Evening star., 1937-10-01
LIVING COST RISE
DATAG|vENBOARD
Minimum Wage Body Hears
u. S. Aide on Increases
In Several Items.

Evidence showing that the cost Of
living generally has risen in the past
three months has been placed before
the District Minimum Wage Board
BY q spokesman for the Department
OF Labor. at the request of employees
In the retail trade industry of Wash
1ngton.
s Without counting changes that may
have taken place in the cost Of rent
the increase for certain other items
was figured at IL per cent, accord
Ing to data supplied to the board last
night by DR.. Faith Williams, chief Of
the Cost of Living Division OF the
Bureau of Labor Statistics
DR.. Williams declared that there
Is definitely higher cost of living
for unattached persons than that for
family groups. This is a major point
in the contest over the budget require
ments for retail clerks, in the discus
sions of the Wage Board Conference
Committee, which soon will recon-
mend what should be the minimum
wage to be fixed for women retail
clerks.
Data submitted last week by en-
ployer representatives showed that the
general cost of living had declined
20 per cent since 1919, when former
wage board fixed the minimum wage
for the clerks at $3.50 per week.
Explains Cost Differences.
Worker spokesmen on the conference
called DR.. Williams at last nights
meeting to answer this question. She
said that a Labor Department survey
of the cost Of living of certain Federal
employees, in December, 1886, showed a
difference of more than 2 per cent
between the cost of living index for
single individuals and those for FAM
lilies. She said it had been found
that the index for cost of food pur-
chased in restaurants and cafeterias
was per cent greater, last December,
than the index for comparable family
groups.
AS to current increases in prices, DR..
Williams said: That food shows an
increase of six-tenths of I per cent
since June; clothing, an increase Of
81 per cent; fuel and light, 2.3 per
cent; housefurnishing goods, "A per
cent, and miscellaneous items IL. Not
counting on changes which may show
up in rents, she said the rise in the
other items would amount to IL
per cent.
Workers Eating More.
Studies in New York, she said,
showed that consumption of milk had
increased there by 25 per cent, since
1919, and that consumption of fruits
and vegetables by 100 per cent. She
concluded that the modern worker is
eating more food than in the postwar
period.
Acting as agent for employer mem
bers of the conference group, w. H.
Press, assistant secretary of the Board
Of Trade, submitted additional data to
, support the claim of the employer
: spokesmen that rooms are available
(. for rent by the clerks for SO per week,
and that room and board are available
at So per week. The workers spokes-
men have claimed that SIS is the mini
mum price for rooms that are suitable
to protect the health and morals of
the clerks.
Press stated that seven investigators
obtained from the Public Employment
Service investigated 1877 rooming resi-
dences, found that 80 Of these were
satisfactory and that most could be
. rented for So week, with some costing
. somewhat more and others somewhat
I less. From other data, the trade body
had gathered. he estimated there
would be 1882 such rooms.