The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-07-05
BOSSES VIOLATE
MINIMUM PAY LAW
IN Los ANGELES
$3.50 Per Day for Best
Paid Workers
by a Worker Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, Cal. (By maiD -
California has minimum wage law
for women. And like many other So
called labor laws, it was made to be
broken by the employers, it seems.
The document prohibits the weaker
sex" in the manufacturing industry to
work for less than SIG week-after
they have passed the months ap-
premiership period.
Piece-work in the home is not all
lowed without special permission of
the state industrial welfare commits
sion. The state standard of the local
commission requires that at least 1914
cents per hour be paid for all home
work done by women.
S1.50 a Day.
The following letter was published
by a local liberal daily recently.
81 understand there is a minimum
wage scale for women here which pro-
hibits less than SIG per week pay.
There are hundreds of garment work
ers who work piece-work at their
homes. and the price per piece of
goods is so low that the best of them
make no more than $1.50 per day.
My wife, born and raised in Mexico,
is an expert in the work and was en-
ployed before our marriage in a fine
shop here at $24 a week. Recently
she found some spare time and took
work from a shop on Los Angeles
street.
"The owner gave her complicated
piece of work to do at home, but
would not tell her the price, as he
wanted to sample her work. She
spent good four hours on it and they
allowed he1 80 cents. The manager
was not in when she called to get the
money, and she waited two hours be-
fore they said they would send it by
mail.
"My wife does not have to work,
but there are dozens of refined girls
(nostly Spanish) who do, and because
of lack of the English language are
handicapped, and these employers put
things over.
"Some are poor and must keep
themselves and children alive, and
must accept anything, almost, for
their work, sometimes % or 80 cents
for two hours work. What can be
done to remedy these situations and
sweatshop practices ?"
Mrs Edsen's answer, for the state,
follows:
at has been impossible to apply
this SIC week wage for home work.
ers who are working by piece.
Order liza.
"The industrial welfare commission
has ruled (see order No. liza in the
manufacturing industry, section 11)
that No employer shall give work to
women or minors to be performed
outside the place of business of said
employer except upon permit issued
by the industrial welfare commission.
ut has been most difficult for this
department to find the employers of
women for home work who do not
have regular shops in which women
are employed within the shop.
I'm fact, the only way that we get
the names of the employers giving
out home work, who do not have reg
ular shops, is when a complaint
comes to this department, which we
are always glad to get and investi-
gate.
81 assure you that we will immedi-
ately look into the question of home
work referred to by the Trentway
resident"
Honor" Instead of Bread.
This commission has done a lot of
investigations" in the last few years.
The benefit to the workers, however,
has always been next to nothing.
About 3 years ago, female movie
extras were granted a hearing con-