The minimum wage Issue
“While President Franklin Roosevelt was in Bedford, Mass., campaigning for reelection in 1936, a young girl tried to pass him an envelope. But a policeman threw her back into the crowd. Roosevelt told an aide, "Get the note from the girl." Her note read,
I wish you could do something to help us girls....We have been working in a sewing factory,... and up to a few months ago we were getting our minimum pay of $11 a week... Today the 200 of us girls have been cut down to $4 and $5 and $6 a week.
To a reporter's question, the President replied, "Something has to be done about the elimination of child labor and long hours and starvation wages."”1
On Saturday, June 25, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill -- Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). The bill was voted upon May 24, 1938, with a 314-to-97 majority, passed the House on June 13, 1938, by a vote of 291 to 89, and became effective on October 24, 1938 at a minimum wage rate of $0.25 per hour. 1
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In cases where an employee is subject to both the state and federal minimum wage laws, the employee is entitled to the higher of the two minimum wages. 2 That’s mean employers have to pay employees the highest minimum wage that is assigned by federal, and state laws. The purpose of the minimum wage is to provide a base pay rate for employees where it considered to be a fair pay for the work that the employee agrees to, create a minimum standard of living to protect the health and well-being of employees, and to protect all employees from any alterations in the