The History of the Fair Labor Standards ActSummaryAfter the Great Depression, unions were legalized to be the voice of the workers they represented to their employers. Once this legalization became evident through federal law, it paved the way for what would become the Fair Labor Standards Act. After surviving a depression, the United States hoped to avoid any future economic downturns. The government would accomplish this by paying higher wages than the employer could afford and the employees could support their families. The Standards Act (FLSA) is administered by the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor. The law regulates child labor, wages and hours, it also requires employers to keep proper records and maintain them (Bennett – Alexander, 2004). The law, now law, requires employers to pay employees at the lower end of the pay scale a certain amount that allows them to maintain a minimum standard of living and escape poverty (Bennett – Alexander, 2004). This is the law and the theory. In reality, the law has caused poverty in certain areas of the job market, maintaining those at the bottom of the wage scale; below the reach of higher-paying jobs. The FLSA began on a Saturday, June 25, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 121 bills, one of them being the landmark law in the social and economic development of the nation - the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (Grossman, 1978). This law was not passed easily, the wage and child labor laws were brought before the United States Supreme Court in 1918 in Hammer v. Dagenhart, in which the Court declared, by a votes, unconstitutional a federal law on child labor. Similarly, in Adkins v. Children's Hospital in 1923, the Court struck down the District of Columbia law that set the minimum wage for women; in the 1930s, the Court's action on other social laws was even more devastating (Grossman, 1978). Then came the promise of the New Deal in 1933, President Roosevelt's idea to suspend antitrust laws so that industries could enforce fair trade codes, which would lead to less competition and higher wages; It was known as the National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA) (Grossman, 1978). The President has set himself the objective of "increasing wages, creating jobs and thus reviving business", the country's employers have signed more than 2.