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The article presents comments to Tobin and Ross' paper "Reply to Gordon Tullock" in the May 1972 issue of this journal. The author finds problems with the authors' idea to fund the government through taxing wages. Another problem is the assumption that workers are more interested in relative wages than absolute wages and the proposition that continuing inflation is needed in order to maintain full employment. A graph is provided that measures the rates of change of prices and unemployment in a hypothetical situation.

In the January 1964 issue of this journal, Professors Maurice C. Benewitz and Robert E. Weintraub calculated the loss in employment within New York City which would follow an increase of the minimum wage to $1.50 from $1.15 per hour. They utilized a very interesting technique; namely, the Cobb-Douglas function. I think these calculations do not, however, present an accurate picture of the actual employment loss which would follow increase in the minimum wage because: (1) their use of the Cobb-Douglas function is improper; (2) assumptions adopted in their study are questionable. This ingenious article fails to provide a reasonably accurate measure of job loss from an increase in the minimum New York City wage to $1.50 per hour due to: (1) failure to make proper use of the Cobb-Douglas function; (2) insufficient analysis of the effect of increase in minimum wage to $1.50 on those already earning $1.50 and up initially; (3) the assumption that product prices do not rise, unlikely to be true for retailing and services; (4) failure to analyze effect of increase in minimum wage on migration of business and jobs out of the city. The general techniques used may, however, be considered one cornerstone of future attempts to measure loss of jobs due to legally imposed business cost increases. Some other cornerstones would be: wage structure analysis, product supply function elasticity analysis, product demand function elasticity analysis, analysis of the time pattern of business migration response to local cost increases.

This paper presents a response by John M. Peterson to comments on his article regarding employment effects of minimum wages in the U.S. The author points out that no attempt was made to explain the results among females with high and low minimums. He argues that Richard A. Lester cannot use the recession to account for the less favorable employment changes for women than men. The author stresses that his article remains unaffected by Lester's observations.

Studies of the employment effects of minimum wage laws have generally been interpreted as showing no relationship between the increases in wages and subsequent changes in employment of the groups affected. Using the data from three leading studies often cited in support of this conclusion, the author of this article argues that the employment effects have not only been significantly related to the minimum wage orders but also that they have been consistent with the assumption of a negatively inclined demand curve for labor. He concludes from his re-examination of the data that, with reference to wage-employment problems, orthodox wage theory deserves more respect than it has been granted by many economists and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inherent in the ideal of the union as a voluntary organization whose sole function is promotion of the welfare of its worker-members is the concept that its government and operations should be democratic. Much of the criticism of unions involves allegations about their lack of democracy. In the United States, matters of internal government have largely been left to the conscience and control of the unions themselves. In Australia, in contrast, the government, through the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, has attempted to insure democratic union behavior through direct and rather detailed regulation. This article reviews the Australian experience, especially in reference to union elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The market structure of building construction makes the industry unique in the business scene. As a result, so too is the role of the principal union official in the building trades—the business agent. This study, based on first-hand observation of the business agent at work, describes his daily activities, analyzes his relations with workers and employers, and examines the meaning of his job to the business agent as a person. Comparisons are made with the situation of officers in local industrial unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various current union proposals for a guaranteed annual wage assume that, during periods of unemployment, employees covered by the guarantee will be eligible for benefits under state unemployment compensation laws. Some of the legislative and administrative implications of this assumption are discussed in this paper by William Papier who is director of the Division of Research and Statistics of the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation of the State of Ohio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equally as old as the study of economics is the question, Can economists supply definite and useful answers to the practical problems confronting administrators? In a discussion of the variety and complexity of issues arising in the seemingly simple matter of setting a minimum wage for a small processing industry, Professor Rottenberg indicates the usefulness and limitations of economic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of union bargaining upon occupational wage relationships is an issue on which there is divergence of opinion among labor economists. Does collective bargaining tend to narrow differences in wages among workers of different skills? What are the attitudes of workers — do they desire or oppose such differentials? Pacific Coast longshoring furnishes an interesting example of an industry where occupational wage differences are virtually nonexistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article comments on the findings of the report released by Murray Latimer and colleagues on guaranteed wages in the U.S. in 1947. The report, which proposes the extension of the wage plan, does not consider guaranteed wages as a solution to unemployment. The report also recommends that a maximum work week be established through collective bargaining. Included in the discussion was the relationship of guaranteed wages to unemployment compensation. In concluding this aspect of the report, it was said that the adoption of wage plans would be ineffective in case of the adoption of supplementation.

