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Executive Order 7046 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process

Executive Order 7046—Prescribing Rules and Regulations Relating to Wages, Hours of Work, and Conditions of Employment Under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935

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Monday, May 20, 1935
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8 min read (1,538 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 8 min read (1,538 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The monthly earnings are in the nature of a salary and workers shall be paid for time lost due to weather conditions or temporary interruptions in the project beyond the control of the workers.

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners Public Health & Medical Institutions

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.

Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on May 20, 1935, this order concerns Prescribing Rules and Regulations Relating to Wages, Hours of Work, and Conditions of Employment Under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, approved April 8, 1935 (Public Resolution No. 11, 74th Congress), I hereby prescribe the following rules and regulations: PART I—WAGES Except as hereinafter provided, earnings of workers on projects financed in whole or in part from funds appropriated by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 shall be…

Constitutional Assessment: Evaluated against the Fifth Amendment, this action touches upon property or economic rights. An early statesman would insist upon strict adherence to due process of law and the constitutional guarantee that private holdings shall not be encumbered or taken for public purposes without just compensation and lawful process.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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The monthly earnings are in the nature of a salary and workers shall be paid for time lost due to weather conditions or temporary interruptions in the project beyond the control of the workers.

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Deductions from monthly earnings shall be made for time lost because of voluntary absence, illness, completion or postponement of a project, or permanent dismissal.

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In order to assure an adequate income to workers, the Works Progress Administration shall make every effort to provide a continuous flow of suitable projects in each locality.

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The monthly earnings shall be in accordance with the following schedule: SCHEDULE OF MONTHLY EARNINGS Counties in which the 1930 population of the largest municipality was Regions* Over 100,000 50,000- 100,000 25,000- 50,000 5,000- 25,000 Under 5,000 Unskilled Work REGION I-------- $55 $52 $48 $44 $40 II------- 45 42 40 35 32 III------ 35 33 29 24 21 IV------ 30 27 25 22 19 Intermediate Work REGION I-------- $65 $60 $55 $50 $45 II------- 58 54 50 44 38 III------ 52 48 43 36 30 IV------ 49 43 38 32 27 Skilled Work REGION I-------- $85 $75 $70 $63 $55 II------- 72 66 60 52 44 III------ 68 62 56 48 38 IV------ 68 58 50 42 35 Professional and Technical Work REGION I-------- $94 $83 $77 $69 $61 II------- 79 73 66 57 48 III------ 75 68 62 53 42…

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Public Health & Medical Institutions
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The Framers' Constitutional Council

1787 Prism

Evaluating this order against the constitutional debates of 1787 and the limits of Article II executive power.

⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight)
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"When the President acts in absence of either a congressional grant or denial of authority, he can only rely upon his own independent powers, but there is a zone of twilight in which he and Congress may have concurrent authority."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"Power is of an encroaching nature, and it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." — Federalist No. 48 (1788)

Madison would view this order with watchful scrutiny. Operating in the 'Zone of Twilight' where Congress is silent, each such directive establishes an administrative precedent that steadily expands the executive perimeter at the expense of legislative primacy.

Madisonian Stance: Vigilant / Cautionary
AH

Alexander Hamilton

The Energetic Executive & Unified Command

"A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the government; and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government." — Federalist No. 70 (1788)

Hamilton would view this directive as the natural and indispensable functioning of administrative leadership. Without the power to coordinate agencies, manage personnel, and resolve operational ambiguities, the modern presidency would be reduced to an impotent figurehead.

Hamiltonian Stance: Defends Vigor & Dispatch
GM

George Mason

Bill of Rights, Due Process & 10th Amendment

"The purse and the sword ought never to be in the same hands... nor the liberties of the citizen placed at the pleasure of a single magistrate." — Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788)

George Mason and the Anti-Federalists would sound a fierce warning. They feared that Article II would inevitably evolve into an elective monarchy. When an executive order impacts private rights, property, or civil liberties without individualized judicial process, Mason would see their darkest predictions verified.

Anti-Federalist Stance: High Bill of Rights Scrutiny
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Five Measurable "Constitutional Friction" Dimensions

An objective audit measuring potential separation-of-powers tension against the United States Constitution and established Supreme Court doctrine.

