Hearing of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Workforce Committee - Reviewing the Rules and Regulations Implementing Federal Wage and Hour Standards

Hearing

Chairman Walberg, thank you for holding this hearing today
and giving us an opportunity to talk about the Fair Labor Standards
Act.

Later this month marks 77 years since this landmark law was
passed. The Fair Labor Standards Act was passed in a time when
workers simply were not valued. Women, children, immigrants,
people of color--all were exploited and made to work unreasonably
long hours for starvation wages.

Since its passage, FLSA has been a powerful tool in helping
workers assert their rights to fair wages and reasonable hours. Since
FLSA was passed, Congress has made the necessary updates to
ensure that the law continues to protect workers. Congress must
continue with this legacy and update FLSA to reflect current
economic and employment realities.

Because the reality is that this country is facing a dire income
inequality problem. In the last 40 years, hourly pay for the average
worker has increased 9%, while worker productivity has increased
almost 75%. At the same time, top earners have seen astronomical
increases in pay. The looming problem of income inequality
threatens to gut our middle class, create a permanent underclass,
and dismantle the American dream of building economic wealth and
financial stability.

This problem not only hurts the individual, but the American
economy as a whole. When less and less money goes to low and
middle income workers, less and less money is spent in our
consumer based economy. Less money spent on goods and services
means fewer jobs. Fewer jobs mean fewer Americans working and
contributing to our tax base. It is vicious cycle that ends in economic
turmoil and despair for millions of Americans.

We must address the issue of income inequality and we must
do it now. We do that by strengthening FLSA with much needed
updates.

We must update FLSA by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act to
strengthen equal pay protections. We can no longer devalue the
contributions our daughters, sisters, and wives make to our
economy.

We must update FLSA by passing the Raise the Wage Act to
raise the minimum wage. We can no longer insist that people pull
themselves up by their bootstraps when they make the poverty
wages that ensure they will never be able to stay afloat, let alone get
ahead.

We must update FLSA by modernizing the salary thresholds for
overtime workers. We can no longer pretend that workers who toil
60 or more hours a week and take home $23,660 a year are paid fair
wages.

We must update FLSA by expanding overtime and minimum
wage protections to home health care workers. We can no longer
justify depriving them of these basic protections while entrusting
them to care for our aging parents and disabled family members.

Just as we must update the FLSA, we must, for the sake of
income equality, be weary of rolling back its protections.

We cannot support efforts to strip workers of their overtime
pay no matter what form it takes, no matter how good the
intentions. Eroding workers' rights to overtime pay will put us back
to the days where the economically vulnerable workers faced the
illusory choice between working for far less than their worth or not
working at all.

Labor laws like FLSA were passed for a reason--to protect
workers. I look forward to hearing from the witnesses and what we
can do to strengthen FLSA and to continue to protect workers.

Thank you

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