The article focuses on the labour movement in New York, supporting the minimum-wage legislation, during the years 1933 to 1937. Minimum-wage legislation failed to gain widespread acceptance until the New Deal in the U.S. When the depression hit, workers had little or no protection against the vicious wage cutting which swept the country. New York not only became the first state to adopt a wage law during this period, but it also initiated a test of the measure's constitutionality. For decades the National Consumers' League (NCL) led the campaign for minimum wages throughout the country. In 1923, a ruling by the Supreme Court halted the initial campaign for this reform. NCL efforts in the preceding decade had brought passage of minimum-wage laws in fifteen states and the District of Columbia. The depression revived interest in minimum wages, since massive unemployment gave businessmen the opportunity to exploit helpless workers by drastically reducing wages. Although the cost of living fell

This article examines some aspects of economic adjustment through migration flows. The authors are concerned with a contrasting case, the case in which it is assumed that there is no trade in goods, but that labor is internationally mobile and moves in response to wage differentials. Interest in this case is generated by the fact that while population movements are of obvious quantitative importance in the real world, their implications for economic adjustment often have not been systematically taken into account. The authors are able to consider not only the direct effect on migration flows of influences such as changes in relative wages or changes in the age structure of the population, whatever their cause, but also to analyze the impact of migration on the productive capacities and income levels of the migrant-receiving and migrant-losing countries, and hence on the course of future migration.

The article discusses the trends in real wages in England from 1750 to 1850. It is simply an attempt to consider as much as possible of the whole body of wage and price material currently available in print, and to examine the extent to which generalization from it is possible. The problem remains to determine whether and to what extent workers benefited or suffered materially from the economic changes of the first stages of the Industrial Revolution. To do this it seems imperative to take an initial terminal point immediately before the first significant changes occurred. Somewhere in the middle of the eighteenth century seems suitable for this, particularly since the third quarter of the century witnessed the beginning of the long price rise of the later eighteenth century that in itself is one of the causes of the historians' difficulties. There is, however, some agreement between historians that real wages were rising all round from the late 1840's onwards; and since the object of this survey is to attempt to resolve controversy, there is a strong case for carrying on to the point at which controversy ceases, namely the late 1840's.

This article presents the topic of three states in the United States, New York, California and West Virginia, which have decreased the costs of welfare. The author lists the people who are eligible for public assistance, including those over sixty-five who have not yet qualified for their retirement funds, blind people and orphans. The author examines the programs that help people get back to work and have increased the minimum wage.

Discusses issues concerning the minimum wage laws in the U.S. Need to educate the public about the law of demand relating to labour; Information on the theory of economist Frank G. Steindl; Discussion of the Downsian economics of politics.

