document_title: Minimum wage in the United States

question_text: when did minimum wage go up in nj

question_tokens: when did minimum wage go up in nj

text: Minimum wage in the United States

text: History

text: 20th century

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2017)

text: In 1912, Massachusetts organized a commission to recommend non-compulsory minimum wages for women and children. Within eight years, at least thirteen U.S. states and the District of Columbia would pass minimum wage laws, with pressure being placed on state legislatures by the National Consumers League in a coalition with other women's voluntary associations and organized labor.[6][7] The United States Supreme Court of the Lochner era consistently invalidated compulsory minimum wage laws. Advocates for these minimum wage laws hoped that they would be upheld under the precedent of Muller v. Oregon, which had upheld maximum working hours laws for women on the grounds that women required special protection which men did not.[7] However, the Court did not extend this principle to minimum wage laws, considering the latter as interfering with the ability of employers to freely negotiate wage contracts with employees.[6]:518

text:
No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933[8]

tag: div

text: In 1933, the Roosevelt administration made the first attempt at establishing a national minimum wage, when a $0.25 per hour standard was set as part of the National Industrial Recovery Act. However, in the 1935 court case Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (295 U.S. 495), the US Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional, and the minimum wage was abolished. In 1938, the minimum wage was re-established pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act, once again at $0.25 per hour ($4.23 in 2015 dollars[9]). In 1941, the Supreme Court upheld the Fair Labor Standards Act in United States v. Darby Lumber Co., holding that Congress had the power under the Commerce Clause to regulate employment conditions.[10]

text: The 1938 minimum wage law only applied to "employees engaged in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for interstate commerce," but in amendments in 1961 and 1966, the federal minimum wage was extended (with slightly different rates) to employees in large retail and service enterprises, local transportation and construction, state and local government employees, as well as other smaller expansions; a grandfather clause in 1990 drew most employees into the purview of federal minimum wage policy, which now set the wage at $3.80.[11]

text: Legislation, 21st century

text: In 2006, voters in six states (Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio) approved statewide increases in the state minimum wage. The amounts of these increases ranged from $1 to $1.70 per hour and all increases were designed to annually index to inflation.[12] Some politicians in the United States have advocated linking the minimum wage to the Consumer Price Index, thereby increasing the wage automatically each year based on increases to the Consumer Price Index. So far, Ohio, Oregon, Missouri, Vermont and Washington have linked their minimum wages to the consumer price index. Minimum wage indexing also takes place each year in Florida, San Francisco, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.[citation needed]

text: The federal minimum wage in the United States was reset to its current rate of $7.25 per hour in July 2009.[11] Some U.S. territories (such as American Samoa) are exempt. Some types of labor are also exempt: employers may pay tipped labor a minimum of $2.13 per hour, as long as the hour wage plus tip income equals at least the minimum wage. Persons under the age of 20 may be paid $4.25 an hour for the first 90 calendar days of employment (sometimes known as a youth, teen, or training wage) unless a higher state minimum exists.[13] The 2009 increase was the last of three steps of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which was signed into law as a rider to the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007, a bill that also contained almost $5 billion in tax cuts for small businesses.

text: In April 2014, the U.S. Senate debated the Minimum Wage Fairness Act (S. 1737; 113th Congress). The bill would have amended the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) to increase the federal minimum wage for employees to $10.10 per hour over the course of a two-year period.[14] The bill was strongly supported by President Barack Obama and many of the Democratic Senators, but strongly opposed by Republicans in the Senate and House.[15][16][17] Later in 2014, voters in the Republican-controlled states of Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota considered ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage above the national rate of $7.25 per hour, which were successful in all 4 states. The results provided evidence that raising minimum wage has support across party lines.[18]

text: Since 2012, a growing protest and advocacy movement called "Fight for $15", initially growing out of fast food worker strikes, has advocated for an increase in the minimum wage. On March 27, 2014, Connecticut passed legislation to raise the minimum wage from $8.70 to $10.10 by 2017, making it one of about six states to aim at or above $10.00 per hour.[19] In 2014 and 2015, several cities, including San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington passed ordinances that gradually increase the minimum wage to $15.00.[20][21] In 2016, New York and California passed legislation that would gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 in each state.[22][23]

text: As of 2017, recent legislation was passed in multiple states to raise the minimum wage a certain amount in a certain amount of time. California is set to raise their minimum wage to $15.00/hour by January 1, 2023.[24] Colorado is set to raise their minimum wage from $9.30/hour to $12/hour by January 1, 2020, raising $0.90 per year.[25] Seattle passed legislation in 2015 for a raise in minimum wage; for employers of 500 or more employees without heath benefits, the minimum wage will be raised to $15.00/hour by 2017, for employees with heath benefits, the minimum wage will raise to $15.00/hour by 2018, for smaller employees the $15.00/hour wage will be reached at different times. Seattle is one of the first cities to put in place a plan that after $15.00/hour wage is reached, they will continue to increase minimum wage by a certain percentage every year based on inflation changes. [26] New York has also recently passed legislation to increase their minimum wage to $15.00/hour over time, certain counties and larger companies are set on faster plans than others. [27] As there have only been a few places mentioned, cities and states across the United States are putting in place certain legislation to increase the minimum wage for minimum wage workers to a livable wage. Time will only tell the effects on the economy and number of jobs in those cities and states.

text: Local ordinances

text: On June 2, 2014, the City Council of Seattle, Washington passed a local ordinance to increase the minimum wage of the city to $15.00 per hour,[28] giving the city the highest minimum wage in the United States,[29][30] which will be phased in over seven years, to be fully implemented by 2021.[31] A growing number of California cities have enacted local minimum wage ordinances, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, Mountain View, Richmond, and San Jose.

text: In September 2014, the Los Angeles City Council approved a minimum salary for hotel workers of $15.37 per hour.[32] In April 2016, The Los Angeles Times reported that there is an exemption for unionised workers, and interviewed longtime workers at unionised Sheraton Universal who make $10.00 per hour, whereas non-union employees at a non-union Hilton a few feet away make at least the $15.37 mandated by law for non-unionised employees.[33] Similar exemptions have been adopted in San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and Santa Monica.

text: San Francisco is expected to become the first U.S. city to reach a minimum wage of $15.00 per hour on July 1, 2018, .[34] The minimum wage in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., will be $15.00 per hour in 2020.[35][36]

text: On August 18, 2015, the El Cerrito City Council directed city staff to draft a local minimum wage ordinance based on a template provided by a coalition for a county-wide minimum wage effort. The details are not final, but the Council discussed an initial increase of roughly 28–36% ($11.52 – $12.25 or more) by January 1, 2016, with annual increases that will result in a $15.00 hourly wage rate by 2018–2020. The Council did not direct staff to create small business exemptions (or any other exemptions), but a slower phase-in rate may be considered for employees of small businesses. The city will have outreach for residents and business owners to discuss the details of the proposed ordinance. Staff hopes to present a draft for The Council's approval as early as October or November 2015.[37]

text: Union exemptions

text: As of December 2014, unions were exempt from recent minimum wage increases in Chicago, Illinois, SeaTac, Washington, and Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, as well as the California cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Long Beach, San Jose, Richmond, and Oakland.[38] In 2016, the Washington, D.C. Council passed a minimum wage ordinance that included a union waiver, but Mayor Vincent Gray vetoed it. Later that year, the council approved an increase without the union waiver.[39]

text: Trends in purchasing power

text: Since its inception the purchasing power of the minimum wage has fluctuated. The minimum wage had its highest purchasing power in 1968, when it was $1.60 per hour ($11.49 in 2017 dollars).[9][1] From January 1981 to April 1990, the minimum wage was frozen at $3.35 per hour, then a record-setting minimum wage freeze. From September 1, 1997 through July 23, 2007, the federal minimum wage remained constant at $5.15 per hour, breaking the old record. From the United States Department of Labor. Employment Standards Administration. Wage and Hour Division, the source page has a clickable US map with current and projected state-by-state minimum wage rates for each state. Some government entities, such as counties and cities, observe minimum wages that are higher than the state as a whole. One notable example of this is Santa Fe, New Mexico, whose $9.50 per hour minimum wage was the highest in the nation,[40][41][42] until San Francisco increased its minimum wage to $9.79 in 2009.[43] Another device to increase wages, living wage ordinances, generally apply only to businesses that are under contract to the local government itself.

text: Since 1984, the purchasing power of the federal minimum wage has decreased. Measured in real terms (adjusted for inflation) using 1984 dollars, the real minimum wage was $3.35 in 1984, $2.33 in 1994, $1.84 in 2004, and $1.46 in 2014[9]. If the minimum wage had been raised to $10.10 in 2014, that would have equated to $4.40 in 1984 dollars.[44][45] This would have been equal to a 31% increase in purchasing power, despite the nominal value of the minimum wage increasing by 216% in the same time period.

text: Economic effects

text: The economic effects of raising the minimum wage are controversial. Adjusting the minimum wage may affect current and future levels of employment, prices of goods and services, economic growth, income inequality and poverty. The interconnection of price levels, central bank policy, wage agreements, and total aggregate demand creates a situation in which the conclusions drawn from macroeconomic analysis are highly influenced by the underlying assumptions of the interpreter.[46]

text: Employment and job creation

text: The law of demand states that—all else being equal—raising the price of any particular good or service will reduce the quantity demanded. Thus, neoclassical economics argues that—all else being equal—raising in the minimum wage will have adverse affects on employment.

text: Conceptually, if an employer does not believe a worker generates value equal to or in excess of the minimum wage, that worker will not be hired or retained.[47]

text: Empirical work on fast food workers in the 1990s challenged the neoclassical model. In 1994, economists David Card and Alan Krueger studied employment trends among 410 restaurants in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania following New Jersey's minimum wage hike (from $4.25 to $5.05) in April 1992. They found "no indication that the rise in the minimum wage reduced employment."[48] However, a 1995 re-analysis of the evidence by David Neumark found that the increase in New Jersey's minimum wage actually resulted in a 4.6% decrease in employment.[49] Neumark's study relied on payroll records from a sample of large fast-food restaurant chains, whereas the Card-Krueger study relied on business surveys.

