1 Weekly earnings are a function of both hours of work and rates of pay. given industry, rates of pay vary among occupations and among workers within the same occupations. This variation in pay rates explains the fact that weekly earnings do not vary directly with hours of work. Within a 2 Includes industries in addition to those shown separately. Excludes 330 workers for whom hours of work could not be estimated. 4 Insufficient data to warrant presentation. Mr. MORSE. Mr. President, only in hospitals were a majority of employees working a 35- or 40-hour week. In most of the industries, at least a third of the employees worked more than 40 hours and from a fifth to almost half worked more than 48 hours during the week. Substantially larger proportions of men than of women worked more than 40 hours in each of the industries; larger proportions of women worked a 35- to 40-hour week; and similar proportions of men and women worked less than 35 hours. Weekly earnings did not average more than $65 for nonsupervisory workers in the selected industries, except in automobile repair shops. Employees in most of the industries who worked between 15 and 35 hours had weekly earnings which ranged from $25 to $40 a week. Generally, the weekly earnings of those who worked a 40-hour week were roughly twice the earnings of those who worked shorter hours-15 to 35 hours. The relative difference in weekly earnings between those who worked 40 hours during the week and those who worked more than 48 hours varied widely from as little as 7 percent in motion picture theaters and automobile repair shops to as much as 69 percent in automobile services. Table 4 shows the percentage increases in aggregate weekly wages if there had been a $1.25 minimum at the time of the survey, assuming that all workers earning less than $1.25 would receive that minimum wage. Under that assumption, aggregate weekly wages would have been 1 to 6 percent higher in automobile repair shops, retail trade, building services, hospitals, and laundries; 10 to 15 percent higher in automobile parking, hotels, real estate and motion picture theaters; 25 percent higher in eating and drinking places; and 33 percent higher in automobile services. I ask unanimous consent to have table 4 printed at this point in my remarks. There being no objection, the table was ordered to be printed in the Record as follows: TABLE 4.—Percent distribution of establishments and percent of nonsupervisory employees in these establishments by the weekly wage bill increase required to raise earnings to $1.25 an hour, selected industries, District of Columbia, summer 1962 TABLE 4.-Percent distribution of establishments and percent of nonsupervisory employees in these establishments, by the weekly wage bill increase required to raise earnings to $1.25 an hour, selected industries, District of Columbia, summer 1962-Continued Excludes 330 workers for whom hours of work could not be estimated. NOTE. Because of rounding, sums of individual items may not equal totals. Mr. MORSE. Mr. President, a $1.25 an hour minimum wage should also have had varying effects within each of the industry groups. For example, a $1.25 minimum would have raised weekly wages by 25 percent or more for 63 percent of the eating and drinking places which employed 59 percent of the industry's workers. Less than a 1-percent increase, on the other hand, would have occurred in 12 percent of the eating and drinking places which employed 3 percent of the workers. Conversely, the same minimum wage in retail trade, which numerically was the most important industry studied, would have raised weekly wages by less than 1 percent in nearly half of the retail establishments which employed 43 percent of the retail employees. A weekly wage increase of 25 percent or more would affect one out of seven of the retail establishments employing 2 percent of the workers. The combined effect of a $1.25 an hour minimum wage and premium pay at time and one-half for each hour worked over 40 would have further increased weekly wages in each of the industries as illustrated in table 5, which I ask unanimous consent to have printed at this point in my remarks. There being no objection, the table was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: |