Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
This is entirely wrong and shows ignorance of history. Here's what President Franklin Roosevelt said about the minimum wage when he passed it as part of the New Deal (large portions of which were subsequently copied by Canada and other nations) back in the 1930s:
"It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By 'business' I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level - I mean the wages of decent living."
Source: http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/odnirast.html |
Yes, but I think during the depression, workers were really really abused. And all wages for all jobs were relatively the same. But at some point in time some jobs really outpaced certain other jobs which remained abused without these protections.
Maybe I don't go back far enough, and yes, that is my lack of historical knowledge, but in my generation, when i was 16, minimum wage jobs were not full time or a career such as it has become now.