New-York tribune., 1919-01-23
Consumers'League
Says WJoman's Wage
Is Still Too Low
Increase Since 1914 Barely
Equals the Added Cost
of Living, According to
Figures of Investigators


and Brooklyn made public a report yes
terday on wages paid to women war
workers.. According to the report,
based on an investigation just COM
pleted, women employed in war work
are receiving in proportion to the cost
of living the same wages as were paid
in 1914.
A bill which will be presented at the
present session. of the Legislature has
been prepared by the league calling
for the appointment of a minimum
wage commission, which shall estab-
lish trade boards in the different in
dustries. Twelve states and the Dis
trict of Columbia now have already
minimum wage laws.
"Experience has proved that bust
ness thrives instead of suffers under
such leegislation,' said Mrs. Esther
Packard Chadbourn, executive secre-
tary of the league. ut frees employ
ers who wish to pay living wages from
the competition Of employers who pay
starvation wages. Industries which
cannot be self-supporting and meet
their own labor cost should not exist" /"
The Value of Dollar
A dollar in 1914 bought 62 per cen.
more than it buys now, according to
the report. Government figures show,
1T says, that since 1914 the cost ofiliv-
ing in New York State has Increased
as follows: Clothing for women, 112
per cent; food, 65 per cent; fuel and
light, 70 per cent; incidentals, 62 per
cent.
FIFTEEN dollars has been set as the
present weekly minimum living rate
IN lal4 the official minimum weekly
York City was 80. Taking this budget
and applying to it increased retail
prices, the minimum becomes SIS. The
1914 and 1918 weekly budgets are as
follows:
R9onn 1,,nahs,1 and board dncluding
c,d.h:l) uhehes) .................. $4.9o $50
Laundry, dentist and doctor Luz ''0V
bills and all incidentals 49, 23S 3.S5
Totals .................. $S.97 S14SO
The Consumers League found, in a
brief study, 3,016 girls receiving less
than S12 a week. less, that is, than a
present living wage. Of these, as per
cent were earning less than $40 a week,
80 per cent less than 50 and IL per
cent less than So.
These figures were gathered at the
high water mark of wages in 1918, be-
fore the signing of the armistice, from
employment files where trained work
ers registered.
personal interviews held with eigh-
ty-seven girls show that there are Just
as many pitiful deprivations in $40
budget in 1919 as there used to be in
a Sc and 81 budget in 1914" says the
report
Some Cases Cited
The report cites the case of a woman
of sixty. A year and half ago a re-
hglous publishing house gave her a
JOB addressing envelopes at $1.25 day,
with daily minimum of 1000 Later
they offered her permanent employ
ment at Sc week. When her vacation
began she took her two weeks pay and
went home. sick. When she got we'll
she took a factory job at SO week
inspecting pocketbooks. She has never
been able to buy lunch.
One girl who does hand embroidery
at an embroidery factory for SO a week.
found 1t necessary to resort to all
three expedients. She has been working
at this factory continuously thirteen
years, ever since she was fifteen. Last
spring and again this fall she lost
three weeks through illness; during
this time she received no pay and only
half pay for two weeks vacation Her
total income therefore from November
!, 1917, to November, 1918, was $3e7.
Her expenses for the year we're:
Room and board and lunches, at $3.50
a week, 1888; medicine, $40; clothing
and incid dsntals at Is cents week.
$50. Total, 1887.
Since she had no money for a doctor
when i'll, the matron of the home where
she lives, secured one from dispen-
sary. The money she saved during the
summer, for winter coat, went for
room and board, and she was still.
when interviewed. in debt So to her
iandlady. Practically all her clothing
has been handed down to her by a mar
ried sister and made over by herself in
the evenings. Her low wage thus had
to be supplemented BY, Free medi-
cal aid from the dispensary; 2, credit
from her landlady; 3. gifts of cloth
ing; q, room and board at a reduced
price at non -self-supporting home.