text: Additional research conducted by David Neumark and William Wascher (which surveyed over 100 studies related to the employment effects of minimum wages) found that the majority of peer-reviewed economic research (about two-thirds) showed a positive correlation between minimum wage hikes and increased unemployment—especially for young and unskilled workers. Neumark's analysis further found that, when looking at only the most credible research, 85% of studies showed a positive correlation between minimum wage hikes and increased unemployment.[50]

text: In February 2014, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported the theoretical effects of a federal minimum wage increase under two scenarios: an increase to $9.00 and an increase to $10.10. According to the report, approximately 100,000 jobs would be lost under the $9.00 option, whereas 500,000 jobs would be lost under the $10.10 option (with a wide range of possible outcomes).[51]

text: A 2013 Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) review of multiple studies since 2000 indicated that there was "little or no employment response to modest increases in the minimum wage."[52] Another CEPR study in 2014 found that job creation within the United States is faster within states that raised their minimum wage.[53] In 2014, the state with the highest minimum wage in the nation, Washington, exceeded the national average for job growth in the United States.[54]

text: A 2012 study led by Joseph Sabia, professor of economics at the University of New Hampshire, estimated that the 2004-6 New York State minimum wage increase (from $5.15 to $6.75) resulted in a 20.2% to 21.8% reduction in employment for less-skilled, less-educated workers.[55] Another study conducted by Joseph Sabia, then an assistant professor at American University, found that minimum wages were ineffective at alleviating poverty for single mothers. The study further concluded that a 10% increase in the minimum wage was associated with an 8.8% reduction in employment and an 11.8% reduction in hours for uneducated single mothers.[56]

text: Research conducted by Richard Burkhauser, professor emeritus of Policy Analysis at Cornell University, concluded that minimum wage increases "significantly reduce the employment of the most vulnerable groups in the working-age population—young adults without a high school degree (aged 20-24), young black adults and teenagers (aged 16-24), and teenagers (aged 16-19)."[57]

text: A 2007 study by Daniel Aaronson and Eric French concluded that a 10% increase in the minimum wage decreased low-skill employment by 2-4% and total restaurant employment by 1-3%.[58]

text: The Economist wrote in December 2013: "A minimum wage, providing it is not set too high, could thus boost pay with no ill effects on jobs...Some studies find no harm to employment from federal or state minimum wages, others see a small one, but none finds any serious damage...High minimum wages, however, particularly in rigid labour markets, do appear to hit employment. France has the rich world’s highest wage floor, at more than 60% of the median for adults and a far bigger fraction of the typical wage for the young. This helps explain why France also has shockingly high rates of youth unemployment: 26% for 15- to 24-year-olds."[59]

text: Prices

text: Conceptually—all else being equal—raising the minimum wage will increase the cost of labor. Thus, employers may accept lower profits, raise their prices, or both. If prices increase, consumers may demand a lesser quantity of the product, substitute other products, or switch to imported products. Marginal producers (those who are barely profitable enough to survive) may be forced out of business if they cannot raise their prices sufficiently to offset the higher cost of labor. Whether the increased income of the workers benefiting from the minimum wage increase can offset these effects is debatable.[47] Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago research from 2007 has shown that restaurant prices rise in response to minimum wage increases.[60]

text: Crime increase

text: A 2016 White House report based on "back of envelope calculations and literature review" argued that higher hourly wages led to less crime.[61]

text: A report by the Council of Economic Advisers claimed that "raising the minimum wage reduces crime by 3 to 5 percent." To get those numbers, the study assumed that "such a minimum wage increase would have no employment impacts, with an employment elasticity of 0.1 the benefits would be somewhat lower."[61]

text: However, In a 1987 journal article based on actual study data, Masanori Hashimoto noted that minimum wage hikes lead to increased levels of property crime in areas affected by the minimum wage after its increase.[62] According to the article, by decreasing employment in poor communities, total legal trade and production are curtailed. The report also claimed that in order to compensate for the decrease in legal avenues for production and consumption, poor communities increasingly turn to illegal trade and activity.[62]

text: Economic growth

text: Whether growth (GDP, a measure of both income and production) increases or decreases depends significantly on whether the income shifted from owners to workers results in an overall higher level of spending. The tendency of a consumer to spend their next dollar is referred to as the marginal propensity to consume or MPC. The transfer of income from higher income owners (who tend to save more, meaning a lower MPC) to lower income workers (who tend to save less, with a higher MPC) can actually lead to an increase in total consumption and higher demand for goods, leading to increased employment.[51] Recent research has shown that higher wages lead to greater productivity. [63]

text: The CBO reported in February 2014 that income (GDP) overall would be marginally higher after raising the minimum wage, indicating a small net positive increase in growth. Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 and indexing it to inflation would result in a net $2 billion increase in income during the second half of 2016, while raising it to $9.00 and not indexing it would result in a net $1 billion increase in income.[51]

text: Income inequality

text: An increase in the minimum wage is a form of redistribution from higher-income persons (business owners or "capital") to lower income persons (workers or "labor") and therefore should reduce income inequality. The CBO estimated in February 2014 that raising the minimum wage under either scenario described above would improve income inequality. Families with income more than 6 times the poverty threshold would see their incomes fall (due in part to their business profits declining with higher employee costs), while families with incomes below that threshold would rise.[51]

text: Poverty

text: Among hourly-paid workers In 2016, 701,000 earned the federal minimum wage and about 1.5 million earned wages below the minimum. Together, these 2.2 million workers represented 2.7% of all hourly-paid workers.[65]

text: CBO estimated in February 2014 that raising the minimum wage would reduce the number of persons below the poverty income threshold by 900,000 under the $10.10 option versus 300,000 under the $9.00 option.[51]

text: Research conducted by David Neumark and colleagues found that minimum wages are associated with reductions in the hours and employment of low-wage workers.[66] A separate study by the same researchers found that minimum wages tend to increase the proportion of families with incomes below or near the poverty line.[67] Similarly, a 2002 study led by Richard Vedder, professor of economics at Ohio University, concluded that "The empirical evidence is strong that minimum wages have had little or no effect on poverty in the U.S. Indeed, the evidence is stronger that minimum wages occasionally increase poverty…"[68]

text: Federal budget deficit

text: The CBO reported in February 2014 that "[T]he net effect on the federal budget of raising the minimum wage would probably be a small decrease in budget deficits for several years but a small increase in budget deficits thereafter. It is unclear whether the effect for the coming decade as a whole would be a small increase or a small decrease in budget deficits." On the cost side, the report cited higher wages paid by the government to some of its employees along with higher costs for certain procured goods and services. This might be offset by fewer government benefits paid, as some workers with higher incomes would receive fewer government transfer payments. On the revenue side, some would pay higher taxes and others less.[51]

text: Commentary

text: Economists

text:
Effective Minimum Wage
Adjusted for Cost of Living
for Select U.S. Cities (2015)[69][70]

City
Effective
minimum wage

Seattle
$8.51

Denver
$7.57

Houston
$7.26

United States
$7.25

San Francisco
$7.03

Chicago
$7.01

Boston
$6.59

Washington, D.C.
$6.53

Los Angeles
$6.38

Atlanta
$5.15

New York City
$3.86

text: According to a survey conducted by economist Greg Mankiw, 79% of economists agreed that "a minimum wage increases unemployment among young and unskilled workers."[71]

text: A 2015 survey conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center found that a majority of economists believed raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour would have negative effects on youth employment levels (83%), adult employment levels (52%), and the number of jobs available (76%). Additionally, 67% of economists surveyed believed that a $15 minimum wage would make it harder for small businesses with less than 50 employees to stay in business.[72]

text: A 2006 survey conducted by Robert Whaples, professor of economics at Wake Forest University, found that, among the economists surveyed[How many?], opinions about the minimum wage were as follows:[73]

text:
46.8% favored eliminating it
14.3% favored keeping it the same
1.3% favored decreasing it
5.2% favored increasing it by about 50 cents per hour
15.6% favored increasing it by about $1 per hour
16.9% favored increasing it by more than $1 per hour

text: In 2014, over 600 economists signed a letter in support of a $10.10 minimum wage increase with research suggesting that a minimum wage increase could have a small stimulative effect on the economy as low-wage workers spend their additional earnings, raising demand and job growth.[74][75][76][77] Also, seven recipients of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences were among 75 economists endorsing an increase in the minimum wage for U.S. workers and said "the weight" of economic research shows higher pay doesn’t lead to fewer jobs.[78][79]

text: According to a February 2013 survey of the University of Chicago IGM Forum, which includes approximately 40 economists:

text:
34% agreed with the statement that "Raising the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour would make it noticeably harder for low-skilled workers to find employment", with 32% disagreeing and 24% uncertain
42% agreed that "...raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour and indexing it to inflation...would be a desirable policy", with 11% disagreeing or strongly disagreeing and 32% uncertain.[80]

text: According to a fall 2000 survey conducted by Fuller and Geide-Stevenson, 73.5% (27.9% of which agreed with provisos) of American economists surveyed[How many?] agreed that minimum wage laws increase unemployment among unskilled and young workers, while 26.5% disagreed with the statement.[81]

text: Economist Paul Krugman advocated raising the minimum wage moderately in 2013, citing several reasons, including:

text:
The minimum wage was below its 1960s purchasing power, despite a near doubling of productivity;
The great preponderance of the evidence indicates there is no negative impact on employment from moderate increases; and
A high level of public support, specifically Democrats and Republican women.[82]

text: Politicians

text: Former President Bill Clinton advocated raising the minimum wage in 2014: "I think we ought to raise the minimum wage because it doesn’t just raise wages for the three or four million people who are directly affected by it, it bumps the wage structure everywhere...The estimates are that 35 million Americans would get a pay raise if the federal minimum wage was raised...If you [raise the minimum wage] in a phased way, it always creates jobs. Why? Because people who make the minimum wage or near it are struggling to get by, they spend every penny they make, they turn it over in the economy, they create jobs, they create opportunity, and they take better care of their children. It’s just the right thing to do, but it’s also very good economics."[83]

text: Polls

text: The Pew Center reported in January 2014 that 73% of Americans supported raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10. By party, 53% of Republicans and 90% of Democrats favored this action.[84] Pew found a racial difference for support of a higher minimum wage in 2017 with most blacks and Hispanics supporting a $15.00 federal minimum wage, and 54% of whites opposing it.[85]

text: A Lake Research Partners poll in February 2012 found the following:

text:
Strong support overall for raising the minimum wage, with 73% of likely voters supporting an increase to $10 and indexing it to inflation during 2014, including 58% who strongly support the action;
Support crosses party lines, with support from 91% of Democrats, 74% of Independents, and 50% of Republicans; and
A majority (56%) believe that raising the minimum wage will help the economy, with 16% believing it won't make a difference. Only 21% felt it would hurt the economy.[86]

text: List by jurisdiction

text: This is a list of the minimum wages (per hour) in each state and territory of the United States, for jobs covered by federal minimum wage laws. If the job is not subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, then state, city, or other local laws may determine the minimum wage.[87] A common exemption to the federal minimum wage is a company having revenue of less than $500,000 per year while not engaging in any interstate commerce.

