Which 1907 Australian legal decision defined a ‘fair and reasonable’ wage for an unskilled worker?

The Harvester judgment was the 1907 Australian legal decision that defined a ‘fair and reasonable’ wage for an unskilled worker.

Justice H. B. Higgins issued the decision in the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration in Ex parte H. V. McKay, commonly called the Harvester case. The dispute involved McKay’s agricultural-machinery business and whether it should receive an excise benefit under Australia’s tariff system.

Higgins concluded that a fair wage should support a worker, a wife, and three children in reasonable comfort. He used a needs-based standard that became associated with the “basic wage,” although the case’s original legal issue concerned tariff protection rather than a general national minimum wage.

The judgment strongly influenced Australian wage policy for decades. It is frequently described as a foundational minimum-wage ruling, but it did not simply create one modern nationwide hourly rate for every worker.