The Origin of Minimum Wage Determination in Australia: The Political and Legal Institutions

Celal Bayari

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper discusses the establishment of the minimum wage determination process in the early twentieth century Australia, following the institutionalisation of compulsory industrial arbitration between capital and labour. This process led to the 1907 Harvester judgment whereby the Common- wealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration decision determined, for the first time, the amount of ‘fair and reasonable wage’ that the employers were required to pay. The discussion focuses on the role of the state in the labour market regulation, development of the related legislation, and the role played by Justice Henry Bourne Higgins. The paper briefly discusses the Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904 (Commonwealth), and the setting up of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. There is a comparison of the nature of minimum wage law developments in other Anglo-Saxon economies and the paper draws on the history of the state involvement in the regulation of the economy. The minimum wage became institutionalised in relation to the tariff protection of the Australian market from the twentieth century onwards, and the analysis herein includes the discussion of how tariffs contributed to the possibility of wage controls and labour market stability.

Keywords: Australia; labour; minimum wage; tariff; arbitration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 A12 A13 A14 B2 B22 B25 B4 B41 B52 E02 E3 E31 E64 E65 F1 F11 F15 F16 F43 F62 F66 G0 H1 H11 H12 H25 H30 I3 I31 I32 I38 J2 J24 J28 J31 J32 J33 J41 J48 J51 J52 J53 J58 J61 J68 J81 J83 K2 K23 K42 L5 L51 L60 N17 N3 N37 O1 O11 O14 O15 O25 O33 O38 O43 P1 P11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-03-03, Revised 2012-05-19
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Journal of Global Politics 1.5(2012): pp. 163-198

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:102294

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