32 MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES

it be impossible to relieve in any way the situation of female factory
workers—the large area covered by the American minimum wage
laws for female help in workshops and stores remains entirely
uncovered—but the home workers also, to which the attention of the
legislator has been confined, can at best earn only as much as the
female help in factories. Frequently, however, théy earn much less,
as the factory workers’ wages may have risen during the three years
interval between the determinations of the wages boards.
Professor Picard proposes certain amendments to make acceptable
the mere equalization of factory workers’ and home workers’ earnings,
 summarized as follows:
First. In fixing the minimum applicable to home workers, account should be
taken of the supplementary remuneration, in cash or in kind, that the factory
worker may receive over and above her principal wage.
Second. Account should be taken of the expenses to be met by the home
worker in carrying out her work (heating, lighting, tools, etc.) and of the
fact, for example, that she does not benefit from insurance against accidents due
to her work, to which she is net less exposed than her sister in the workshop.
Third. The benefits of any increases in wages gained by factory workers
should be guaranteed to home workers.
2. The other main problem of the French situation refers to the
enforcement of the minimum wage decisions. Does civil action
suffice to create respect for the law? All hope from the beginning
was placed on action by trade-unions and associations, but this action
has been singularly reduced by the judgments of the courts since the
end of the war. The Civil Court of Paris (March 7, 1919) and the
Supreme Court of France (July 28, 1919) decided that the associations
 could not act for the workers; that they could not claim on
their behalf the payment of back wages. The mere authority to
claim damages has not in practice proved to be a sufficient deterrent
to employers inclined to pay lower wages than prescribed by law.
The French law resembles in a way—by its lack of official ‘enforcement
 and by its flexibility—the “ recommendatory ” minimum wage
law of Massachusetts (which, however, refers to shops and stores, not
to home work), but enforcement by civil suits in France has proved
to be even less effective than the enforcement by publication of the
names of recalcitrant employers in Massachusetts and far below
enforcement by inspectors of factories, authorized to impose fines, in
the various parts 7 the British Empire.
Continuing the comparison, there will be applied to the French
type of law three questions discussed frequently in England and in
the United States.
Does the minimum tend to become the maximum? The French
law, providing in the last resort only minima for piece rates, offers
no loophole for the above-mentioned danger. If the less clever
worker earns the minimum, the clever and fast worker, with the
same piece rates, will earn Somemendingly more.
Are slow workers deprived of employment? They are not discharged
 as they earn less, being paid piecework rates.
Were home workers generally deprived of employment? The
crease of rates was obviously too moderate to bring about that
danger. As we have seen, home-work rates remained, in practice,
below factory rates. If the factories can (in the French clothing
industry only in a limited way) apply more progressive methods