⚖️ Discretionary Twilight Zone
48 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Moderate Friction

Administers commerce or fiscal programs requiring ongoing statutory delegation and legislative oversight.

Benchmark: Power of the purse, taxes/tariffs, and rule of law reserved to Congress.
Dimension 2 • Art. II, §1 & §3

Executive Scope & Faithfulness

Low Friction

Exercises standard supervisory executive authority to faithfully execute existing statutes.

Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment

Federalism & State Sovereignty

High Friction

Creates friction with the Tenth Amendment by conditioning state grants, mandating local compliance, or preempting state police powers.

Benchmark: Police powers and un-delegated responsibilities reserved to the States.
Dimension 4 • 5th & 14th Amendments

Due Process & Individual Rights

Moderate Friction

Applies regulatory or compliance standards to private contractors or commercial entities.

Benchmark: Protection of private property, contracts, liberty, and procedural justice.
Dimension 5 • Separation of Powers

Youngstown Jacksonian Tier

Moderate Friction

The order relies on inherent Article II executive discretion, civil service management, or foreign diplomacy where Congress has neither expressly approved nor prohibited action.

Benchmark: Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates within Justice Jackson’s Zone of Twilight, resting upon concurrent presidential authority or congressional silence.

Weighted composite: Art. I (25%), Art. II (25%), Federalism (15%), Due Process (15%), Youngstown (20%).
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How to read these dimensions: Executive power expands whenever an administration acts without explicit statutory authorization from Congress (Article I), touches upon police powers historically reserved to the states (Tenth Amendment), or limits private rights and property without judicial process. A low friction score indicates strict concordance with enacted law; a high friction score highlights orders testing the limits of presidential discretion.
Total Words
1,538
9,171 characters
Estimated Read Time
8 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
19.2
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

