MINIMUM WAGE LAWS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 31433, 13 April 1923, Page 2

MINIMUM WAGE LAWS.

HELD INVALID BY U.S. SUPREME COURT. Electric Telegraph—Press Association 1 Copyright. (Australian-N.Z. Cable Association.) Washington, April 9. The advocates of minimum wage lawe have suffered a big defeat by a decision by the Supreme Court ruling unconstitutional such a statute as that recently passed by Congress for the district of Columbia. Several ' States adopted similar statutes, which provided for a board representing the public, the employers, and the employees, which would investigate the wt-rking conditions of women and children and fix the minimum wage. The law applied primarily to women. The Court stated that women had become so. nearly equal to men that special safeguards to protect them in making contracts for their labour were no longer needed. Tlie Court also declared that a woman’s morals were not as a general rule dependent upon what she earned, and attacked the minimum wage board for fixing a difference in the wages for women in almost similar work. The Court held that the law was invalid by a vote of 5 to 3, the Chief Justice, Mr Taft, being one dissenter, declaring: “If the Court upheld the laws fixing minimum hours for labour, as it lias done. I should also uphold the laws fixing minimum wages.”