Two recent papers [5, 6] developed a theory of input demand for a firm that is a monopsonist in hiring some factors of production. The object of this paper is to extend the analysis to some important aspects of the theory of monopsony not covered by those or by any other papers. Specifically, this paper rigorously examines within the mathematical model of monopsony the effect upon cost, output, and input usage of a minimum wage imposed upon the monopsonized factor of production.
This paper has extended the standard textbook analysis of monopsony and minimum wage to the general case in which ail factors are variable. The investigation confirms the simple graphical result previously obtained: despite the potential counter effects of displacements in other markets (factor or commodity), a minimum wage imposed upon a monopsonized factor must increase the usage of that factor. The minimum wage will also have an effect upon output and therefore cost. One contribution of the paper is to show that equilibrium profit-maximizing output will decline unless the monopsonized factor is inferior. In the latter case, equilibrium output will increase. In most cases, the results have confirmed the standard analysis. A primary result has been the isolation of the forces that affect the magnitude of the changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on developments in industrial relations in the U.S. as of November 1973. Innovations at Chrysler Corp.; President Richard Nixon's veto on a bill on higher minimum wage; Pay raise for U.S. Federal white-collar and military personnel; AFL-CIO reorganization proposal; Death of Electrical Workers founder James Carey.

The article focuses on labor market that presents a paradox that relates to a very large, almost ominous, problem over which the whole society is beginning to brood. Simply put, researchers now have a swelling pool of unused unskilled workers for whom there is a shrinking need. Yet, the labor demand that agriculture has most difficulty filling is that for unskilled or low-skilled workers. Add to this the fact that some of the most difficult and least desired physical work left in the U.S. is the stooped labor on farms, and that this work remains the least rewarding to the worker. Poverty caused by low earnings and underemployment is but one aspect of the farm workers' plight. There is also the fact that the relative educational disadvantage of the farm laborer has increased since 1940. The educational attainment of male farm laborers did not increase from 1940 to 1950 or from 1950 to 1959, periods during which there were marked increases for other workers. Much of the unemployment experienced by the farm worker is due to the lack of education that would enable him to qualify for off-season employment. The high positive relationship known to exist between the educational level of parents and the educational attainment of children plus low annual earnings forecast that children from farm labor families will not go to school as much as other children, and thus the cycle of poverty encoils an unborn generation. An evaluation of the impact "automation" has had, and probably will continue to have, on the society can be seen in agriculture--if the tag-name "automation" can be used to designate all forms of technological progression, including mechanization and improved resource allocations, as well as the more sophisticated electronic control and computation devices.

The article presents a discussion on guaranteed wages and employment in the U.S. The guaranteed wage involves three major ideas. First, it is a method of payment; the emphasis generally laid on the hourly rate and to a somewhat lesser extent on the daily and weekly rate is shifted to a rate measured in terms of a substantial number of weeks, months or even a full year. Secondly, it implies the idea of a minimum wage which assumes that a base income sufficient to meet at least subsistence should be paid. Finally, the concept implies the guarantee of employment for a certain period. A guaranteed wage can be best applied, when it is least needed; and when it is most needed, it can be least applied. It appears to be broadly true that highly skilled workers, key workers, maintenance men, and those with high seniority ranking often do not need the guarantee, but it is easiest to give it to them. Guaranteed wages are not a cure for a business cycle depression. They do help to transfer existing social and economic burdens by sharing them between employed and unemployed, but at the same time they may increase the total burden.

The minimum-wage movement on the state level followed a meteoric course in the early twentieth century. In 1911 Wisconsin lawmakers introduced the first bill. The next year Massachusetts became the first state to enact a minimum-wage law for women and children. With some variation eight states had copied Massachusetts by 1913. While New York did not pass such a law, the New York State Factory Investigating Commission (1911-1915) wrote an important chapter in the broader story of the minimum-wage drive during the Progressive Era. Its investigation into wages continued to influence the minimum-wage movement at both the state and national levels, through the 1930s. In the United States progressives restricted their proposals to women and minors because of the tenuous constitutionality of minimum-wage statutes. Opponents of minimum-wage laws would certainly challenge them in the courts as a denial of property rights and, hence, interference with individual liberty. The initial impetus for the minimum-wage movement came from the Consumers' League. Its leaders had urged merchants voluntarily to apply minimum rates to female employees during the 1890's. By 1913 the reformers' drive led to investigations that had successfully persuaded the legislators in nine states to establish minimum-wage acts. The statutes varied. Reformers had not neglected New York. In their early campaigns for voluntary action, Consumers' League leaders had pressured New York. Nationally, the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (F.L.S.A.) crowned the minimum-wage movement. Congress passed this law as a result of the 1935 Supreme Court decision against the N.I.R.A. It provided for flat minimum-wage rates, originally 25 cents an hour, but to go up to 40 cents in seven years.

