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Efforts to Regulate Maximum Hours (Overtime) before The Fair Labor Standards Act

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1840: "The first attempt legally to regulate the working hours of men in the United States was the executive order of President Van Buren in 1840, stipulating a ten-hour day in government navy-yards."

(See: page 248, Principles of labor legislation, by John R. Commons and John B. Andrews. New York ; London : Harper and Brothers, 1920.)

1842: Massachusetts and Connecticut limited the maximum workday for children under the age of 12 to ten hours.

(See: page 30, Crusade for the children; a history of the National Child Labor Committee and child labor reform in America, by Walter I. Trattner. Chicago, Quadrangle Books, 1970.)

June 25, 1868: Congress provided that "eight hours shall constitute a day's work for all laborers, workmen, and mechanics who may be employed by or on behalf of the government of the United States."

(See: Pages 1343-4, Labor Laws of the United States: Second Special Report, 1896. See also: United States, Revised Statutes of 1878, Title 43, Section 3738.…Hours of Labor…Public works(b).)

1891: The Nebrska state legislature enacted a law "That eight hours shall constitute a legal day's work for all classes of mechanics, servants and laborers throughout the state of Nebraska, excepting those engaged in farm and domestic labor" and that "Any employer or corporation working their employes over the time specified in this act shall pay as extra compensation, double the amount per hour as paid for previous hour."

(See: Pages 97-98, Shorter hours ; a study of the movement since the civil war. Marion Cotter Cahill. New York, Columbia university press; London, P. S. King & son, ltd., 1932.)

June 6, 1894: In Low v. Rees Printing Co. (41 Neb. 127,59 N.W. 362), the Supreme Court of Nebraska overturened as unconstitutional the 1891 state law that established an eight hour day and overtime pay, First, because the discrimination against farm and domestic laborers is special legislation; second, because, by the act in question, the constitutional right of parties to contract with reference to compensation for services is denied.

(See: Low v. Rees Printing Co. (41 Neb. 127,59 N.W. 362, Supreme Court of Nebraska, June 6, 1894.)

May 8, 1895: The New York Bakeshop Act of 1895 set some sanitation standards for bakeries and provided that they could not employ their workers for more than 60 hours in any one week

(See: "Chapter 518, An Act to regulate the manufacture of flour and meal food products. Became a law May 2, 1895, with the approval of the Governor" on the Internet Archives, at https://ia800908.us.archive.org/14/items/367958-the-new-york-bakeshop-act-of-1895/367958-the-new-york-bakeshop-act-of-1895.pdf)

February 28, 1898: In Holden v. Hardy (69 U.S. 366), the Supreme Court approved a Utah law regulating the hours of labor for men working in mines.

April 17, 1905: In Lochner v. New York (198 U.S. 45), the Supreme Court ruled that The New York Bakeshop Act of 1895 was unconstitutional because of the provisions limiting the number of hours an employee could work. "Clean and wholesome bread does not depend upon whether the baker works but ten hours per day or only sixty hours a week. The limitation of the hours of labor does not come within the police power on that ground."

1907: "Excessive hours having been recognized as a factor in railroad accidents, both state and federal legislation was passed to change the situation. In 1907, by a law applicable to workers on interstate railroads, Congress set 16 as the maximum number of hours to be worked in one day and provided for adequate rest periods. (34 Stat. 1415 (1907), 45 U. S. C. §61 (1935))

(See: page 325 in "Regulation of Wages and Hours Prior to 1938" by Frank T. de Vyver. Law and Contemporary Problems Vol. 6, No. 3, (Summer, 1939), pp. 323-332.)

1907: Suffering from a sharp decline in revenue, and the effect of a major stock market collapse, Bethlehem Steel Company went from 7,110 workers to 5,703, and discontinued payment of time-and-a-half pay for overtime work.

(See: page 4, "The Bethlehem Steel Strike of 1910," by Robert Hessen. Labor History 15 (Winter 1974), 3-18.)

