Evening star., 1919-12-30
Seventy.Two Cents Advance.

Seventy.Two Cents Advance.
For long time it has been GUS
tomary to urge, in advocating a gen.
eral increase in the pay Of govern.
ment employees, that the United States
has not increased its clerical salary
scale for over half century. This
has been challenged, from time TO
time, in the interest of so-called econ.
omy, by citations of advances voted
by Congress in certain salaries with.
in recent years. But the fact has
never been successfully disputed that
in the main the pay rolls of the gov.
ernment have stood still. Now the
proof is at hand of the truth Of the
indictment against the federal sys.
tenn as a poor paymaster. The re-
classification commission has worked
out averages which definitely demon
strate that the United States, alone of
the employers in this country, has
failed to recognize the steady and re-.
Gently the rapid increase in the cost
of living in terms of better pay for
its workers.
In 1923 the average pay of the
clerical force in all the departments
of the government in the national
calendar" was $1,137.2S. In 1916 the
average of pay of all employees within
what is termed the retirement group,
in all departments, was $1,13S. This
represents an advance of just 72 cents
in the average annual salary Of 10l6
over that of 1923.
Nothing could more eloquently point
to the urgent need of immediate sal.
ary increases for the government
workers than this comparison. Wiz
tually q century spans the period Of
this pitiful advance in pay. In that
time every other class Of workers has
gone ahead. The government alone
has stood still. II matters nothing
that during the war, in the time Of
excessively high prices for labor, the
federal service had to get emergency
clerks at unusually high rates. The
permanent force remained on the old
scale, established many years bexera.
The majority of the employees remain.
ed within. the range Of the 72-cent
average increase. =.
All the present proceedings Of re-
classification must be considered, In
the light of this proof, as mere de-
tails Of readjustment. The material
and prompt increase Of the pay scale
is to be taken for granted. The only
question is as to the percentage Of
advance and how it is to be distrib-
uted. The establishment of standard
duty-pay units may require some
careful consideration, but enough has
been brought to light to show that
whatever those units, in terms Of
duties and service, the United States
must have a modernized scale, must
be brought up to the mark Of fair
pay, must be taken out Of the class
Of profteers in labor.
The clerk of 1923 who got the aver
age pay of the period was a plutocrat
compared with the clerk of today get
ting the average. The former was
blessed with a compensation that en-
abled him to live well, with q margin
for emergencies and for indulgence
in some luxuries. The clerk of aver.
age pay today is living with the fear
Of debt always at his shoulder, with
debt itself in most cases an actually
present factor in his daily life, with
no margin for emergency needs, with
no chance to give his children any
education beyond the free tuition of
the public schools, with heart-break.
ing economies imposed upon him in
order barely to subsist. And the aver
age clerk Of today is a moro efficient,
a more faithful and q more satisfac.
tory worker than his fortunate pred
ecessor of nearly a century ago.
The time has come, in all conscience,
to correct this shameful parsimony,
which is bad business, even when
viewed in the narrow light of econ
omy.