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Notable New     Yorkers
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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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anticipated nothing but those elements which go into interstate trade to be covered by this. We would take evidence as to what the cost of living was, and how much it took to support a family or an individual - what the rents were, what the food cost was, and all that kind of thing. That would determine, just as it does in the minimum wage laws of the various states, what the rate of payment would be. The minimum wage is what would be determined. That is, it was to be the least wage that could be paid. You could pay more than that, but that was the least wage that could be paid. You could not pay less than that because this was a fair representation of what it cost for one worker to subsist, and was a true minimum wage. We had anticipated that we would regard the minimum wage as being a living wage - that is, that we would make it above the subsistence and regard the definition of “living wage” to be about what Father John Ryan called it in his book, The Living Wage in America. That means that it's more than just enough to feed and house and shelter a person against the storm, but is enough to make it possible for him to participate in a modest way in the elementary culture of his community - that is, being able to send his children to school, rather than putting them to work, and all that kind of thing.





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