Evening star., 1943-08-04
Real Wuqe Picture

report on the wages actually earned
by nonfarm workers, which was pub
liShed in yesterdays Star, throws a
significant light on the demand from
| organized labor that the Little Steel
| formula be junked unless prices are
rolled back to the levels of last
September.
The report is significant for two
reasons. First, because it shows that
there is no economic justification for
this labor demand. And second, be-
cause it indicates that the Govern
ment for the first time Is preparing
to deal with this demand on factual
rather than an emotional basis.
Labor spokesmen, particularly
those representing employees in the
mining and manufacturing indus
tries, have been asking the country
to believe that the workers are in
acute economic distress as a result
of the advance in prices since wages
were Stabilized" But the OPA re-
port shows that this is far from being
the fact. Since January, 1941. the
period covered by the Little Steel
formula, the actual earnings of
manufacturing workers have in
creased % per cent after deductions
are made for the rise in living costs.
In other words, these workers have
received an increase in purchasing
power of % per cent over and above
the higher cost of living. For the
mining industry the increase in
actual earnings, after deductions for
higher living costs, is 27.2 per cent,
and in the construction industry the
increase stands at Sc per cent.
In the case of these workers, and it
is from their spokesmen that the
greatest pressure for abandonment
of the Little Steel formula is coming,
the facts show that in terms of pur-
chasing power they are better off
than at the beginning of the war.
This conclusion is based, of course,
on their actual earnings as distin-
guished from their hourly rates of
pay. The OPA figures include in
creases in basic rates, overtime pay,
shifts to higher-paying industries
in fact, everything that contributes
to the total amount of money that
the worker receives in his pay enve-
lope. The labor leaders prefer to
ignore such things as overtime paw,
dealing only with the increases in
hourly rates. And, until the compi-
lation OF this report, similar ten
dency was evident in the Govern
ment's approach to the problem.
But the Little Steel formula and
the cost of living control program
are products of a wartime battle
against imitation. And from the
inflationary standpoint it is not pos
sible to draw line between straight
time pay and overtime pay which
excludes the latter from any consid-
Grafton. The record shows that the
workers in the categories mentioned
are great deal better off economi-
cally now than they were at the
beginning of the war, and, this being
the case, it is strange indeed to find
them in the forefront of the drive to
break down the ne-too-stable
safeguards against imitation which
nave been erected by the Govern
ment.
In time OF war a lowered standard
OF living is to be expected. But If it
Is the objective of the administration
to keep as many people as possible
abreast of rising living costs, the
OPA report reveals the direction in
which this effort should be pointed
After deductions for the higher cost
OF living, the actual earnings of
transportation and public utility
workers are down 8 per cent, those
OF trade employees are down 3.6 per
cent, Government earnings are down
lO.3 per cent and there has been a
81 per cent decline in finance. 1t is
the workers in these categories who
nave just claim for relief if it is the
Governments purpose to maintain
intact the purchasing power of all
wage earnerS.