The article focuses on the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the child-labor legislation in the U.S. One of the lesser-known legislative activities of AFL during the first quarter of the century was its involvement in what amounted to a nation-wide campaign for child-labor legislation. While AFL was quite active legislatively throughout the first half-century or so of its existence, child-labor legislation represents a significant episode for several reasons. First, AFL either decided or was forced to shift its tactics and thinking several times. Second, quite in contrast with most of its legislative efforts, the Federation accomplished absolutely nothing in this case. Finally, in pursuing its child-labor goals, AFL got involved in a cooperative effort with a variety of non-labor groups who were also attempting to effect legislative change in the area. The paper describes the Federation's attempts to obtain some type of federal or state statutes limiting hours of work as well as measures limiting the employment of and providing minimum wages for children.

It was in the seventh year of the Chief Justiceship of Charles Evans Hughes that the Supreme Court of the United States gave up the fifty-year fight, which it had been waging intermittently against social and economic reform. The culmination of the Court's campaign came in 1935 and 1936 when, in a little more than twelve months, the high tribunal smashed much of the New Deal program. The Court's final attempt to protect business against government regulation came on June 1, 1936, when it overturned a New York minimum-wage law for women and children. Within twelve months, the Supreme Court surrendered to the New Deal. The judicial bastion of laissez-faire economics crumbled before the concept of governmental responsibility for the state of the economy and the welfare of the people. Central to this change was Justice Owen J. Roberts. Carrying his majority-making ballot like a white flag of truce, Roberts switched from the conservative to the liberal bloc of the Court. State minimum-wage legislation was the focal point of the Court's conversion from an opponent into a supporter of social and economic reform.

The article discusses on several recent court cases. Constitutionality of New York minimum wage law for women. According to the New York Minimum Wage Law it is defined an unreasonable and oppressive wage as one which is less than either the fair value of the employee's services or the cost of living, and declares that the payment of such a wage is against public policy. It further provides that, if such an oppressive wage is found to exist in a given industry, the wage board shall set a minimum fair wage rate.

The article focuses on the legislation related to the judiciality of minimum wage. Minimum wage legislation has been of two main kinds. One is the Massachusetts variety which vests a commission with power to make inquiries and publish results. Employers are exposed to public knowledge of the wages paid and are thereby subjected to public censure or public praise. Sentiments of decency or of vanity may move the niggardly to mend their ways, but the recalcitrant are left free to bargain as they can and will. The other type of legislation adds physical to moral force. A commission is authorized to discover and to declare the minimum cost of decent subsistence and on this basis to prescribe the minimum wage that may be paid to women and minors. Employment at less than the prescribed wage subjects the employer to punishment.

The article discusses the setting of a living wage policy during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Australia and the history of federal intervention in economic and social matters. A range of laws enacted by colonial, state, and Commonwealth governments to regulate wages and working conditions in the private sector between 1890 and 1910 are examined. How these early regulations reflect the importance of fixing minimum wages and forms the basis for current wage-fixing procedures is explored. The establishment and enforcement of the 'Seven Shillings a Day’ living wage standard for unskilled labor is detailed.

The article presents abstracts of papers about manpower policy. They include "Toward a Modern Minimum Wage," "Computer Job Matching: How and How Well," and "Manpower and Employment Policy, Government Against Poverty."

