ABSTRACT
Two principles have laid the foundation for efforts to regulate wages during the twentieth century. First, relying upon the wage theories described in Chapter 3, social reformers have contended that employers and the state are obligated to ensure some minimal standard of living to all citizens who participate in waged labor. Not surprisingly, the definition of what constitutes a living, especially whether it incorporates self-sufficiency and/or the ability to support dependents, has varied according to time, location, and the gender, class, and race-ethnicity of the citizen-worker. Second, these activists have disputed gender and racial-ethnic hierarchies by asserting a principle of equal wages. Drawing upon both living and price constructs, equal wages have been interpreted to mean that appropriate living standards should not reflect gender and racial bias and that equally productive workers should receive comparable compensation. Social movements, dating to the earliest days of the century, have attempted to institutionalize the two broad principles of living wages and equal wages in wage-setting practices.
