2
MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES
spires the Russian provisions for wages rising with the productivity
of the enterprise. The point deserves attention.
Bargaining and opportunism rule in Great Britain, Czechoslovakia,
and largely also in Germany. While in Great Britain it
has worked well, elsewhere it may be dangerous to proceed without
principles.
The historic starting point of minimum wage legislation was the
wish to abolish sweating. Its basic justification remiins the guaranty
of a minimum of existence to all workers. This goal is attainable,
by its very definition, only through fixation of a living wage.
Australia and New Zealand, in their systematic analysis of the
principle of the living wage, have ascertained the fact of its relativity.
Higher standards are legitimate in calculating the minimum
of existence if the nation is prosperous,
The general productive power of the community must be one of
the bases for determining a reasonable living wage. Is it indispensable
also to take into account in determining the basic wage the
particular prosperity of the industry for which a specific wage is to
be fixed? Australia does not find 1t so, considering that industries
which can not pay the basic living wage had better go out of business
or depend on Eiate aid? But to allow for the different strength of
the industries a basic living wage for all industries, calculated with
greatest prudence, may be supplemented by a secondary wage for
prosperous industries. This differentiating procedure seems to be
the best the nations can apply.
Machinery of Wage Fixation
WAGES boards administer the laws in Victoria, Great Britain,
Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Hungary, most
Provinces of Canada, most States of the United States of America,
Argentina, Mexico, and South Africa. Sometimes they are. replaced
or supplemented by central commissions with state-wide jurisdic-(ion
to make possible the application of national policies. They have
proven a a efficient method for the abolition of sweating in all
unorganized trades (particularly home work and female work).
Where strong unions can take care of the sweating problem through
their own strength, and preservation of industrial peace is the purpose
of the laws, industrial arbitration is preferred. New South
Wales and several other Australian States, New Zealand, Italy, and
Rumania have chosen that method. The example of Australia and
New Zealand shows that this way also is practicable. But the purpose
of elimination of strikes has been better attained by the wages
ooards of Victoria, which settle all matters prior to a conflict.
Direct fixation of minimum wages by the central State authorities
is, or has been, the rule in the American States of Arizona. South
* Richardson, J. F.: The I'inlmum Wage. London, 1927, p. 81. Mr. Richardson, weighing
the various factors of the problem, arrives at the conclusion that the goserad productivity
of industry (but not the particular conditions of a given industry) should be taken
into account as a basic principle for the fixation of the minimum wage.
®In a subsidiary way (with courts or boards), collective agreements between organizations
of employers and employees are sometimes declared binding (by State authority)
for the whole industry. This method is LL in some Australian States, in Germany,
Austria, and South Africa. In Great Britain also proposals have been put forward te
avnly that vrocedure.