This article reviews the minimum wage theory and its operations in Texas. The industrial society in the U.S. is founded upon private property and freedom of enterprise. Society relies largely upon competition to regulate industry in the interest of all. Women and children are more apt to be exploited by such employers than any others. They constitute the least mobile portion of the labor supply. Meanwhile, minimum wage legislation originated and has had its development among English speaking people. The first minimum wage law was tried in the British possessions of the Pacific about a quarter century ago. The first organized movement for a minimum wage in the U.S. began under the leadership of the National Consumers League. Furthermore, Massachusetts took the lead in minimum wage legislation. A minimum wage law for women and minors in Texas was passed by the Legislature on March 12, 1919 and became effective June 18, 1919. The effects of the enforcement of a minimum wage in Texas will be very much those that have been and are being realized in other states which are enforcing such measures. First there will be a tendency of the women in the trades regulated to organize. A second result will be the lowering of the wages of some who now receive more than a minimum wage. Moreover, some forms of business in competition with establishments in other states which have no minimum wage laws, would find themselves harder put to it to meet with success their competitors in the market.

The article examines several cases presented to the courts which dealt with the right of the state or of a municipality to regulate conditions of employment on municipal public works. The Court of Appeals of New York, in a case before it in 1903, held a state of law to be unconstitutional which prohibited persons or corporations contracting with the state or a municipality from requiring more than eight hours' work for a day's labor. In a case before it in 1890, the Supreme Court of California held a municipal ordinance making it a misdemeanor for any contractor, when carrying out a contract with the city, to receive more than eight hours' labor in one day, to be void. The ordinance was held to be a direct infringement of the rights of persons engaged in a lawful business to make and enforce their contracts. The Supreme Court of Indiana, in a case before it in 1903, held unconstitutional a state law providing that unskilled labor upon public work of the state or municipalities receive not less than 20 cents per hour. Some courts, while upholding the general power to fix minimum wages for employees on municipal public works, have found the method of arriving at the minimum wage, or the particular scale under consideration, to be objectionable.

The article reports that the Industrial Welfare Commission of the State of California has recently released its Fifth Report covering the biennium 1923-25. This report is of more than passing interest since it presents evidence that minimum wage legislation is effective in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court of the United States has declared such laws unconstitutional. California is not the only state wherein this phenomenon appears but it is one of the outstanding examples. Since the Adkins case of April, 1923, no new wage "orders" have been promulgated in California, but inspections are being carried on and back pay collected under existing "orders." The law is, therefore, being applied. Should the "living wage" fail to correspond to the values of the services of the employee as determined by the market value of the product, such a wage could not be maintained. The California minimum wage is not a "living wage" in the technical sense of the term. The California law nominally provides for a living wage. It establishes a commission to ascertain what amount this shall be. It does so by means of budgets. Enforcement is mandatory and is based on the police power of the state.

In a situation allowing free or relatively free mobility of populations, it is customary to consider migration as in some degree a function of economic opportunity. Such interpretations frequently overlook, or only inadequately recognize, is that economic systems and economic relationships always fit into a broader institutional pattern. Economic opportunity, for example, is meaningless except in circumstances allowing occupational shifts, and relatively free access to the means of economic advancement. This is clearly demonstrated in the case of the differential immigration to the North and South during the ante-bellurn period, when both sections had labor shortages. Thus, Northern industrial development, creating a labor demand larger than the natural increase of the population could supply, was aided by an influx of immigrant manual laborers. But the South also had a labor shortage, and the immigrants were not forthcoming in anything like adequate numbers. The similarity of the strictly economic situations is further supported by the evidence that real wages for similar kinds of labor were at least as high in the South as in the North.