text: Under the federal law, workers who receive a portion of their salary from tips, such as waitstaff, are required only to have their total compensation, including tips, meet the minimum wage. Therefore, often, their hourly wage, before tips, is less than the minimum wage.[88] Seven states, and Guam, do not allow for a tip credit.[89] Additional exemptions to the minimum wage include many seasonal employees, student employees, and certain disabled employees as specified by the FLSA.[90]

text: In addition, some counties and cities within states may observe a higher minimum wage than the rest of the state in which they are located; sometimes this higher wage will apply only to businesses that are under contract to the local government itself, while in other cases the higher minimum will be enforced across the board.

text: Federal

text:
Type
Min Wage ($/h)
Notes

Tipped
$2.13
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 has been requiring a minimum wage of $2.13 for tipped workers with the expectation that wages plus tips total no less than $7.25 per hour since September 1, 1991.[91] The employer must pay the difference if total income does not add up to $7.25 per hour.[92]

Non-tipped
$7.25
Per the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 (FMWA) since July 24, 2009.[93]

Youth
$4.25
The Fair Labor Standards Act has since September 1, 1996 allowed for persons under the age of 20 to be paid $4.25 for the first 90 calendar days of their employment .[94]

text: State

text: The average US minimum wage per capita (2017) is $8.49 based on the population size of each state and generally represents the average minimum wage experienced by a person working in one of the fifty US states. Cities, counties, districts, and territories are not included in the calculation.[citation needed] As of October 2016, there have been 29 states with a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum. From 2014 to 2015, nine states increased their minimum wage levels through automatic adjustments, while increases in 11 other states occurred through referendum or legislative action.[1] Beginning in January 2017, Massachusetts and Washington state have the highest minimum wages in the country, at $11.00 per hour.[95] New York City's minimum wage will be $15.00 per hour by the end of 2018.[3] |-

text:
State
Min Wage
($/h)[96]
Tipped
($/h)[a]
Youth/
Training
($/h)[b]
Notes

Alabama
None[c]

Alaska
$9.80
$9.80

Minimum wage increased to $9.80 on January 1, 2017.

Arizona
$10.00
$7.00

Minimum wage increased to $8.05 on January 1, 2015.[98] The state tipped minimum wage is $3 per hour less. Pursuant to Arizona Proposition 202 (2006), the rates are adjusted annually on January 1 based on the U.S. Consumer Price Index. This rate increase does not affect student workers in places such as libraries and cafeterias because those positions are given by universities, which are state entities.[99]

Arkansas
$8.50
$2.63

The 2014 rate applies to employers of 4 or more employees.[100]

California
$10.50[101]
$10.50

Minimum wage increased to $10.00 on January 1, 2016[102] and will increase to $15.00 by 2022.[103] Berkeley: $12.53 since October 1, 2016 and will increase to $15.00 by 2018.[104] Emeryville: $14.82 for businesses with 56 or more employees; $13.00 for businesses with 55 employees or less, effective July 2016.[105] Jackson Rancheria: $10.60 since January 1, 2014 on the Tribe's sovereign 1,500-acre reservation in Amador County.[106] Oakland: $12.55 since January 1, 2016.[107] Unions are exempt from Oakland's minimum wage law.[38] Los Angeles: $10.50 since July 1, 2016 and will increase to $15.00 by 2020.[108] Unions are exempt from Los Angeles's minimum wage law.[38] San Francisco: $13.00 since July 1, 2016 and will increase to $15.00 by 2018.[109] Unions are exempt from San Francisco's minimum wage law.[38] San Jose: $10.30 since January 1, 2015.[110] Unions are exempt from San Jose's minimum wage law.[38]

Colorado
$9.30
$6.28

On January 1, 2017, the minimum wage was increased to $9.30 and will be increased annually by $0.90 until it becomes $12 in January 2020. Starting in 2021, it will be adjusted by cost of living increases.[111] The tipped wage is $3.02 less than the minimum wage[112]

Connecticut
$10.10
$6.59

On March 26, 2014, the state passed legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 by January 1, 2017.[113] Connecticut's tipped minimum wage is 65.2% of the state minimum wage (tipped employees defined as $10/wk or $2/day in tips).[114]

Delaware
$8.25
$2.23

Minimum wage increased to $8.25 on June 1, 2015.[115]

Florida
$8.10
$5.08

Minimum wage is increased annually on September 30 (effective January 1 of the following calendar year) based upon a cost of living formula (the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, not seasonally adjusted, for the South Region or a successor index as calculated by the United States Department of Labor, using the rate of inflation for the 12 months prior to September 1)[116]. Florida's minimum wage increased to $8.10 and the tipped minimum wage to $5.08 on January 1, 2017.[117]

Georgia
$5.15
[118][119]
$2.13

Only applicable to employers of 6 or more employees. The state law excludes from coverage any employment that is subject to the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act when the federal rate is greater than the state rate.[120]

Hawaii
$9.25
$8.50

Minimum wage increased to $8.50 on January 1, 2016, and will increase to $10.10 by January 1, 2018. Tipped employees earn 75 cents less than the current state minimum wage.[121]

Idaho
$7.25[122]
$3.35

Illinois
$8.25
$4.95
$7.75
Employers may pay anyone under the age of 18, or anyone for the first 90 days of employment, fifty cents less. Tipped employees earn 60% of the minimum wage (employers may claim credit for tips, up to 40% of wage). There is a training wage for tipped employees.[123] Chicago: $10.00 from July 1, 2015 and will increase to $13.00 by 2019.[124] Unions are exempt from Chicago's minimum wage law.[38]

Indiana
$7.25[125]
$2.13

Iowa
$7.25[126]
$4.35

Most small retail and service establishments grossing less than $300,000 annually are not required to pay the minimum wage.[126] A tipped employee who makes $30.00 per month or more in tips, can be paid 60% of the minimum wage, i.e. as little as $4.35 per hour.[126] Increased minimum wage laws in Johnson and Linn counties were nullified by the legislature.[127]

Kansas
$7.25[128]
$2.13

Kansas had the lowest legislated, non-tipped worker, minimum wage in the U.S., $2.65 per hour, until it was raised to $7.25, effective January 1, 2010.[129]

Kentucky
$7.25[130]
$2.13

Louisville: $8.10 from July 1, 2015 and will increase to $9.00 by 2017.[131][132] However, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that localities do not have authority to increase the minimum wage.[133]

Louisiana
None[c]

Maine
$9.00
$5.00

Tipped rate is half of the current state minimum wage.[134] On July 6, 2015, the city council of Portland voted 6-3 to raise the city's minimum wage to $10.10 beginning on January 1, 2016 – an increase of 34%.[135] Note: The tipped wage will return to being 50% of the regular minimum wage starting January 1, 2018; minimum wage will increase to $10 in January 2018, $11 in January 2019; $12 in January 2020.[136][137]

Maryland
$9.25
$3.63

Minimum wage is $8.75 per hour as July 1, 2016; $9.25 as of July 1, 2017; and $10.10 as of July 1, 2018.[138][139]
For employees working in Prince George's County, the minimum wage is $10.75 per hour, effective October 1, 2016, and increases to $11.50 on October 1, 2017.[138]
For employees working in Montgomery County, the minimum wage is $11.50 per hour starting July 1, 2017.[140] County Council bill 12-16 was enacted on January 17, 2017 to adjust the minimum wage to $15 and base future adjustments on the Consumer Price Index, but was later vetoed by the County Executive.[141][142]

Massachusetts
$11.00
$3.75

Minimum wage increased to $11.00 ($3.75 for tipped workers) on January 1, 2017, making it the highest minimum-wage in the country at the state level. Massachusetts is the only state in the country that mandates time-and-a-half for retail workers working on Sunday. With state minimum wage at $11 an hour the effective minimum wage for a retail worker working on Sunday is $16.50 an hour.[143] As of 2017, Massachusetts has the largest gap between the hourly minimum wage for tipped workers ($3.75) and the general minimum wage ($11).[144]

Michigan
$8.90[145]
$3.38 $8.90(tips included)
$4.25 (training) $7.57 (youth)
Minimum wage will increase to $9.25 by January 2018 and increase with the consumer price index yearly after 2018. Yearly increases, starting on February 1 2019, shall not exceed 3.5%. There will be no increase in minimum wage if the unemployment rate rises to or above 8.5% in the previous year. Tipped workers must earn at least standard Michigan minimum wage once tips are included in their wages.[146][147]

Minnesota
$9.50[118]
$9.50
$7.25[148]
Small employers, whose annual receipts are less than $500,000 and who do not engage in interstate commerce, can pay their employees $7.25 per hour. Overtime applies after 48 hours per week.[148] Note: For large employers, the minimum wage became $9.00 on August 1, 2015; and $9.50 on August 1, 2016. For small employers the minimum wage became $7.25 on August 1, 2015; and $7.75 on August 1, 2016. Beginning January 1, 2018, all minimum wage rates will increase by the national implicit price deflator or 2.5%, whichever is lower.[149]

Mississippi
None[c]

Missouri
$7.70
$3.825

Minimum wage rate is automatically adjusted annually based on the U.S. Consumer Price Index rounded to the nearest five cents, and increased to $7.70 on January 1, 2017.[150] While a city ordinance was passed in St. Louis area to increase the minimum wage was set to $8.25 in 2015,[151] in October 2015 the law was voided by a new statewide bill barring cities from setting their own minimum wages.[152] The State Supreme Court ruled on 28 February 2017 that the ordinance was lawful and could go into effect, with the minimum wage rate set to rise to $11.00 an hour by 2018 in St. Louis.[153] However, on July 5, 2017, another law was passed to nullify the increase and to have a statewide minimum wage of $7.70.[154]

Montana
$8.15
$8.15

Minimum wage rate is automatically adjusted annually based on the U.S. Consumer Price Index, and increased to $8.15 on January 1, 2017. Income from tips cannot offset an employee's pay rate. The state minimum wage for business with less than $110,000 in annual sales is $4.00.[96]

Nebraska
$9.00[155]
$2.13

Minimum wage increased to $9.00 January 1, 2016.[100]

Nevada
$8.25
$8.25

The minimum wage has been $8.25 ($1 higher than the federal minimum) since July 1, 2010. Employers who offer health benefits can pay employees $7.25.[156] The rate is adjusted every July 1, based on the federal minimum or the accumulated inflation since 2006, whichever is higher, based on a 2006 Minimum Wage Amendment to the Nevada Constitution.[157]

New Hampshire
$7.25[158]
$3.27

New Jersey
$8.44[159]
$2.13

Minimum wage increased to $8.44 on January 1, 2017.[159]

New Mexico
$7.50
$2.13

Santa Fe: $10.84 since January 1, 2015.[160] Albuquerque: $8.75 since January 1, 2015.[161]

