The Law That Lets Obama Demagogue Overtime Pay And Puts The Squeeze On Oregon Berry Farmers

Forbes ^ | March 18, 2014 | George Leef

[reaganaut1]

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was passed in 1938, one of those statist measures that FDR and his allies said were necessary to combat the Depression. It is the law that puts federal politicians and especially bureaucrats in the Department of Labor in charge of key aspects of labor contracts, including the minimum wage and mandatory overtime pay.

Lately, the FLSA has gotten itself into the news. Obama insists on raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour, but that’s rather old news. Last week, he declared that the Labor Department would revise the rules on overtime pay so that more employees would qualify for the time and a half rate if they work over 40 hours in a week. That move is nothing but election-year grandstanding meant to help keep alive the fiction that the Democrats are the party of “the little guy.”

[Foundahardheadedwoman]

Seems like I wake up in a new world everyday.

[Rusty0604]

I agree the FLSA is unconstitutional and totally unnecessary. The labor unions are the ones pushing the overtime and the raise in minimum wage will increase their member’s wages as most of them are scaled accordingly.

[AZLiberty]

Obama, keep your hands off my berries!

[xzins]

Every increase in pay brings closer those berry picking machines. I’ve seen the grape picking machines. Maybe there already are berry pickers, but I haven’t seen them.

It is too easy to shuffle hours to keep the salaried from getting over 39 hours. And when that happens, there’s no reason for some of the salaried to be on salaries.

Obama has hurt the salaried, not helped them.

In fact, every increase in salary brings closer those MacSandwich Machines. Drive up window, swipe your card, touchscreen your order, drive to the next window and pick it up off the conveyor delivery system.

[Amendment10]

It is the law that puts federal politicians and especially bureaucrats in the Department of Labor in charge of key aspects of labor contracts, including the minimum wage and mandatory overtime pay.

As a consequence of parents not making sure that their children are taught about the federal government's constitutionally limined powers, please consider the following.

With the exception of the federal entities indicated in the Constitution's Clauses 16 & 17 of Section 8 of Article I as examples, entities under the exclusive legislative control of Congress, the states have never delegated to Congress, via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate national minimum wage or overtime rates for intrastate labor. The states uniquely have the 10th Amendment power to regulate such wages imo.

But what's been actually happening is this. Federal politicians, who are evidently as constitutionally ignorant as the people who have been electing them, have been exploiting low-information voters in order to win votes since before the time of Constitution-ignoring socialist FDR. One way that they've been doing so is by making promises of higher federal minimum wage without having the constitutional authority to address minimum wage.

Note that there is nothing stopping the states from amending the Constitution to grant Congress the specific power to establish and regulate a national minimum wage should the states decide that doing so is the best approach to addressing minimum wage issues.