There Was No Minimum Wage in the US Until 1938 – How Much Were Workers Actually Paid?

For 162 years, an employer in the United States could legally pay you a single cent an hour. No federal floor. No legal minimum. Just whatever the market would bear, and the market often didn't bear much at all. This is the story of the sweatshops that caught fire with the doors locked from the outside, the Supreme Court that spent three decades striking down every attempt to protect workers, and the president who had to threaten to pack the entire Court before Congress would finally Put a number on the value of a human hour. From the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, to the "switch in time that saved nine," to the single law signed in the summer of 1938 — this is the hidden history behind the number on your paycheck. If this changed the way you think about the wage floor you've always taken for granted, subscribe—we go deep on the hidden systems that quietly built the modern world. #minimumwagelaw #ushistory #newdeals #laborhistory #hiddenhistory #documentary