Abstract

Women and Wages

Will labor legislation which links women with children benefit women and solve the low-wage problem? The question has been brought to the fore once more by the compact entered into recently by seven northeastern industrial States, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. The compact would regulate the minimum wages paid women and children and will become effective when ratified by the legislatures of the seven States and sanctioned by the U.S. Congress. It provides specifically that "no employer shall pay a woman or a minor under twenty-one years of age an unfair or oppressive wage." Enforcement is put in the hands of minimum-wage boards in each State, which are to investigate the wages of women and minors, recommend fair wages, hold public hearings, and finally enter directory orders regarding minimum wages and see that they are carried out.