The fight for minimum wage has not been a linear fight. There have been victories and setbacks. In 1912, after a massive strike by women textile workers in Massachusetts, the first minimum wage law was created. Back then, while the cost of living was $10 per week, women’s wages were much lower. Many people were concerned that women would be forced into prostitution or other vices. In response, the Massachusetts state legislature created a panel that allowed employees to complain, if their wages did not rise to the cost of living. Although, no minimum wage was set, employers who violated the provisions had their names published in the local newspaper.
Inspired by this first set of victories, other labor movements began to follow suit. Following a series of strikes that paralyzed the nation in 1913, set up actual minimum wage laws. In 1913, Oregon did so at the state legislature. They said,“the State of Oregon requires that women and minors should be protected from conditions of labor which have a pernicious effect on their health and morals, and inadequate wages and unduly long hours and unsanitary conditions of labor have such a pernicious effect.” They set the minimum wage for $8.25 per week for women and $6 per week for girls under 18 (child labor was still allowed back then). Men and boys were excluded from the Oregon’s minimum wage laws, because many male jobs were unionized and the state legislature did not have the same concern that men would be forced into prostitution.
However, these brief victories in minimum wage was knocked down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. In 1923, in Adkins vs Children's Hospital, the Supreme Court ruled that these were unconstitutional because it violated the employers’ and employees’ rights for freedom of contract under the fifth amendment.
This was a long series of reactionary rulings set by the Supreme Court, that seems to do nothing but wage a class war against the working class that continues till today.
In 1929, the Great Depression began. As millions of people became destitute and unemployment, the movement for collective bargaining also grew. In 1932, there were a series of strikes that not only fought for minimum wage, but against lowering of wages. In 1933, Congress passed the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) which set the first federal minimum wage law. Once again, the Supreme Court put its thumb against workers in another reactionary ruling and ruled that this was an “unconstitutional delegation of legislative power” in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. et al v. United States.