New York
$9.75[162]
Varies

The minimum wage rate increased to $9.00 on December 31, 2015.[163] As of July 24, 2009 there has been a minimum for exempt employees of $543.75 per week.[164] Tipped employee minimum ranges from $4.90 to $5.65 depending on industry.[97] Effective December 31, 2013, there have been different rules for the minimum cash wage for tipped employees outside of the hospitality industry, (e.g., in car washes and in salons). For workers earning more than $1.95 on average per hour in tips, the minimum cash wage has been $6.05 per hour; for workers earning between $1.20 and $1.95 in tips on average per hour, the cash wage has been $6.80.[165]
A 2016 law changed the minimum wage over the following six years. "Large" employers have 11 or more employees, and "small" have between 1 and 10. "Downstate" includes Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties.[166] NYC large employers: $11.00, NYC small employers: $10.50, Downstate employers: $10.00, Upstate employers: $9.70. As of December 31, 2017: NYC large employers: $13.00; NYC small employers: $12.00; Downstate employers: $11.00; Upstate employers: $10.40. As of December 31, 2018: NYC large employers: $15.00; NYC small employers: $13.50; Downstate employers: $12.00; Upstate employers: $11.10. As of December 31, 2019: NYC large employers: $15.00; NYC small employers: $15.00; Downstate employers: $13.00; Upstate employers: $12.50. As of December 31, 2020: NYC large employers: $15.00; NYC small employers: $15.00; Downstate employers: $14.00; Upstate employers: $12.50. As of December 31, 2021: NYC large employers: $15.00; NYC small employers: $15.00; Downstate employers: $15.00; Upstate employers: Set by Commissioner of Labor based on economic conditions, up to $15.00.
Tipped food service workers will be paid $7.50 per hour, or two-thirds of the applicable minimum wage rate rounded to the nearest $0.05, whichever is higher.[citation needed]

North Carolina
$7.25[167]
$2.13

The employer may take credit for tips earned by a tipped employee and may count them as wages up to the amount permitted in section 3(m) of the Fair Labor Standards Act.[167]

North Dakota
$7.25[168]
$4.86

Tipped minimum is 67% of the minimum wage.[97]

Ohio
$8.15
$4.08
$7.25 under 16 years old
The rate is $7.25 for employers grossing $283,000 or less.[169] The rate is adjusted annually on January 1 based on the U.S. Consumer Price Index[170] and

Oklahoma
$7.25[171]
$2.13

Minimum wage for employers grossing under $100,000 and with fewer than 10 employees per location is $2.00.[172](OK Statutes 40-197.5).

Oregon
$11.25 (Portland metro)
$10.25 (non-rural counties)
$10.00 (rural counties)[173]
$11.25 (Portland metro)
$10.25 (non-rural counties)
$10.00 (rural counties)

On March 2, 2016, Senate Bill 1532 was signed into law, increasing minimum wage depending on the county. Beginning July 1, 2016 the minimum wage increased to $9.75 for non-rural counties and to $9.50 for rural counties, thereafter increasing each year by fixed amounts until June 30, 2022 when the minimum wage will be $14.75 for the Portland metro area, $13.50 for other non-rural counties, and $12.50 for rural counties. Thereafter, the minimum wage will be adjusted each year based on the U.S. Consumer Price Index.[174] Non-rural counties are defined as Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Deschutes, Hood River, Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Tillamook, Wasco, Washington, and Yamhill counties.[175] Rural counties are defined as Baker, Coos, Crook, Curry, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Wheeler counties.[175] The Portland Metro rate ($1.25 over the non-rural rate) applies to employers located within the urban growth boundary (UGB) of the Portland metropolitan service district.[176]

Pennsylvania
$7.25[177]
$2.83

Rhode Island
$9.60
$3.39

Minimum wage increased to $9.60 January 1, 2016.

South Carolina
None[c]

South Dakota
$8.65[178]
$4.325

Minimum wage increased to $8.65 on January 1, 2017, and is indexed to inflation.

Tennessee
None[c]

Texas
$7.25[179]
$2.13

Applies to all workers in the state, excluding patients of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation who have diminished production capacity and who work on behalf of the Department; their salary is calculated at the minimum wage times a percentage of their diminished capacity.

Utah
$7.25
$2.13

Vermont
$10.00
$4.80

Minimum wage increased to $10.00 on January 1, 2017,[180] will increase to $10.50 by January 1, 2018, and will be indexed to inflation beginning on January 1, 2019.[181]

Virginia
$7.25[182]
$2.13

Washington
$11.00[183]
$11.00[183]
$9.35[184]
Minimum wage increases annually by a voter-approved cost-of-living adjustment based on the federal Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).[185] Seattle: $11.00 for businesses less than 500 employees, 15.00 for businesses with over 500 employees, and for all businesses by 2021.[186][187] SeaTac: $15.00 for airport-related businesses.[188] Union workshops are exempt from SeaTac's $15 minimum wage law.[189]

West Virginia
$8.75[190]
$2.62

Minimum wage increased to $8.75 on December 31, 2015.[191] The state minimum wage is applicable to employers of six or more employees at one location not involved in interstate commerce[96] and for tipped employees is 30% of the federal minimum wage.[97]

Wisconsin
$7.25[192]
$2.33

Wyoming
$5.15[118]
$2.13

text:
Jump up ^ Generally applies to employees who make over $30 in tips per month, unless otherwise noted.[97]
Jump up ^ Applies to persons under age 20, for the first 90 days of employment (per FMWA), unless otherwise noted.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e No state minimum wage law. Federal rates apply, although some small businesses exempt from FMWA may not be covered.

text: Territory

text:
Territory
Min Wage ($/h)[96]
Notes

American Samoa
$4.18–$5.59
Varies by industry.[193] On September 30, 2010, President Obama signed legislation that delays scheduled wage increases for 2010 and 2011. On July 26, 2012, President Obama signed S. 2009 into law, postponing the minimum wage increase for 2012, 2013, and 2014. Annual wage increases of $0.50 recommenced on September 30, 2015 and will continue every three years until all rates have reached the federal minimum.[194]

Guam
$8.25
Tipped employee minimum $6.55[195]

Northern Mariana Islands
$6.55
Since September 30, 2016. Wages are to go up $0.50 annually until reaching the federal $7.25 rate by 2018.[196] Bill S. 256 to delay the planned increases to the full rate until 2018 passed in Sept. 2013.[197]

Puerto Rico
$7.25
Following the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, Employers covered by the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)[which?] are subject to the federal minimum wage and all applicable regulations. Employers not covered by the FLSA will be subject to a minimum wage that is at least 70 percent of the federal minimum wage or the applicable mandatory decree rate, whichever is higher. The Secretary of Labor and Human Resources may authorize a rate based on a lower percentage for any employer who can show that implementation of the 70 percent rate would substantially curtail employment in that business.
Puerto Rico also has minimum wage rates that vary according to the industry. These rates range from a minimum of $5.08 to $7.25 per hour.

U.S. Virgin Islands
$8.35
The Virgin Islands' minimum wage increased to $8.35 on June 21, 2016 for all employees, with the exception of tourist service and restaurant employees. It is scheduled to increase to $9.50 on June 1, 2017; $10.50 on June 1, 2018.[198]

text: Federal District

text:
Federal District
Min Wage
($/h)
Tipped
($/h)
Youth/
Training
($/h)
Notes

District of Columbia
$11.50
$2.77
None
As of July 1, 2016, the minimum wage is $11.50, and $2.77 per hour for tipped employees.[199]
In accordance with a law signed on June 27, 2016,[200][201] the minimum wage will be $12.50 per hour as of July 1, 2017; $13.25 per hour as of July 1, 2018; 14.00 per hour as of July 1, 2019; and $15.00 per hour as of July 1, 2020.[202] As of each successive July 1, the minimum wage will increase by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers in the Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area for the preceding twelve months.[202]
The minimum wage for tipped-employees will increase to $3.47 per hour as of July 1, 2017; $4.17 per hour as of July 1, 2018; $4.87 per hour as of July 1, 2019; and $5.55 per hour as of July 1, 2020.[202]
The minimum wage established by the federal government may be paid to newly hired individuals during their first 90 calendar days of employment, students employed by colleges and universities, and individuals under 18 years of age.[203]

text: Jobs affected, 2006, 2009

text: The jobs that are most likely to be directly affected by the minimum wage are those which pay a wage close to the minimum.

text: According to the May 2006 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, the four lowest-paid occupational sectors in May 2006 (when the federal minimum wage was $5.15 per hour) were the following:[204]

text:
Sector
Workers Employed
Median Wage
Mean Wage
Mean Annual

Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations
11,029,280
$7.90
$8.86
$18,430

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations
450,040
$8.63
$10.49
$21,810

Personal Care and Service Occupations
3,249,760
$9.17
$11.02
$22,920

Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance Occupations
4,396,250
$9.75
$10.86
$22,580

text: Two years later, in May 2008, when the federal minimum wage was $5.85 per hour and was about to increase to $6.55 per hour in July 2008, these same sectors were still the lowest-paying, but their situation (according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data)[205] was:

text:
Sector
Workers Employed
Median Wage
Mean Wage
Mean Annual

Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations
11,438,550
$8.59
$9.72
$20,220

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations
438,490
$9.34
$11.32
$23,560

Personal Care and Service Occupations
3,437,520
$9.82
$11.59
$24,120

Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance Occupations
4,429,870
$10.52
$11.72
$24,370

text: In 2006, workers in the following 13 individual occupations received, on average, a median hourly wage of less than $8.00 per hour:[204]

text:
Occupation
Workers Employed
Median Wage
Mean Wage
Mean Annual

Gaming Dealers
82,960
$7.08
$8.18
$17,010

Waiters and Waitresses
2,312,930
$3.14
$4.27
$11,190

Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food
2,461,890
$7.24
$7.66
$15,930

Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers
401,790
$7.36
$7.84
$16,320

Cooks, Fast Food
612,020
$7.41
$7.67
$15,960

Dishwashers
502,770
$7.57
$7.78
$16,190

Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers
101,530
$7.64
$8.41
$17,500

Counter Attendants, Cafeteria, Food Concession, and Coffee Shop
524,410
$7.76
$8.15
$16,950

Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop
340,390
$7.78
$8.10
$16,860

