Evening star., 1939-10-24
Wage and Hour Act


The Wage and Hour Act takes on a
new and more important aspect to-
day, with pay rates advancing and
the work week shortening in a dual
approach to the goal it ultimately
envisions-a forty-cent hourly mini
mum for labor and a forty-hour
week.
The changes will provide more Sc
we're test for the legislation than that
to which it was subjected in its first
year. AS the law went into operation
on October "a, 1888, it was estimated
that but 100000 of the 100000
workers covered were getting less
than the twenty-five cent minimum
wage then established Today, the
new thirty-cent rate is expected to
reach 100000, and pay rolls will be
enlarged further as overtime rates
become payable to 2,38O,0OO workers
after forty-two hours instead of
fortyfour hours as provided in the
expiring schedule
Business will feel this added impost,
although its specific effect is prob
lematical. Entailing higher operating
costs, the act, at the outset, ad-
mittedly created unemployment in
some lines, but those administering
1t contend that it did not force
industry to the drastic readjustments
that opponents had predicted This
showing, however, may have been
Influenced by the fact that business
has been making substantial gains
after touching an extremely low
level, and it cannot be accepted as an
accurate index for the future should
conditions be less favorable.
Another question mark concerns
the enforcement policy that is to be
followed hereafter with respect to
this legislation, for this, too, has Sc
rious implications for business. Up to
now, operation of the law has been
marked by a minimum of litigation.
This era of quiet has resulted in part
from adherence to a policy of giving
employers chance to become ad-
tusted to the law before initiating
a large-scale campaign against vio-
lators. 1t may also be assumed that
lenient policy has been dictated by
honest uncertainty on the part of
many employers as to just what the
law was intended to mean and the
inability or unwillingness of wage
hour officials to interpret satisfac-
torily the more ambiguous sections
of the statute. The appointment of
the new administrator, Lieutenant
Colonel Philip Fleming, however, is
generally accepted as heralding the
beginning of more vigorous enforce
ment, and under such circumstances,
some greatly needed changes should
be made in the act without delay.
High on the list should be the ex-
emption from the hour provisions of
white-collar workers making more
than 5000 a month, which was pro-
posed in the last Congress by for
mer Wage-Hour Administrator Ell
mer F. Andrews, and then allowed to
die when it became snarled in the
amendments backed by House bloc
which would have removed about
100000 workers in various cate
gories from the protection of the
law. This attempt to broaden the
scope of the amendments resulted
in the withdrawal of administration
support for the clarifying amend
ments, with the result that all of
these proposals were kept from COM
ing to a vote. They were reported
out of committee, however, and will
be before the House at the next
session.
There was no reason for and
probably no intention to include
upper bracket white-collar workers
in an act designed to remedy labor
conditions detrimental to the MAIN
tenance of the minimum standard of
living" and an amendment eliminat-
ing all doubt on that point should be
adopted along with others proposed
by the administration to relieve from
punishment innocent" purchasers
of goods produced in violation of the
law, and to clarity certain of its
terms.
Amendments of that nature, giving
common-s application to the
statute, will strengthen the law.