Kentucky' Prevailing Wage Law: Its History, Purpose and Effect

The first federal eight hour day law was enacted on June 25, 1868. It also was the first federal prevailing wage law. The country had just passed through a Civil War that among other things had kick-started massive industrialization across the north and west of the country. The next thirty years would see the emergence of a new class of wealth and pwoer in the country. Men such as J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie were using the rapid growth stimulated by the Civil War as a foundation for accumulating economic power never before seen in the country...