Keeping Women in Their Place: The Minimum Wage in Canada, 1910-25

Labour unrest and demands for social reform during and immediately after World War I prompted most provincial governments in Canada to enact limited minimum wage statutes, aplicable only to female wage-earners in specified industries. Minimum wage boards issued separate wage orders for each industry, after consultation with representative employers and employees. The standard for the minimum wage was decent subsistence for a single woman with no dependants and no need to save for sickness, layoffs, or old age. The Ontario Minimum Wage Board, established in 1920, insisted that if a minimum wage was a real minimum, employers did not object to paying it, or to cooperating with the board. To insure employer cooperation, the board provided employers with ample opportunity to present their views, but generally accepted employers' views over those of labour. Minimum wage statutes were justified not on the basis of a wage-earner's right to a fair wage, but on women's special needs as the mothers of the future generation; the Ontario Minimum Wage Board expressed a similar attitude towards women in its administration of the Ontario Act.