ps should represent a consistent effort to secure to them a wage at
least sufficient to permit them to satisfy their "normal and reasonable
needs." These needs must be interpreted in the light of and by direct
comparison with the standard of life of the wage earners in general, and
of the middle classes in the community. In the determination of the
living wage, the existing level of wages for the groups in question will
also be an important consideration. The declared living wage--that wage
which it is sought to secure for all industrial workers--should be
assessed upon a different basis for male and female workers; but if, in
particular cases, it is deemed best to safeguard the interests of male
workers, or to keep women out of particular industries, this rule could
be departed from in any one of a number of suggested ways. The most
important of these possible departures from the ordinary basis of
assessment is the enforcement of the same wage rates for men and women
when they are employed upon the same work. The living wage in any
industry should be a standard wage, subject to all the qualifications
and limitations of other standard wage rates.

The success of the living wage policy will depend in a great degree upon
the good judgment with which it is adapted to the conditions obtaining
in each individual industry or occupation in which it is enforced.
Therefore, the court or commission should proceed upon the advice of the
joint boards or councils concerned. It should be the function of each
joint council to give definite advice to the central authority upon
every feature of the policy to be pursued in its field--particularly
upon the subject of the wages to be prescribed. The central authority
should give no ruling in any industry until after the report of the
joint council of that industry. Each joint council should have the
further duty of observing and reporting upon the effect of the living
wage policy in its industry or occupation.

The living wage policy should be administered in such a way as to spread
among the wage earners, the employers, and the public an understanding
of the hope and purpose it embodies and a clear knowledge of the factors
which will govern its success. Not the least of which factors will be
the determination of all grades of wage earners to make good use of
whatever new measure of participation in industry they may secure; and
the recognition by the employers that the standard of life of