Show THE MINIMUM WAGE senator ball has proposed a number of important changes in the fair labor standards act including an in increase in the minimum wage and clarification of various paragraphs which have led to involved differences of interpretation in the past one of the changes would permit certain variations in wage rates and worker classifications depending upon regional economic conditions that proposal is all to the good the fair labor lab or standards act is designed to protect the least skilled worker from exploitation and to guarantee him a subsistence income there is a variation in the cost of livi living ing between urban and rural communities and also between different sections of the nation arbitrary standards which permit of no deviation in pay regardless of business or location are discriminatory and unsound As for proposed raises in the minimum wage it is certainly true that conditions have changed since first enacted the law in 1938 at the same time great must be taken against establishing so high a minimum that the incentive to improve and qualify for a better job minimized that the inflationary wage price spiral is given another shot in the arm and that new burdens are placed business people who are paid the minimum wage are beginners who are completely unskilled they do odd while learning a trade in retailing manufacturing and enterprise those with aptitude and ambition swiftly upward to higher wage scales these are the considerations that must be kept firmly mind when congress considers a revision of the fair standards act |