Shampooers
15,580
$7.78
$8.20
$17,050

Amusement and Recreation Attendants
235,670
$7.83
$8.43
$17,530

Bartenders
485,120
$7.86
$8.91
$18,540

Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse
230,780
$7.95
$8.48
$17,630

text: In 2008, only two occupations paid a median wage less than $8.00 per hour:[205]

text:
Occupation
Workers Employed
Median Wage
Mean Wage
Mean Annual

Gaming Dealers
91,130
$7.84
$9.56
$19,890

Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food
2,708,840
$7.90
$8.36
$17,400

text: According to the May 2009 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates,[206] the lowest-paid occupational sectors in May 2009 (when the federal minimum wage was $7.25 per hour) were the following:

text:
Sector
Workers Employed
Median Wage
Mean Wage
Mean Annual

Gaming Dealers
86,900
$8.19
$9.76
$20,290

Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food
2,695,740
$8.28
$8.71
$18,120

Waiters and Waitresses
2,302,070
$8.50
$9.80
$20,380

Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers
402,020
$8.51
$9.09
$18,900

Cooks, Fast Food
539,520
$8.52
$8.76
$18,230


document_title: Bleak House

question_text: what is the name of lady dedlock's illegitimate daughter in bleak house

question_tokens: what is the name of lady dedlock 's illegitimate daughter in bleak house

root

text: Bleak House

text: Synopsis[edit]

text: Sir Leicester Dedlock and his wife Honoria live on his estate at Chesney Wold. Unknown to Sir Leicester, Lady Dedlock had a lover, Captain Hawdon, before she married and had a daughter by him. Lady Dedlock believes her daughter is dead.[3]

tag: p

text: The daughter, Esther, is in fact alive and being raised by Miss Barbary, Lady Dedlock's sister. Esther does not know Miss Barbary is her aunt. After Miss Barbary dies, John Jarndyce becomes Esther's guardian and assigns the Chancery lawyer "Conversation" Kenge to take charge of her future. After attending school for six years, Esther moves in with him at Bleak House.

text: Jarndyce simultaneously assumes custody of two other wards, Richard Carstone and Ada Clare (who are both his and one another's distant cousins). They are beneficiaries in one of the wills at issue in Jarndyce and Jarndyce; their guardian is a beneficiary under another will, and the two wills conflict. Richard and Ada soon fall in love, but though Mr Jarndyce does not oppose the match, he stipulates that Richard must first choose a profession. Richard first tries a career in medicine, and Esther meets Allan Woodcourt, a physician, at the house of Richard's tutor. When Richard mentions the prospect of gaining from the resolution of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, John Jarndyce beseeches him never to put faith in what he calls "the family curse".

text: Meanwhile, Lady Dedlock is also a beneficiary under one of the wills. Early in the book, while listening to the reading of an affidavit by the family solicitor, Mr Tulkinghorn, she recognises the handwriting on the copy. The sight affects her so much she almost faints, which Tulkinghorn notices and investigates. He traces the copyist, a pauper known only as "Nemo," in London. Nemo has recently died, and the only person to identify him is a street-sweeper, a poor homeless boy named Jo, who lives in a particularly grim and poverty-stricken part of the city known as Tom-All-Alone's.

text: Lady Dedlock is also investigating, disguised as her maid, Mademoiselle Hortense. Lady Dedlock pays Jo to take her to Nemo's grave. Meanwhile, Tulkinghorn is concerned Lady Dedlock's secret could threaten the interests of Sir Leicester and watches her constantly, even enlisting her maid to spy on her. He also enlists Inspector Bucket to run Jo out of town, to eliminate any loose ends that might connect Nemo to the Dedlocks.

text: Esther sees Lady Dedlock at church and talks with her later at Chesney Wold – though neither woman recognises their connection. Later, Lady Dedlock does discover that Esther is her child. However, Esther has become sick (possibly with smallpox, since it severely disfigures her) after nursing the homeless boy Jo. Lady Dedlock waits until Esther has recovered before telling her the truth. Though Esther and Lady Dedlock are happy to be reunited, Lady Dedlock tells Esther they must never acknowledge their connection again.

text: Upon her recovery, Esther finds that Richard, having failed at several professions, has disobeyed his guardian and is trying to push Jarndyce and Jarndyce to conclusion in his and Ada's favour. In the process, Richard loses all his money and declines in health. He and Ada have secretly married, and Ada is pregnant. Esther has her own romance when Mr Woodcourt returns to England, having survived a shipwreck, and continues to seek her company despite her disfigurement. Unfortunately, Esther has already agreed to marry her guardian, John Jarndyce.

text: Hortense and Tulkinghorn discover the truth about Lady Dedlock's past. After a confrontation with Tulkinghorn, Lady Dedlock flees her home, leaving a note apologising for her conduct. Tulkinghorn dismisses Hortense, who is no longer of any use to him. Feeling abandoned and betrayed, Hortense kills Tulkinghorn and seeks to frame Lady Dedlock for his murder. Sir Leicester, discovering his lawyer's death and his wife's flight, suffers a catastrophic stroke, but he manages to communicate that he forgives his wife and wants her to return.

text: Inspector Bucket, who has previously investigated several matters related to Jarndyce and Jarndyce, accepts Sir Leicester's commission to find Lady Dedlock. At first he suspects Lady Dedlock of the murder but is able to clear her of suspicion after discovering Hortense's guilt, and he requests Esther's help to find her. Lady Dedlock has no way to know of her husband's forgiveness or that she has been cleared of suspicion, and she wanders the country in cold weather before dying at the cemetery of her former lover, Captain Hawdon (Nemo). Esther and Bucket find her there.

text: Progress in Jarndyce and Jarndyce seems to take a turn for the better when a later will is found, which revokes all previous wills and leaves the bulk of the estate to Richard and Ada. Meanwhile, John Jarndyce cancels his engagement to Esther, who becomes engaged to Mr Woodcourt. They go to Chancery to find Richard. On their arrival, they learn that the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce is finally over, but the costs of litigation have entirely consumed the estate. Richard collapses, and Mr Woodcourt diagnoses him as being in the last stages of tuberculosis. Richard apologises to John Jarndyce and dies. Jarndyce takes in Ada and her child, a boy whom she names Richard. Esther and Woodcourt marry and live in a Yorkshire house which Jarndyce gives to them. The couple later raise two daughters.

text: Many of the novel's subplots focus on minor characters. One such subplot is the hard life and happy, though difficult, marriage of Caddy Jellyby and Prince Turveydrop. Another plot focuses on George Rouncewell's rediscovery of his family, and his reunion with his mother and brother.

text: Characters in Bleak House[edit]

text: As usual, Dickens drew upon many real people and places but imaginatively transformed them in his novel (see character list below for the supposed inspiration of individual characters).

text: Although not a character, the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case is a vital part of the novel. It is believed to have been inspired by a number of real-life Chancery cases involving wills, including those of Charles Day and William Jennens,[4] and of Charlotte Smith's father-in-law Richard Smith.[5]

text: Major characters[edit]

text:
Esther Summerson is the heroine. She is Dickens's only female narrator. Esther is raised as an orphan by Miss Barbary, (who is in fact her aunt). She does not know her parents' identity. Miss Barbary holds macabre vigils on Esther's birthday each year, telling her that her birth is no cause for celebration, because the girl is her mother's "disgrace."[6] Because of her cruel upbringing she is self-effacing, self-deprecating and grateful for every trifle. The discovery of her true identity provides much of the drama in the book. Finally it is revealed that she is the illegitimate daughter of Lady Dedlock and Nemo (Captain Hawdon).
Honoria, Lady Dedlock is the haughty mistress of Chesney Wold. The revelation of her past drives much of the plot. Before her marriage, Lady Dedlock had an affair with another man and bore his child. Lady Dedlock discovers the child's identity (Esther Summerson), and because she has revealed that she had a secret predating her marriage, she has attracted the noxious curiosity of Mr Tulkinghorn, who feels bound by his ties to his client, Sir Leicester, to pry out her secret. At the end of the novel, Lady Dedlock dies, disgraced in her own mind and convinced that her husband can never forgive her moral failings.
John Jarndyce is an unwilling party in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, guardian of Richard, Ada, and Esther, and owner of Bleak House. Vladimir Nabokov called him "one of the best and kindest human beings ever described in a novel".[7] A wealthy man, he helps most of the other characters, motivated by a combination of goodness and guilt at the mischief and human misery caused by Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which he calls "the family curse." At first, it seems possible that he is Esther's father, but he disavows this shortly after she comes to live under his roof. He falls in love with Esther and wishes to marry her, but gives her up because she is in love with Mr Woodcourt.
Richard Carstone is a ward of Chancery in Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Straightforward and likeable but irresponsible and inconstant, Richard falls under the spell of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. At the end of the book, just after Jarndyce and Jarndyce is finally settled, he dies, tormented by his imprudence in trusting to the outcome of a Chancery suit.