REGULATION NO. 1 By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, approved April 8, 1935 (Public Resolution No. 11, 74th Congress), I hereby prescribe the following rules and regulations: PART I—WAGES Except as hereinafter provided, earnings of workers on projects financed in whole or in part from funds appropriated by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 shall be on a monthly salary basis, the earnings differing according to various regions, degree of urbanization, and classes of work prescribed herein. The monthly earnings are in the nature of a salary and workers shall be paid for time lost due to weather conditions or temporary interruptions in the project beyond the control of the workers. In order to be credited for such time lost, the worker must report on the job and be officially dismissed for the day unless otherwise notified by the project supervisor. Deductions from monthly earnings shall be made for time lost because of voluntary absence, illness, completion or postponement of a project, or permanent dismissal. In order to assure an adequate income to workers, the Works Progress Administration shall make every effort to provide a continuous flow of suitable projects in each locality. The monthly earnings shall be in accordance with the following schedule: SCHEDULE OF MONTHLY EARNINGS Counties in which the 1930 population of the largest municipality was Regions* Over 100,000 50,000- 100,000 25,000- 50,000 5,000- 25,000 Under 5,000 Unskilled Work REGION I-------- $55 $52 $48 $44 $40 II------- 45 42 40 35 32 III------ 35 33 29 24 21 IV------ 30 27 25 22 19 Intermediate Work REGION I-------- $65 $60 $55 $50 $45 II------- 58 54 50 44 38 III------ 52 48 43 36 30 IV------ 49 43 38 32 27 Skilled Work REGION I-------- $85 $75 $70 $63 $55 II------- 72 66 60 52 44 III------ 68 62 56 48 38 IV------ 68 58 50 42 35 Professional and Technical Work REGION I-------- $94 $83 $77 $69 $61 II------- 79 73 66 57 48 III------ 75 68 62 53 42 IV------ 75 64 55 46 39 Regions include the following States: I Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont; Illinois, Indians, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin; Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming. II Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota; Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, West Virginia. III Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia. IV Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee. Monthly earnings applicable to a city should in general apply also to contiguous urban areas, even though such urban areas are not in the same county. Monthly earnings applicable to the largest municipality in a county should in general apply also to the remainder of the county in which the municipality is located, but need not necessarily so apply in event that local circumstances warrant a different rate of earnings. If the territory covered by the operation of any individual project involves the application of more than one schedule of monthly earnings, the schedule of monthly earnings for any class of work on the project should be the higher schedule involved. In order to allow for these and any other adjustments, the Works Progress Administrator or his representative may adjust the rate of earnings for any class of work in a locality by not more than 10 per cent from the monthly earnings shown in the foregoing schedule. The monthly earnings basis referred to heretofore and shown in the foregoing schedule shall be applicable to workers on all projects financed in whole or in part from the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 except: ( a ) Emergency Conservation Work, for which existing rules and regulations shall remain in force. ( b ) Projects under the supervision of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, for which wage rates, subject to the approval of the State Directors of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, shall be determined in accordance with local wage conditions by the authority to which the loan, grant, or allotment is made except as otherwise required by law. ( c ) Highway and grade crossing elimination work under the supervision of the Bureau of Public Roads and the State highway departments, for which minimum wage rates shall be determined by the State highway departments in accordance with local wage conditions, subject to the approval of and in conformity with standards fixed by the Bureau of Public Roads. ( d ) Permanent buildings for the use of any executive department of the Government of the United States, or the District of Columbia, for which the provisions of the act of March 3, 1931 (U. S. C., Supp. VII, title 40, sec. 276a), as amended by section 7 of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, shall apply. ( e ) Such projects, portions of projects, or activities as the Administrator of the Works Progress Administration shall from time to time exempt, for which wage rates shall be determined, subject to approval by the Works Progress Administration, in accordance with local wage conditions by the agency having general supervision of the project. ( f ) Supervisory and administrative employees. ( g ) Work relief projects under the supervision of State and local emergency relief administrations, for which, pending the transfer of persons working on such projects to the new program, present applicable rules and regulations shall remain in force. PART II-HOURS OF WORK Except (1) in the case of an emergency involving the public welfare or the protection of the work already done on a project, (2) in special and unusual circumstances when the limitations below are not feasible or practical, and (3) for supervisory and administrative employees the maximum hours of work shall be as follows: ( a ) For persons employed on a salary basis in accordance with the schedule provided in Part I the maximum hours of work shall be determined by the Works Progress Administrator but shall not be in excess of 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week. ( b ) For persons employed on projects under the supervision of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, on projects under the supervision of the Bureau of Public Roads and State highway departments, and on projects exempted by the Administrator of the Works Progress Administration as provided in Part I, the maximum hours of work for manual labor shall be 8 hours per day and 130 hours per month, and the maximum hours of work for clerical and other non-manual employees shall be 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week. ( c ) For persons employed on projects located at points so remote and inaccessible that camps or floating plants are necessary, the maximum hours of work shall be 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week. ( d ) For persons employed on permanent buildings for the use of any executive department of the Government of the United States, or the District of Columbia, the provisions of the act of March 3, 1931 (U.S.C., Supp. VII, title 40, sec. 276a), shall apply. ( e ) For Emergency Conservation Work and work relief under the supervision of State and local emergency relief administrations, existing applicable rules and regulations in regard to hours shall remain in force. PART III-CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT The conditions of employment on all work projects financed in whole or in part by funds appropriated by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 shall be as follows: ( a ) No person under the age of sixteen (16) years, and no one whose age or physical conditions is such as to make his employment dangerous to his health or safety, or to the health and safety of others may be employed on any work project. This paragraph shall not be construed to operate against the employment of physically handicapped persons, otherwise employable, where such persons may be safely assigned to work which they can ably perform. ( b ) No person currently serving sentence to & penal or correctional institution shall be employed on any work project. ( c ) Preference in the employment of workers shall be given to persons from the public relief rolls, and except with the specific authorization of the Works Progress Administration at least 90 per cent of all persons working on a work project shall have been taken from the public relief rolls. ( d ) Only one member of a family group may be employed on the works program, except as specifically authorized by the Works Progress Administration. ( e ) Except as specifically provided in this Part, workers who are qualified by training and experience to be assigned to work projects shall not be discriminated against on any grounds whatsoever. ( f ) All works projects shall be conducted in accordance with safe working conditions, and every effort shall be made for the prevention of accidents. ( g ) Wages to be paid by the Federal Government may not be pledged or assigned, and any purported pledge or assignment shall be null and void. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT The White House, May 20, 1935.

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (6)

Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 7046 (May 20, 1935), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-7046-prescribing-rules-and-regulations-relating-wages-hours-work-and.