February 24, 1908: In Muller v. Oregon, (208 U.S. 412), the Supreme Court ruled that legislation limiting the hours of work for women did not violate the constitution, "even when like legislation is not necessary for men and could not be sustained."

February 3, 1910: After Bethlehem Steel Company recovered from the financial distress suffered in 1907, a three-man delegation of employees presented a request for resumption of payment of time-and-a-half pay for overtime work, and elimination of Sunday work. When the company fired the three-man delegation, employees began a strike that lasted 108-days. The strike failed.

(See: page 187, Our own time : a history of American labor and the working day, David R. Roediger and Philip S. Foner. London ; New York : Verso, 1989. See also: page 134, Steelworkers in America: The Nonunion Era, by David Brody. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1960.); “The Bethlehem Steel Strike of 1910,” by Robert Hessen. Labor History 15 (Winter 1974), 3-18.)

December 14, 1911: The Clerk read the bill (H. R. 9061) limiting the hours of daily service of laborers and mechanics employed upon work done for the United States, or for any Territory, or for the District of Columbia, and for other purposes…

(See: page 375 of the Congressional Record, Second Session of the Sixty-Second Congress, Volume 48, Part 2, available at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb/_crecb/Volume%20048%20(1912))

1912: A bill limiting the hours of work for women and children in New York factories to 54 hours a week was passed through the efforts of Frances Perkins, at that time a lobbyist for the National Consumer's League.

(See: pages 80-84 and 91-100, Madam Secretary, Frances Perkins, by George Martin. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1976.)

1912: After a 13-week general strike, about 9,000 furriers in New York City secured a 49-hour week and time-and-a-half overtime pay.³²

(See: page 185, Our own time : a history of American labor and the working day, David R. Roediger and Philip S. Foner. London ; New York : Verso, 1989. See also: pages 39-50, The fur and leather workers union, a story of dramatic struggles and achievements. Philip Sheldon Foner, Newark [N.J.] Nordan Press [1950]; and pages 361-65 Women and the American labor movement : from the first trade unions to the present, Philip S. Foner. New York : Free Press ; London : Collier Macmillan, c1982.)

February 8, 1912: "By Mr. AUSTIN: A bill (H. R. 19726) to further amend an act approved August 13, 1894, entitled "An act for the protection of persons furnishing materials and labor for the construction of public works," and for other purposes ; to the Committee on the Judiciary."

(See: page 1869 of the Congressional Record, Second Session of the Sixty-Second Congress, Volume 48, Part 2, available at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb/_crecb/Volume%20048%20(1912))

1913: The State of Oregon passed a law providing that "No person shall he employed in any mill, factory or manufacturing establishment in this State more than ten hours in any one day, except watchmen and employees when engaged in making necessary repairs, or in case of emergency, where life or property is in imminent danger; provided, however, employees may work overtime not to exceed three hours in any one day, conditioned that payment be made for said overtime at the rate of time and one-half of the regular wage," is construed as in purpose an hours of service law and as such is upheld as a valid health regulation. (NOTE: Underlining added)

(See: "Constitutional Amendments Adopted, and Laws Enacted by the People Upon Intitiative Petition and Referendum at the General Election Together with the General Laws and Joint Resolutions and Memorials Enacted and Adopted by the Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly 1913")

September 2, 1916: In 1916, at the insistence of President Wilson who sought to avert a strike, Congress provided for a basic 8-hour day for railroad trainmen with no reduction in wages. The bill (H.R. 17700) was introduced in the House on September 1, 1916, by William C. Adamson (D-GA).

(See: page 325 in "Regulation of Wages and Hours Prior to 1938" by Frank T. de Vyver. Law and Contemporary Problems. Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 323-332. Published By: Duke University School of Law. See also: Pages 195 to 198, Our own time : a history of American labor and the working day, David R. Roediger and Philip S. Foner. London ; New York : Verso, 1989.)

