rienced by many States in making cost-of-living studies, the progress made in 1946 in this aspect of minimum-wage administration should be mentioned.

During the year, New York and California followed their customary practice of obtaining factual cost-of-living data by pricing a woman's budget constructed at a minimum adequacy level. In addition, Connecticut completed the pricing of such a budget during the year, and Kentucky and Massachusetts issued budget figures based on actual pricings. New Jersey issued bimonthly cost-of-living figures obtained by applying the New Jersey index to its original priced budget. Budgets priced in previous years by the District of Columbia and Utah were revised and brought up to date on the basis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumers' price index. The figures representing the cost, at some period in 1946, of maintaining a self-supporting woman at a minimum adequate standard of living are as follows for these States:

10

1 Budgets issued by Kentucky, Massachusetts, and New Jersey do not include amounts for Federal and State income taxes, social security tax, or savings.

Legislation

The amendment of the Massachusetts law extending coverage to men, effective September 11, 1946, expressly provided that not only the statute itself, but also every wage order and regulation already in effect should apply to men.

New York amended the provisions of its minimum-wage law relating to the timing and contents of the report of the wage board to the industrial commissioner. The amendment also required the wage

• Although data obtained by current cost-of-living surveys are unquestionably of much value to a wage board as a basis for recommending minimum-wage rates, many States have found such surveys an insuperable task because of limitations of time, money, and staff. At the Twelfth Annual Conference of State Minimum-Wage Administrators called by the Women's Bureau in March 1946, a request was made that the Women's Bureau work with a committee of State administrators to develop cost-of-living data which could be kept current and continuously available for the use of States working on minimum-wage orders. As a result, a committee was set up which was representative of different types of minimum-wage laws as well as of different geographical regions of the country, and a program is now under way to develop current cost-of-living material in a form useful to wage boards.

10 Two other States, Minnesota and Wisconsin, also made cost-of-living studies in 1946, but their figures are not yet available for distribution.

board to hold public hearings throughout the State before making its recommendations, and authorized the industrial commissioner to accept or reject the report in whole or in part.

No other minimum-wage legislation was enacted in 1946 in any of the 11 States which met in regular legislative sessions." Objectives of State labor officials, unions, and citizens' groups continued to be the establishment in minimum-wage laws of statutory rates in addition to the provision for wage-board action; the fixing of penalty overtime rates by statute; and the application of minimum-wage rates and standards to men as well as women.12

To help facilitate progress in legislation, the United States Department of Labor in 1946 revised its standard draft bills for a State minimum-wage law and a State wage and hour law. The Department has long made available draft legislation for use of State labor officials, organized labor, citizen groups, and others interested in safeguarding wage levels through the enactment of legislation fixing a floor to wages. The recent drafts take into account current legislative trends and reflect recent thinking in this field, based on long administrative experience. Both bills would accomplish essentially similar objectives: Coverage of men as well as women; establishment of a statutory rate in addition to wage boards; and provision for overtime pay. The essential difference in the two bills lies in the method used to bring men under minimum-wage coverage: The wage and hour bill covers men directly in all provisions; the minimum-wage bill applies primarily to women, with supplementary protection of men. On this point, the following statement is made in the memorandum issued by the Department to accompany the bills:

In States where general public sentiment will support a bill with direct coverage of all workers, the wage and hour type bill may be preferred. In States where there is primary concern for alleviating the economic condition of women workers, the minimum wage bill may be found to be most feasible.

The Department also prepared draft amendments which would accomplish similar objectives in existing laws, and advocated that such laws be amended wherever possible.

11 Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia.

11 See Progress of State Minimum Wage Legislation, 1943-45, Monthly Labor Review for May 1946 (p. 736).

Provisions of State minimum-wage orders that became effective in 1946

Provisions of State minimum-wage orders that became effective in 1946-Continued

Part-time employees..

For each hour worked.

Maximum: 812 per day; 48 per
week in places with popula-
tion of 500 or over; 9 per day,
58 per week elsewhere, 10
For each hour worked.

1/48th of weekly wage.

1/48th of weekly wage.