The article presents information on the economic position of the ordinary tailor, janitor, waiter, day laborer, or skilled worker in the factory or shop. The ordinary tailor, janitor, waiter, day laborer, or skilled worker in the factory or shop, is in a disadvantageous position, economically speaking. This group constitutes a proportion, by no means negligible, of the American working class, and is the group, which most perplexes the labor leader, or social reformer who is confronted with the problem with which this paper concerns itself. And it is therefore with this group that the writers are mainly dealing. This group, as to their refusal to accept these doctrines, must be differentiated from the group, also large, of organized, perhaps even class-conscious workers in large industries or factories. As far as the latter are concerned, the doctrines mentioned above are much more readily acceptable, and find a soil for most fertile growth. The disadvantageousness of the economic position of this unorganizable group is a phenomenon of the civilization which may be easily confirmed by the consultation of any standard recent work on economics, to say nothing of the statistical reports that have been compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor, in its investigations of the earning capacity and living conditions of men and women in various occupations in this country, as well as by the minimum wage boards of a number of states.

Local industrial subsidy continues to be as popular among communities plagued by labor surplus, as it is controversial among academic economists. There is developing, however, among economists a reappraisal of the legitimacy of the policy. This paper endeavors to make a modest contribution to that reappraisal. The role of local subsidy in a market economy has been clarified considerably by recent work. Economists James M. Buchanan and John E. Moes have noted that subsidies may be utilized by individual states in such a manner as to offset effectively national wage standardization policies. In this manner, labor surplus regions might protect themselves from the adverse employment effects of minimum wage legislation imposed upon them by higher political authority. The case for local subsidies to industry does not end with the granting of subsidies to offset or circumvent man-made impediments to market adjustment and regional development. In addition, subsidies may serve as a lubricant for market frictions, thereby accelerating market adjustments and buying time for areas suffering unemployment and low income. Subsidies may also perform the closely related function of facilitating the formation within labor surplus regions of the external economies so important for economic development.

This paper investigates the effects of minimum wages on agricultural employment in the southern U. S. The principal result was that the introduction of minimum wages decreased the employment of hired and total (hired plus family) labor. Estimates of employment reduction of hired labor due to minimum wages are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how the constitutional amendment about providing equality to women, which is under process, will affect working women in the U.S. after the end of World War II. Rights such as personal security, personal liberty of movement, and enjoyment of property were denied to women in the country. It is noted that the removal of ambiguities in the language of states' rights and the Darby Lumber case, decided in February 1941, have been instrumental in bringing the desired change for American women. These two changes will provide equality to American women in terms of maximum hour and a minimum wage as applicable to women.

The article discusses some effects of minimum wage on the economy as a whole in the United States. It states that wage legislation which contemplates the establishment, by public authority, of a minimum rate of pay for the entire economic system will have many and various repercussions and it is necessary to select for analysis only those of primary importance. The system under consideration in the study is a non-collective exchange economy, which is either entirely "closed" or is virtually free from international influences. The author states that generalized, catholic conclusions as to the effects of a blanket minimum wage upon the whole economy are extremely difficult to formulate. He adds that there are many points at which the economy might feel the influence of the regulation and fortunately the manner in which one sector may be affected usually depends in large measure upon how others are affected. The author points out that obviously, the most important single question is whether the total volume of employment will, on balance, be maintained, diminished, or increased.

This article discusses various issues related to the determination of minimum wage rates in the U.S. Since validation of the Washington Minimum Wage law by the Supreme Court in March, 1937, activity in this field has been renewed on a broad front. Many workers are now protected by federal and state minimum wage Jaws. The criteria to be followed in determining rates under these laws leave much to personal discretion. Three criteria are provided in the state laws: the minimum necessary for health, the value of services rendered and the rates prevailing for work of comparable character. The state laws, except in the case of Connecticut, apply only to women and minors; already about a million women and girls are working under minimum wage orders or fiat rate laws. Approximately four million workers, or well over a third of all employed women and children, will receive similar protection when full effect is given to legislation now on the books. Under the federal law, on the other hand, men as well as women and minors are included, so that many millions of additional workers are covered by its terms. The central problem is the determination of minimum rates of wages for a wide variety of industries throughout the country.

