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The History of Guaranteed Wages and Employment*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Don A. Seastone
Don A. Seastone
Affiliation:
Bates College
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Extract

Since the first American guaranteed wage and employment plans were formulated more than sixty years ago, the concept of guarantees has been championed by diverse economic institutions. This paper will analyze these successive attempts at establishing guarantees in the chronological order in which they have occurred—first, by business enterprise, secondly by various levels of government, and finally, by labor unions.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 1955 , pp. 134 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1955

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References

1 Stewart, Bryce M., et al., Unemployment Benefits in the United States: The Plans and Their Setting (New York: Industrial Relations Counselors, Inc., 1930), p. 365. The guarantee in the wallpaper industry was subject to numerous modifications throughout the early years of the twentieth century and was discontinued in 1930. See U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Guaranteed Wage Plans in the United States:Google ScholarA Report on the Extent and Nature of Guarantee Plans and the Experience of Selected Companies, Bulletin No. 925 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1948), p. 3Google Scholar.

2 Guaranteed Wage Plans in the United States, pp. 3-4.

3 Brink, Vernon E., “Annual Wages for Plant Workers,” Commerce, March 1945, p. 20.Google Scholar

4 Guaranteed Wage Plans in the United States, p. 4.

5 Justice (International Ladies' Garment Workers Union), September 1931, p. 4.Google Scholar

6 Guaranteed Wage Plant in the United States, pp. 4-5.

7 Hormel, George A. and Company, The Hormel Annual Wage, Wage Incentive and Joint Earnings Plan (Austin, Minnesota, 1943).Google Scholar

8 Nunn-Bush Shoe Company, The Nunn-Bush Share the Production Plan (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1946).Google Scholar

9 Kaplan, A. D. H., The Guarantee of Annual Wages (Washington, D.C.: The Brokings Institution, 1947), pp. 73–74.Google Scholar

10 Guaranteed Wage Plans in the United States, p. 6.

11 ibid.

12 Ibid., p. 7. See also pp. 35-38.

13 See note, Table I.

14 Pub. No. 718, 75th Cong., 3d sess. (52 Stat. 1060), as amended by the Act of June 26, 1940 (Pub. Res. No. 88, 76th Cong., 3d sess.); by Reorganization Plan No. 2 (60 Stat. 1095), effective July 16, 1946; by the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947, approved May 14, 1947 (61 Stat. 84); and by the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1949, approved October 16, 1949 (Public Law 393, 81st Cong., 1st sess.). Amendments provided by the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1949 were effective as of January 25, 1950, as provided in section i6(a) thereof. These amendments leave the old law unchanged except as to provisions specifically amended and the addition of certain new provisions.

15 The 1949 amendments allowed a guarantee of as little as forty-six weeks at the normal number of weekly hours, but the normal number of weekly hours can be no fewer than thirty. The absolute limit of employment was increased to 2,240 hours in a fifty-two week period, all hours over 2,080 to be remunerated at one and one-half times the regular rate of pay. If hours exceed 2,240 during the fifty-two week period, the whole year's overtime must be recomputed on a straight forty-hour-a-week basis.

15 U. S. Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Division, Summary Statement on Collective Bargaining Agreements Under Section 7(b)(2) from the Effective Date of the Fair Labor Standards Act to January 1, 1947 (unpublished research report), p. 2. These and other Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Division data were studied by the author while employed by that agency of the Labor Department in 1952-1953. He is particularly indebted to Max Schiferl, assistant director of research and statistics for that agency, for his co-operation and assistance in the study.

17 See p. 134 above.

18 Justice (International Ladies' Garment Workers Union of America), April 24, 1925, p. 6.Google Scholar

19 Guaranteed Wage Plans in the United States, p. 15.

20 Wittc, Edwin E., “Steadying the Worker's Income,” Harvard Businest Review, XXIV (Spring, 1946), 308–9.Google Scholar

21 Congress of Industrial Organizations, Political Action Committee, Full Employment: Proceedings of Conference (New York, 1944).Google Scholar

22 CIO News, April 16, 1945, p. 10.

23 Murray, Philip, “Guaranteeing Employment and Purchasing Power,” Commercial and Financial Chronicle, 01 25, 1945, pp. 362 ff.Google Scholar

24 Murray, Philip, “A Guaranteed Annual Wage for Labor,” New York. Times Magazine, 04 8, 1945, pp. 12 ff.Google Scholar

25 Congress of Industrial Organizations, Guaranteed Wages the Year Round, Economic and Research Department, U.A.W.-C.I.O., 1940, p. 1.Google Scholar

20 Reuther, Walter, “Why an Annual Wage?” Ammunition (U.A.W.-C.I.O.). 06 1944, p. 5.Google Scholar

27 Green, William, “Your Post-War Income,” American Federationist, 04 1945, p. 3.Google Scholar

28 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Guaranteed Wage Plans in the United States, p. 10.Google Scholar

29 Cf. C.I.O., Guaranteed Wages the year Round.

30 U. S. Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Division, Summary Statement, p. 4.Google Scholar

31 Ibid.

32 Industrial Relations Counselors, The Guaranteed Annual Wage—1952 (Industrial Relations Memos No. 126), p. 3.Google Scholar

33 Latimer, Murray W., A Guaranteed Wage Plan for the Workers in the Steel Industry, Union Exhibit No. n, United States of America Wage Stabilization Board, Case No. D-18-C in the Matter of United Steelworkers of America-C.I.O. and Various Steel and Iron Ore Companies (Washington, D.C., 1952).Google Scholar

34 Latimer, Murray W., Guaranteed Wages, Report to the President by the Advisory Board, Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion, Office of Temporary Economic Controls (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1947).Google Scholar

35 See Seastone, D. A., “The Status of Guaranteed Wages and Employment in Collective Bargaining,” American Economic Review, December 1954, pp. 911–17Google Scholar.

36 Proceedings, Fourteenth Convention 1953 of the International Union United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW-CIO), March 22–27, 1953 Atlantic City, New Jersey.Google Scholar

37 Business Week, August 15, 1953, p. 145.Google Scholar

38 , Seastone, “The Status of Guaranteed Wages and Employment in Collective Bargaining,” American Economic Review, December 1954, 911–17.Google Scholar