WALSH-HEALEY ACT

WALSH-HEALEY ACT (30 June 1936), established minimum standards for work on federal contracts. The act required federal purchases of supplies exceeding $10,000 to contain an agreement on the part of the contractor to conform to the standards prescribed by the act. These standards required contractors to pay prevailing wages as determined by the secretary of labor; establish an eight-hour day and forty-hour week; employ no male under sixteen or female under eighteen; and use no convict labor. Contractors were required to be manufacturers of, or regular dealers in, the materials and supplies purchased by the government.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

U. S. Employment Standards Administration. A Guide to the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department. of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, 1976.

Herbert Maynard Diamond/C. W.

See also Government Regulation of Business; Price and Wage Controls; Wages and Hours of Labor, Regulation of; Wages and Salaries.