Montana labor news., 1932-12-08
Miss Mary Anderson, Direc-
tor u. S. Women's Bu-
reau, Condo m Low
Wages Paid 0 e n.

OHlO.-Irenchant
criticism of employers for reducing
the wages of working women below
decent living standards was voiced
by Miss Mary Anderson, director
of the Women's Bureau Of the U. S.
Department Of Labor, in an address
to the delegates of the annual con-
v%ention of the American Federation
of Labor here.
Miss Anderson also administered
a deserved rebuke to low wage m
ployers who continue to howl about
the necessity for further wage re-
auctions because of the decrease in
the cost of living. She pointed out
that while during the last two years
the cost of living has fallen about
Is per cent, employers have driven
wages down 81 per cent.
"In the Women's Bureau we are
gathering information with regard
to the employment of women" Miss
Anderson said. eve have found that
women in industry have increased
enormously in the last decade. Two
million and a half more women were
employed in 1880 than were en-
ployed in 1920.
Low Wages Paid Women Workers.
1.-THE wages given to women are
not nearly as high as would be given
to men if they were employed to
that extent. Women are getting
from one-third to one-half less wages
than men are getting for practically
the same kind of work.
Nov, that is not the fault of
either the women or the men. The
women do not want to work for
three, four, five and six dollars a
week, as they are doing today. They
have to work, they have to earn a
living, not only for themselves but
for dependents, and for that reason
they have to have a job. And they
have to take whatever they can
get because they are the minority
in the labor movement. / don't mean
in the trade union movement, but
they are the minority that are get
ting the jobs.
Employers Hire Cheapest Labor.
"You will remember, | know, that
the competing minority at one time
were the immigrants. | was one
Of those myself. The immigrants
had to take whatever they could get.
"Today that is not so. Today it
is the in the labor market,
and now we are beginning to have
the Negro women and the Negro
men in the labor market who are
obliged to take the jobs at even low
er wages than the women are paid,
Living Cost Cut is Per Cent; Wages
81 Per Cent.
"In the last two years of depres-
sion the cost of living has gone
down about 10 per cent. Employ
ment has gone down 33 per cent,
and wages have gone down 81 per
cent.
"Those of the population and en-
ployers who are saying that the
people ought to work cheaper be-
cause the cost of living has gone
down so tremendously do not realize,
or perhaps do not face the question
that wages have gone down almost
three times as much as the cost of
living has gone down.
Shorter Hours, Higher Pay.
''The whole wage question is very
p~recarious, and, as President Green
said in his stirring talk, if we can
not raise the wages so that we can
get purchasing power in this land of
ours, we are not going to make a
dent in the depression.
"Tne shorter work week and better
wages, real purchasing power among
the workers-because, after all, they
are the large majority-are the car
dinal things that will have to &c
hand in hand if we are to emerge
from the depression we are in now
while, this colossal debt burden, in
creased by the deflation process.
continues to strangle the capitalistit