About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

65 Tex. L. Rev. 1335 (1986-1987)
Farm Workers and the Fair Labor Standards Act: Racial Discrimination in the New Deal

handle is hein.journals/tlr65 and id is 1369 raw text is: Farm Workers and the Fair Labor Standards Act: Racial Discrimination in the New Deal Marc Linder* I. Introduction Farm workers' on large farms constitute the only numerically sig- nificant group of adult minimum-wage workers wholly excluded from the maximum hours and overtime provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)2 for a reason other than the size of the employing firm.3 The exclusion continues although this class of workers is urgently in need of governmental assistance. Farm workers constitute an extraordi- narily low paid stratum of the working class. For example, only forty- four percent of farm workers are legally entitled to the federal minimum wage of $3.35 per hour.4 Even among those covered by FLSA minimum wage legislation,5 nineteen percent nationally and thirty-four percent in the South were unlawfully paid less than the minimum wage in 1980.6 In addition, almost half of all farm workers entitled to the federal mini- mum-wage worked overtime hours but did not receive overtime pay.7 Overtime pay could increase weekly earnings by 13.7 percent.8 In ex- treme but hardly rare cases, some farm workers have worked in excess of * Attorney, Farm Worker Division, Texas Rural Legal Aid. B.A., University of Chicago, 1966; M.A. 1971, Ph.D. 1973, Princeton University; J.D. 1983, Harvard University. Robert Glover helped write a draft of Appendix A. Nancy Weiss, Larry Zacharias, Michael Perry, and Edward Still, Jr. read and criticized earlier versions of this Article. 1. Unless otherwise designated, farm workers means farm wage workers, farm laborers includes both farm wage workers and unpaid family members, and farmers includes owners, ten- ants, sharecroppers, and managers. 2. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, ch. 676, § 13, 52 Stat. 1060, 1067-68 (codified as amended at 29 U.S.C. § 213 (1982)). 3. See infra Appendix B. 4. See Holt, Elterich & Burton, Coverage and Exemptions ofAgricultural Employment Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, in 4 REPORT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE STUDY COMMISSION 377, 422 (1981) (table 5.5). 5. See 29 U.S.C. §§ 206, 213(a), (c), (g) (1982). 6. See Holt, Elterich & Burton, supra note 4, at 424-31 (presenting statistics from 1980). On tobacco farms the non-compliance rate reached 76.4 percent. See id. 7. See id. at 459, 461 (tables 8.6 and 8.8). 8. See id. at 463 (table 8.10). One of the original purposes of the FLSA, however, was to induce employers to hire more employees, thereby reducing the hours of each employee and the overtime premium payable. See, eg., Bay Ridge Operating Co. v. Aaron, 334 U.S. 446, 460 (1948); Walling v. Youngerman-Reynolds Hardwood Co., 325 U.S. 419, 423-24 (1945). 1335

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most