Evening star., 1953-01-17
Minimum Wuqe Board

AS the time draws near for the jan
uary 26 conference called by the Mini
mum Wage and Industrial Safety
Board of the District of Columbia for
consideration of an adequate minimum
wage for women and minors employed
in retail trade in the District, we take
the liberty Of writing you about the
board. We are a volunteer committee
of District citizens interested in the
boards work and in acquainting the
public with its aims, activities. and
problems.
The board started in 1887. It's three
members, representing employers, en-
ployes and the public, serve without
remuneration. Almost 200 unpaid per-
sons have served on 18 wage confer
ences of the board for the purpose of
recommending minimum-wage rates
and standards. The board has juris-
diction over women and minors en-
ployed in private industry in the Dis
trict. The number of persons covered
by it has increased to about IS 900 from
$4,000 in 1887. It's first minimum wage
order, in 1887. set SIT week as the
minimum wage for many industries
Today the figure is $50 for the majority
of occupations. The board has striven
to keep the minimum-wage rates
abreast with the cost of living.
Since 1887 the board has disclosed
nearly $3.50. 900 due employees who were
paid less than the minimum wages re-
quired in its orders. Restitution has
been made in the great majority of
cases. In each of its orders the board
has made an effort to bring about the
most efficient utilization of the work.
ers' time through guaranteed weekly
wage" for a specified range Of hours
representing the normal weekly hours
Of most of the employers covered by
the orders. This may be even more i'm
portant than minimum hourly wage
in assuring an adequate, stable income
to worker.
Not only workers but employers and
the public benefit from these activities
Of the board. The urge to engage in
cutthroat wage competition is reduced.
Wage exploitation by cheating, unfair
employers is discouraged. Systematic
orderly managerial arrangements for
working hours are stimulated-for in
stance, one District charitable institu-
ton, after regularizing It's employees
working hours in conformity with the
boards recommended system. found its
costs reduced through the resulting
greater efficiency of operation, and the
workers themselves were able to cease
their partial dependence on charity.
The committee believes that all
these things are very much to the good
The trouble is that they merely scratch
the surface of the problems OF mini
mum wage. Payrolls of thousands of
women, legally under the boards iuris-
diction, actually are not investigated
by the board. It is estimated, for in
stance, that only about one-f1fth of the
back wages due persons legally under
the boards Jurisdiction are ascertained
and the employers ordered to refund
them. This should be remedied. Again,
the board is handicapped by not hsv-
ing a wage-payment and wage-collec-
ton law-it needs authority IN this re-
Spect similar to that existing in almost
all States
Legislation-now, of course. defilnct
introduced in the last Congress
aimed to remedy the lack Of authority
to collect wages. Introduction and pas
sage Of similar legislation would con-
tribute to the boards effective opera
ton. But increasing the boards au-
thority is not the whole need. More
money is needed. Even many Of the
loyal supporters of minimum wage in
and out Of Congress do not realize what
slim pickings the board gets from the
general District budget. With the
boards present staff of only five in
vestigators and the three-year statute
Of limitations cramping their style it
is physically unable to carry on all the
studies. Investigations, and enforce
ment activity which all-out discharge
of it's functions would involve. Yet in
our opinion the additional appropria-
tion necessary to achieve such q result
would be small compared with the
benefits it would mean to employers,
employees, and the public. If four in
vestigators were added Immediately,
there would be at least reasonable
chance that the investigating staff
could cope with the problem of failure
to pay the legal wage to the workers
presently covered by the board.
Grace Fox,
Chairman, District Citizens Com
mittee on Minimum Wage.