The Cobb-Douglas function indicates that the demand for labor in the United States and Australia is elastic. This would indicate that total labor income decreases as wages rise. Must trade unionists' insistence on maintaining or raising wages even under conditions ot widespread unemployment necessarily indicate short-sightedness or selfishness on the part ot employed unionists? This article answers in the negative. In the first place, a mathematical bias in the Cobb-Douglas function prevents its showing simultaneously an inelastic demand for labor and a positive share of labor in the national dividend. In the second place the function considers only the "gross" elasticity of demand. The "net" elasticity which takes account of workers' income while unemployed, is necessarily lower and more relevant here. In the third place, the Cobb-Douglas function is inapplicable to the long run in which population is variable, and in which labor seeks maximum real wages consistent with full employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discovery and computation of new data as to the value and volume of manufactures, horse-power and capital employed seem to reveal the precise mechanism by which the wondrous industrial advance of the United States in the last century and more has been achieved. The essential of this prodigious advance has been a corresponding supply of new capital, and this capital appears to have been derived almost wholly and directly from the industries themselves, from high profits, and not from imaginary "national savings." It is this capital, invested in machinery and the development of new processes, which alone has made possible the increase in product per worker, and the resulting gain in real wages and in general well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most of the discussions of minimum wage laws, which find their way into print, there is a notable lack of apprehension of the one central fact of the whole matter. That fact is the variation in wages, mostly between the several establishments engaged in any trade, but sometimes also between the several trades themselves. Thus the literature upon the subject elaborates upon avenge wages, the general rise and fall of wages in successive years, and comparisons of wages in competing localities. It postulates unity, harmony and resemblance as characterizing the wage sheets of industrial establishments, whereas the truth is that they are very much unlike each other; and it is their unlikeness, which makes the opportunity for minimum wage administration. There are certain standards of wages, which are found to prevail in any state. These standards conform to good business practice and to public sentiment. But these standards are not universal. They prevail, but they are not absolute. There are many exceptions. Wages here and there are unsociably low, representing a pathological condition in business. The function of minimum wage administration is to correct these unwholesome aberrations from the prevailing standards.

The present position of the Supreme Court renders the future of mandatory minimum wage laws perilous. Since the decision in the District of Columbia case, considerable discussion has arisen as to the results which can be obtained from a law free from objectionable (to the court) features. The Massachusetts statute is the outstanding example of such a law. The first decade of the operation of the law in Massachusetts ended July 1, 1923. During these ten years wage decrees establishing minimum rates for women and girls have been made in sixteen occupations employing from 70,000 to 80,000 women and girls and covering approximately 5,000 firms. It is apparent that the Massachusetts law has done much to ameliorate the condition of working women. It does not follow that the declared object of minimum wage legislation, the securing of a cost-of-living income, has been attained. In spite of difficulties, the Massachusetts minimum wage law has done not a little to improve the condition of unskilled, unorganized female labor.

The article focuses on the minimum wage system. Good living and good citizenship depend in important part on real wages. Every industry is under obligation to pay a real wage. This requires considerably more money now than it did in 1914. Being accustomed to think of wages in terms of dollars, one thinks that wages are much larger now than they were then just because one pay more dollars. One of the ways of increasing efficiency is to pay wages that will command a high enough grade of employee to make it unnecessary for the proprietor to put in most of his time directing and correcting errors of inefficient, underpaid people. But high wages cannot be maintained unless one has a minimum wage law. To have a standard of wage high enough to give a good consuming public, it is necessary that there shall be a limit fixed by an authority outside of the personal decision of the individual employer as to what the lowest wage shall be. Wages naturally tend to go down toward the standard set by the meanest and most short-sighted employers.

