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 Percent of 266743241221 11 1 ཅི ཆེ ཆེ ཕྱེ རྩེ 2121 38 (2) 1 (2) 2 4 1 15152 43221433723-2 31 15 1 531 622 11 5 7 11 5 66839923 444444 ཅི 16227113 2 (2) 5 20 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 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 1 Includes industries in addition to those shown separately. Less than 0.5 percent. 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: TABLE 5.-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, and payment of time and a half for hours worked in excess of 40 a week, selected industries, District of Columbia, summer 1962 3 Excludes 330 workers for whom hours of work could not be estimated. Mr. MORSE. Mr. President, the additional increase would of couse, be dependent on the number of employees who worked more than 40 hours during the payroll week studied, as well as the establishment's policy of labor-management contract provisions for paying an overtime premium. The industries with the larger proportion of employees who worked more than 40 hours during the survey week--automobile repair, automobile parking, automobile services, and eating and drinking places-would have had greater weekly wage increases-from 5 to 12 percentage points—if both a $1.25 minimum and premium pay for work in excess of 40 hours had been in effect. In those industries where proportionately fewer employees worked long hours, weekly wages would have increased by no more than an additional 4 percentage points with overtime premium pay. Mr. President, I deplore wages that are substandard and conditions of living that are below standards of decency because I am convinced that there is a cause-to-effect relationship between the wages that employers in a locality pay and such social problems as juvenile delinquency, adult crime, and the many social problems that go along with slums. In my judgment, the 88th Congress owes a moral obligation to the workers in the Nation's Capital to take legislative steps which are necessary to prevent employers from exploiting workers by paying them less than a decent minimum wage, and thereby, in paying that wage increase this city's social problems in juvenile delinquency, crime, health, and slum problems which means higher taxes to curb these evils. I am pleased to learn that the District of Columbia Board of Commissioners have made my minimum wage and hours bill a part of their legislative program for this Congress. However, I do not mean to imply that they agree with my bill in every respect. I welcome the support of the District Commissioners on this very important piece of legislation as well as the support of organizations and individuals who believe as I do that in 1963 there is no valid justification for subjecting employees to substandard wage and hours conditions in the District of Columbia or elsewhere in this country. As one who has always believed in meaningful minimum wage legislation, I shall conduct early hearings and press for early enactment of the minimum wage bill which I introduce today. Senator MORSE. Last year at the request of the committee the U.S. Department of Labor conducted a survey of employee earnings in selected industries in the District of Columbia. It is apparent that this survey will be referred to many times during the course of these hearings. Therefore, I request that the survey be printed at this point in the hearing record. 23-806-64- -3 |