tag: ul

text:
Ada Clare is another young ward of Chancery in Jarndyce and Jarndyce. She falls in love with Richard Carstone, a distant cousin. They later marry in secret and she has Richard's child.
Harold Skimpole is a friend of Jarndyce "in the habit of sponging his friends" (Nuttall). He is irresponsible, selfish, amoral, and without remorse. He often refers to himself as "a child" and claims not to understand human relationships, circumstances, and society – but actually understands them very well, as he demonstrates when he enlists Richard and Esther to pay off the bailiff who has arrested him on a writ of debt. He believes that Richard and Ada will be able to acquire credit based on their expectations in Jarndyce and Jarndyce and declares his intention to start "honoring" them by letting them pay some of his debts. This character is commonly regarded as a portrait of Leigh Hunt. "Dickens wrote in a letter of 25 September 1853, 'I suppose he is the most exact portrait that was ever painted in words! ... It is an absolute reproduction of a real man.' A contemporary critic commented, 'I recognised Skimpole instantaneously; ... and so did every person whom I talked with about it who had ever had Leigh Hunt's acquaintance.'"[8] G. K. Chesterton suggested that Dickens "may never once have had the unfriendly thought, 'Suppose Hunt behaved like a rascal!'; he may have only had the fanciful thought, 'Suppose a rascal behaved like Hunt!'".
Lawrence Boythorn is an old friend of John Jarndyce's; a former soldier who always speaks in superlatives; very loud and harsh, but goodhearted. Boythorn was once engaged to (and very much in love with) a woman who later left him without giving him any reason. That woman was in fact, Miss Barbary, who abandoned her former life (including Boythorn) when she took Esther from her sister. Boythorn is also a neighbour of Sir Leicester Dedlock's, with whom he is engaged in an epic tangle of lawsuits over a right-of-way across Boythorn's property that Sir Leicester asserts the legal right to close. He is thought to be based on the writer Walter Savage Landor.[citation needed]
Sir Leicester Dedlock is a crusty baronet, very much older than his wife. Dedlock is an unthinking conservative who regards the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit as a mark of distinction worthy of a man of his family lineage. On the other hand, he is shown as a loving and devoted husband towards Lady Dedlock, even after he learns about her secret.
Mr Tulkinghorn is Sir Leicester's lawyer. Scheming and manipulative, he seems to defer to his clients but relishes the power his control of their secrets gives him. He learns of Lady Dedlock's past and tries to control her conduct, to preserve the reputation and good name of Sir Leicester. He is murdered, and his murder gives Dickens the chance to weave a detective plot into the closing chapters of the book.
Mr Snagsby is the timid and hen-pecked proprietor of a law-stationery business who gets involved with Tulkinghorn and Bucket's secrets. He is Jo's only friend. He tends to give half-crowns to those he feels sorry for.
Miss Flite is an elderly eccentric. Her family has been destroyed by a long-running Chancery case similar to Jarndyce and Jarndyce, and her obsessive fascination with Chancery veers between comedy and tragedy. She owns a large number of little birds which she says will be released "on the day of judgement."[citation needed]
William Guppy is a law clerk at Kenge and Carboy. He becomes smitten with Esther and makes an offer of marriage (which she refuses). Later, after Esther learns that Lady Dedlock is her mother, she asks to meet Mr Guppy to tell him to stop investigating her past. He fears the meeting is to accept his offer of marriage (which he does not want to pursue now she is disfigured). He is so overcome with relief when she explains her true purpose that he agrees to do everything in his power to protect her privacy in the future.
Inspector Bucket is a detective who undertakes several investigations throughout the novel, most notably the investigation of the murder of Mr Tulkinghorn. He is notable in being one of the first detectives in English fiction.[9] This character is probably based on Inspector Charles Frederick Field of the then recently formed Detective Department at Scotland Yard.[10] Dickens wrote several journalistic pieces about the Inspector and the work of the detectives in Household Words.
Mr George is a former soldier (having served under Nemo) who owns a London shooting-gallery and is a trainer in sword and pistol. The prime suspect in the murder of Mr Tulkinghorn, he is exonerated and his true identity is revealed, against his wishes. He is George Rouncewell, son of the Dedlocks' housekeeper, Mrs Rouncewell, who welcomes him back to Chesney Wold. He ends the book as body-servant to the stricken Sir Leicester Dedlock.
Caddy Jellyby is a friend of Esther's, secretary to her mother. Caddy feels ashamed of her own "lack of manners," but Esther's friendship heartens her. Caddy falls in love with Prince Turveydrop, marries him, and has a baby.
Krook is a rag and bottle merchant and collector of papers. He is the landlord of the house where Nemo and Miss Flite live and where Nemo dies. He seems to subsist on a diet of gin. Krook dies from a case of spontaneous human combustion, something that Dickens believed could happen, but which some critics (such as the English essayist George Henry Lewes) denounced as outlandish.[citation needed] Amongst the stacks of papers obsessively hoarded by the illiterate Krook is the key to resolving the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce.
Jo is a young boy who lives on the streets and tries to make a living as a crossing sweeper. Jo was the only person with whom Nemo had any real connection. Nemo expressed a paternal sort of interest in Jo, (something that no human had ever done). Nemo would share his meagre money with Jo, and would sometimes remark, "Well, Jo, today I am as poor as you," when he had nothing to share. Jo is called to testify at the inquiry into Nemo's death, but knows nothing of value. Despite this, Mr Tulkinghorn pays Mr Bucket to harry Jo and force him to keep "moving along" [leave town] because Tulkinghorn fears Jo might have some knowledge of the connection between Nemo and the Dedlocks. Jo ultimately dies from a disease (pneumonia, a complication from an earlier bout with smallpox which Esther also catches and from which she almost dies).
Allan Woodcourt is a surgeon and a kind, caring man who loves Esther deeply. She in turn loves him but feels unable to respond, not only because of her prior commitment to John Jarndyce, but also because she fears her illegitimacy will cause his mother to object to their connection.
Grandfather Smallweed is a moneylender, a mean, bad-tempered man who shows no mercy to people who owe him money and who enjoys inflicting emotional pain on others. He lays claim to the deceased Krook's possessions because Smallweed's wife is Krook's only living relation, and he also drives Mr George into bankruptcy by calling in debts. It has been suggested that his description (together with his grandchildren) fits that of a person with progeria,[11] although people with progeria only have a life expectancy of 14 years, while Grandfather Smallweed is very old.[12]
Mr Vholes is a Chancery lawyer who takes on Richard Carstone as a client, squeezes out of him all the litigation fees he can manage to pay, and then abandons him when Jarndyce and Jarndyce comes to an end.
Conversation Kenge is a Chancery lawyer who represents John Jarndyce. His chief foible is his love of grand, portentous, and empty rhetoric.

text: Minor characters[edit]

text:
Mr Gridley is an involuntary party to a suit in Chancery (based on a real case, according to Dickens's preface), who repeatedly seeks in vain to gain the attention of the Lord Chancellor. He threatens Mr Tulkinghorn and then is put under arrest by Inspector Bucket, but dies, his health broken by his Chancery ordeal.
Nemo (Latin for "nobody") is the alias of Captain James Hawdon, a former officer in the British Army under whom Mr George once served. Nemo is a law-writer who makes fair copies of legal documents for Snagsby and lodges at Krook's rag and bottle shop, eventually dying of an opium overdose. He is later found to be Lady Dedlock's former lover, and the father of Esther Summerson.
Mrs Snagsby is Mr Snagsby's highly suspicious and curious wife, who has a "vinegary" personality and incorrectly suspects Mr Snagsby of keeping many secrets from her: she suspects he is Jo's father.
Guster is the Snagsbys' maidservant, prone to fits.
Neckett is a debt collector – called "Coavinses" by debtor Harold Skimpole because he works for that business firm.
Charley is Coavinses' daughter, hired by John Jarndyce to be a maid to Esther. Called "Little Coavinses" by Skimpole.
Tom is Coavinses' young son.
Emma is Coavinses' baby daughter.
Mrs Jellyby is Caddy's mother, a "telescopic philanthropist" obsessed with an obscure African tribe but having little regard for the notion of charity beginning at home. It's thought Dickens wrote this character as a criticism of female activists like Caroline Chisholm.
Mr Jellyby is Mrs Jellyby's long-suffering husband.
Peepy Jellyby is the Jellybys' young son.
Prince Turveydrop is a dancing master and proprietor of a dance studio.
Old Mr Turveydrop is a master of deportment who lives off his son's industry.
Jenny is a brickmaker's wife. She is mistreated by her husband and her baby dies. She then helps her friend look after her own child.
Rosa is a favourite lady's maid of Lady Dedlock whom Watt Rouncewell wishes to marry. The proposal ends in nothing when Mr Rouncewell's father asks that Rosa be sent to school to become a lady worthy of his son's station. Lady Dedlock questions the girl closely regarding her wish to leave, and promises to look after her instead. In some way, Rosa is a stand-in for Esther in Lady Dedlock's life.
Hortense is lady's maid to Lady Dedlock. Her character is based on the Swiss maid and murderer Maria Manning.[13]
Mrs Rouncewell is housekeeper to the Dedlocks at Chesney Wold.
Mr Robert Rouncewell, the adult son of Mrs Rouncewell, is a prosperous ironmaster.
Watt Rouncewell is Robert Rouncewell's son.
Volumnia is a cousin of the Dedlocks, given to screaming.
Miss Barbary is Esther's godmother and severe childhood guardian.
Mrs Rachael Chadband is a former servant of Miss Barbary's.
Mr Chadband is an oleaginous preacher, husband of Mrs Chadband.
Mrs Smallweed is the wife of Mr Smallweed senior and sister to Krook. She is suffering from dementia.
Young Mr (Bartholemew) Smallweed is the grandson of the senior Smallweeds and friend of Mr Guppy.
Judy Smallweed is the granddaughter of the senior Smallweeds.
Tony Jobling, who adopts the alias Mr Weevle, is a friend of William Guppy.
Mrs Guppy is Mr Guppy's aged mother.
Phil Squod is Mr George's assistant.
Matthew Bagnet is a military friend of Mr George's and a dealer in musical instruments.
Mrs Bagnet is the wife of Matthew Bagnet.
Woolwich is the Bagnets' son.
Quebec is the Bagnets' elder daughter.
Malta is the Bagnets' younger daughter.
Mrs Woodcourt is Allan Woodcourt's widowed mother.
Mrs Pardiggle is a woman who does "good works" for the poor, but cannot see that her efforts are rude and arrogant, and do nothing at all to help. She inflicts her activities on her five small sons, who are clearly rebellious.
Arethusa Skimpole is Mr Skimpole's "Beauty" daughter.
Laura Skimpole is Mr Skimpole's "Sentiment" daughter.
Kitty Skimpole is Mr Skimpole's "Comedy" daughter.
Mrs Skimpole is Mr Skimpole's ailing wife, who is weary of her husband and his way of life.

text: Analysis and criticism[edit]

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tag: table

text: Much criticism of Bleak House focuses on its unique narrative structure: it is told both by a third-person omniscient narrator and a first-person narrator (Esther Summerson). The omniscient narrator speaks in the present tense and is a dispassionate observer. Esther Summerson tells her own story in the past tense (like David in David Copperfield or Pip in Great Expectations), and her narrative voice is characterised by modesty, consciousness of her own limits, and willingness to disclose to us her own thoughts and feelings. These two narrative strands never quite intersect, though they do run in parallel. Nabokov felt that letting Esther tell part of the story was Dickens's "main mistake" in planning the novel[14] Alex Zwerdling, a scholar from Berkeley, after observing that "critics have not been kind to Esther," nevertheless thought Dickens's use of Esther's narrative "one of the triumphs of his art".[15]

text: Esther's portion of the narrative is an interesting case study of the Victorian ideal of feminine modesty. She introduces herself thus: "I have a great deal of difficulty in beginning to write my portion of these pages, for I know I am not clever" (chap. 3). This claim is almost immediately belied by the astute moral judgement and satiric observation that characterise her pages. In the same introductory chapter, she writes: "It seems so curious to me to be obliged to write all this about myself! As if this narrative were the narrative of MY life! But my little body will soon fall into the background now" (chap. 3). This does not turn out to be true.

text: For most readers and scholars, the central concern of Bleak House is its indictment of the English Chancery court system. Chancery or equity courts were one half of the English civil justice system, existing side-by-side with law courts. Chancery courts heard actions having to do with wills and estates, or with the uses of private property. By the mid-nineteenth century, English law reformers had long criticised the delays of Chancery litigation, and Dickens found the subject a tempting target. (He already had taken a shot at law-courts and that side of the legal profession in his 1837 novel The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club or The Pickwick Papers). Scholars – such as the English legal historian Sir William Searle Holdsworth, in his 1928 series of lectures Charles Dickens as a Legal Historian published by Yale University Press – have made a plausible case for treating Dickens's novels, and Bleak House in particular, as primary sources illuminating the history of English law.

