ard with respect to its own employees which it would seek to impose on other employers throughout the city. Can the city require a fair minimum wage standard without itself adhering to that same fair minimum wage standard? We therefore would ask that the exemption be looked at again. Senator MORSE. Mr. McIntyre, counsel for the committee, has just informed me that it is his understanding that those inequities have been corrected and without taking further time tonight to go into it, I will ask the appropriate officials of the District of Columbia to check into the matter and supply the record with a memorandum on this. The memorandum will be printed in the hearing record at this point. (The memorandum referred to follows:) Hon. WAYNE MORSE, Chairman, Subcommittee on Public Health, Education, Welfare, and Safety, Senate District Committee, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR MORSE: In response to your inquiry as to the minimum wage rate paid by the District of Columbia government to its wage board employees and to the school lunch cafeteria workers under the Board of Education, I wish to report that the current minimum wage rate for both groups is $1.25 per hour. Sincerely yours, SCHUYLER LOWE, Director of General Administration. Mr. STERNBERG. I am happy to hear that. Mr. STERNBERG. Thank you, Senator. Senator MORSE. You have given very helpful testimony. Our last witness tonight will be Mr. Louis Aronica, representing the Washington Greater Chapter of the Americans for Democratic Action. We are very glad to have you. STATEMENT OF LOUIS ARONICA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GREATER WASHINGTON CHAPTER, AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION Mr. ARONICA. Thank you, Senator Morse. I will proceed to read my statement. My name is Louis Aronica, and I am the executive director of the Greater Washington Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action on whose behalf I appear this evening. ADA is pleased to have this opportunity to make a few short remarks on behalf of a program that is a supplement to the National Fair Labor Standards Act which we have supported since our founding. We are also pleased that Senator Morse, who has been a steadfast advocate of home rule for the District of Columbia, has by his introduction of this measure provided an opportunity for ADA and the community to speak to this necessary program. Due to a lack of time, we have not been able to finish compiling our study on the numerous details of the economic consequences of the extension of the minimum wage. Therefore, my statement will only refer to the most general aspecte of the need for this legislation. ADA has long been aware of the existence of dual economies in the District of Columbia. The Nation's capital has a high per capita income which reflects the averaging of incomes of many highly paid individuals and numerous individuals and families who receive what amounts to an existence income. We feel that the numerous references to the high income level in the area has lead people to overlook the existence of the underpaid and underprivileged. The District of Columbia has problems of crime, poverty, and disease these problems are related. In attacking the source of these problems, we need to have a program of adequate job opportunities without restrictions due to racial prejudice, adequate income for services rendered, and programs of retraining and welfare assistance. A most important component of this full fledged attack on the ills of the Capital City of the United States and the group of unfortunate individuals who are affected, is adequate income from honest labor. The measure we are now considering is a beginning in providing income from honest labor that is sufficient to sustain family life. We cannot conceive how a family can exist on income less than $50 per week. If it is argued that this is too much to be paid from the income of business etablishments, we would argue in return that the accommodation of the just income and profit of a business must be made elsewhere-not out of the pocket of the individual who performs the labor. In addition to the question of providing an income that begins to approach that which is adequate to the maintenance of the minimum standards of living necessary for the health, efficiency, and general well-being of the workers and their families, we argue that one of the problems in our economy is insufficient purchasing power in the low income sector of the population. The economy of Washington as well as the Nation would have a lesser problem of demand if there were sufficient purchasing power or money in the hands of the people who today do without the necessities of life because they are unable to earn sufficient money to spend on these necessities. I wish to thank the subcommittee for the opportunity to express our point of view on this vital measure. Senator MORSE. Thank you 'very much, Mr. Aronica. You may file your supplemental statement for the record. Mr. ARONICA. Thank you. Senator MORSE. I will insert in the record a statement of Mr. Arnold S. Zander, international president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, endorsing S. 860 with certain proposed amendments and also a statement of Mr. George Pikser, on behalf of the National Association of Social Workers of the Metropolitan Washington chapter, endorsing S. 860. (The statements referred to follow :) STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF S. 860; TO ESTABLISH A MINIMUM WAGE of $1.25 AN HOUR IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Government Workers Union Local No. 1, American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, and for about 150 employees at Howard University, is the exclusive bargaining agent for over 1,400 workers in the Division of Sanitation, for some 500 employees in the Divisions of Child Welfare, Public Assistance, and Field Administrative Offices of the Department of Welfare, and for over 100 employees of the Division of Sewer Operations. In addition, we have formal recognition for the 1,000 employees of the Freedmen's Hospital, for more than 400 food service employees at St. Elizabeths Hospital, and over a quarter of the more than 400 food service employees of the District Board of Education belong to this union. Therefore, we have a deep and continuing interest in prevailing wages in the District of Columbia. Our interest in prevailing wages stems from the fact that a large proportion of those we represent are Wage Board employees. Substandard wages are included in the survey on which Wage Board rates are based. We have a particular interest in wages paid in the food service industry, notoriously substandard, because of our members who work in this field at Howard University, Freedmen's Hospital, St. Elizabeths Hospital, and the Board of Education. No one can seriously maintain that it is possible for a wage earner to provide for a family in this city on wages of $1.25 an hour, let alone on wages less than that. When Washington Action for Youth was seeking summer jobs for high school students, this was the suggested wage figure, but when the District of Columbia or Federal Government hire children for summer jobs they pay them at least $1.50. Therefore, we strongly support this bill. However, we wish to suggest two amendments. The bill should be amended to include Government and quasi-governmental agencies as employers. Our second proposed amendment takes into account the fact that this bill, when enacted into law, will tend to set the floor for District of Columbia wages for years to come, at an already inadequately low