April 9, 1917: In Bunting v. Oregon (243 U.S. 426), the Supreme Court ruled that an Oregon law requiring payment of "overtime at the rate of time and one-half of the regular wage" to employees of mills, factories, and manaufacturing establishments was unconstitutional.

September 19, 1918: Congress approved the District of Columbia minimum-wage law (40 Stat. 960) guaranteeing a minimum wage to women and children employed in the District of Columbia.

1922: President Warren Harding "… invited 41 leaders of the steel industry to dinner at the White House and afterward gave them his blunt opinion that the twelve-hour day must go. As he wrote to one of the heads of the box baord industry, congratulating him for taking the step at which the steel industry still hesitated" … "the President expressed his opinion that "Nothing will contribute so much to American industrial stability and add so much to American industrial happiness as the abolition of the twelve-hour working day and the seven-day working week."

"Some of the steel tycoons objected to the President's interference, but they finally agreed to appoint a committee to consider a reductin of the workday "if, and when, practical." The committee after some months concluded that the twelve-hour day of itself had not injured their employees, "physically, mentally, or morally," and that it could not even be said that it denied the worker enough time with his family. To abolish it would dislocate the industry, raise the cost of steel production 15 per cent, and require 60,000 additional and unavailable employees." .

(See: pages 552-553, President Harding : his life and times, 1865-1923. Francis Russell. London : Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1969.)

November 1929: "After the stock market crash, President Hoover sought to prevent panic from spreading throughout the economy. In November, he summoned business leaders to the White House and secured promises from them to maintain wages. According to Hoover’s economic theory, financial losses should affect profits, not employment, thus maintaining consumer spending and shortening the downturn. Hoover received commitments from private industry to spend $1.8 billion for new construction and repairs to be started in 1930, to stimulate employment."

1930: President Hoover established the President's Emergency Committee for Employment, which encouraged employers to spread employment by shortening the work week.

(See: "The Great Depression" on the Herbert Hoover Presidential Museum, at https://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/great-depression#:~:text=The%20Great%20Depression%202022%20The%20Herbert%20Hoover%20Presidential,the%20public%20Monday%20through%20Friday%2C%209%3A00-12%3A00%2C%20and%2012%3A30-4%3A15. See also: Page 99, From new era to New Deal : Herbert Hoover, the economists, and American economic policy, 1921-1933 , by William J. Barber. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1985.)

December 31, 1930: In a critique of the policy of President Hoover to resist action by the federal government to deal with the problem of unemployment by relying on voluntary organization and community spirit economist Sumner H. Slichter wrote that The most generous contributions seem to come from the less well-to-do rather than the more wealthy. In many railroad shops, on the Baltimore and Ohio, or the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville, and on other roads, the men for months have voluntarily been working five days a week instead of six in order to provide jobs for more workers. … The senior employees in these shops, therefore, are contributing one day's pay a week, one-sixth of their income, to the relief of unemployment. This is being done by men who receive eighty cents an hour or less. How many millionaires, or men receiving $5,000 or $10,000 a year, are contributing one-sixth of their incomes to unemployment relief? He also noted that In 1921, corporations engaged in manufacturing, according to the estimates of the Bureau, experienced net losses of approximately $101,000,000. Nevertheless, in this year they paid dividends on their common stock of over a billion dollars. In order to meet the emergency caused by the depression they reduced their wage payments about 39 percent below 1920. But they found it necessary to reduce dividends on common stock only 12 percent.

(See: Doles for Employers by Sumner H. Slichter. The New Republic. 65 (December 31, 1930) 181-183.)

1931: As late as 1931 the AFL executive council in reporting to the annual convention recommended that it oppose a federal constitutional amendment then pending in the House which would give power to Congress “to reduce the number of hours of service per day for which contracts for employment may be lawfully made.”

(See: page 199, Labor and the New Deal, edited by Milton Derber and Edwin Young. Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1957.)

