The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-11-28
REV. JOHN A. RYAN, D. D., OF ST.
PAUL SEMINARY, DISCUSSES
THE TASK OF MINIMUM WAGE
BOARDS IN MINNESOTA IN "THE
SURVEY" OF NEW YORK.

ulIHluS living wages IOF women ant
minors. Accordingly the commission
set UP early in the present year three
such boards, one for the mercantile
and one for the manufacturing con
Germs in ST. Paul and Minneapolis, anC
one for both these industries in Du
luth. Each of the three boards was
composed Of employers and employees
representatives in equal numbers, to
gether with third group representing
the general public. The Twin Cities
boards were in existence about six
months, and the Duluth board about
five months.
The law requires that the represen.
tatives of employers and Of employees
shall be selected by these respective
classes so far as practicable" The
commission, however, found that this
plan was not practicable. After con
sultation with leading employers, the
commission itself chose the employers
representatives. Quite properly they
were all employers.
In the matter of employees repre-
sentation, the commission was even
less able to carry out the spirit of the
law. Not only did the employees fail
to select their own representatives,
but a sufficient 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 work
ing girls in the ordinary sense. Two
were welfare workers employed in de-
partment stores, and the other six
were club women. On the manufac-
turing board only one was an employe.
In Duluth the employees representa-
ton contained, | believe, a somewhat
larger proportion of working girls
Class Loyalty not in Evidence.
The refusal of the girls to go on the
boards seemed to be due partly to un-
willingness to face the dilemma Of
either incurffng the displeasure of
their employers or betraying the in
terests of their fellow employees, and
partly to general timidity, diffidence,
and lack of energy and interest. AS a
matter of fact, at least one of the
two working girls on the mercantile
board voted against an adequate min
imum wage, and the single employe on
the manufacturing board was absent
when the wage recommendations were
voted. The employees who were mem
bers of the Duluth board apparently
icIo1o uoI ornofoTs int
age. All the club women who repre-
sented the employees invariably worked
and voted for adequate minimum
rates.
The facts narrated in the foregoing
paragraph suggest that in many 1ocali-
ties the time has not yet arrived when
working girls can reasonably be ex-
pected to defend the interests of their
sisters on minimum wage boards. This
measure of industrial democracy is
not practically attainable where work
ing women are unorganized, and have
not developed spirit of industrial
solidarity and class loyalty. At one
of the sessions of the mercantile
board, one employer declared that the
girls themselves had not asked for
the minimum wage law, that it had
been enacted at the behest of well
meaning outsiders" He was, of
course, correct in this statement. In
many industries working women will
for long time to come be in need of
considerable stimulation and assist.
ance from without in their fight for
industrial justice. And a very con-
siderable amount of such outside as
sistance may very appropriately come
from the more fortunate members of
their own sex.
Cost of Living.
The efforts of the advisory boards
to ascertain the minimum cost Of liv-
ing for working girls brought out
many interesting and instructive facts.
Substantial agreement concerning the
proper allowance for clothing and mis-
cellaneous expenses was found to be
less difficult than the average person
might expect. In the mercantile
board the subcommittee on clothing
reported three estimates, the lowest
of which was So per week, and the
highest $2.35. The average of the
three estimates was 1920. Four of
the six members of the subcommittee
of the manufacturing board agreed
upon $1.92 per week as the proper
minimum cost of clothing. 1t was
generally recognized that this item of
expenditure is somewhat higher for
store girls than for those employed in
factories. In the matter of miscel-
laneous expenses, such as carfare,
health, vacation, laundry, etc, the sub
committee of the mercantile board re-
ported a minimum cost of $1.81 per
week, while the subcommittee OF the
manufacturing board agreed upon
$1.9O
The task of determining the mini
mum cost of board and lodging was
considerably more difficult. This was
due mainly to two causes: first, the
fact that the cheapest boarding
houses were very limited in number:
and. secondly, the question whether