apr 8, 1351 - Statute of Laborers

Description:

A law was placed that forced able body people below the age of 60 to work. This was placed to stop rebellions and strikes. The law also enforced that wages would stay the same as they were in 1346. This is because during the plague, employers started to raise pay grades because their workers were dying and they needed new ones to do twice the work. Finally, this law demanded that workers must stay with their current employer. This made it impossible for peasants to quit their current jobs to find better paid ones. Anyone who was found breaking the law would be punished. In the beginning the punishment was the stocks, but as time passed it grew to be imprisonment. If a person tried to escape from prison, they were branded with an "F" on their forehead. Between 1351-1359 671 men were employed to enforce this statute. Most of the time it was the peasants that were punished, but occasionally an employer would be caught trying to entice another's servant with a higher pay grade.