Second New Deal - works and welfare
After the initial series of reforms in his first 100 days, President Franklin D Roosevelt turned his attention away from short-term relief programmes to a more structural, long-term approach to solve the issues created by the Great Depression. He had faced some criticism for the approach he had previously taken from both left-wing and right-wing opponents. Therefore, he was determined to carve out a bigger role for the government in helping poorer people in society. He was working to be re-elected in 1936 and so he wanted more substantial, long-term changes to be put in place.
The reforms of the Second New Deal
| Government action | Impact of government action |
| 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act | This act enforced employment laws such as the minimum wage. It helped around 700,000 workers to get higher pay and enabled roughly 1.5 million people to work fewer hours each week. It also said that no industry should exploit child labour. |
| Farm Security Administration | This was designed to help sharecroppers – farmers who had to give a part of their produce to the owners of the land - and farm workers. It provided loans to enable these groups to buy their own land as well as money to improve farming techniques and machinery. Its goal was to improve living conditions in rural areas. |
| 1935 National Labour Relations Act | This act was also known as the Wagner Act. It allowed workers to join trade unions and gave them some protection from being treated unfairly by their employers. This included creating the National Labor Relations Board to protect workers from employers breaking employment laws. |
| 1935 Revenue Act | This act raised the highest rate of tax to 75 per cent for incomes greater than $5 million. It also raised taxes on business profits. |
| 1935 Social Security Act | Unlike most other modern industrial countries at the time, when the Depression first began America did not have a system of social security. This act provided pensions benefits for the elderly as well as small payments to groups including disabled people, the unemployed, widows and orphans. However, these payments were small and only covered a third of workers. There was nothing for farmers or people who worked in domestic service. |
| Works Progress Administration (WPA) | This agency set up schemes to create jobs in public building projects including roads, harbours and airports. It also created work for unemployed artists, writers and actors. Some of them put on free shows or wrote state guidebooks. The WPA became the country’s biggest employer, employing more than 8 million Americans over eight years. |
| Government action | 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act |
|---|---|
| Impact of government action | This act enforced employment laws such as the minimum wage. It helped around 700,000 workers to get higher pay and enabled roughly 1.5 million people to work fewer hours each week. It also said that no industry should exploit child labour. |
| Government action | Farm Security Administration |
|---|---|
| Impact of government action | This was designed to help sharecroppers – farmers who had to give a part of their produce to the owners of the land - and farm workers. It provided loans to enable these groups to buy their own land as well as money to improve farming techniques and machinery. Its goal was to improve living conditions in rural areas. |
| Government action | 1935 National Labour Relations Act |
|---|---|
| Impact of government action | This act was also known as the Wagner Act. It allowed workers to join trade unions and gave them some protection from being treated unfairly by their employers. This included creating the National Labor Relations Board to protect workers from employers breaking employment laws. |
| Government action | 1935 Revenue Act |
|---|---|
| Impact of government action | This act raised the highest rate of tax to 75 per cent for incomes greater than $5 million. It also raised taxes on business profits. |
| Government action | 1935 Social Security Act |
|---|---|
| Impact of government action | Unlike most other modern industrial countries at the time, when the Depression first began America did not have a system of social security. This act provided pensions benefits for the elderly as well as small payments to groups including disabled people, the unemployed, widows and orphans. However, these payments were small and only covered a third of workers. There was nothing for farmers or people who worked in domestic service. |
| Government action | Works Progress Administration (WPA) |
|---|---|
| Impact of government action | This agency set up schemes to create jobs in public building projects including roads, harbours and airports. It also created work for unemployed artists, writers and actors. Some of them put on free shows or wrote state guidebooks. The WPA became the country’s biggest employer, employing more than 8 million Americans over eight years. |
