116 MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES

organized trades. Wages in any particular occupation might be
considered “ exceptionally low ” if they fall below a given percentage
of the average level.
These scientific provisions for determining the trades where minimum-wage-fixing
 machinery is particularly desirable and the arguments
 advanced for and against the different tests may, of course,
also be of value for nonmember countries which will not become
signatories of the international convention and recommendation.
Up to January 21, 1928, 22 Governments had replied to the questionnaire.®
 All Governments except those of the three Scandinavian
countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) and of the Province of
Quebec in their replies favor an international agreement for the
establishment of minimum wage-fixing machinery. Norway and
the Province of Quebec, which have minimum wage legislation, do
not give any reason for their negative reply. Denmark and Sweden
start from the consideration that their workers are sufficiently organized
 to take care of themselves and that there is no need in these
countries for minimum wage-fixing machinery. All the other countries,
 including 10 which at present have no minimum wage legislation,
 are in favor of the convention, and there seems therefore
to be reason to believe that they will ratify the convention ‘and
establish legislation, which so far has not been enacted in their
~ountries.
The answers as to scope of the machinery—whether or not to restrict
 it to home workers—were so divergent that the International
Labor Office concluded in favor of a very general convention, leaving
the Governments free to decide for what groups of trade machinery
should be created.
The answers of the Governments as to the principle of wage fixation
 to be developed were very divergent. Many Governments expressed
 the view that the individual country should be left free in that
matter; others pointed to various considerations—capacity of the particular
 trade to pay, general level of wages, cost of living—and stated
it to be impossible to decide a uniform way as to the dominating
factor to be accepted. The International Labor Office concluded from
these replies that it is desirable to mention the wage-fixing principle
only in the recommendation and not in the convention to be concluded.
 As the treaty of Versailles (preamble and pt. 13, art. 427 )
formulates the “adequate living wage” principle, the necessity
to “enable the workers to maintain a suitable standard of living
should be taken into account. The International Labor Office recommended
 further that “ regard should primarily be had to the rates of
wages paid for similar work in trades where the workers are adequately
 organized and have concluded effective collective agreements.”
 In the absence of such standard regard should be had “to
the general level of wages prevailing in the country or the particular
locality.” 7

' Dyteraanenn Labor Office. Report on Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery, Geneva, 1928.
t Idem, p. ,
5S Idem, p. 99,
Idem, p. 105.
' Idem, p. 108,