Mark Scott Smith's Blog: Enemy in the Mirror, page 41

Federal Hourly Minimum Wage at $1.00/hr.

In accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the federal minimum wage in 1956 was set at $1/hr.

Effective Date 1938 Act 1 1961 Amendments 2 1966 and Subsequent
Amendments 3 Oct 24, 1938$0.25Oct 24, 1939$0.30Oct 24, 1945$0.40Jan 25, 1950$0.75Mar 1, 1956$1.00Sep 3, 1961$1.15$1.00Sep 3, 1963$1.25Sep 3, 1964$1.15Sep 3, 1965$1.25Feb 1, 1967$1.40$1.40Nonfarm – $1.00, Farm – $1.00Feb 1, 1968$1.60$1.60Nonfarm – $1.15, Farm – $1.15Feb 1, 1969Nonfarm – $1.30, Farm – $1.30Feb 1, 1970Nonfarm – $1.00Feb 1, 1971Nonfarm – $1.60May 1, 1974$2.00$2.00Nonfarm – $1.90, Farm – $1.60Jan. 1, 1975$2.10$2.10Nonfarm – $2.00, Farm – $1.80Jan 1, 1976$2.30$2.30Nonfarm – $2.20, Farm – $2.00Jan 1, 1977Nonfarm – $2.30, Farm – $2.20Jan 1, 1978$2.65 for all covered, nonexempt workers$2.65 for all covered, nonexempt workers$2.65 for all covered, nonexempt workersJan 1, 1979$2.90 for all covered, nonexempt workers$2.90 for all covered, nonexempt workers$2.90 for all covered, nonexempt workersJan 1, 1980$3.10 for all covered, nonexempt workers$3.10 for all covered, nonexempt workers$3.10 for all covered, nonexempt workersJan 1, 1981$3.35 for all covered, nonexempt workers$3.35 for all covered, nonexempt workers$3.35 for all covered, nonexempt workersApr 1, 1990 4 $3.80 for all covered, nonexempt workers$3.80 for all covered, nonexempt workers$3.80 for all covered, nonexempt workersApr 1, 1991$4.25 for all covered, nonexempt workers$4.25 for all covered, nonexempt workers$4.25 for all covered, nonexempt workersOct 1, 1996$4.75 for all covered, nonexempt workers$4.75 for all covered, nonexempt workers$4.75 for all covered, nonexempt workersSep 1, 1997 5 $5.15 for all covered, nonexempt workers$5.15 for all covered, nonexempt workers$5.15 for all covered, nonexempt workersJul 24, 2007$5.85 for all covered, nonexempt workers$5.85 for all covered, nonexempt workers$5.85 for all covered, nonexempt workersJul 24, 2008$6.55 for all covered, nonexempt workers$6.55 for all covered, nonexempt workers$6.55 for all covered, nonexempt workersJul 24, 2009$7.25 for all covered, nonexempt workers$7.25 for all covered, nonexempt workers$7.25 for all covered, nonexempt workersUS Department of labor

More than twenty states increased their minimum wages for workers in 2021. These states include Connecticut, Nevada, Oregon, Florida and others.

State Minimum Wage RatesState 2020 Minimum Wage 2021 Minimum Wage Alabama $7.25 (Federal, no state minimum) $7.25 (Federal, no state minimum) Alaska $10.19 $10.34 Arizona $12.00 $12.15 Arkansas $10.00 $11.00 California  $13.00 $14.00* Colorado $12.00 $12.32 Connecticut $12.00 $13.00 (effective 8/1/21) Delaware $9.25$10.25 Washington D.C. $15.00 $15.20 Florida $8.56 $10.00 (effective 9/30/21) Georgia $5.15 (Employers subject to Fair Labor Standards Act must pay the $7.25 Federal minimum wage.) $5.15 (Employers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act must pay the $7.25 Federal minimum wage) Hawaii $10.10 $10.10 Idaho $7.25 $7.25 Illinois $10.00 $11.00 Indiana $7.25 $7.25 Iowa $7.25 $7.25 Kansas $7.25 $7.25 Kentucky $7.25 $7.25 Louisiana $7.25 (Federal, no state minimum) $7.25 (Federal, no state minimum) Maine $12.00 $12.15 Maryland $11.00 $11.75** Massachusetts $12.75 $13.50 Michigan $9.65 $9.65Minnesota $10.00 $10.08*** Mississippi $7.25 (Federal, no state minimum) $7.25 (Federal, no state minimum) Missouri $9.45 $10.30 Montana $8.65 $8.75 Nebraska $9.00 $9.00 Nevada $8.00 $8.75 (effective 7/1/21)**** New Hampshire $7.25) $7.25 New Jersey $11.00 $12.00***** New Mexico $9.00 $10.50 New York $11.80 $12.50****** North Carolina $7.25 $7.25 North Dakota $7.25 $7.25 Ohio $8.70 $8.80 Oklahoma $7.25 $7.25 Oregon $12.00 $12.75 (effective 7/1/21)******  Pennsylvania $7.25 $7.25 Rhode Island $10.50 $11.50 South Carolina $7.25 (Federal, no state minimum) $7.25 (Federal, no state minimum) South Dakota $9.30 $9.45 Tennessee $7.25 (Federal, no state minimum) $7.25 (Federal, no state minimum) Texas $7.25 $7.25 Utah $7.25 $7.25 Vermont $10.96 $11.75 Virginia $7.25 $9.50 (effective 5/1/21) Washington $13.50 $13.69 West Virginia $8.75 $8.75 Wisconsin $7.25 $7.25 Wyoming $5.15 (Employers subject to Fair Labor Standards Act must pay the Federal minimum wage.) $5.15 (Employers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act must pay the $7.25 Federal minimum wage) paycor.com

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Thanksgiving 1956

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. In 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.

