Evening star., 1946-03-29
10 10 1857 Pay
Boost Forecast
In HouseV Vote
| U. S. Workers Expect
| Support for Figure
| Urged by Committee
By Joseph Young


Supporters of the Federal pay
bill expressed confidence today
that the House would follow the
lead of its Civil Service Commit
tee In voting generous pay raises
for Government workers.
Both Chairman Randolph of the
committee and Representative Jack
son, Democrat, of Washington,
chairman Of the subcommittee which
held hearings on the bill, expressed
the belief the House would vote q
percentage increase about the same
as the 1875 per cent figure approved
yesterday by the committee. In any
event, most members of the COM
mittee yentured the opinion that the
House pay bill would not fall below
l6 per cent.
May Be Considered Wednesday.
Mr.. Randolph said he hoped to
bring the bill up for House con-
sideration next Wednesday, but
added that the date was tentative
and might be postponed by one of
many factors.
The strategy of pay bill supporters
is to bring the measure up for House
action after the postal pay bill has
been disposed Of. Present plans call
for the Post Office measure to come
before the House Tuesday. Post
Office employees have considerable
influence in Congress and pay bill
hackers feel that if the House passes
the s400 wage increases for these
workers, as recommended by the
House Post Office and Post Roads
Committee, it can hardly deny liberal
pay raises to classified Federal en-
.ployes.
14-to-3 Support.
A heartening factor to pay bill
supporters was the lop-sided 14-to-3
vote by which the committee ap-
proved the 1875 per cent figure.
Three Republicans joined II Demo-
Gratis in voting for the amount.
This overwhelming committee ap-
proyal was seen to augur we'll for
the measure when it reaches the
House floor.
Both Mr.. Randolph and Mr.. jack
son feel the House will not only pass
a much more liberal bill than the
II per cent wage increase passed
by the Senate, but also believe that
the House version will be upheld
substantially when Senate and
House conferees meet on the final
version Of the bill.
The committee yesterday substan-
TALLY revised the measure reported
out last week by its subcommit-
tee. However, it upheld the sub
committees action in setting July
l as the effective date.
Breaks Through Ceiling.
One of the features of the COM
mittee's bill is a provision for the
''breakthrough" of the present sl0,-
900 Federal ceiling. This means
that Government officials and pro-
fessional men in top bracket jobs,
as well as 5,000-a-year cabinet
members, would be able to get the
full benefit of the 1875 per cent
wage increase provided in the COM
mittee bill.
For example, under the present
ceiling the head of a Federal bu-
reau who earns $1,000 a year would
get no more than $4,000, no matter
how much the percentage amount
Of the raise. But the committees
provision would allow him to get
the full benefit of the present 1875
per cent bill, as well as anything
denied him because of the wage
ceiling when last July's overall 15o
per cent pay act was passed.
Cabinet officers $4,000 salaries
also would be raised by the commit
tees bill to $4,000. The committee
excluded legislative and judicial
official from the $4,000 breaks
through" ceiling provision, since leg
lislation on this subject is pending
in Congress.
Eliminates New Grades.
In working out this formula for
top-fight Government personnel,
the committee wiped out the pro-
vision of its subcommittee estab-
fishing two new civil service grades
for Federal scientists, engineers
and technicians to bring their pay
up to $4,000 year.
Mr.. Randolph said the committee
thought this would discriminate
against other professional men in
the Government. He pointed out
that under the committees new pro-
vision, scientists as we'll as admin
istrative and other professional
people will be able to get salaries
as high as $11,600.
The following table shows how
some of the present salary grades
would fare under the 1875 per cent
committee measure.
Present Under Increase over