Evening star., 1944-12-17

|
ter because it has more to spend. The
increased income of the family, in a
great many instances, is not limited to
the Is per cent rise in the basic wage
rate. 1t is boosted by longer work
week, by overtime pay, by special wage
increases approved by the War Labor
Board for special working conditions, by
the fact that more members of the
family have jobs.
Since 1889, Meany pointed out, the
average wage earner's income has in
creased about So per cent, but the
straight-time wage rate, he added, on
which the worker must depend for
long-term progress has increased less
than the rise in living costs"
"The average American nonfarm
worker" he asserted, actually receives
less real buying power for his straight
time hour of work today than he did
before the war" Quoting Department of
Commerce figures, he said straight-time
hourly real" earnings of all nonfarm
workers have declined from IS cents in
1910 to so cents in 1914.
War conditions were recognized by
Meany as a justified restriction on the
claims of labor for full increase which
might have been justified by the in
crease in productivity.
Sees Threat to Labor.
I'VE have not asked for increased pay
to keep pace with the enormous in
creases in productivity in war indus
tries" Meany said. I'VE have willingly
contributed this to the war effort, and
it has amounted to many billions Of
dollars. The Government has profited
by more work done for the same costs
and through great reductions in costs
We have not asked for wage increases to
compensate for the substantial rises in
productivity which have reduced unit
labor costs in civilian industries
However, he saw dangerous threat
to labor in the present application of
the freeze of wage rates resulting from
the Little Steel formula, the main
tenance of which seemed to be sup
ported by the finding of Chairman
Davis and the majority of his COM
mittee
The contention of labor is that when
an index figure compiled in the manner
of that of the Bureau of Labor Sta
tistics is used as measure Of the cost
of living and as decisive factor in de-
terming whether wage increases are
justified no account is taken of prog
reSs, of improved standards of living, of
special war conditions which may carry
over to peace time. Labors protest is
in part against attaching determining
weight in future wage negotiations to
this fixed factor.
The labor members, however, in the
course of the committees study and in
their comment on the majority's con-
clusions, raised the further objection
that the BIS index does not adequately
recognize all the elements now con-
tributing to rising living costs.
Ten Items Listed.
Ten items are listed by the labor
living costs, some of which they think
are not properly reflected in the index.
They are:
l. Higher dollars and cents prices.
2. Quality deterioration.
3. Forced trading up.
4. Disappearance of low-priced items.
5. Decline in special weekend sales
6. Greater increase in restaurant prices
than in the prices of food consumed at
home.
7. Greater increase in prices of all
foods than in the prices of the 81 sam
pie foods in the BIS index.
8. Forced shifts to higher priced
stores.
9. Greater increase in rents for board
ing house rooms, furnished dwellings,
trailers, ETC., than in the rents of un-
furnished houses.
10. Enforced purchase of homes and
forced renting of higher priced houses
due to shortage of low-cost houses for
rent.
Chairman Davis and his industry as
sociates defend the BIS index as accu-
rately registering the actual markup of
prices of the commodities and services
included in the basket This was
not seriously questioned by the labor
members except as to the range of
item, which they thought was too mar
row. 1t was pointed out in the re:
port, however, that this base covered
10 per cent Of all the goods and serv-
ices utilized by $4,000 urban families
with average annual income of 81 ,534
as ascertained by survey from 1884
to 1886. BY this survey, the report said,
"a typical standard workingman's an
nual family budget of goods and serv-
ices was established
Difficult Questions.
Quality deterioration, forced trading
up and disappearance of low-priced
items presented difficult question to
the committee. There was no doubt
that in many cases prices charged for
inferior qualities are as high as or
higher than the former prices of bet
ter grades.
The report admitted that there was
hidden increase in living costs,
largely accounted for by these three
items. 1t concluded that on this &C
count at least three or four percentage
points should be added to the BIS
index.
After detailed analysis Of the other
elements named by the labor members,
and with the benefit of studies by ex-
pert statisticians, the committee ma
jority concluded that these had not
substantially contributed to rising liv-
ing costs in anv wav not fully reflected