Source: history.com

NY Times

Contrary to the Thanksgiving myth, the Pilgrim-Wampanoag encounter was no first-contact meeting. Rather, it followed a string of bloody episodes since 1524 in which European explorers seized coastal Wampanoags to be sold into overseas slavery or to be trained as interpreters and guides. The Wampanoags reached out to the Pilgrims not only despite this violent history, but also partly because of it.

NY Times

The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City is the world’s largest parade. The parade started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States with America’s Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit. Wikipedia

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Dear Abby Advice Column

Dear Abby:

Which is better? To go to a school dance with a creep or to sit home? – All Shook Up

Dear Shook: Go with the creep and look over the crop.

The first Dear Abby column appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle In January 1956. The advice column was written by Pauline Phillips under the pen name Abigail Van Buren

Pauline Phillips came up with the pen name Abigail Van Buren by combining the name of Biblical figure Abigail in the Book of Samuel, with the last name of former US president Martin Van Buren.

The column is continued today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name.

Source: Wikipeda

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Khrushchev Denounces “Dictator” Stalin

After the death of Josef Stalin in 1953, little criticism regarding his leadership was tolerated until, in a closed session of 1,500 delegates and visitors in 1956 First Secretary of the Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev denounced The Personality Cult of Josef Stalin and its Consequences.

Khrushchev accused the cult of personality around Stalin for serious crimes, including the execution, torture and imprisonment of loyal party members on false charges.

Krushchev accused Stalin of foreign policy errors, failing Soviet agriculture, ordering mass terror and for making mistakes that led to German occupation of huge areas of Soviet territory and the appalling loss of life in the Second World War.

At a party congress in 1961 Khrushchev repeated his attack on Stalin’s memory in open session. Other speakers then rose to denounce Stalin’s crimes.

Stalin’s body was removed from its place alongside Lenin in the mausoleum in Red Square, and names such as Stalingrad were changed.

Source: historytoday.com

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Popular Books Published in 1955

Source: Goodreads

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Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

In December 1955 an African-American woman named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusal to surrender her seat to a white person on a Montgomery Alabama public bus.

The subsequent Montgomery bus boycott lasted from December 1955 to December 1956, when the federal ruling Browder v. Gayle led to a United States Supreme Court decision declaring the Alabama and Montgomery laws segregating buses were unconstitutional.

Source: Wikipedia

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Big Four Meeting in Geneva Reduces International Tension

The stated mission of the November 1955 Geneva summit was to reduce international tensions between the leaders of “Big Four” nations France, Great Britain, USA and USSR.

The world leaders discussed issues on security, armaments, German unification, and stronger East-West relationships.

Premier Khrushchev was willing to allow a united Germany providing it was neutral, but the recent entrance of West Germany into NATO made the situation increasingly complicated.

The Soviet delegation stated that if peace were the only North Atlantic Treaty Organization objective, there should be no objection to the USSR joining. CIA Director Allan Dulles, however, advised President Eisenhower to refuse this proposal and the subject was neglected during the rest of the summit.

The 1955 Big Four Conference in Geneva created an era of renewed optimism in cold war relationships that was soon disrupted by the Suez Crisis in 1956.

Source: Wikipedia

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President Eisenhower Has Heart Attack

At West Point, Dwight Eisenhower began chain smoking three or four packs of cigarettes a day. 

In September 1955 he suffered a massive heart attack after golfing in Denver, Colorado.

Seven weeks later he left the hospital, and in February 1956 doctors reported his full recovery.

Eisenhower was the first president to release information about his health and medical records while in office, but it seems that people around him deliberately misled the public about his health to suggest he was healthy enough to do his job.

His cardiologist Dr. Paul Dudley White regularly informed the press of the President’s progress. Instead of eliminating him as a candidate for a second term as president, Dr. White recommended a second term as essential to his recovery.

In November 1956 President Dwight Eisenhower was elected for his second term.

As a consequence of his heart attack, Eisenhower developed a left ventricular aneurysm, which was in turn the cause of a mild stroke in November 1957. 

Main Source: Wikipedia

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Ngo Dinh Diem Becomes President of Vietnam

In spring 1955 anti-French sentiment led Vietnamese nationalists to call for removal of Bảo Đại, who was head of Vietnam’s provisional government.

Ngo Dinh Diem then set up a referendum between himself and Bảo Đại for October 1955.

In October 1955, Diem proclaimed South Vietnam the Republic of Vietnam and himself as its first president.

Condemning the northern government as authoritarian, Diem blocked the national elections that the 1954 Geneva Accords mandated, making certain that Vietnam was not united under Communist rule.

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President Eisenhower’s Open Skies Proposal Rejected

The concept of “mutual aerial observation” initially proposed to Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin at the Geneva Conference of 1955 by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was promptly rejected by the USSR and lay dormant for several years.

The treaty was eventually signed as an initiative of U.S. president (and former Central Intelligence Agency Director) George H. W. Bush in 1989.

Negotiated by members of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the agreement was signed in Helsinki Finland on March 24, 1992.

Source: Wikipedia

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