Dallas Employment Lawyer Blog
Before minimum wage and overtime were instituted, the average American worker worked brutal hours. Workers were easily exploited by their wealthier employers, which forced them to work around the clock just to be able to survive, living paycheck to paycheck and not making much more than what it took to feed their families.
In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a number of bills, one of which was the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). The FLSA applied to industries that together held about one-fifth of the labor force, and, among other things, it set a minimum wage at 25 cents for those industries.
Importantly, it also introduced overtime regulations that guaranteed all nonexempt workers be paid time and a half for hours worked over 40 hours a week. These rules were intended to address the exploitation of workers and the lack of jobs.