text: Dickens claimed in the preface to the book edition of Bleak House that he had "purposely dwelt upon the romantic side of familiar things". And some remarkable things do happen: One character, Krook, smells of brimstone and eventually dies of spontaneous human combustion. This was highly controversial. The nineteenth century saw the increasing triumph of the scientific worldview. Scientifically inclined writers, as well as doctors and scientists, rejected spontaneous human combustion as legend or superstition. When the instalment of Bleak House containing Krook's demise appeared, the literary critic George Henry Lewes accused Dickens of "giving currency to a vulgar error".[16] Dickens vigorously defended the reality of spontaneous human combustion and cited many documented cases, as well as his own memories of coroners' inquests that he had attended when he had been a reporter. In the preface of the book edition of Bleak House, Dickens wrote: "I shall not abandon the facts until there shall have been a considerable Spontaneous Combustion of the testimony on which human occurrences are usually received."

text: George Gissing and G. K. Chesterton are among those literary critics and writers who consider Bleak House to be the best novel that Charles Dickens wrote. As Chesterton put it: "Bleak House is not certainly Dickens' best book; but perhaps it is his best novel". Harold Bloom, in his book The Western Canon, considers Bleak House to be Dickens's greatest novel. Daniel Burt, in his book The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time, ranks Bleak House number 12.

text: Locations of Bleak House[edit]

text: The house named Bleak House in Broadstairs, is not the original. Dickens stayed with his family at this house (then called Fort House), for at least one month every summer from 1839 until 1851. However, there is no evidence that it formed the basis of the fictional Bleak House, particularly as it is located so far from the location of the fictional one.

text: The house is located on top of the cliff on Fort Road, and was renamed Bleak House after his death, in his honour.[17] It is the only four storey grade II listed mansion in Broadstairs.

text: Dickens locates the fictional Bleak House in St Albans, Hertfordshire, where he wrote some of the book. An 18th-century house in Folly Lane, St Albans, has been identified as a possible inspiration for the titular house in the story since the time of the book's publication and was known as Bleak House for many years.[18]

text: Adaptations[edit]

text: In the late nineteenth century, actress Fanny Janauschek acted in a stage version of Bleak House in which she played both Lady Dedlock and her maid Hortense. The two characters never appear on stage at the same time. In 1876 John Pringle Burnett's play, Jo found success in London with his wife, Jennie Lee playing Jo, the crossing-sweeper.[19] In 1893, Jane Coombs acted in a version of Bleak House.[20]

text: A 1901 short film, The Death of Poor Joe, is the oldest known surviving film featuring a Charles Dickens character (Jo in Bleak House).[21]

text: In the silent film era, Bleak House was filmed in 1920 and 1922. The latter version featured Sybil Thorndike as Lady Dedlock.[22]

text: In 1928, a short film made in the UK in the Phonofilm sound-on-film process starred Bransby Williams as Grandfather Smallweed.[23]

text: In 1998, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a radio adaptation of five hour-long episodes, starring Michael Kitchen as John Jarndyce.[24]

text: The BBC has produced three television adaptations of Bleak House. The first serial, Bleak House, was broadcast in 1959 in eleven half-hour episodes.[25] The second Bleak House, starring Diana Rigg and Denholm Elliott, aired in 1985 as an eight-part series.[26] In 2005, the third Bleak House was broadcast in fifteen episodes starring Anna Maxwell Martin, Gillian Anderson, Denis Lawson, Charles Dance, and Carey Mulligan.[27] It won a Peabody Award that same year because it "created “appointment viewing,” soap-style, for a series that greatly rewarded its many extra viewers."[28]

text: Musical references[edit]

text: Charles Jefferys wrote the words for and Charles William Glover wrote the music for songs called Ada Clare[29] and Farewell to the Old House,[30] which are inspired by the novel.

text: Anthony Phillips included a piece entitled "Bleak House" on his 1979 Progressive Rock release, "Sides." The form of the lyrics roughly follows the narrative of Esther Summerson, and is written in her voice.[31]

text: Original publication[edit]

text: Like most Dickens novels, Bleak House was published in 20 monthly instalments, each containing 32 pages of text and two illustrations by Phiz (the last two being published together as a double issue). Each cost one shilling, except for the final double issue, which cost two shillings.[citation needed]

text:
Instalment
Date of publication
Chapters

I
March 1852
1–4

II
April 1852
5–7

III
May 1852
8–10

IV
June 1852
11–13

V
July 1852
14–16

VI
August 1852
17–19

VII
September 1852
20–22

VIII
October 1852
23–25

IX
November 1852
26–29

X
December 1852
30–32

XI
January 1853
33–35

XII
February 1853
36–38

XIII
March 1853
39–42

XIV
April 1853
43–46

XV
May 1853
47–49

XVI
June 1853
50–53

XVII
July 1853
54–56

XVIII
August 1853
57–59

XIX–XX
September 1853
60–67


document_title: A Thousand Splendid Suns

question_text: where does the title a thousand splendid suns come from

text: A Thousand Splendid Suns

text: Creation[edit]

text: Title[edit]

text: The title of the book comes from a line in the Josephine Davis translation of the poem "Kabul",[10] by the 17th-century Iranian poet Saib Tabrizi:

text: In an interview, Khaled Hosseini explains, "I was searching for English translations of poems about Kabul, for use in a scene where a character bemoans leaving his beloved city, when I found this particular verse. I realized that I had found not only the right line for the scene, but also an evocative title in the phrase 'a thousand splendid suns,' which appears in the next-to-last stanza."[1]

text: Inspiration[edit]

text: When asked what led him to write a novel centered on two Afghan women, Hosseini responded:

text: "I had been entertaining the idea of writing a story of Afghan women for some time after I'd finished writing The Kite Runner. That first novel was a male-dominated story. All the major characters, except perhaps for Amir's wife Soraya, were men. There was a whole facet of Afghan society which I hadn't touched on in The Kite Runner, an entire landscape that I felt was fertile with story ideas...In the spring of 2003, I went to Kabul, and I recall seeing these burqa-clad women sitting at street corners, with four, five, six children, begging for change. I remember watching them walking in pairs up the street, trailed by their children in ragged clothes, and wondering how life had brought them to that point...I spoke to many of those women in Kabul. Their life stories were truly heartbreaking...When I began writing A Thousand Splendid Suns, I found myself thinking about those resilient women over and over. Though no one woman that I met in Kabul inspired either Laila or Mariam, their voices, faces, and their incredible stories of survival were always with me, and a good part of my inspiration for this novel came from their collective spirit."[1]

text: Writing[edit]

text:
"I hope the book offers emotional subtext to the image of the burqa-clad woman walking down a dusty street in Kabul."

—Khaled Hosseini in a 2007 interview.[11]

text: Hosseini disclosed that in some ways, A Thousand Splendid Suns was more difficult to write than his first novel, The Kite Runner.[1] This is partly because when he penned The Kite Runner, "no one was waiting for it."[1] He also found his second novel to be more "ambitious" than the first due to its larger number of characters, its dual focus on Mariam and Laila, and its covering of a multi-generational-period of nearly forty-five-years.[1] However, he stated, "As I began to write, as the story picked up pace and I found myself immersed in the world of Mariam and Laila, these apprehensions vanished on their own. The developing story captured me and enabled me to tune out the background noise and get on with the business of inhabiting the world I was creating."[1] The characters "took on a life of their own" at this point and "became very real for [him]".[12]

text: Similar to The Kite Runner, the manuscript had to be extensively revised; Hosseini divulged that he ultimately wrote the book five times before it was complete.[13] The novel's anticipated release was first announced in October 2006, when it was described as a story about "family, friendship, faith and the salvation to be found in love".[14]

text: Summary[edit]

text: The novel centers on two women, Mariam and Laila, how their lives become intertwined after a series of drastic events, and their subsequent friendship and support for each other in the backdrop of Kabul in the 20th and 21st century. It is split into four parts that focus on individual stories: Part one is about Mariam, part two is on Laila, part three is on the relationship between the two women, and Laila's life with Tariq is in part four. The last section also happens to be the only part written in the present tense.

text: Mariam lives in a kolba on the outskirts of Herat with her embittered mother. Jalil, her father, is a wealthy businessman who owns a cinema and lives in the town with three wives and nine children. Mariam is his illegitimate daughter, and she is prohibited to live with them, but Jalil visits her every Thursday. On her fifteenth birthday, Mariam wants her father to take her to see Pinocchio at his movie theater, against the pleas of her mother. When he does not show up, she hikes into town and goes to his house. He refuses to see her, and she ends up sleeping on the street. In the morning, Mariam returns home to find that her mother has committed suicide out of fear that her daughter had deserted her. Mariam is then taken to live in her father's house. Jalil arranges for her to be married to Rasheed, a shoemaker from Kabul who is thirty-years her senior. In Kabul, Mariam becomes pregnant seven successive times, but is never able to carry a child to term. This is a sad, disquieting reality for both Rasheed and Mariam. Ultimately Rasheed grows more and more despondent over his wife's inability to have a child and particularly a son. As their marriage wears on Rasheed gradually becomes more and more abusive.

text: Part Two introduces Laila. She is a girl growing up in Kabul who is close friends with Tariq, a boy living in her neighborhood. They eventually develop a romantic relationship despite being aware of the social boundaries between men and women in Afghan society. War comes to Afghanistan, and Kabul is bombarded by rocket attacks. Tariq's family decides to leave the city, and the emotional farewell between Laila and Tariq culminates with them making love. Laila's family also decides to leave Kabul, but as they are packing a rocket destroys the house, killing her parents and severely injuring Laila. Laila is subsequently taken in by Rasheed and Mariam.

text: After recovering from her injuries, Laila discovers that she is pregnant with Tariq's child. After being informed by Abdul Sharif that Tariq has died, she agrees to marry Rasheed, a man eager to have a young and attractive second wife in hopes of having a son with her. When Laila gives birth to a daughter, Aziza, Rasheed is displeased and suspicious. This results in him becoming abusive towards Laila. Mariam and Laila eventually become confidants and best friends. They plan to run away from Rasheed and leave Kabul but are caught at the bus station. Rasheed beats them and deprives them of water for several days, almost killing Aziza.

text: A few years later, Laila gives birth to Zalmai, Rasheed's son. The Taliban has risen to power and imposed harsh rules on the Afghan population, prohibiting women from appearing in public without a male relative. There is a drought, and living conditions in Kabul become poor. Rasheed's workshop burns down, and he is forced to take jobs for which he is ill-suited. He sends Aziza to an orphanage. Laila endures a number of beatings from the Taliban when caught alone on the streets in attempts to visit her daughter.

