Final answer:
Countries like England regulated workers' wages and employment conditions after the Black Death to control labor costs and maintain social order. Laws fixed wages at pre-pandemic levels and mandated that able-bodied persons accept work, influencing unemployment rates and the hiring practices of businesses.
Step-by-step explanation:
To address labor shortages caused by the Black Death, countries like England passed laws regulating workers' wages and employment conditions. The Black Death led to a significant decrease in population, resulting in a scarcity of labor. Countries sought to maintain control and prevent wages from rising due to the increased demand for labor. In 1349, England introduced a law that set laborers' wages at the level they were in 1346. The subsequent 1351 Statute of Labourers required all unemployed and able-bodied individuals under sixty to accept any work offered, essentially regulating their working conditions.
These laws intended to restore the pre-Black Death social order, where noble landowners had ample access to peasant labor at controlled costs. However, such regulations could impose barriers to free employment and thus contribute to a higher natural rate of unemployment. They discouraged businesses from hiring more workers than necessary due to the potential difficulty and cost of laying them off.