Evening star., 1937-05-30
Minimum Wage
Continued From First Paee)

surveyed from $1,000 to 1885, the
| bureau said, adding:
Best weekly earnings were in beauty
shops, the smallest industries investi-
! gated, as half the women in BEAUTY
| shops in department stores earned
Sl9.65 or more, and half those In
other beauty shops earned sl78O or
more. Ready-to-we stores followed
with a median of $3.50, while DEPART
ment stores, which employed the
largest number Of women of any In
dustry covered, had a median of
$3.50. and for limited price stores
the figure was $3.50. Wages were
lower in laundries, shown by a median
OF $1,000. In dry-cleaning plants the
medlan was $3.50, and in manufactur-
ing it was sl335.
For the office workers employed in
the industries surveyed, who are
treated as group in the report, the
median was sl6.65.
Cash wages were low in hotels
and restaurants, but about 7 per cent
OF the hotel lodging workers and more
than nlne-tenthS of all restaurant
workers had their earnings supple
mented by meals. For this reason
thelr earnings are not comparable to
those in other industries. The median
weeks wage Of restaurant women was
$9.45 without meal allowance. while
in hotel lodging departments the
median, also without such allowance,
was $l150.
"A comparison of current earnings
with the rates in force prior to the
Supreme Courts invalidation Of the
District of Columbia law in 1923 shows
that for representative week this
Spring 30.5 per cent OF the women
IN ready-to-wear stores and as per
cent OF those in department stores
earned less than the former minimum
rate Of $3.50 for the mercantile in
dustry and 100 per cent in limited
price stores earned less than this
amount.
Allowances Not Correlated.
Approximately 80 per cent in
hotels and restaurants, which also
had a $3.50 rate, had actual cash
wages in 1887 below the minimum set
by the board, but the boards order
allowed deductions from The minimum
wage for meals or lodging furnished
by the employer. The extent Of such
wage supplements was not correlated
with earnings in the present study.
"Seven-tenths of the women in
dry-cleaning plants and almost nine
tenths in laundries earned less than
SIS, the minimum rate set for these
industries. No rate was established
for manufacturing and beauty shops
under the law in the past"
Medan hourly earnings ranged from
Is cents in laundries to "A cents in
ready-to-Wear stores. Medians above
30 cents were found in department
stores, for which a figure of 36.7 cents
was quoted, and in manufacturing
"a cents. In dry-cleaning plants it
was put at 29.2, and in limited-price
stores, 26 cents.
LESS than one-tenth of the women
in stores and dry-cleaning plants had
hourly earnings below rs cents, but
over tenth in factories and fourth
in laundries had such earnings" the
report concluded.
On the subject Of hours, it said:
"Three-flfths of the women in
limited-price stores worked the COM
paratively long week Of 48 hours, and
almost nine-tenths in department
stores and SO per cent in ready-to-wear
shops worked IS hours. Other in
dustries in which the majority Of
women worked more than 40 hours
were laundries with so per cent, dry
cleaners with 73 per cent, and the
office workers in the various industries
with 86 per cent. Manufacturing was
the only industry in which less than
half of the women al per cent?
worked over 40 hours.
In hotels and restaurants the
usual daily hours Of actual work were
eight or less; almost none Of the
women had q work day Of more than
eight hours. In restaurants the spread
OF hours, from beginning work in the
morning to quitting at night, includ-
ing the intervals when the worker
was tree. Was vsey much hneer. tho