, n.d.). Therefore, it is the role of the employer to ensure that subsequent deductions either for factors associated with work operations like employee uniforms among others do not extend to cut their wages below the FLSA recommended minimum rate. The employer or agent who orders for payment of less than the minimum wage to an employee would hence be guilty of a misdemeanor. FLSA provides employees with specific remedies; recovery of unpaid wages, liquidated damages, other associated costs and an attorney’s fee (Dorris, 2009). Products produced under violation of the minimum wage and traded across states are legally prohibited, while employers who deliberately violate the minimum wage requirements are charged a civil money penalty of up to $1100 for each violation (Dorris, 2009). 1.3. Significance of the law The law has been supportive in improving the welfare of workers in the USA. It strives to limit employees’ discrimination by their employers in terms of wages and against exploitation of workers, for the time they dedicate to offer their services to the employers. Since its establishment, the law has proved relevant to changes and ensuring that people have better standards of living despite the economic variations. It avails a strategy that employees can use to raise claims against violations of FLSA provisions, working together with the state’s fair labor standards that are being enforced across the nation. 1.4. Imperfection of the law The experiences of most workers (children and adults) over the decades indicate that the law enforcement still lags behind in protecting them. Alone, it may prove insufficient, but with the support of individual state statutes, minimum wages have been set even higher in different states. FLSA law and its enforcement body should take effective measures against child labor. Numerous children, some even less than ten years of age work in hazardous environments and industries against the FLSA’s provisions, yet employers go unpunished. The law clearly exempts a group of people (administrative, executives and professionals) from minimum wage and overtime payments based on job description and title among others; FLSA fails to define this group and fails to look at the actual job duties to classify the individuals as being exempted. 2. Case Studies Though employers may take the law for granted and assume that it does not concern them, it is vital that each employer understands that the wage and hour law is realistic, whether for small or large companies. Solis v. Cindys total care case illustrates the extent to which FLSA applies, and how it seeks to protect all employees covered by the law, regardless of their nationality or immigration status. The defendant (Cindy) had violated FLSA by failing to pay minimum wage and overtime to the enterprise’s employees who worked approximately 60 hours; to bar the case, the defendants argued that the employees’ immigration status was factored in. The court ruled they were ‘employees’ covered by the law, which rendered his argument irrelevant and ordered him to pay back the wages and liquidated damaged. Similarly, no special treatment can be afforded for covered private or state corporations which fail to comply with FLSA. Edmund v. City of Fort Myers case indicates the extended liability to the employers for issues they can escape. The defendant, despite being a state corporation of Florida and its sovereignty, was denied its motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s complaint of excess uncompensated work time. It is the employer’s responsibility to keep an accurate record of hours worked by an employee and ensure uncompensated off the clock work does not exist. 3. Overtime Violations The federal law requires that employees who work for more than 40 hours a week get overtime pay. It is a violation of the FLSA law for failing to pay them one and a half times the regular rate of an hourly wage, for time spent performing job duties or suffered for the employer’s benefit. Nonexempt employees may be salaried or paid hourly. Contrary to most employers’ expectations, salaried nonexempt employees are entitled to overtime pay and failure to do so is a violation. Most employers have ended up violating FLSA overtime pay provision for not paying overtime for piecework and work off the clock. Employers who violate overtime pay requirements can be subjected to up to $11000 as a penalty (Litzinger, 2011). In calculating the overtimes, FLSA considers different types of hours worked like on call and waiting time, special assignment and break periods. 4. Recent developments Over the last seven years, especially after the 2007/2008 recession, the workers basic minimum wage rose drastically from $5.85 to the current $7.25 and President Obama endorsed a bill to raise it higher to 10.10 by 2016 (Reynolds, 2014). Nowadays, new technologies adopted by businesses and issued to employees to work outside their standard workday pose a risk to complying with FLSA. It is rather controversial because employees given pagers, smart phones and communicative or electronic devices like i-pads and laptops connected to their respective companies systems feel that they should be entitled to overtime compensation, for the time they spend outside working hours responding to employers tasks (Gutierrez & Neguse, 2010). This is an area that has been insufficiently explored with the increasing technology changes. 5. Conclusion FLSA law has been existence for almost seven decades. Since its enactment, several amendments have been made to rectify its defects and keep the law up to date. It continues to defend the workers’ rights and ensure they have better standards of living; employers or businesses covered have to comply with the law and pay workers the set basic minimum wage and overtime payments, for the services they offer. Failure to comply calls for civil penalties giving the workers their rights to claim their wages, overtime payments and other costs incurred. Acronyms Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA) Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA). Special minimum wages (SMWs) Equal Pay Act (EPA). Reference List Dechiara, P. D. (1993). Rethinking the Managerial-Professional Exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1518&context=aulr. DOL. (2009, July). The Federal Wage Garnishment Law, Consumer Credit Protection Acts Title 3 (CCPA). Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs30.pdf. Dorris, D. V. (2009). Fair Labor Standards Act Preemption of State Wage-and-Hour Law Claims. Retrieved from http://lawreview.uchicago.edu/sites/lawreview.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/76.3/76_3_Dorris.pdf. Edmund v. City of Fort Myers. Case No. 2:10-cv-474-FtM-29SPC. Retrieved from http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/florida/flmdce/2:2010cv00474/247837/46. Equal Pay Act of 1963 as Amended. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/oasam/regs/statutes/equal_pay_act.htm. Gutierrez, S. M. & Neguse, J. (2010, November). Emerging Technologies and FLSA. The Colorado Lawyer, 39 (11): 49-53. Retrieved from http://www.hollandhart.com/files/Publication/0267cfe8-9996-484a-a752-66b65c91a1cf/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/e82f8ec8-1e54-42f2-96e1-73c16ab264bc/EmergingTechnologiesFLSA.pdf. Litzinger, E. N. (2011). Willfulness, Good Faith, and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Nevada Law Journal, 12 (112). Retrieved from http://scholars.law.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1495&context=nlj. Mayer, G. and Bradley, G. H. (2012, September 7). Fair Labor Standards Act FLSA: An Overview. Retrieved from https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=725108. Reynolds, A. (2014, February 14). Minimum Wage Hike Means More Sub Minimum Workers. Retrieved from http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/minimum-wage-hike-means-more-sub-minimum-workers. Samuel, H. D. (2000, December). Troubled Passage: The Labor Movement and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2000/12/art3full.pdf. Solis v. Cindys Total Care. 10 Civ.7242 (PAE). Retrieved from http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nysdce/1:2010cv07242/368442/42. Read More