The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-24
FIXING A MINIMUM WAGE Working Girls Living Costs Stud- jed --~ How the Minnesota
 Law Works
REV. JOHN A. RYAN St. Paul Seminary, St Paul, AIinn.

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 i--~~~--~-~ Is Some of the difficulties of deciding upon a wage which will be acceptable to both employer and employe are here described by Father Ryan, au- lsthor of s.Aa Living Wage and Of the foremost authorities Of this kcoun- try or minimum wage legislation. The Minnesota Minimum Wage | Commission has tissued it's first wage orders They fix the remuneration for women and minors of ordinary ability as follows: In mercantile es- tabIishments. telephone and telegrapn occupations, and all office work, $9s a week in cities of the first class: $8. 50 in cities of the second, third and fourth classes, and $8 in all other parts of the state; in manufacturing, g, laundry and restaurant and hotel oc- the foregoing rates,e except that the lowest rate is $S-
 Just as the wage orders were to be issued, the employer member or the commission, resigned: consequently the orders were made by only two of the three members of the commis- sion The employers of the state are attempting to prevent the opera ton of the law on the ground that it is unconstitutfonaL
 Exclusive Service The Survey Press Bureau
 
 sota authorizes the Minimum Wage Com mission to establish advisory boards to assist in the task of deter mining living wages for women and minors Accordingly the connais- sion set up early in the present year three such boards, one for the mer- cantiIe and one for the manufactur- ing concerns in St. Paul and Minn cap oIfs and one for both these indus- tries in Duluth. Each of the three boards was composed of employers and empIoyess representatives in representing the general public.
 The law requires that the repre- sentatives of employers and of en- pIoyes shall be selected by these res
 pectfve classes so far as practica- bfe,' Tine commission. however, found that this plan was not epraeh- cable. After consulting with leading era ployers the eommfSsi on itself chose the employers representative Quite properly they were all employ CTS. s
 In the matter of employees repre- sentation, tIe commission was even less able to carryg out the spirttzof the law Not only did the employees fail Ito select their own representative but a suff1cient number of them could not be induced to serve on the boards. Of the ten members representing the employees on the mercantile board in the twin cities only two were working girls in the ordinary sense Two were welfare workers employed in depart ment stores, and the other six were club women On the misunderstanding tboard only one Was an eznFdoge. Tn Duluth the eEnp1oyes' rapr resentation contained, believe, somewhat lar ger proportion of working girls.
 Why EhnpIoyes Will Not Serve.
 The refusal Of the girls to go. on the boards seemed to be due partly to unwiIlingness to face the dilemma of either mourning the displeasure Of their employers or betraying the and partly to general timidity, diff1- dence, and lack of energy and in- terest. As ,aS matter of fact, at least one of the two working girls on the
 mercantile board voted against an adequate minimum wage, and the single empIoye on the manufacturing board was absent when the wage rec nnendations were voted The
 employees who were members of~ the Duluth board appar ently displayed the club women who represented the employees invariably worKed and vot- ed for adequate nininnm rates.
 The facts narrated in the forego- ing paragraph suggest that in many localities the time has not yet ar- T sonably be expected to defend the inter ests of their sisters on n1inir1l1n1 wage boards. This measure of in- dustrial dernocraey is not practically attainabIe where working women are un norganized A very considerable
 amount of outside assistance may very appropriately come from the | more fortunate members of their own
 sex
 Cost of Clothes.
 The efforts of advisory boards to ! ascertain the minimum cost of living for working girls brought out many nteresting and instr uetive facts. Tn l the mercantile board the sub-co1nnait- tee on clothing reported three esti- mates, averaging. $2.20. Four of the six members of the sub-comMitte Of the manufacturing board agreed upon $1.92 per week as the proper mini mum cost of clothing. It was gener- ally recognized that this item of ex-
 penditure is somewhat higher for store girls, than for those employed in factories. In the matter of misceI- laneous expenses, such as carfare,
 health, vacation. laundry, etc, the sub committee of the mercantile
 board reported a minimum cost Of $1.81 per week, while the sub-com- nnittee of the misunderstanding board agreed upon $1.90.
 The task of determining the min irnun cost of board and lodging was considerably more difficult. This was due mainly to two causes: first, the fact that the cheapest boarding g houses were very limited in number; and, second, the question whether all girls may reasonably be required to live two in a room. More than six hundred boarding and rooming hous- es in St. Paul and Minneapolis were
 visited and carefully examined by agents of the commissi on. Of these, some nineteen or twenty offered room and board for $4 per week or less. Only a minority of them, however were reported to the commission as ! satisfactory"
 The figures most frequently sub mitted by the six hundred and odd places Investigated were as follows: for board and room in same house,