On June 25, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt went on a bill-signing spree, putting his swooping signature on 121 bills in one go. One of them, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), also referred to as the Wages and Hours Act, is among the nation’s most important and enduring labor laws. The FLSA set a minimum wage of 25 cents per hour (rising to 40 cents per hour after the first year), established overtime pay and a maximum work week of 44 hours (down to 40 hours after two years) for workers in certain industries, and made provisions to address child labor. After the FLSA was implemented, it covered roughly one fifth of the country’s labor force. As for the other four fifths? The answer ain’t pretty — and it's rooted in centuries of racism and ableism.
Achieving even those modest wins for workers was no easy feat. As Jonathan Grossman, a former historian for the U.S. Department of Labor, wrote, Republicans and conservative Democrats fought fiercely against the bill, complaining that its passage would hurt businesses, kill off jobs, and lead to a “tyrannical industrial dictatorship." (When Southern congressmen insisted that they be allowed to set a lower pay rate for their states, David Dubinsky of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union helpfully suggested that the lawmakers’ own wages be reduced to match.)
Organized labor was also split, with the business-oriented American Federation of Labor lobbying for a more conservative bill aimed at nonunion...
Professional rivalry and office politics were the driving forces behind the "false" sexual harassment and conversion allegations levelled against Tata Consulting Services (TCS) employee Raza Rafiq...