The FLSA and COBRA laws have been somewhat effective since they were passed. Consequently, with a change in labor workforce these laws need to be updated and revised to meet the current needs of our labor force. The Fair Labor Standards Act was imposed to get a handle on unemployment and help improve the standard of living for low paid employees. COBRA’s intent was to provide a health insurance coverage program which offers a means for workers and their families to continue to be covered by a temporary health insurance policy when a qualifying event happens in relation to their employment. Both the FLSA and COBRA laws are in need of reform.
The FLSA had many objectives. Congress theorized that the FLSA would create an economic incentive for employers to increase the size of their work force, thereby reducing the unemployment rate (Schor, 1991). Congress believed that requiring employers to pay overtime whenever an employee worked over forty hours in a work week would motivate employers to hire additional workers rather than pay overtime. Another goal of the FLSA was to mandate a fixed, fair minimum wage and a reasonable work week for industries where workers did not have sufficient bargaining power to attain fair working conditions and collective agreements. The FLSA was basically targeted at the unprotected and lowest paid working population in the United States. Since the FLSA has come into law it has created a web of laws, regulations, opinion letters and interpretative manuals that makes it act to follow.
Today’s labor force is much different than it was in 1938 when the FLSA came into law. There has been great difficulty in determining who is entitled to receive overtime pa ...