The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1925-07-09
Is Uncle Sam Paying His Work
ers Fair or Living Wages.
By BILL PRICE.

We are to learn civil service employees paid fair
or living wages
The Bureau of Efficiency guided by chief HERBERT
BROWN is to begin comparative survey OF wages and
salaries paid by Uncle and private establishments
There mighty interesting field for such survey and
investigation and the deduced should be of deep interest
to Congress and the country generally
It doesn't require investigation realize that white col
lar workers throughout the country the victims Of most
neuuitabe conditions the forced prices of living to
unheard of heights For before the began
the upon the worker receiving moderate had be-
gun to manifest itself in rising prices Even then
struggle make both ends meet Since then the struggle
has been accentuated conditions under which the majority
of human beings live have almost been revoutionzed
The Government empoye may have just little advantage
over the white coared worker in private fields Govern
ent salaries before the somewhat above those
paid for similar in outside establishments. By acts
Of Congress the has recognized immense in
in the cost of living added approximately $500
per year pay Government employees in the lower
grades In the higher grades and among executives the in
crease has been immensely larger
this average of $500 which the private worker
In similar lines probably does not enjoy just drop in
the compared the increased cost of living which
or salaries received by the collar classes generally
may show that the Government clerk is still little better
off, through his $500 year increase than those doing about
the work in private life and industry.
the comparisons extended other fields
work. however both the Government employe and his
brother sufferers Organized skilled
have not permitted themselves to become victims of
CONDITIONS
position to compel the payment of that enable them
to meet living costs
Comparisons must Of course take in all lines Of workers
all those who their living by the sale Of their toll their
skill and their intelligence.
In comparing the salaries paid by Uncle Sam and by
private employers Of and women should not be for
gotten that Uncle Sam gets the pick of the field Through
civil service examinations he selects only those who stand
high in mental fitness training and general qualifications In
fact the Government demands that only those well educated
and skilled in particular lines be given the opportunity of
working for it. No such requirements compulsory in pr
fields Workers in outside establishments may SUBJ
nit recommendations and state their qualifications but there
redtape methods of wedding out such employed
by Uncle SAM The outside establishments do get
and of the intellectual rating the Government
Uncle Sam should therefore, pay much better salaries
Legislation not Of correct the nequies that
glazing in the living conditions surrounding the
of unorganzed workers in this country but Uncle Sam
example of what he thinks should prevail by making
the Government model employer of working and
paying them what he thinks living under oppressive
and unusual conditions And the Government does not today
pay LIVING WAGE to its many thousands of employees
Congress has handed out little in the of average
yearly increase of about $500 the great bulk of Government
workers. but does anybody contend that this is sufficient
years to come unless the prices of living decrease
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