The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was established during the Great Depression era. One of it’s main duties was to regulate the working hours and the pay for towns both large and small.

Since Gallatin, MO, was classified in the group of having less than 2,500 people, here are a few of the NRA clauses which were to apply:

      1. If a store only employed one or two people, the maximum hours worked weren’t affected by the program, but employees were to be given a 20 cents per hour wage increase. However, grocery stores and drug stores weren’t required to pay over $12 per week. Retail dry goods, shoe, clothing, furniture, and hardware stores weren’t required tp pay over $11 per week.
      2. Restaurants could not employ male workers for over 54 hours per week, and female workers over 48 hours per week. The wages could not be less than 23 cents an hour. The minimum wages were to be subject to deductions for meals at 25 cents per meal and not in excess of three dollars in any one week.
      3. Banks were not to work employees over 40 hours per week as an average over a period of five weeks. The hours didn’t apply to guards and watchmen nor to an employee who received more than $35 per week. Wages were to increase 20%, and didn’t have to be over $12 per week.

— researched and presented by Wilbur Bush, Gallatin, MO