The Minimum Wage

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The Minimum Wage Acts in the United States

The changing face of industrialization over time has led to numerous industries being established . The industries have in the course of time employed many people and the terms of employment have been evolving Some of these industries have been bent on making huge profits at the expense of their employees . The employees have at times been forced to work for many hours while the payment remained the same . Some workers were at times forced to

make a choice between being employed and belonging to a family . The work could get so intensive especially at peak times prompting the workers to leave their families for a time to enable them to work

In the same period the cost of living has been on the rise making it hard for some workers to meet their daily expenses . The economic crisis in the United States in the 1930s led to a public outcry that laws be established to govern the labor market . The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA ) was signed into law by the then President Roosevelt . The president led the Congress into enactment of the law . The Act was signed into law in 1938 in response to the rising unemployment levels . The law among other things , established a minimum wage for an eight hour working day . The hours worked in excess of the eight hours a day or forty hours a week were considered overtime and employers had to pay at least 150 of the normal hourly rate . The minimum hourly wages was set at 25 cents .The law was implemented to achieve several objectives . One of the objectives was to restrain the employees from exploiting the workers by requiring them to work for more hours than necessary . The law was also meant to encourage employers to hire more staff to keep up with the increased workload . Employers had been notorious in forcing workers to work for more hours to avoid incurring the costs of hiring more people The Fair Labor Standards Act was also meant to abolish child labor in the United States . The law initially set a national floor upon which states could enact more laws to protect the citizens from exploitation from the employers . The stage was also set for the various states to define their own minimum wages in so long as they complied with the nationally set minimum

Since then , there have been numerous changes to the Act as has been necessitated by the changing economic times . The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 is one such law . The Act had been introduced into the Senate by Senator George Miller on January 5th . The law was designed to gradually raise the minimum wages from the then 5 .15 an hour to 5 .85 an hour 60 days after the enactment of the Act . One year later , the Act would see the federal minimum wages rise to 6 .55 an hour and two years later...