Imperial Valley press., 1942-06-12
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

The Supreme Court, in its hurry
to get away on that nice long
summer vacation, left behind 1t
three wage-hour law decisions that
will have the labor lawyers scratch
ing their heads until long after
the nine young men get back on
the lob in October. AS far as the
wage-hour division OF the Depart
ment of Labor is concerned, 1t has
been thrown into almost complete
confusion because, from its point
of view, two of the decisions SIM
ply can't be reconCiled
On June l. which was sup
posed to have been the final
decision day of the term, the
Supreme Court handed down
its opinion in the so-called
KirsChtauui case. The effect OF
the decision was to classify as
emplGyed i'm interstate COM
mercc, and therefore eligible
for wagc-hour law minimum
benefits. all maintenance men
like janitOrs. watchmcn, elevat-
or operators. building engineers
and messengers.
The general principle established
is that an employer doesn't have
to have physical contact with the
goods going into interstate COM
merce in order to be subject to the
laws provisions. For instance,
building owner whose tenants are
engaged in interstate commerce is
considered to be in interstate COM
merce himself.
COMES CONSIDERATION
The Kirschbaum DECISIONS i'm
plication are even greater:
Local utilities selling gas or
power to a manufacturer of goods
going into interstate commerce
would also be included. even though
none of the electric power or gas
sold by the utility went out of
the state
Employees hired by advertising
agencies would be covered if the
goods advertised-not necessarily
the ads themselves-croSSed state
lines.
And so on.
Those are just few of the
reasons for all the cOnsterna-
! ton which this Kirschbaum
case decision has thrown into
the ranks of employers who
had previously cons dered
themselves immune from the
minimum wage, overtime, and
40-hOur week provisions of the
wage hour law, now tremend-
Ously brOadened in its applica-
tion. So broadened, in fact, that
the only employers really ex-
empted were operators of ser
vice establishments" like barber
shops, cleaning and dyeing
establishments or restaurants.
All this was on June l, But the
Supreme Court had two more wage
and hour cases up its volumlnouS
black sleeve and so, to clear the
docket, it stayed in session an
other week, to June 8, doing over
time without extra compensation
itself to uand down opinions in
what will probably be known for
short as the Overnight and Belo
cases.
In the Overnight Motor Trans
portation Company case, the court
! held that the Wage-hour law pro-
vides for compulsory payment of
| timS anGIa-half for overtime,
whether the employe is making
well above the minimum wage set
| by the law, or not. The Overnight
company contended that compul-
Sorv time-and -a-half need not be
paid for overtime if the employees
regular pay amounted to as much
as or more than the minimum 40
cents an hour Tor 40 hours plus 60
cents for the overtime. Thus, if a
mans regular wage were $40 a
week, he wouldn't have to be paid
overtime if he worked a 50-hour
week, because 40 hours at 40 plus
| 10 hours at so cents adds up to
only S22. But the court said in
effect. no. the man should be paid
$40 for his first 40 hours, plus
overtime for 10 hours at the rate
of S1.50 an hour, or SIS This is
| l1lt wa Ostl Jllilt lido uouoiiJ bCCll
computed, so there was no great
surprise or shock in that.
COMES CONFUSION
But along comes the case of the
A. H. Belo Corporation, publishers
of the Dallas, Tex, News The Belo
corporation had taken the trouble
TO work out a contract with its
employees to do practically the
same thing the Overnight company
tried to do. without contract. I'm
der the Belo contract the en-
Dloyes were guaranteed certain
minimum salary, in excess of the
minimums of wage-hour law For
every hour the employe worked, he
was credited with one-siXtieth OF
his base pay. The one-siXtieth part
was purely optional and the frac-
ton could have been one-fiftieth,
or one-hundredth or anything.
Anyway, if the enploye
worked only 40 hours, he still
got his minimum base pay. Say
il was $50 a week. But if he
worked 50 hours or go hours,
he still got only $50, and his
overtime didn't begin till he
had worked more than 60
hours.
! Well, in the Belo decision, the
Supreme Court ruled this practice
okay. And if you can reconcile
that opinion with the Overnight
opinion, you belong on the Supreme