1931: As one of his strategies to end the Great Depression President Hoover promoted a "Share-The-Work" initiative to build "public acceptance of the soundness of work-sharing as an emergency measure to relieve unemployment" by "dividing up time, to make possible the hiring of many more." In November, 1932, Walter Teagle, Chairman of the Share-The-Work Committee, secured endorsements from both Roosevelt and Hoover for this initiative.

(See: pages 168 to 173, The origins of the National Recovery Administration : business, government, and the trade association issue, 1921-1933, by Robert F. Himmelberg. New York : Fordham University Press, 1976.)

December, 1931: In the Federationist for December, 1931, Green estimated that a universal thirty-five-hour week would absorb the unemployed; by August, 1932, he estimated that it would take a thirty-hour week. But attempts to obtain shorter hours without legislation were bearing little or no fruit. In fact, in some industries and plants, hours were increasing. In July, 1932, the executive council appealed to President Hoover to call a conference of representatives of all industries and of labor to devise “ways and means by which the five-day week could be universally applied in the U.S.” However, the President took no such action.

(See: page 200, Labor and the New Deal, edited by Milton Derber and Edwin Young. Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1957.) American Federation of Labor, Proceedings, 1932, p. 291.

1932-1933: In the steel industry, which tried to retain their skilled employees by reducing the number of hours worked each week without increasing their hourly rate of pay, the earnings of the average worker was estimated to have been half of that required to provide a "minimum heralth and decency" for a family of four."

(See: page 16, Bernanke, Ben S."Employment, Hours, and Earnings in the Drpression: An Analysis of Eight Manufacturing Industries," American Economic Review, Vol. 76 , No. 1, pp. 82-109, March 1986.)

February 17, 1932: William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), advocated that “The principle of relating the number needing jobs to the total number of man-hours of work available should be permanently incorporated in national policy and business procedure.

(See: page 245, Our own time : a history of American labor and the working day, David R. Roediger and Philip S. Foner. London ; New York : Verso, 1989.)

December 21, 1932: Senator Hugo Black introduced a bill (S. 5267) limiting employment to no more than five days per week or six hours per day. Although it was approved by the Senate, Congress adjourned without passing it. The bill read:

Be it enacted, etc., That no article or commodity shall be shipped, transported, or delivered in interstate or foreign commerce which was produced or manufactured in any mine, quarry, mill, cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment situated in the United States in which any person was employed or permitted. to work more than five days in any week or more than six hours in any day: Provided, That this section shall not apply to commodities or articles produced or manufactured before the enactment of this law.

SEC. 2. Any person who ships, transports, or delivers, or causes to be shipped, transported, or delivered in interstate commerce, any commodities or articles contrary to the provisions of section 1 of this act shall be punished by a fine of not less than $200 or by imprisonment for not more than three months, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

(See: page 820 of the Congressional Record, Seventy-Second Congress, Second Session, Volume 76, Part 1, available at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb/_crecb/Volume%20076%20(1933)/GPO-CRECB-1933-pt1-v76. See also: Page 248, Our own time : a history of American labor and the working day, David R. Roediger and Philip S. Foner. London ; New York : Verso, 1989.)

April 6, 1933: The Senate passed S. 158, a bill to prevent interstate commerce in certain commodities and articles produced or manufactured in industrial activities in which persons are employed more than 5 days per week or 6 hours per day.

(See: page 1350 of the Congressional Record, Seventy-Second Congress, First Session, Volume 77, Part 2, available at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb/_crecb/Volume%20077%20(1933)/GPO-CRECB-1933-pt2-v77).)

June 16, 1933: President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Recovery Act (Pub.L. 73–67, 48 Stat. 195).

