More than 80 years ago, policymakers capitulated to the demands of racist Members of Congress and excluded millions of workers from federal labor law protections. The legacy of that decision endures to this day, resulting in a low-wage labor force that is disproportionately made up of women and people of color.
During the worst of the Great Depression, when seeking a way to lift millions of people in the United States out of poverty and hunger, Congress and the Roosevelt administration devised several policies aimed at creating a new social reality (often referred to as the New Deal). In 1938, President Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)--which established, among other things, the country’s first federal minimum wage.
The purpose of this law--aside from raising the wages of many workers in the US to a more sustainable level--was to allow people to have buying power, and help support small businesses that were suffering during the Great Depression.
However, the creation of a minimum wage in the US through the FLSA was not equitable. In fact, many people were excluded from minimum wages and other protections when the law was created. In a compromise to white Southern senators who wanted to keep Black workers disenfranchised, President Roosevelt agreed to the exclusion of farmworkers, domestic workers, and restaurant workers. These sectors, overwhelmingly comprised of Black workers in 1938 (in the case of domestic workers, Black women), were excluded from...
MANILA, Philippines — Individuals who started and deliberately spread rumors that the government will place the country in an energy lockdown should face consequences as such actions threaten nati...