Evening star., 1938-01-04
WAGE BOARD COOL
TO CHALLENGE ON
MERGED HEARINGS
Fails to Upset Plan of BIan.
ket Policy for Seven.
teen Groups.
PROCEDURE PROTESTED
BY BUILDING OWNERS
Real Estate Group Charges No
Representation on Committee
Speeding Up Scale Fixing.

Speeding Up Scale Fixing.
Despite a challenge to the legality
Of its procedure in blanketing various
occupations to speed up the determi-
nation Of the lowest living wages for
Washington's women workers, the
Minimum Wage Board gave no indica-
tion today that it would yield to de-
mands for separate conferences in the
case of each occupation or industry
The challenge and demands were
made late yesterday at public hear
ing before the board by spokesmen of
the building owners, real estate firms.
boarding and rooming houses and q
few other related businesses.
Their protests were aimed at the
procedure under which conference
committee of the board is going about
the business OF fixing the wage for
employees in hotels, restaurants and
"allied industries" Altogether, II
different classifications of occupations
and industries are being considered in
this connection.
Claim Representation Lacking.
Rufus 8. Lusk, secretary OF the
Building Owners and Managers Asso-
citation, and Charles j. Rush, execu-
tive secretary Of the Washington Real
Estate Board, were the principal
spokesmen for the so or more attend
ing the hearing With others, they
YNrntnrfnA ssyr,ttk,
sentatlon" on the conference commit
tee. which is composed of II members
representing the public, the employers
and the employees.
The two principal spokesmen con-
tended furthermore that section 10 Of
the Minimum Wage Act is quite clear
in its intention.
1T means" said Mr.. Lusk, "that the
board shall consider wages by each
occupation, one at time, and not by
II all at once as it is endeavoring to
do now"
The three members of the board,
Mrs. William Kittle, chairman; Arthur
Schoenthal, representative for the en-
ployes, and Claude Woodward for the
employers withheld decision. It was
apparent from their defense of the
boards procedure that it will decline
to conduct separate hearings for any
one OF the II occupations.
Seek Speed on Rates.
Repeatedly, individual members of
the board contended it was quite i'm
possible to conduct separate confer
ences for each industry because of
the urgency of fixing wage scales as
speedily as possible. They also con-
tended that the personnel of the con-
ference under question would provide
equal opportunity for fair considera-
ton"
Mr.. Lusk said the buildings and
apartment houses allied with his asso-
citation represent an industry which
pays almost s4,O00,oO0 in real estate
taxes alone, and which employs about
5000 service" women,
If too-high minimum wage is
set for our women workers, most of
whom do char work. many such won-
en- will Immediately lose their jobs
and be replaced by men," he said.
Our industry cannot afford to pay
SIT week, particularly for part-time
/ workers"
Mrs. Klttle suggested that there is
no definite assurance that the wage
would be SIT week.
Threaten to Hire Men.
Spokesman for several EMPLOYERS
threatened to employ men in the place
of charwomen if the latter were in
cluded in the minimum wage scale.
Board officials recalled afterward that
| the same threat" had been made by
some retail trade spokesmen when the
board was considering the basic wage
to be fixed for retail trade clerks.
A. Julian Brylawski of the Warner
Bros. realty division insisted that men
are better housekeepers than the ell
derly women who do char work. He
added that many of the charwomen
had been allowed to retain their jobs
because they had been employed so
long their employers did not want to
let them CO.
Board officials gave no indication
that they would eliminate charwomen
from the classifications OF workers now
considered for the minimum wage
The Minimum Wage Board an
nounced after the session that it had
obtained information that day from
various Government departments in
dicating that the wages of charwomen
in Government buildings averaged
from minimum Of $1,000 per year
and some received $1,140."
If the policy demanded at the hear
ing is carried out there would possibly
be separate conferences to determine
the problems presented in each Of the
following classifications:
Restaurants, lunch counters, cafe
terias; catering, banquet or box lunch
services; curb services; boarding
houses offering meals for sale to four
or more persons; all other establish
ments offering meals; hotels, apart
ment houses, rooming houses, automo-
bile camps, clubs, hospitals, private
schools, colleges, any other establish
ments offering rooms for rent and
women engaged in the care and serv-
icing Of Office buildings, retail stores
and similar establishments.