3) MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES

adds numerous other branches of work. A project for amending
and extending the law was submitted to Parliament in November,
1926, but has not yet been acted upon.’
The Bulletin of the Ministry of Labor (July-September, 1925)
states that wage boards as well as committees of. experts have been
established in practically all administrative districts of France,
and they have established wage minima as provided for by the law.
They have been slow, however, particularly since 1920, in regularly
revising their figures (p. 280) to adapt them to the rise in the cost
of living. A circular letter of the ministry dated August 26, 1924,
resulted, however, in numerous revisions of obsolete rates.
Madame Duchéne, the founder of the French Office for Home
Work, states her opinion on the application of the law during the
first year 8 as follows:
The wages boards called upon to ascertain the current time-work rates of
the district have functioned without great difficulties. The commissions of
experts, on the other hand, called upon to determine the time needed for the
production of the various articles and to give thereby the basis for the establishment
 of the rates for piecework, had a more difficult task, necessitating
considerable technical knowledge and rather intense work. These commissions
have not proved to be equally competent everywhere.
Application of the law soon succeeded in eliminating rates of about
L5 centimes per hour, which before the promulgation of the law had
been frequent, and in eliminating also, in urban centers, rates of 20
centimes per hour. That would have meant an approach to a living
wage 1f at the same time prices had not risen. Under the circum.
stances, however, it merely prevented (coupled with war-time allowances
 to dependent women) a further aggravation of the misery of
the home workers. On the other hand, a court decision in 1918
expressly interpreted the law as not allowing reference to a living
wage (as in Anglo-Saxon countries), but as tending only toward
equalizing the rates for home work and shop work.
The following opinion, based on comparison of various testimonies
and observations, was given in 1921 : 1°
The application of the law had some favorable influence on the organization
of female workers. Trade-union action has led to some notable successes. The
working women have been reimbursed by sums of some importance and their
income has been increased to a moderate but noticeable extent. The tendency
0 harmonize incomes with living costs has manifested itself in a fairly strong
way.

Prof. Roger Picard, president of the French Office for Home Work,
writing in 1926,!! shows that the enforcement of the law depended
on the French Office for Home Work, which opened offices in various
working-class quarters of Paris, for attention to complaints by
workers, engaged in lawsuits to secure the enforcement of the act,
and created judicial precedents. The Bulletin of the Ministry of
Labor for July-September, 1925 (p. 243), states also that no other
organization authorized by the minister to intervene in the public
interest has taken any action.

? Letter from M. Maguenard, councillor of state, dated Mar. 18, 1928,
8 Duchéne, G.: Les Progrds de la Législation sur le Minimum de Salaire. Paris, 1918,
? At par, franc=19.3 cents; centime=0.193 cents; exchange rate much below par.
‘2 Broda, R.: Les Résultats de Application du Salaire Minimum Pendant et Depuis la
Guerre. Berne, 1921.
4 International Labor Office. International Laber Review, Geneva, August, 1926,
% rk “The legal minimum wage of women home workers in France,” by Roger
Dicard.