If progress is to be made in determining a living wage, there must be first of all an agreement on some essential criterion of such a wage, some big factor which a living wage must render possible, and which is capable of clear-cut definition. From time to time, this criterion may be enlarged and expanded, but a simple beginning will doubtless be productive of the best results. Up to the present time, no criterion has been suggested which seems to be more satisfactory than that of health. It is quite universally accepted that health is the right of every man, woman, and child, and no matter how indifferent a corporation may be toward the happiness and progress of its employees, it nevertheless looks with favor on a healthful community as a good business asset. Health seems, therefore, a possible criterion of a living wage. At any rate, it will serve as an illustration of what may be done to determine such a wage on a definite foundation. Health, as judged by competent physicians, is a tangible matter, with a rather definite line, of demarcation between individuals who are sick and those who are well, those who are diseased and those who are free from disease, those who are on the verge of physical collapse and those who are robust with energy in reserve.

To the uninitiated students of standards of living in the U.S., minimum wage legislation in the United States presents a strange anomaly. On the one hand is the continually announced and apparently accepted dictum that for the woman worker a fair wage must be a living wage; that anything less than that constitutes exploitation and parasitism on the part of the industry engaging her and that to uphold such a living standard among those whose bargaining power is weak, minimum wage laws are universally to be enacted and administered. One the other hand is the inescapable fact that of the fifteen states already having minimum wage laws upon their statute books, only three have in operation any rulings of wide application that the scientific student of minimum standards could term at all adequate. Eight have a series of substandard rulings and the remaining four have none at all. It will be the task of this article to set forth some of the reasons for this anomalous state of affairs, to point out the difficulties under which the minimum age commissions are laboring and to suggest certain principle of drafting and administration.

The article presents information on several books related to labor and labor organizations. The book "Conciliation and Arbitration in the Coal Industry of America," by Arthur E. Suffern, describes the method of voluntary settlement of labor disputes in the coal industry. The first chapter gives an account of the introduction of wage agreements between the operators and the miners of the bituminous coal fields. It set forth the control of both the coal resources and the transportation facilities of the state by railroad companies; the attempt of the miners to improve their working conditions; and their familiar story of imported strike bearers, eviction of miners from the company houses, court injunctions, and state police paid by the coal operators. The author urges for extension of regulatory functions to protect the public interest. among the suggestions offered are full publicity of mining costs, an eight hour work day, a legal ton, the regulation of immigration and provision of minimum wages.

The article presents information on several books bout agriculture, mining ,forestry and fisheries. The Book "Economic Notes on English Agricultural Wages," by Reginald Lennard, focuses on the wages of the agricultural labor in England. According to the author, agricultural laborers are underpaid as compared with other laborers. They are so seriously underpaid that they are unable to maintain suitable standard of life. The reason stated quite clearly is that agricultural labor is immobile. With respect to differences in wags among the agricultural laborers themselves it appears that the mobility is altogether insufficient to amount to a leveling process. The author discusses the desirability of a legal minimum wage, showing that it would probably affect the farmer, the rent paid to the landlord, and the laborer himself. The main suggestions for a better state of affairs include improvement in the personnel of the English farmer, better education of the farming class, spread of scientific information, development of cooperative societies for production and credit, cheapening of transportation charges on farm produce and modification of the game laws.

After society has accepted minimum wage legislation as desirable, because it is necessary to maintain American standards of living, it is still confronted with the problem of its enforcement. Several states have adopted minimum wage laws, and established wages for women and minors in various industries. The first rulings in the state of Washington applied to workers in mercantile establishments, and fixed the minimum wage to be paid adult female workers over the age of 18 years, other than apprentices. The minimum wage for female workers under the age of eighteen years was fixed. Apprentices are allowed to the number of 17 percent of the total number of the adult workers employed. The minimum wage of these apprentices was fixed for the first six mouths, and then for the second six months employed. The rulings of the other states do not differ fundamentally from the rulings made by the state of Washington. Industrial history suggests that if rulings continue to be made along similar lines established by the pioneer states in the movement minimum wage legislation will fail in its purpose and the interested public, as a result, will lose faith in this method of bettering conditions of living of underpaid workers.