Did FDR aspire for all workers to earn a living wage?
In 1933, the first year of his presidency, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Recovery Act, aiming to support a depressed economy with a number of innovative measures. FDR declared that “no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country,” clarifying that “by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level—I mean the wages of decent living.”
That proved a tough vision to legislate. The Supreme Court ruled the 1933 law unconstitutional two years later. In 1938, Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, establishing the first federal minimum wage at 25 cents an hour and setting other new standards including a maximum workweek—but only covering jobs in about one-fifth of the labor force.
