Minimum wage legislation

Front matter

MEW YORK STATE FACTORY INVESTIGATING COMMISSION

Minimum Wage Legislation

IRENE OSGOOD ANDREWS,

Preface

Americans have long been accustomed to the legal protection of industrial employees in the matter of hours of labor, safety and sanitation in work places, the protection of the wage contract, ther s tton t regulation to cover the rate of wages paid to women and minors in private employments did not occur in this country until 1912, in Massachusetts. Since that year eight additional states have enacted minimum wage laws. The novelty of this kind of legislation and its widespread popularity have created a persistent demand for information on the subject.

It is the aim of the following report to present in brief and convenient form the main facts concerning the enactment and operation of minimum wage laws in this country as well as in foreign countries where the acts are similar in purpose to our American legislation on this subject.

It is not the aim of this report to discuss the economic aspects of the legal minimum wage. But included in one section are a few of the more important representative opinions concerning the actual operation and effect of minimum wage laws in those countries where they have been in operation sufficiently long to produce measurable results.

For the convenience of students of the subject there are also reprinted, as an appendix, the minimum wage laws of this country, of Victoria and of Great Britain. A select critical bibliography is added for the purpose of indicating a few of the most helpful and most readily available publications on the subject of the minimum wage.

I. O. A.