Evening star., 1945-09-29

nourS, claiming Loweh Meilett
they need such wages to live. En-
ployers argue that this means
considerable increase in the cost O
production and will make necessar,
an increase in prices
The other phase Of the disput,
presents a broader issue. Labor
leaders seem to be coming more ane
more into agreement on a new
economic philosophy for America
Americas S economic salvation, they
assert, requires us to become an out.
and-out high wage country. That i.
what they are out to achieve. TIL,
basis of their argument is that high
wages mean high purchasing power
which in turn means prosperity fol
business and agriculture.
Against this background, the
Senate Committee on Education anc
Labor has been holding hearings or
bill. backed by President Truman
to raise the national minimum wage
from 40 cents an hour to IS cents
an hour Immediately and to rs cents
an hour within two years.
Living Costs Estimated.
One of the witnesses heard was
A. F. Hinrichs, acting commissioner
of labor statistics in the Labor De-
partment. He gave the committee
certain cold figures on life in Amer
lea Forty cents an hour. he said
might yield as much as $500 year
But the lowest-cost family budget
that had been prepared, even in the
desperate days of the WPA, he said
was one of 1903 a year.
At the present time, he said, it is
q matter of expert opinion" that
a family cannot attain reasonably
adequate minimum standard of liv-
ing at a wage of Is cents an hour.
or $500 a year. The average break
even" point for families of two or
more persons in 1914 was $3.50
after paying income taxes, he said.
AS for the 65-cent minimum, he
said, only 20 per cent of America S
workers make less than that now.
He expressed the belief that bring
ing workers now getting less than
65 cents up to that figure would add
little to the country's total labor
cost. In only three industries would
the added cost be more than S per
cent, he said, the industries being
tobacco, humber and textiles. In this
connection. he presented Census
Bureau reports to show the rela-
lively small portion of total costs
that are chargeable to labor in most
industries The last manufactures
census, that of 1899, gave the total
value of tobacco products as 81 800
100000; the total of the industry's
wages as $50 1000 000-or roughly
per cent of the total value. In tex
tiles and lumber the cost of wages,
he said, was about Is per cent.
Steelworkers Make Survey.
The problem of the worker has
been stated in somewhat more hu-
man terms by the United Steel
workers. This organization-whose
figures may or may not be subject
to challenge-offers as the result of
q study Of the lives of workers in
the Braddock (Pa) steel mills, this
statement:
The typical or averager Brad
dock steel worker is As years old
with II years of continuous service,
and has a family consisting of a
wife and one dependent. The fam
ily's total income was $5660 a week
after taxes, II per cent being con-
tributed in wages by other members
of the family and per cent coming
from other income, mainly from
boarders or roomers.
Weekly family expenditures were
$57.01 and on his own earnings
s45.92 a week after taxes the
average Braddock steelworker went
in the red by S110 a week. Even