@inbook{1590de44ef094fa89bf60200f2e398b3,
title = "Health and Safety vs. Freedom of Contract: The Tortured Path of Wage and Hours Limits Through the State Legislatures and the Courts",
abstract = "The paper examines changes in wage and hour labor regulation between 1898 and 1938. Many see the 1905 Lochner Supreme Court decision striking down hours limits for men as the beginning of 30 years in which labor regulation was stymied by the doctrine of “freedom of contract.” That issue played a role but judges often weighed it against safety issues. As a result, hours limits for men in dangerous industries were found to be constitutional. The debates over minimum wages for women also centered on these issues. These laws passed muster in state supreme courts and initially at the US Supreme Court. In 1923, a majority of Supreme Court judges emphasized freedom of contract in declaring a female minimum wage unconstitutional. Seeing close votes and substantial turnover of judges on the Supreme Court, many states continued promulgating advisory minimums and passed new laws. Ultimately, turnover on the Court and a renewed emphasis on the role of minimum wages in ensuring health and safety of women and children during the Depression led the Court to declare minimums for women constitutional. This opened the door for federal minimum wage legislation for all workers.",
keywords = "Freedom of contract, Hour limits, Labor regulations, Lochner, Minimum wage",
author = "Price Fishback",
note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgments The author is also affiliated as Honorary Professor at Stellenbosch University. I would like to thank the Hoover Institution for funding to support the writing of this paper. Earlier drafts were presented at two conferences under the Regulation and Rule of Law Initiative at the Hoover Institution, the 2019 ASSA Meetings, and in seminars at UC-Davis, and UC-Irvine. I have received valuable comments from Lee Alston, Vellore Arthi, Will Baude, Dan Bogart, Charlie Calomiris, Greg Clark, Chris Demuth, Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Nicole Garnett, Gary Libecap, Christos Makridis, Mike McConnell, Alan Olmstead, Gary Richardson, Andy Seltzer, Bob Topel, and John Wallis. Special thanks go to Samuel Allen and Rebecca Holmes for all of their help in developing the data used in the paper. Funding Information: The author is also affiliated as Honorary Professor at Stellenbosch University. I would like to thank the Hoover Institution for funding to support the writing of this paper. Earlier drafts were presented at two conferences under the Regulation and Rule of Law Initiative at the Hoover Institution, the 2019 ASSA Meetings, and in seminars at UC-Davis, and UC-Irvine. I have received valuable comments from Lee Alston, Vellore Arthi, Will Baude, Dan Bogart, Charlie Calomiris, Greg Clark, Chris Demuth, Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Nicole Garnett, Gary Libecap, Christos Makridis, Mike McConnell, Alan Olmstead, Gary Richardson, Andy Seltzer, Bob Topel, and John Wallis. Special thanks go to Samuel Allen and Rebecca Holmes for all of their help in developing the data used in the paper. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.",
year = "2022",
doi = "10.1007/978-3-031-06477-7_3",
language = "English (US)",
series = "Studies in Economic History",
publisher = "Springer",
pages = "43--67",
booktitle = "Studies in Economic History",
}