said compact to provide uniform minimum standards affecting labor and industry in the said States: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall be construed as abrogating, repealing, modifying, or interfering with the operation of laws already in effect in any State party hereto which establish standards equivalent to or above those herein specified, nor to prevent or discourage the enactment of additional laws establishing similar or higher standards; nor shall anything herein contained repeal or affect any laws concerning conditions of employment that are not in conflict herewith or that deal with subjects not included herein: And provided further, That no part of any title of this compact nor of any legislation adopted in pursuance thereof, except as may be expressly specified in such title or in such legislation, shall be in effect in any State party hereto until this compact shall have been approved as provided in section 6 of title II, but whenever title I and II hereof and any other title included herein are so approved and ratified, such titles shall be in full force and effect as laws of the States so approving and ratifying the same.

TITLE II-GENERAL PROVISIONS

SECTION 1. Each State party to this compact shall require its administrative agency or agencies charged with the administration and enforcement of this compact and of State laws relating thereto, to make comprehensive and detailed reports concerning the operation and administration of said compact and laws. Such agency shall report at least once each year and shall send copies of such report to the interstate commission established under the following section, to the Governors of the several ratifying States, and to the appropriate administrative agencies in such States.

SEC. 2. Each State party hereto shall make provision for a continuing unpaid commission representing industry, labor, and the public, and appointed by the Governor of said State, to deal with the other ratifying States concerning questions arising under this compact and the operation of the same within the limits of their respective States. The chairman of such State commission shall be designated by the Governor and shall be the representative of his State on an interstate commission which shall be composed of the representatives so designated by the several States parties to this compact. The Governors of the signatory States shall request the President of the United States to appoint a representative of the Federal Government to the interstate commission. The expenses of the interstate commission shall be shared equally by the States ratifying this compact. The interstate commission shall annually make a report of its activities and shall furnish copies to the Governors of the ratifying States and to the permanent commissions of such States.

SEC. 3. Should any question arise on the part of one or more of the States ratifying this compact, concerning a matter involved in said compact or in any State law adopted in pursuance thereof, then such question shall be brought before the said interstate commission for consideration. Said interstate commission shall make any necessary investigations, shall publish its findings and any recommendations and shall furnish copies of such findings and recommendations to the State commissions in each State party to this compact.

SEO. 4. If any ratifying State should desire a modification of any provision or provisions of this compact, or a revision of the entire compact, or if for any reason it should become desirable to extend the scope of said compact, the aforesaid interstate commission shall, upon the application of one or more of the ratifying States, and after thirty days' notice to the Governors and State commissions of the other States, proceed to consider such application and the reasons advanced for the proposed modification or revision and shall make such recommendations to the ratifying States concerning the same as may seem fitting and proper. Whenever said modification, revision, or extension is ratified in the manner prescribed in section 6 of this title for the ratification of this original compact and the Congress of the United States has consented thereto, then such modification, revision, or extension shall be in full force and effect in the States ratifying the same.

SEO. 5. Each State party to this compact agrees that it will not withdraw therefrom until it has reported to the interstate commission the reasons for its desire to withdraw. The interstate commission shall, upon receipt of such report, investigate the situation and shall, within six months, submit its recommendations. If the State still desires to withdraw from the compact, it shall defer such action for two years from the date of the findings of the interstate commission.

SEC. 6. Upon ratification by the legislative act of the requisite number of States as specified in subsequent titles of this compact, and with the consent of the Congress of the United States, this compact shall be in full force and effect in the States ratifying the same. Each State so ratifying shall forthwith enact necessary and suitable legislation to establish and maintain the minimum standards set forth in the following title or titles and shall make provision for the continuing State commission required by section 2 of this title. The appropriate administrative agencies of each State shall thereafter enforce and supervise the operation of the laws relating to this compact and the laws enacted to make the provisions of said compact effective.

SEC. 7. Any State may at any time become a party to this compact by taking the action required by the preceding section of this title to ratify the same, subject to the consent of the Congress of the United States.

SEC. 8. If any part of this compact or the application thereof to any person or circumstance should be held to be contrary to the constitution of any ratifying State or of the United States, all other separable parts of said compact and the application of such parts to other persons or circumstances shall continue to be in full force and effect.