The law contained provisions relating to minimum wages and maximum hours of labor:

"SEC. 7. (a) Every code of fair competition, agreement, and license approved, prescribed, or issued under this title shall contain the following conditions: (1) That employees shall have the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and shall be free from the interference restraint, or coercion of employers of labor, or their agents, in the designation of such representatives or in self-organization or in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection; (2) that no employee and no one seeking employment shall be required as a condition of employment to join any company union or to refrain from joining, organizing, or assisting a labor organization of his own choosing; and (3) that employers shall comply with the maximum hours of labor, minimum rates of pay, and. other conditions of employment, approved or. prescribed by the President." [NOTE: Underlining added]

"SEC. 7. (b) The President shall, so far as practicable, afford every opportunity to employers and employees in any trade or industry or subdivision thereof with respect to which the conditions referred to in clauses (1) and (2) of subsection (a) prevail, to establish by mutual agreement, the standards as to the maximum hours of labor, minimum rates of pay, and such other conditions of employment as may be necessary in such trade or industry or subdivision thereof to effectuate the policy of this title; and the standards established in such agreements, when approved by the President, shall have the same effect as a code of fair competition, approved by the President under subsection (a) of section 3." [NOTE: Underlining added]

"SEC. 7. (c) Where no such mutual agreement has been approved by the President he may investigate the labor practices, policies, wages, hours of labor, and conditions of employment in such trade or industry or subdivision thereof; and upon the basis of such investigations, and after such hearings as the President finds advisable, he is authorized to prescribe a limited code of fair competition fixing such maximum hours of labor, minimum rates of pay, and other conditions of employment in the trade or industry or subdivision thereof investigated as he finds to be necessary to effectuate the policy of this title, which shall have the same effect as a code of fair competition approved by the President under subsection (a) of section 3. The President may differentiate according to experience and skill of the employees affected and according to the locality of employment; but no attempt shall be made to introduce any classification according to the nature of the work involved which might tend to set a maximum as well as a minimum wage." [NOTE: Underlining added]

"SEC. 206. All contracts let for construction projects and all loans and grants pursuant to this title shall contain such provisions as are necessary to insure …(2) that (except in executive, administrative, and supervisory positions), so far as practicable and feasible, no individual directly employed on any such project shall be permitted to work more than thirty hours in anyone week; (3) that all employees shall be paid just and reasonable wages which shall be compensation sufficient to provide, for the hours of labor as limited, a standard of living in decency and comfort;…. [NOTE: Underlining added]

(See https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/national-industrial-recovery-act. See also: )

August 10, 1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6246, requiring government contractors to comply with codes of fair competition issued under the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). This became moot when the Supreme Court struck down the NIRA in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935).

March, 1935: An analysis of several hundred industrial codes adopted under the National Industrial Recovery Act, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, found that in general the codes provided for a maximum working week of 40 hours in productive industries, and compensation for overtime work at rates of 1^1/3 to 1^1/2 the regular hourly pay.

(See: Page 574 in "Analysis of the Labor Provisions of N. R. A. Codes" by Margaret H. Schoenfeld. Monthly Labor Review.Vol. 40, No. 3 (March 1935), pp. 574-603 (30 pages)

May 27, 1935: In Schechter Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495), the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the National Recovery Act was unconstitutional.

June 30, 1936: President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act (PCA) (Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, 49 Stat. 2036) (41 USC §§6501-6511) passed. It established minimum wage, maximum hours, and safety and health standards for work on contracts in excess of $15,000 for the manufacturing or furnishing of materials, supplies, articles, or equipment to the U.S. government or the District of Columbia. All provisions of the PCA are administered by the Wage and Hour Division except the safety and health requirements, which are administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

February 5, 1937: President Franklin Roosevelt unveiled the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, which is generally referred to as the "court-packing plan"

May 24, 1937: The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1937 was introduced in Congress as S. 2475 in the Senate, and H.R. 7200 in the House of Representatives.

June 25, 1938: The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) was passed by Congress and signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

October 24, 1938: The Fair Labor Standards Act went into effect.

February 3, 1941: In United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100 (1941), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Fair Labor Standards Act was "within the authority of Congress within the commerce power and consistent with the Fifth and Tenth Amendments."

(See: "United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100 (1941)" at https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/312/100/)

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