text: Then one day Tariq appears outside the house, and he and Laila are reunited. Laila realizes that Rasheed had hired Abdul Sharif to inform her about Tariq's fake death, so that he could marry her. When Rasheed returns home from work, Zalmai tells his father about the visitor. Rasheed starts to savagely beat Laila. He nearly strangles her, but Mariam intervenes and kills Rasheed with a shovel. Afterwards, Mariam confesses to killing Rasheed in order to draw attention away from Laila and Tariq. Mariam is publicly executed, allowing Laila and Tariq to leave for Pakistan with Aziza and Zalmai. They spend their days working at a guest house in Murree, a summer retreat.

text: After the fall of the Taliban, Laila and Tariq return to Afghanistan. They stop in the village where Mariam was raised, and discover a package that Mariam's father left behind for her: a videotape of Pinocchio, a small sack of money, and a letter. Laila reads the letter and discovers that Jalil had regretted sending Mariam away. Laila and Tariq return to Kabul and use the money to fix up the orphanage, where Laila starts working as a teacher. Laila is pregnant with her third child, and if it is a girl, Laila has already named her Mariam.

text: Characters[edit]

text:
Mariam is an ethnic Pashtun born in Herat, 1959 to a Pashtun father. She is the child of Jalil and Nana born out of the wedlock. She suffers shame throughout her childhood because of the circumstances of her birth.[15] Khaled Hosseini described her portrayal: "The key word with Mariam is that she is isolated in every sense of the word. She is a woman who is detached from the day-to-day norms of human existence. Really, she just wants connection with another human being."[15] Despite initially resenting Laila, she becomes a "friend and a doting alternative mother" to her through the "common hardship" of being married to the "abusive, psychologically imposing" Rasheed.[15]
Laila is an ethnic Tajik. Born in 1978, to Hakim and Fariba, she is a beautiful and intelligent girl coming from a family in which the father is university-educated and a teacher. Hosseini states that compared to Mariam, Laila "had a much more fulfilling relationship with her father, her girlfriends and her childhood friend, Tariq. She expected to finish school and is looking for personal fulfillment. These are two very different representations of women."[15] Her life becomes tied to Mariam's when she becomes the second wife of Rasheed, Mariam's husband. This originally draws resentment from Mariam, who "[feels] her territory infringed upon".[15] Despite this, "Laila becomes her daughter for all practical purposes" due to Mariam's childlessness, struggles,and abuse they both face during the marriage.[15] Towards the end of the novel she becomes a schoolteacher at the orphanage where Aziza had stayed.[16]
Rasheed is an ethnic Pashtun, a shoemaker, and the antagonist of the novel. He marries Mariam through an arrangement with Jalil, and later marries Laila as well. After suffering years of domestic abuse at his hands, Mariam bludgeons Rasheed to death with a shovel during a violent struggle. Hosseini stated that he hoped to create a multi-layered character in Rasheed, saying, "Rasheed's the embodiment of the patriarchal, tribal character. In writing him, I didn't want to write him as an irredeemable villain. He is a reprehensible person, but there are moments of humanity, such as his love for his son."[15] He identified an encounter with an Afghan man four years earlier as the foundation for this character; the man "had a very sweet, subservient wife" and had not yet informed her that he was planning to marry again.[15]
Tariq, an ethnic Pashtun born in 1976, is a boy who grew up in Kabul with Laila. He lost a leg to a land mine at the age of five.[16] They eventually evolve from best friends to lovers; after a decade of separation they are married and expecting a child by the end of the novel.[16]
Nana is Mariam's mother and a former servant of Jalil. Mariam's birth is the result of an affair between Nana and Jalil. Jalil's favoritism towards his wives and legitimate children leaves Nana bitter towards Jalil. She hangs herself when Mariam is fifteen after Mariam journeys to Jalil's house on her birthday. Nana perceives this to be betrayal and regards as an act of desertion.
Mullah Faizullah, a Sufi, is Mariam's elderly Koran teacher and friend. He dies of natural causes in 1989.
Jalil is Mariam's father, a wealthy man who had three wives before he fathered Mariam. He marries Mariam to Rasheed after Nana's death,[17] but later regrets sending her away. He dies in 1987.
Hakim is Laila's father. He is a well-educated and a progressive schoolteacher.[17] He is killed in a rocket explosion along with Fariba.[16]
Fariba is Laila's mother. In Part One, during her brief meeting with Mariam, she is depicted as cheerful, but her happy nature is disrupted when her two sons, Ahmad and Noor, leave home to go to war and are later killed. She spends nearly all of her time in bed mourning her sons until the Mujahideen are victorious, and is later killed in a rocket explosion along with Hakim.[16]
Aziza, born in the spring of 1993, is the daughter of Laila and Tariq, conceived when Laila was fourteen. When the news of Tariq's alleged death arrives, in order to hide the child's illegitimacy and provide for herself, Laila decides to marry Rasheed. Aziza's birth marks the beginning of Laila's fall from favor with Rasheed[17] and the friendship between Mariam and Laila.[16][18]
Zalmai, born in September 1997, to Laila and Rasheed. He serves as a redeeming facet of Rasheed,[15] idolizing him despite the abuse to his mother and Mariam. Zalmai remains unaware of the fact that Mariam killed Rasheed and continuously asks Laila about him, who lies by saying that he simply left for some time. After initially blaming Tariq for his father's mysterious disappearance, he comes to accept Tariq as a father-figure.

text: Themes[edit]

text: Family[edit]

text: When asked about common themes in The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini replied:

text: "Both novels are multigenerational, and so the relationship between parent and child, with all of its manifest complexities and contradictions, is a prominent theme. I did not intend this, but I am keenly interested, it appears, in the way parents and children love, disappoint, and in the end honor each other. In one way, the two novels are corollaries: The Kite Runner was a father-son story, and A Thousand Splendid Suns can be seen as a mother-daughter story."[1]

text: He ultimately considers both novels to be "love stories" in that it is love that "draws characters out of their isolation, that gives them the strength to transcend their own limitations, to expose their vulnerabilities, and to perform devastating acts of self-sacrifice".[1]

text: Women in Afghanistan[edit]

text: Hosseini visited Afghanistan in 2003, and "heard so many stories about what happened to women, the tragedies that they had endured, the difficulties, the gender-based violence that they had suffered, the discrimination, the being barred from active life during the Taliban, having their movement restricted, being banned essentially from practicing their legal, social rights, political rights".[12] This motivated him to write a novel centered on two Afghan women.[12]

text: Washington Post writer Jonathan Yardley suggests that "the central theme of A Thousand Splendid Suns is the place of women in Afghan society", pointing to a passage in which Mariam's mother states, "Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam."[18]

text: In the book, both Mariam and Laila are forced into accepting a marriage to Rasheed, who requires them to wear a burqa before it is implemented by law under the Taliban. He later becomes increasingly abusive.[17] A Riverhead Trades Weekly review states that the novel consistently shows the "patriarchal despotism where women are agonizingly dependent on fathers, husbands and especially sons, the bearing of male children being their sole path to social status."[19]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: In the first week following its release, A Thousand Splendid Suns sold over one million copies,[8] becoming a number-one New York Times bestseller for fifteen weeks.[7] Time magazine's Lev Grossman placed it at number three in the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, and praised it as a "dense, rich, pressure-packed guide to enduring the unendurable."[20][21] Jonathan Yardley said in the Washington Post "Book World", "Just in case you're wondering whether Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns is as good as The Kite Runner, here's the answer: No. It's better."[18]

text: A Thousand Splendid Suns received significant praise from reviewers, with Publishers Weekly calling it "a powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan"[4] and USA Today describing the prose as "achingly beautiful".[22] Lisa See of The New York Times attributed the book's success to Hosseini "[understanding] the power of emotion as few other popular writers do".[23] Natasha Walter from The Guardian wrote, "Hosseini is skilled at telling a certain kind of story, in which events that may seem unbearable - violence, misery and abuse - are made readable. He doesn't gloss over the horrors his characters live through, but something about his direct, explanatory style and the sense that you are moving towards a redemptive ending makes the whole narrative, for all its tragedies, slip down rather easily."[24]

text: Cathleen Medwick gave the novel a highly positive review in O, the Oprah Magazine:

text: "Love may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you consider the war-ravaged landscape of Afghanistan. But that is the emotion—subterranean, powerful, beautiful, illicit, and infinitely patient—that suffuses the pages of Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. As in his best-selling first novel, The Kite Runner, Hosseini movingly examines the connections between unlikely friends, the fissures that open up between parents and children, the intransigence of quiet hearts."[25]

text: The New York Times writer Michiko Kakutani wrote a more critical review, describing the opening as "heavy-handed" and early events in the novel as "soap-opera-ish".[26] Despite these objections, she concluded, "Gradually, however, Mr. Hosseini's instinctive storytelling skills take over, mowing down the reader's objections through sheer momentum and will. He succeeds in making the emotional reality of Mariam and Laila's lives tangible to us, and by conjuring their day-to-day routines, he is able to give us a sense of what daily life was like in Kabul — both before and during the harsh reign of the Taliban."[26] Similarly, Yvonne Zipp of The Christian Science Monitor concluded that A Thousand Splendid Suns was ultimately "a little shaky as a work of literature".[27]

text: The depictions of the lead female characters, Mariam and Laila, were praised by several commentators. John Freeman from The Houston Chronicle found them "enormously winning"[28] while Carol Memmott from USA Today further described them as "stunningly heroic characters whose spirits somehow grasp the dimmest rays of hope".[22] Medwick summed up the portrayals: "Mariam, branded as a harami, or bastard, and forced into an abusive marriage at the age of fifteen, and Laila, a beauty groomed for success but shrouded almost beyond recognition by repressive sharia law and the husband she and Mariam share. The story, epic in scope and spanning three decades, follows these two indomitable women whose fortunes mirror those of their beloved and battered country—'nothing pretty to look at, but still standing'—and who find in each other the strength they need to survive."[25]

text: Jennifer Reese from Entertainment Weekly dubbed Rasheed "one of the most repulsive males in recent literature".[29] Lisa See said that, with the exception of Tariq, "the male characters seem either unrelentingly evil or pathetically weak" and opinionated, "If a woman wrote these things about her male characters, she would probably be labeled a man-hater."[23]

text: Adaptations[edit]

text: Columbia Pictures owns the movie rights to the novel. Steven Zaillian finished writing the first draft of the screenplay in 2009[30] and is also slated to direct; Scott Rudin has signed on as a producer.[31] In May 2013, studios confirmed a tentative release date of 2015.[32]

text: The first theatrical adaptation of the novel premiered in San Francisco, California, on February 1, 2017. It is co-produced by the American Conservatory Theater and Theatre Calgary.[9]