Commonwealth Review Volume 1-2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ...and the writer as secretary. After some months of unavailing effort, spent in trying to get the larger employers of female labor to adopt voluntarily standards of wages and hours and conditions of labor in keeping with the general terms of the law, the commission proceeded to institute formal conferences or wage-boards in the various industries as provided for by the act. Before the end of 1913 the conferences had reported and the commission after holding public hearings on the recommendations of the conferences, entered mandatory orders fixing minimum wages and maximum hours of employment for women workers. These orders may be summarized as follows: The maximum hours of employment were fixed at fifty-four a week except in offices and stores in Portland; in offices the hours were fixed at fifty-one; in the stores at fifty hours a week. Night work was prohibited after 8:30 p. In. in all mercantile, manu facturing and laundry establishments in the state; but in Portland stores work was prohibited after 6 p. m. A minimum wage of $8.25 a week was fixed for all experienced adult women in the state; but in Portland $8.64 a week was required in manufacturing establishments and $9.25 in stores and offices. For inexperienced women and for girls between sixteen and eighteen years of age, a minimum of $6.00 a week was required. A year of employment was allowed in all occupations before a woman could be considered "experienced." A paper box manufacturer in Portland sought to restrain the commission from enforcing its orders on the ground that the legislation was unconstitutional. The injunction was denied by Judge Cleeton of the circuit bench and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court of Oregon. In a decision written by Justice Eakin...