The daily worker., 1933-07-05
By LABOR RESEARCH ASSN.

The tentative code agreed upon by
representatives of $500 leading de-
partment, dry goods and speciality
stores now awaiting government OK,
under the National Industrial Recov-
cry Act, offers another test as to
whose interests the Roosevelt law
will serve.
Minimum weekly wage scales pro-
posea under this code would divide
retail workers into three categories
as follows: Cd experienced male
workers; co experienced women
workers; and 90 apprentices or ''ir1-
experienced help under 18 years of
age" In cities of a million or more,
minimum weekly wages for these
three classes will be $18, ~ and $l1,
respectively. In cities les than
million, but over 250,00o, rates would
be SIS, $11 and $40, respectively. In
the rest Of the country n1inimums
would be set at $12, $40 and SO.
What does all this mean to the
thousands of salesgirls, clerks, CASH
lers, wrappers and other retail store
workers. affected by this code? 1t
means, first of all, direct wage cut
for many. In California, for ex-
ample, the state law provides for a
minimum weekly wage of SIG for
women. But under the proposed
code, the employers, fully protected
by the federal government, would be
able to cut wages to as low as SO
week. AS a matter of fact, Califor-
MIA store owners even now resort to
giving experienced workers the status
of inexperienced help" in order to
pay as little in wages as possible.
The new code would encourage such
practices on a wholesale and nation
wide scale.
According to the Illinois Depart
ment of Labor, average weekly earn
ings in Illinois department stores on
April Is, 1888, amounted to $14.35-
In itself a ridiculously low wage.
Terms of the retail code, however,
provide that even in Chicago, whose
size places it in the highest category,
women workers could be cut down to
S11 and $12, and elsewhere in Illinois
to as little as SO for a 48-hour week.
For the sake of al, sinent we shall
take an example from the most IA
vored group" i. E., male clerk,
whose S18 week means exactly 3712
cents an hour. This compares un-
favorably with As cents an hour
which General Johnson, chief recoy-
cry act administrator, claimed as the
administration aim for unskilled la
Dor. On the basis of the 48-hour
week which is demanded by the en-
ployers, the retail clerk would be
making $3.50 less weekly than an un-
skilled laborer working the same
number of hours. But even this does
not give true picture of how the
code would operate, for most of those
affected will have earnings little
more than half of the highest mini
mum, the s18 scale.
For Minimum Subsistence.
The present codes are much below
even the minimum wage schedules
recommended by conservative state
bodies Thus state commission de-
clared for a $17.20 a week minimum
wage for women in Colorado after an
Investigation several years ago. Few,
II any women workers coming under
the code in Colorado would be able
to make anything near the essential
minimum set even by such a con-
servatiYe body as this state commits
sion.
The minimum has been little more
than a minimum of subsistence"
wrote j. A. Estey in his book, The
Labor Problem, after reviewing mini
mum wage attempts in the United
States. Indeed the present policy of
retail employers is to drive wages
down to a subsistence-or less than
subSistence-levels.
The code as drafted by the en-
ployers is, in fact, nothing more than
an attempt to give federal sanction
and legalization of present starvation
wage levels enforced upon the work.
ers after four years of crisis. 1t is, in
fact, a step back to retail wage stand
ards of 1914 and 1915.
No wonder then that S. Klein, New
York City department store owner
and notorious labor sweater, could
say of the code, II am thoroughly in
accord. :" Or that Sol Starr of
Oppenheim, Collins 81 Co., in the
same city, exclaimed, II like the code
very much. There is no hardship in
it for us ii. e., the bosses-LR.A0.
The minimum wages are fair to U.s."
Dozens OF other such wholehearted
endorsements and testimonials of