History & SocietyScience & TechBiographiesAnimals & NatureGeography & TravelArts & CultureGames & QuizzesVideosOn This DayOne Good FactDictionaryCompanionsDemystifiedImage GalleriesInfographicsListsPodcastsSpotlightSummariesThe ForumTop Questions#WTFact100 WomenBritannica KidsSaving EarthSpace Next 50Student Center
Britannica Money
Subscribe Now
Table of Contents

National Recovery Administration

United States history
Also known as: NRA
Written and fact-checked byThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.
Table of Contents
National Recovery Administration
Open full sized image
Fiorello La Guardia (centre) at the formal raising of the NRA flag outside the New York headquarters of the National Recovery Administration, April 1934.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Date:
1933 - 1935
Areas Of Involvement:
marketing
working conditions
economic history
Related People:
Mary Williams Dewson

National Recovery Administration (NRA), U.S. government agency established by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt to stimulate business recovery through fair-practice codes during the Great Depression. The NRA was an essential element in the National Industrial Recovery Act (June 1933), which authorized the president to institute industry-wide codes intended to eliminate unfair trade practices, reduce unemployment, establish minimum wages and maximum hours, and guarantee the right of labour to bargain collectively.

The agency ultimately established 557 basic codes and 208 supplementary codes that affected about 22 million workers. Companies that subscribed to the NRA codes were allowed to display a Blue Eagle emblem, symbolic of cooperation with the NRA. Although the codes were hastily drawn and overly complicated and reflected the interests of big business at the expense of the consumer and small businessman, they nevertheless did improve labour conditions in some industries and also aided the unionization movement. The NRA ended when it was invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1935, but many of its provisions were included in subsequent legislation.

NRA Blue Eagle
Open full sized image
The Blue Eagle, the symbol of the National Recovery Administration, holding Uncle Sam aloft; on the cover of Vanity Fair, September 1934.
The Granger Collection, New York
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica