Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-11-24
Work Of Fixing Army
Housing Pay Scale PuI
On Labor Department
Task, Not So Greet
In Large Cities, Grows
In More Remote Areas

Responsibility for fixing pre-
vailing minimum wage scales on
which estimates are set for the
Governments huge soldier-housing
programs in camps and canton
ments has been placed on the Labor
Department, it was explained yester-
day by officials who outlined the
methods used to reach the estimates.
Contractors profits in most cases
are computed in advance from an
estimate of the total costs. Con-
sequently, they know exactly what
they will make on each job, but
are under no compulsion to keep
the total cost within the limits of
the estimate, either as to materials
or labor. Disagreement over the
payment of time and half for
overtime on this score led to the
recent temporary strike at Fort
Meade.
The Labor Department outlined
yesterday the procedure under
which its experts determine the
minimum wage scales used in the
estimates.
Sometimes Job Is Complicated.
In large cities, and In well-pop-
ulated centers, where there is q
large amount of construction. par
ticularly Of substantially sized build
ings or projects. the problem is not
so difficult. But in the deep country,
far from big cities and big construc-
ton jobs, the question of finding
the prevailing minimum wage
scale" is more complicated.
Authority for this responsibility
of the Labor Department is the
Davis-Bacon Act, which provides
that such a scale be determined
for ''laborers and mechanics" en-
gagged in actual construction work
on the site. The scale, however,
does not apply to many persons,
such as cooks, waterboys, employees
of the contractor and certain others.
The geographical areas named In
the Davis-Bacon Act as the basis
for determining the prevailing wage
for a locality are city. town or
civil subdivision of State"
Union Scale Helpful Factor.
While the wages paid to organized
labor are not always the basis for
determining the prevailing mini
mum wage in a locality, oficials say
that the organized labor scale is by
far the most helpful of any of the
factors involved, because OF its wide
spread operation.
Investigators are sent into the
field by the Department of Labor,
to look into the situation. Among
the first places they 60 to are the
central bodies Of organized labor. Of
the building industries. Investigators
determine how thoroughly the con-
struction industry of an area is
operated by workmen from the ranks
of organized labor Some cities are
virtually 100 per cent organized, 1t
is explained, while in some parts
of the back country, far from cities.
there is little organized labor ap-
parent.
Investigators try to determine
what wages are paid for work SINH
lar to that which is to be constructed
in the new Government job. They
try to find out the wage paid to
the majority" of each type of craft
on similar work.
Commercial Work Checked.
The experts say they do not con-
slider so much the scale paid for
housebuilding, but look rather to
wages paid for construction of stores,
commercial buildings and larger
projects, such as theaters, Federal
buildings and P. w. A. projects.
These are more comparable to a
tantonment. Generally speaking the
wages paid for such large projects
usually are slightly higher than the
wages paid for housebuilding, they
say.
Geographical jurisdiction of or
ganized labor also is taken into con-
sideration. For instance. it was dis
covered that at Fort Meade. Md.
most of the crafts engaged in the
building industry are under juris-
diction Of the Baltimore area of or
ganized labor. At least one of the
crafts in construction at Fort Meade
was said to have its jurisdictional
status in the District of Columbia.
So some of the scale adopted at
Fort Meade was said to have fol-
lowed the payroll figures in Balti-
more and part of it was said = have
followed the figures in Washington.
The farther afield the job goes,
the farther the experts have to 70
to find a basis for the prevailing
wage scale. They draw an imag-
mary circle around the projected
camp out in the sticks" They
begin to look for substantial con-
struction projects, of some size COM
parable to the proposed camp. May
be it will be a construction project
of some magnitude, maybe a tele-
phone company plant, or a big P.
w. A. school. The experts try to
avoid road construction and sewer
construction scales, as they are on
somewhat different basis. They
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