A Study on the Legal Issues Concerning the Working Hours of White-Collar Workers in the United States -and its Implications for Article 84-1 in the Labor Standards Act of Taiwan
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Lee, Yu-Chun
Abstract
At the rise of the service industry, the working hours of white-collar workers has become an emergent issue. Considering this, the most important issue is how to strike a balance between operational elasticity for employers and the protection of labor rights. To respond to this problem, this thesis aims to provide some inspirations and reflections for the legal system regulating the working hours of white-collar workers in Taiwan, by conducting research on the corresponding legal system in the United States. Chapter 1 introduces the motivation and structure of this thesis. Chapter 2 provides an elaboration on the “White-collar exemption” clause in the United States, of which the main purpose is to exclude the overtime pay regulated by the Fair Labor Standards Act. In addition, the exemption provides criteria for deciding the characterization of the white-collar. In order to be qualified as a white-collar, a labor must pass three tests sequentially: the salary basis test, the salary level test and the duty test. Based on the white-collar identity, Chapter 3 furthermore studies its working hour issues. After the above research on the regulation in the United States, Chapter 4 focuses on the “Supervisory, administrative workers, and professional workers with designated responsibility” in Article 84-1 in the Labor Standards Act of Taiwan, discussing the criteria and working hour standards for workers in this category. Finally, conclusion is derived through a comparison between Taiwan and the United States in Chapter 5: As for the criteria and work hour of the white-collar, the United States exercises high degree of intervention from the public power for the former, while the latter mostly relies upon private autonomy. On the other hand, Taiwan administers high degree of intervention from the public power on both of the above-mentioned aspects. Based on this difference, the pros and cons of the work-hour systems of the two countries can be generated. The system in the United States has enough flexibility to adjust the working condition for the white-collar workers, while having more difficulty to ensure appropriate interest distribution between employers and laborers nowadays. The system in Taiwan gives laborers more protection, while being confined in the legal framework of working hours restrictions, which results in a lack of flexibility. In view of this, how do the public power design a framework of regulation, in which enough protection and flexibility can be provided to help laborers shape working hours conditions through private autonomy? This can be an issue worth studying in the future.
Subjects
White-collar
Working hours
White-collar exemption
Article 84-1 in the Labor Standards Act
Supervisor and administrative workers
Professional workers with designated responsibility
Overtime
SDGs
Type
thesis
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