level. We recommend an amendment to raise the minimum automatically to $1.50 an hour on July 1, 1964, and to permit the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, after holding the appropriate public hearings, to raise it again, if it is decided to be in the public interest to do so, on July 1, 1965, and each year thereafter. This is one of the many areas in which the Senate of the United States should delegate its authority to the government of the District of Columbia. We are pleased to include with our testimony a letter from our international president, Arnold S. Zander, addressed to the Senate District Committee. The text of the letter follows: "The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees strongly supports S. 860, with one important reservation. While agreeing that wages of less than $1.25 an hour must be abolished for the economic health of the community, we cannot agree that this sum represents an adequate floor for wages. Passage of this bill will probably tend to fix the minimum wage in the District of Columbia for many years to come. Therefore, we believe it should be amended (1) to provide for an automatic increase to $1.50 an hour on July 1, 1964, and (2) to permit the District Commissioners, after holding appropriate hearings, to increase the minimum wage further, if deemed in the public interest, by July 1, 1965. "We urge this committee to consider, seriously, the request of Local No. 1 of this union that the coverage of the bill be enlarged to include governmental and quasi-governmental agencies as employers. "I wish also to commend Senator Morse on behalf of our union both for introducing this bill and for the comprehensive and sound survey of prevailing wages in the District of Columbia with which he presented it to the Senate. "ARNOLD S. ZANDER, "International President, American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO. STATEMENT ON S. 860 BY NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORKERS, METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON CHAPTER, WASHINGTON, D.C. My name is George Pikser, and I appear before you on behalf of the National Association of Social Workers, Metropolitan Washington Chapter. Our chapter of the association has 1,200 members, of whom more than two-thirds live in the District of Columbia. I, myself, live in the District. The National Association of Social Workers is a firm supporter of legislation to establish decent standards of minimum wages. We therefore appear at this hearing in support of S. 860. Our organization consists of professionally trained social workers, employed in public and private health and welfare agencies in the Washington area. In the daily Job of most of our members, we meet up with and struggle for answers to the troubling problems of unemployment, poverty, delinquency, and dependency. Based on the knowledge and experience of this intimate contact, we have come to advocate Government's responsibility to establish a floor to wages below which no worker's earnings should be permitted to fall, lest the worker, the worker's family, and the community suffer great harm. This bill includes minimum wage protection of men who are excluded from the existing District of Columbia minimum wage law. The 1962 BLS study of earnings in selected District of Columbia industries gives ample evidence that this protection is needed for men as well as for women. Decent wages will help hold families together, keep down relief rolls, and give children a better chance in life. Recently NASW conducted a study of what has happened to families where public assistance was terminated as a result of the special investigations. In most of these instances there was dire need but the families could not qualify under the severely restrictive District of Columbia public welfare eligibility regulations. The private agencies of Washington, to which these needy people were compelled to turn, learned that a few of them had found jobs, but their earnings were so pitifully low that they could not conceivably provide for their children with their earnings. Here are several case illustrations: Case X: Separated woman with six children, ages 2, 4, 6, 7, 12, and 14, was cut off by Public Assistance Division. She had applied for public housing; in the meantime, she was trying to pay rent, feed and meet all needs for herself and her children who were sick and without adequate clothing. She made $38 a week, out of which she paid $10 weekly for rent. Case Y: A private agency had this family referred to it from the Department of Pupil Appraisal, Study, School Attendance, and Work Permits. The family included a mother and six children. The mother was working full time earning a salary of $38 per week. All of her children were showing problems which were of great concern to the mother and to the community. A 14-year-old child in the family was showing delinquent behavior. A 12-year-old was truanting, giving lack of clothes as his reason for doing so. He was also missing needed medical care. A 7-year-old child had to be kept home because he had no shoes. Two preschool children were left without supervision while the mother worked. The evidence that these are not isloated cases is born out by the BLS study. In many of the occupations reported in that study, none of which are covered by Federal minimum wage laws, the weekly earnings of a substantial number of employees is less than $50 for a full week's work. In some of the occupations the majority of employees earn less than $50 (motion picture theaters and eating and drinking places). S. 860 offers the District the opportunity to upgrade living conditions for disadvantaged people who are trying to support themselves and their families. The National Association of Social Workers, Metropolitan Washington Chapter, endorses this bill and asks its enactment into law. Senator MORSE. I want to thank you all for your splendid cooperation, and we will recess until Friday evening at 7 o'clock. (Whereupon, at 9:40 p.m., the committee recessed to reconvene at 7 p.m., on Friday, October 4, 1963.) AMENDMENTS TO THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA MINIMUM WAGE LAW FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1963 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH, EDUCATION, WELFARE, AND SAFETY OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 7 p.m., in room 6226, New Senate Office Building, Senator Wayne Morse (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senator Morse. Also present: Chester H. Smith, staff director; Fred L. McIntyre, counsel; Richard Judd, professional staff member; Martin Ferris, assistant counsel; Joseph Goldberg and Milton Williams, technical advisers, U.S. Department of Labor. Senator MORSE. The hearing will come to order. The chairman will insert in the record at this point a staff memorandum that the chairman requested the staff to have prepared for him, setting forth a brief in support of S. 860. (The memorandum follows :) EMPLOYMENT IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Estimates by the U.S. Employment Service for the District of Columbia (table 1) placed nonagricultural employment in the District of Columbia at about 567,000 in 1962. This is an estimate, based on returns from employers subject to the unemployment compensation law of the District, plus estimates of employment by nonsubject employers, made by the U.S. Department of Labor. TABLE 1.-Employment trends in the District of Columbia, 1958–62 [Annual averages, in thousands] Source: U.S. Employment Service for the District of Columbia, "Nonagricultural Employment, Wash ington, D.C." 105 |