Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/928

892 892 HARVARD LAW REVIEW EFFECT OF AN INCREASE IN THE LIVING WAGE BY A COURT OF INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION UPON VESTED RIGHTS AND DUTIES UNDER PREEXISTING AWARDS ♦ IN the present article I address myself to a subject which, so far as I am aware, has never yet received a comprehensive con- sideration by courts of industrial arbitration. The subject, brought into strong relief by recent fluctuations in the cost of living, has not, generally at any rate, been faced by legislatures. Sidetracked by in- dustrial courts, it is yet vital to their efficient functioning. For the purpose of the present article, I may explain that under the legis- lation of the state of South Australia, the Industrial Court is pre- cluded from awarding less than a living wage, that the lockout and the strike are punishable offenses, and that the court is authorized by statute to vary an existing award. I will deal first, though briefly, with new cases. When an industrial court has raised the living wage, in the absence of such declaration being challenged (and the challenge being duly supported by evi- dence or argument), it may be assumed that the court will accept the living wage, and apply it in the new cases which come before it. It is necessary, further, to distinguish between the living wage and the minimimi wage for an industry. The minimum wage may be a primary minimimi (extending to unskilled laborers in an industry generally), or a secondary minimum (applicable in cases of skill, etc., in various grades of an industry). As regards the primary minimum, it will be apparent that, although the court may be at liberty to declare a wage higher than the living wage, there may be cogent reasons for the exercise of caution where the Uving wage has re- cently been raised materially. No argvmient is necessary to justify a loyal adherence to the living wage as a bed-rock level. It will simplify my later argument if I briefly resume the cogent reasons for maintaining, at any rate in new cases, preexisting marginal differences between the living wage (or the primary minimum wage, if that be higher than the living wage) and the secondary minimums. The conditions of industrial organization to-day call for an increas-