Promise

Establish a federal minimum wage and maximum-hours standard

Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, creating a federal minimum wage and maximum-hours framework even though important exclusions limited the law's reach for many Black workers at the time.

President

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Status

Delivered

Topic

Workers / Wages / Economic Security

Actions

Outcomes

Impact Context

Documented outcome directions: Mixed.

Promise Text

Roosevelt pressed for national labor standards including a federal wage floor and maximum-hours rules to stabilize employment conditions during the Depression.

Evidence and Linked Records

Fair Labor Standards Act

Policy • Law

Pull Yourself Up by Your Bootstraps vs. Policy Reality

Explainer • Economic Opportunity

Share This Card

This page is meant to stand on its own. The link is stable and readable out of context.

Share to X Share to LinkedIn

https://equitystack.org/card/promise/roosevelt-establish-federal-minimum-wage-maximum-hours

Sources

Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: Maximum Struggle for a Minimum Wage

U.S. Department of Labor • Government

From Excluded to Essential: Tracing the Racist Exclusion of Farmworkers, Domestic Workers, and Tipped Workers from the Fair Labor Standards Act

U.S. House of Representatives • Government

History of Federal Minimum Wage Rates Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938 - 2009

U.S. Department of Labor • Government