52 MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES
tion. Procedure was equally empirical for problems of a tangible
nature in the Province of Alberta. The minimum wage board reports
** that requests and decisions as regards overtime, apprentices,
etc., made necessary only one meeting of the board in the year. One
application was received for an employee to work at lower than fixed
rates and the application was granted. Application of the law in the
Province of Quebec was begun in 1926 by dividing the Province into
several zones, in accordance with the differences in the costs of living.
The first order (laundries) was issued in November, 1926.3
British Columbia has remained the pioneer Province of comprehensive
minimum wage legislation. Minimum wages for female
workers were applied in 1925 in nine industries. The minimum wage
act of 1925 for males was first applied in the lumber industry, an
order being issued fixing a minimum wage of 40 cents per hour, to be
effective November, 1926.2 The order was sustained by the court of
appeal on December 2, 1926.** It meant an increase of pay for 24
per cent of the workers in the industry, according to figures available
to the board. An order for the catering industry, fixing minimum
wages of 40 cents per hour for straight shifts and 4214 cents per
hour for split shifts, went into force on April 1, 19282 Many
Chinese are employed in this industry and the intention is
“to fix a rate that will make it possible for white labor to be
employed, and in this way reduce the number of Asiatics.c” This
order 1s the only one to introduce into legislation on the American
continent a motive which plays a decisive role in the minimum-wage
legislation of South Africa (see ch. 8) and has been of importance
also in the legislation of Australia (see ch. 3) as a protection of
white labor against cheap colored labor and (unlike, of course, South
Africa) as a partial substitute for prohibition of immigration of
laborers liable to endanger the wages and standards of living of the
native-born workers of the country. .
The House of Commons of Canada passed in March, 1926, a resolution
in favor of a legal minimum wage based on a reasonable
standard of living. The resolution was a to its Select Standing
Committee on Industrial and International Relations.®* The
committee recommended a conference of representatives of the Dominion
and of the Provinces to consider methods of putting this
resolution into effect, particularly as it is in accord with the social
provisions of the peace treaties. The report stated that the minimum
wage legislation for women has worked out satisfactorily and pleads
for its extension to some classes of men.
=n {loenny. Bureau of Labor. Annual report for the year 1926. Edmonfon,
1927, p. %
81 Canada auc, Department of Public Works and Labor. General report for the
year ending June 30, 1927. Quebec, 1927, & 131.
82 Monthly Labor Review. September, 1926, p. 35.
#8 Idem, April, 1927, p. 31.
3 Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Standing Committee on Industrial
59 Jemalional Relations. Minutes of proceedings and evidence, session 1926. Ottawa,
L926, x, 122 pp.
¢ Province oF British Columbia. Annual Report of the Department of Labor for the
year ended Dec. 31, 1926, p. 41.
* The government of the Province of British Columbia male minimum wage act order
:stablishing a minimum wage in the catering industry,
eat from the general superintendent, British Columbia office, Employment Service
»f Canada.