TITLE III-MINIMUM WAGE

SECTION 1. No employer shall pay a woman, or a minor under twenty-one years of age, an unfair oppressive wage.

SEC. 2. The State agency administering the minimum wage law enacted in conformity with this compact shall have authority to investigate the wages of women and minors; to appoint wage boards, upon which employers, employees, and the public shall have equal representation, for the purpose of recommending minimum fair wage rates for women and minors; and, after a public hearing, to

enter directory orders based on the determinations of the wage boards, together with such administrative rulings as are appro priate to make the determinations effective; and may have further authority, without the agency of a wage board, to enter such orders in the case of occupations with less than a specified number of employees.

SEC. 3. The State administrative agency and the wage boards appointed by such agency shall have authority to administer oaths and to require by subpena the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of records relative to the wages of women and minors.

SEC. 4. The State administrative agency shall have further authority to inspect to determine compliance with its orders; to publish the names of employers violating a directory order; and, after a directory order has been in effect for a specified period, to make such order mandatory after a public hearing thereon. Such mandatory order shall carry a penalty of fine, imprisonment, or both. Said agency shall have authority to reconvene wage boards or to form new wage boards for the purpose of modifying wage orders. It shall have authority at any time on its own motion to modify administrative regulations after a public hearing thereon.

SEC. 5. The State administratíve agency shall have authority to issue special licenses to employees who, by reason of physical or mental condition are incapable of earning the minimum fair-wage rate established for the occupation in which they are employed. Said agency shall have authority to take assignment of wage claims at the request of women or minor employees paid less than the minimum wage to which they are entitled under a mandatory order, and to bring legal action necessary to collect such claims. Such employees shall be authorized, under the statute, to recover by civil action the full amount to which they are entitled under a mandatory fair-wage order.

SEC. 6. Employers subject to the minimum-wage law enacted in conformity herewith shall be required to keep specified records, including the names, addresses, occupations, hours, and wages of the women and minors in their employ; to permit the inspection and transcript of such records by the State administrative agency and its authorized representatives; and upon request, to furnish said agency with a sworn statement of the same. Employers shall further be required to post and maintain the notices regarding wage orders issued by the State administrative agency.

SEC. 7. Each minimum-wage law so enacted shall contain provisions for appeal to the courts on questions of law by persons aggrieved by the decisions of said agency. Said law shall also contain a provision to the effect that in no case shall wage orders or decrees entered under a previously existing law be nullified until the provisions of the law enacted in conformity herewith have become operative and until new wage orders covering the same occupations have been entered and made effective.

SEC. 8. Each minimum-wage law enacted in conformity herewith shall contain a saving clause to the effect that if any provisions of such law or its application be held invalid, the remainder of the law and its application elsewhere shall not be affected thereby.

SEO. 9. Mandatory fair-wage legislation now in effect in any of the signatory States, and such legislation in course of passage in any of such States as is in conformity with the provisions of this compact, is hereby declared to meet the minimum standards required by this compact.

SEC. 10. This compact as applied to minimum wage shall, when ratified by two or more States in accordance with the provisions of section 6 of title II, be in full force and effect in the States so ratifying the same.

In witness whereof the commissioners of the States of Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and of the Commonwealths of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have signed this compact in a single original which shall be deposited in the archives of the Department of State of the United States of America at Washington, District of Columbia, and of which a duly certified copy shall be forwarded to the Governor of each of the signatory States.

Done at Concord, New Hampshire, this twenty-ninth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and thirty-four. (Signed by members of commissions and by delegates of the States of Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and the Commonwealths of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.)

Approved, August 12, 1937.

[PUBLIC RESOLUTION-No. 77-76TH CONGRESS]

[CHAPTER 267-3D SESSION]

[H. J. Res. 265]

JOINT RESOLUTION

Authorizing the Bureau of Labor Statistics to make studies of productivity and labor costs in industry.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor is authorized and directed to make continuing studies of productivity and labor costs in the manufacturing, mining, transportation, distríbution, and other industries.

For the purpose of making the study, there is hereby authorized to be appropriated, from any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, a sum not to exceed $100,000 for the first fiscal year. The Secretary of Labor is directed to submit annually to the Congress a report of the findings of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in complying with this joint resolution.

Approved, June 7, 1940.

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