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1936 › Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) › Working hours and labor standards
Shorter hours, higher wages, end child labor and sweatshops
pledge_forwarddirectional_stancecandidate_directevidence A Labor & Employment⚡ Schechter decision voids the NIRA similar solutions · similar reasoning
Solution
Continue to seek federal action to reduce over-long hours, raise starvation wages, end child labor and wipe out sweatshops; the platform promises to seek this 'within the Constitution' and by clarifying amendment if necessary.
Rationale
Workers' hours, wages and conditions had 'passed beyond the control of the people'; the purchasing power of the well-paid worker is the best customer of industry.
Statements (3)
We have increased the worker's pay and shortened his hours; we have undertaken to put an end to the sweated labor of his wife and children; we have written into the law of the land his right to collective bargaining and self-organization free from the interference of employers
For the first time in many years the industrial workers and wage earners of America have had an Administration in Washington which was determined to give them an opportunity for a fairer wage and a more decent standard of working hours.
Of course we will continue to seek to improve working conditions for the workers of America--to reduce hours over-long, to increase wages that spell starvation, to end the labor of children, to wipe out sweatshops.
Follow-through
kept
After a year of defeats in the House, the Fair Labor Standards Act (June 25, 1938) set a 25-cent minimum wage rising to 40 cents, a 44-hour week falling to 40, and barred 'oppressive child labor' in goods for interstate commerce; the Supreme Court upheld it in Darby (1941).
Mechanisms
| Date | Type | Name | Effect | Consistent? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1937-05-24 | message | Message on establishing minimum wages and maximum hours | Asked Congress for a wage-hour-child-labor statute.All but the hopelessly reactionary will agree that to conserve our primary resources of man power, government must have some control over maximum hours, minimum wages, the evil of child labor and the exploitation of unorganized labor. | yes | Message to Congress on Establishing Minimum Wages and Maximum Hours. |
| 1938-06-25 | statute | Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 | Federal minimum wage, overtime after 40 hours, child-labor ban. | yes | Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 - Wikipedia |
Assessments
Roosevelt: the Act 'ends child labor, sets a floor below wages and a ceiling over hours of labor.'
That Act--applying to products in interstate commerce-ends child labor, sets a floor below wages and a ceiling over hours of labor.
Reception (1)
Even with a Roosevelt victory, a conservative coalition of both parties might control Congress and check 'drastic regulation'.
ONTROL of both houses of Congress would seem to be I assured to a coalition of eon servatlve Democrat and Re publicans.
Other positions on this issue
- Spread employment by substantially reducing hours of labor, starting in government service — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 directional_stance
- The six-hour day and five-day week without reduction in wages — Norman Thomas, 1932 specific_pledge
- Revive the NRA's principles 'by one device or another' (imputed; the President would not say) — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 directional_stance
1936-fdr-wages-hours-child-labor · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed