Chap. 0706 An Act to establish the minimum wage commission and to provide for the determination of minimum wages for women and minors.

Be it en-acted, etc., as follows:

Section 1. There is hereby established a commission to be known as the Minimum Wage Commission. It shall consist of three persons, one of whom may be a woman, to be appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the council. One of the commissioners shall be designated by the governor as chairman. The first appointments shall be made within ninety days after the passage of this act, one for a term ending October first, nineteen hundred and thirteen, one for a term ending October first, nineteen hundred and fourteen, and one for a term ending October first,
nineteen hundred and fifteen; and beginning with the year nineteen hundred and thirteen, one member shall be appointed annually for the term of three years from the first day of October and until his successor is qualified. Any vacancy that may occur shall be filled in like manner for the unexpired part of the term.
Section 2. Each commissioner shall be paid ten dollars for each day's service, in addition to the travelling and other expenses incurred in the performance of his official duties. The commission may appoint a secretary, who shall be the executive officer of the board and to whose appointment the rules of the civil service commission shall not apply. It shall determine his salary, subject to the approval of the governor and council. The commission may incur other necessary expenses not exceeding the annual appropriation therefor, and shall be provided with an office in the state house or in some other suitable building in the city of Boston.
Section 3. It shall be the duty of the commission to inquire into the wages paid to the female employees in any occupation in the commonwealth, if the commission has reason to believe that the wages paid to a substantial number of such employees are inadequate to supply the necessary cost of living and to maintain the worker in health.
Section 4. If after such investigation the commission is of the opinion that in the occupation in question the wages paid to a substantial number of female employees are inadequate to supply the necessary cost of living and to maintain the worker in health, the commission shall establish a wage board consisting of not less than six representatives of employers in the occupation in question and of an equal number of persons to represent the female employees in said occupation, and of one or more disinterested persons appointed by the commission to represent the public, but the representatives of the public shall not exceed one half of the number of representatives of either of the other parties. The commission shall designate the chairman from among the representatives of the public, and shall make rules and regulations governing the selection of members and the modes of procedure of the boards, and shall exercise exclusive jurisdiction over all questions arising with reference to the validity of the procedure and of the determinations of the boards. The members of wage boards shall be compensated at the same rate as jurors; they shall be allowed the necessary travelling and clerical expenses incurred in the
performance of their duties, these payments to be made from the appropriation for the expenses of the commission.
Section 5. The commission may transmit to each wage board all pertinent information in its possession relative to the wages paid in the occupation in question. Each wage board shall take into consideration the needs of the employees, the financial condition of the occupation and the probable effect thereon of any increase in the minimum wages paid, and shall endeavor to determine the minimum wage, whether by time rate or piece rate, suitable for a female employee of ordinary ability in the occupation in question, or for any or all of the branches thereof, and also suitable minimum wages for learners and apprentices and for minors below the age of eighteen years. When two thirds of the members of a wage board shall agree upon minimum wage determinations, they shall report such determinations to the commission, together with the reasons therefor and the facts relating thereto, and also the names, so far as they can be ascertained by the board, of employers who pay less than the minimum wage so determined.
Section 6. Upon receipt of a report from a wage board, the commission shall review the same, and may approve any or all of the determinations recommended, or may disapprove any or all of them, or may recommit the subject to the same or to a new wage board. If the commission approves any or all of the determinations of the wage board it shall, after not less than fourteen days' notice to employers paying a wage less than the minimum wage approved, give a public hearing to such employers, and if, after such public hearing, the commission finally approves the determination, it shall enter a decree of its findings and note thereon the names of employers, so far as they may be known to the commission, who fail or refuse to accept such minimum wage and to agree to abide by it. The commission shall, within fourteen days thereafter, publish the names of all such employers in at least four newspapers in each county in the commonwealth, together with the material part of its findings, and a statement of the minimum wages paid by every such employer. Any employer upon filing a declaration under oath in the supreme judicial or superior court to the effect that compliance with such decree would endanger the prosperity of the business to which the same is made applicable, shall be entitled to a stay of execution of such decree, and a review thereof with reference to the question involved in such
declaration. Such review shall be made by the court under the rules of equity procedure, and if it shall be found by the eourt that compliance with such decree is likely to endanger the prosperity of the business to which the same is applicable, then an order shall issue from said eourt revoking the same. The type in which the employers' names shall be printed shall not be smaller than that in which the news matter of the paper is printed. The publication shall be attested by the signature of at least a majority of the commission.
Section 7. In case a wage board shall make a recommendation of a wage determination in which a majority but less than two thirds of the members concur, the commission, in its discretion, may report such recommendation and the pertinent facts relating thereto to the general court.
Section 8. Whenever a minimum wage rate has been established in any occupation, the commission may, upon petition of either employers or employees, reconvene the wage board or establish a new wage board, and any recommendation made by such board shall be dealt with in the same manner as the original recommendation of a wage board.
Section 9. For any occupation in which a minimum time rate only has been established, the commission may issue to any woman physically defective a special license authorizing the employment of the licensee for a wage less than the legal minimum wage: provided, that it is not less than the special minimum wage fixed for that person.
Section 10. The commission may at any time inquire into the wages paid to minors in any occupation in which the majority of employees are minors, and may, after giving public hearings, determine minimum wages suitable for such minors. When the commission has made such a determination, it may proceed in the same manner as if the determination had been recommended to the commission by a wage board.
Section 11. Every employer of women and minors shall keep a register of the names and addresses of all women and minors employed by him, and shall on request permit the commission or any of its members or agents to inspect the register. The commission shall also have power to subpoena witnesses, administer oaths and take testimony, and to examine such parts of the books and records of employers as relate to the wages paid to women and minors. Such witnesses shall be summoned in the same manner and
be paid from the treasury of the commonwealth the same fees as witnesses before the superior court.
Section 12. Upon request of the commission, the director of the bureau of statistics shall cause such statistics and other data to be gathered as the commission may require, and the cost thereof shall be paid out of the appropriation made for the expenses of the commission.
Section 13. Any employer who discharges or in any other manner discriminates against any employee because such employee has testified, or is about to testify, or because the employer believes that the employee may testify, in any investigation or proceeding relative to the enforcement of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of twenty-five dollars for each offence.
Section 14. The commission shall from time to time determine whether employers in each occupation investigated are obeying its decrees, and shall publish in the manner provided in section six, the name of any employer whom it finds to be violating any such decree.
Section 15. Any newspaper refusing or neglecting to publish the findings, decrees or notices of the commission at its regular rates for the space taken shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars for each offence.
Section 16. No member of the commission and no newspaper publisher, proprietor, editor or employee thereof, shall be liable to an action for damages for publishing the name of any employer in accordance with the provisions of this act, unless such publication contains some wilful misrepresentation.
Section 17. The commission shall, annually, on or before the first Wednesday in January, make a report to the general court of its investigations and proceedings during the preceding year.
Section 18. This act shall take effect on the first day of July in the year nineteen hundred and thirteen.
Approved June A, 1912.