Imperial Valley press. (El Centro, Calif.) 1907-current, 1943-01-03
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

Who can get an increase in wages
under the governments wartime
wage Sterilization policy?
The answer is contained in the
War Labor Boards General ORDER
No. 5, setting forth the classes oil
individual employees whose wages
may be raised without approval
and even without appeal to VILE.
Such increases can be made auto
maticallv by the employer If they
follow a fixed wage agreement pol
icy, such as 4 Union labor contract
or a company customary practice
/ established prior to October ), l942.
! The one important restriction on all
such automatic increases is that
! they must not be used by the en-
ployer as the basis for a request
that the price ceiling be raised on
the goods he manufacturers OF the
services he performs.
| IN general there are five types
of employees who may be given
these automatic increases without
government approval:
|. Individual promotions or re-
/ classifications. If you arc pro-
NOTED or transferred from a job
paying $50 week to one custo-
marily paying S45, you're entitled
to the S45. If you have been 40
cent an hour messenger boy or file
clerk and you are promoted to
Stenographic work which has GUS
tomarily been paid for at the rate
of 30 cents an hour, the boss can
give YOU the extra dime without
asking the government.
RAISES FOR MERIT
,. Individual merit increases
within established rate ranges Sup
posing you are hired to sell gro
ceries at the going rate of $18 a
week. But by diligent application,
at the end of six months or year,
you have proved so handy and you
have such a winning smile that
the customers start asking to be
waited on by you. You're good.
The boss wants to reward you and
raise your pay to 500. He can do it
provided he has other clerks in
the store doing the same work
you're doing and getting $40 or
more-clerks who began at $l8 just
as you did.
s. Operation of an established |
plan of wage increases based on
length of service. Suppose the Big
Store has a customary and fixed |
schedule of pay. Beginners, Sl7.50 |
a week, raised to $40 after one
years service. $3.50 after two years,
S25 after three years, $50 after four
years. S35 after five years. Those
customary length-of service raises |
can still be made, even though there
is no written agreement.
4. Increased productivity under
piece-work or incentive plan. You
work in a ginmick factory It's
piece-work shop. The established
rate for making gimmicks is 10
cents dozen. It has always taken
you about minute to make gim-
mick, so you have been averaging
$50 cents an hour or S4 day. But
along comes the war. The demand
for gimmicks is terrific. You get
all patriotic and start working as
YOU never worked before. First
thing you know, you're turning out
gimmick in IS seconds. That
makes you 80 cents an hour, or
S6.4O a day. You're entitled to it
and no official permission from the
government is necessary.
). Opera ton of an apprentice or
training system. Any place there
is an established system whereby
beginners come into q shop to learn
q trade at a beginners wage, then
graduate to j0urneymans wage
scale when the apprenticeship is
ever, and 60 right on with the bus
| mess as usual.
Now it might seem that there are
a number of loopholes in this reg
ulation which would permit a lot
of chiseling on the part of en-
ployers who want to hold their labor
forces together by paying better
wages. But the catch is that every
increase granted under this order
must be in accordance with estab-
liShed custom for that particular
employer. It is a custom that must
have been in effect on October 3,
1912, for wages. and october q,
1912, for salaries under $4,000 year