groups of workers whose
average annual earnings fall below the sum settled upon by the
constituted agency as the minimum necessary for the fulfillment of the
living wage idea. The statistical definition of the term "average" as
just used should also be left to the constituted agency. Allowance
should be made in each occupation for a small percentage of sub-ordinary
workers.

Secondly, as to the basis of assessment of the living wage, and the
procedure by which it should be fixed. There should be an extensive and
(so far as it is possible) impartial investigation of the cost of that
minimum standard of economic life which it is the intention of living
wage policy to secure for all industrial wage earners. In the
determination of what should be included in the minimum standard,
attention should be paid to the income levels of the wage earners in
general, and of the middle classes. The wages now received by the lowest
paid groups would also be an important consideration.

The living wage settled upon by this process of investigation should be
in the form of a weekly standard wage. It should be considered as a
minimum only for any occupation to which it is applied. Like other
standard wage rates, it should be subject to limitation or variation in
accordance with the conclusions reached on that subject in the preceding
chapters.[122] The questions which arise out of the fact that it would
have to be enforced in a number of different industries, and under
widely different conditions will be considered at a later point.[123]
The bases of assessment for men and women should be those discussed and
approved in the preceding section. The living wage that is fixed should
be subject to reconsideration and revision at definite periods; aside
from the revisions which may be called for as the result of price
movement,[124] or under the profits test which is suggested later in the
book.[125]

5.--So much then for the central features of the living wage proposals.
We have now to consider the probable result of their enforcement; and
any criticisms to which they may be fairly subject in their proposed
form. Thus we will be enabled to discover what modifications, large or
small, are advisable.

Objection may be taken, first of all, against the scope of these
proposals. So far living wage legislation in the United States has been
applied to female industrial workers only. The argument against the
extension of the principle to male w