Evening star., 1939-10-21
Law
Needs Stream|ininq,
Officials Believe
Industry Committees
System Slows Operation
Of Statute, Is View
BY the Associated Press.

ny WIG hoooSldtco ACoos
After nearly a years experience
with the complicated mechanism Of
the wage-hour law, some officials
said today that it needed stream
lining as much as strict enforce
ment to make it more effective for
workers in the low-wage brackets.
They pointed particularly to those
provisions of the act which au-
thorize establishment of industry
committees to lift the minimum
wage floor as rapidly as possible
toward the 40-cent-an-hour goal
envisioned by Congress for all in
terstate industry when it approved
the law in 1888.
The Wage-hour statute, providing
general minimum wage advancing
gradually from Is to 40 cents an
hour, will be year old Tuesday.
In only two cases. textiles and
hosiery, has the industry committee
system resulted thus far in estab-
fishing minimum wages higher than
the general minimum.
Only Two Above Level.
With the general minimum NOV
ing up from Is to 80 cents an hour
on October "a for all covered in
dustries, only on the cases of tex
tiles and hosiery have industry
committee wage orders been promul-
gated to provide workers with base
pay rates above the 30-cent level.
In the hosiery industry a mini
mum pay rate Of 32la cents an hour
for 10000 employees in the seamless
branch and 40 cents an hour for
$4,000 in the full-fashioned branch
went into effect September 18. A
321a cent base pay rate for l75,000
textile industry workers becomes
effective october "a by special order.
AS an integral part of the Wage
Hour Act, Congress authorized ap-
pointment of industry committees
composed of management, labor and
the public to recommend minimum
pay rates up to the 40-cents-an-hour
level without waiting for the grad
uated scale to take effect.
Wage-hour experts contended.
however, that the duty imposed on
the committees by Congress to make
extensive surveys of the economic
and competitive conditions of an in
dustry before recommending a mini
mum wage had slowed down the
functions of the system. In some
instances, notably textiles, labor
was reported to have complained
about the delay in reaching recon-
mendation and putting it into effect.
The Textile Industry Committee
was appointed in September, 1893,
and its recommendation for a 3212-
cents-an-hour minimum wage be-
comes effective 13 months later.
Congress wrote into the act a re-
qulrement that no wage order be
issued which would substantially
curtail employment or give any
group within an industry a competi-
tive advantage.
Industries Under Survey.
In the first year of the acts
operation, industry committees have
surveyed wool textiles, millinery,
hats, apparel and shoes, in addition
to cotton textiles and hosiery. With
the exception of the latter two,
wage recommendations ranging
from 321a cents to 40 cents an hour
are awaiting final administrator
hearing before becoming effective
for 281 900 workers.
officials predicted that investi-
cations of economic and competitive
conditions in another dozen in
dustries would be made in the next
year.
The Wage-Hour Administration s
policy to now has been to avoid
establishment of industry commit
tees for either the high-wage or the
extremely low-wage industries. In
one, their services are considered
| unnecessary. and in the other, low
paid workers benefit automatic
from the graduated scale provided
by the law.