ABSTRACT
The Minimum Wage, by voluntary cooperation, including that of the states through non-compulsory statutes, is altogether, as it must be admitted, a logical workable measure. The New York Commissioners unearthed the most ludicrous inefficiency. It is estimated that to raise wages of 2,000 young women in New York candy factories from five dollars and seventy-five cents to eight dollars, confectioners in order to cover the cost would have to charge eighteen cents more per hundred pounds of candy. If a minimum wage were established by law, the great majority of employers would take occasion to bring their wage scale as near as might be down to the level of the minimum. A certain number of the ultimately inefficient workers are displaced when the living wage standard is applied to an industry. All sensible minimum wage laws provide for about six months' probation at something under the standard wage.
