"Smith’s Opposition to FLSA" (Kennedy, 1999).
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: From Tragedy to Reform
Long-Term Labor Laws
The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) "establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments" (DOL, 2023). South Carolina Senator Smith opposed it. He "declared that the law was unnecessary because a man could support a family for fifty cents a day in his home state" (Kennedy, p. 344). The Supreme Court upheld it in 1941, stating, "The Fair Labor Standards Act is constitutional because it relates to the federal government’s power to regulate interstate commerce and provides uniform labor standards across the states" (Justia), declaring the government’s responsibility.
Furthermore, "To protect children from hazardous employment, the FLSA provides for a minimum age of 18 years in occupations found and declared by the Secretary of Labor to be particularly hazardous or detrimental to the health or well-being of children 16 and 17 years of age." (DOL, 2011). In 2018, the DOL proposed to exempt power-driven lifts from this restriction. “In response to significant public input and bipartisan, bicameral requests from Members of Congress, the Department proposes to remove the operation of power-driven patient lifts from the list of activities that HO 7 prohibits. This proposal, if finalized, would increase the participation of young workers in health care occupations and enhance their future career skills and their earning potential, without reducing worker safety.” (DOL, 2018). Opposition prevented this from passing.
“Age requirements under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act” (Monthly Labor Review, 2015).
"High school graduates as a percentage of the 17 year-old population, 1910-2010" (Monthly Labor Review, 2015).
President Obama signed the 2012 Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, requiring federal contractors to obey labor laws. "The order, signed by President Obama, represented a much-needed step forward in ensuring that the federal contractor community is providing safe and fair workplaces for employees by encouraging compliance with federal labor and civil rights laws, and prohibiting the use of mandatory arbitration of certain disputes." (The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights). In 2017, President Trump repealed it.
In 2024–2025, Florida passed laws letting homeschooled teens work anytime and removed limits on hours and meal breaks for child workers. Florida’s Governor DeSantis said: “What’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time now? I mean, that’s how it used to be when I was growing up” (CNN, March 25, 2025).