Frances Perkins: The Woman Behind the New Deal

Working Conditions > A Good Job

Frances Perkins

[Notes for lecture] “What Constitutes a good job”

Autograph manuscript, Washington, ca. April 1933

Frances Perkins Papers, Box [Speeches Coggeshall]

Gift of Susanna Perkins Coggeshall, 1980


 

Frances Perkins

[Outline] “What constitutes a Good Job”

Typescript with autograph corrections, ca. 1928 - 1930

Frances Perkins Papers, Box 46

All of Perkins’s labor requirements come together in this speech made one month after taking office as Secretary of Labor, including safety, hours, wages, security, social and civic opportunity, self determination, and community life.

Gift of Frances Perkins

 

Frances Perkins

Why We need a Minimum Wage Law

New York: Nation’s Business, July 1933

Frances Perkins Papers, Box 46

Perkins had been fighting for a minimum wage law since her days working for the New York Consumers’ League. A few states had such legislation, but New York was not among them. Only in 1938, when Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, was a nationwide floor for wages established.

Gift of Frances Perkins

 

Photograph of Frances Perkins at Safety Costumes Conference

Washington?, March 1943

Frances Perkins Papers, Box 100

Gift of Frances Perkins

 

Secretary Perkins Investigates Mining Area

Vinita, Oklahoma, 15 April 1940

Frances Perkins Papers, Box 100

The caption for this photograph is as follows: “Conflicting reports of housing and labor conditions in Oklahoma and Missouri mining areas brought Secretary of labor Frances Perkins to the district on a tour of inspection. She is shown [here] as she entered a mine shaft near here to examine working conditions under ground.”

Gift of Frances Perkins


 

 

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