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Article: Wages and Hours of Labor, Regulation of
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR, REGULATION OF
WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR, REGULATION OF.
The historical pattern of hourly wages in the United States
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rapidly rising money wages, more slowly rising real wages, and persisting differences in occupational, industrial, and sectional wages
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can largely be explained in terms of broad productivity trends and competitive market forces. The long-term, sometimes pronounced, decline in the workweek resulted as much from pressures exerted by organized labor, government, and society in general, as from the traditional influences of supply and demand.
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 comprised the principal New Deal-era legislation aimed at ...