This fairly complicated rate history shows that the main rates presently in existence in the food and related products industry are 30 and 35 cents an hour. S. 2168 would increase these rates to 40 and 47 cents as of January 1, 1956. The Wage and Hour Administration which surveyed 26 out of the 28 firms engaged in interstate commerce in the food industry, summarized its findings as follows: According to table 105, the composite industry average of straight-time hourly earnings for all 1,315 employees in the 26 firms is 39.9 cents. The 3 categories which are at present subject to a 35-cent minimum the Fair Labor Standards Act each has average straight-time hourly earnings above the composite average: 47.7 cents for the 91 employees in biscuits and crackers;41 47.2 cents for the 117 employees in confectionery and related products; and 43.8 cents for the 356 workers in specialty foods and seafoods. The remaining 5 categories are at present all subject to a 30-cent minimum under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Except for the two smallest of these categories, fruit and vegetable packing and coffee, with only 38 employees together, each has average hourly earnings below the composiet industry average of 39.9 cents. The 68 employees in preserves, jellies, sirups, and nectars average 36.9 cents an hour, the 594 workers in fruit and vegetable canning, representing 45.2 percent of the total employment shown in table 105, average 33.2 cents an hour, 42 while the 51 employees in citrons in brine average less than in any other category, 31.3 cents an hour. It is striking how large a proportion of the workers are receiving exactly the legal minimum and no more, even though these minimums were set in 1950 for some of the activities and in 1951 for others. In citron processing, 92.2 percent of the workers are receiving 30 cents an hour, in fruit and vegetable canning the comparable figure is 78.2 percent, and in preserves, jellies, sirups, and nectars, 54.3 percent. The same situation exists in the activities with a 35-cent minimum, the last three groups of table 105, though to a lesser extent. "But a February 1954 survey made by the Puerto Rico Department of Labor showed a straight-time hourly earnings averaging 34.5 cents in 7 plants producing macaroni or spaghetti. (See discussion of bakery products earlier in this report.) As noted in the discussion of pineapples earlier in this report, a May 1954 study made by the Puerto Rico Department of Labor showed that in 3 establishments canning pineapples, average straight-time hourly earnings equaled 31.7 cents, with 89 percent of the workers receiving 30 cents an hour and 3 percent receiving 30 cents or more an hour. The number of workers whose pay would be directly affected by higher minimums would therefore be large. This may be seen from table 106 which points up the consequences of raising present minimums in the food and related products industries. The table shows the proportions of workers whose pay would have to be raised, and the percent increases in the wage bill which would directly result from these required pay raises, if various higher minimum wage levels were established. For example, a minimum of 35 cents would require pay raises for nearly half (48 percent) of the 1,315 workers in the industry, but since the amount of the raise would in each instance be relatively small, the resultant increase in the total wage bill would be only 4.5 percent. A 40-cent minimum would require a raise in the pay of nearly three-fourths (73.3 percent) of the total number of workers, and these increases would necessitate an upward adjustment in the total wage bill of one-eighth (12.5 percent). To illustrate further, the table also shows that a 50-cent minimum would directly affect the pay of 88.9 percent of the workers and raise the total wage bill by about onethird (32.9 percent), while a 75-cent minimum would raise the pay of 96.0 percent of the workers and increase the wage bill by 90.6 percent. Naturally the categories with average hourly earnings lower than the composite industry average would tend to be affected by any higher minimum more than the industry as a whole, while the categories with the above-average hourly earnings would tend to be affected less. This is readily seen from table 13. As an example, whereas a 40-cent minimum would affect the pay of 73.3 percent of the workers and raise the wage bill by 12.5 percent for the industry as a whole, in the lowest paying category (citrons in brine) it would require pay increases for 92.2 percent of the workers and raise the wage bill by 29.8 percent, while in the highest paying category (biscuits and crackers) it would require pay increases for 38.5 percent of the workers and raise the wage bill by only 4.0 percent. 43 Ibid., p. 40 3, |