The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1939-04-20
State Minimum Wage
Laws Compiled by Bureau

The need for both State and Federal
minimum-wage laws is shown in Bull
]etin 167 of the Women's Bureau of
the United States Department of La
Dor, made public today by Miss Mary
Anderson, Director of the Bureau.
The report, prepared by Florence p.
Smith, gives detailed compilation of
Estate Minimum Wage Laws and
Orders" as of December 1888.
State laws usually cover a broad
group of industries, as compared with
the Federal Act which covers only in
terstate industries, the report shows.
Also, under the State laws, the wage
rates are generally higher than the
25-cent minimum now in effect under
the Federal Act. Nine in every ten
of the wage rates set under State
minimum-wage laws are higher than
25 cents an hour, and more than 7 in
every 10 are at least 80 cents an hour,
the rate which will go into effect under
the Fair Labor Standards Act next
October.
On the other hand, State minimum
wage laws have been enacted by only
rs States, the District of Columbia,
and Puerto Rico, whereas the Federal
Act covers the entire country.
Workers in agriculture and in house
hold service are excluded from the
Federal Law. Though 8 State laws
permit coverage of domestic service,
only one State, Wisconsin, applies it's
minimum-wage laws to household
workers, and in no State is the law
applied to agricultural workers. These
occupations employed more than q
100000 women in the United States at
the 1880 census.
In most minimum-wage States, the
bulletin shows, wage rates are fixed
industry by industry after investiga-
tions of prevailing wages, cost of liv
ing in the State, and so forth. A to-
tai of l08 different wage orders had
been issued by December 1888 in 19
States and the District of Columbia
A fiat rate is provided in the laws of
Arkansas, Nevada, South Dakota, and
Puerto Rico. No minimum-wage rates
had yet been ordered under the min
imum- wage laws Of Kansas, Kentucky,
and Louisiana. Court injunctions pre-
vented enforcement Of orders in Okla
homa and Utah.
The history Of minimum-w wage laws
in this country began only quarter
century ago, when Massachusetts en-
acted the first such law for women in
1912. Although several States passed
laws in the following years, more than
half of them became inactive after a
Supreme Court decision in 1923 de-
clared the District of Columbia law
unconstitutional.
The reversal of this decision in
March 1887 led to an expansion of
minimum-wage laws in the States,
followed by the enactment in 1888 of
the Federal Fair Labor Standards
Act Today the States without min
imum-wage laws for women comprise
the three important industrial States
Michigan, Indiana and Missouri; a
solid block Of certain Middle Atlantic
and Southern States, some of which
have considerable manufacturing; and
other largely agricultural States.
The States with minimum-wage laws
are: Arizona, Arkansas, California
Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kan
sas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachu.
sets, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hamp.
shire, New Jersey, New York, North
Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Da
kota, Utah, Washington and Wiscon
sin.
-siG BALL GAME, JUNE To-
Now is the time to look over youl
dues book to make certain it is in per
feet condition. 1t can make you rea
money at the Potters Picnic.