Summit County Labor News

Minimum Pay Boost Need Is Cited

The New York City Council, governing body of the nation's largest city, has petitioned Congress and the state legislature to enact a $1.25 minimum wage and extend coverage without delay.

The existence of "thousands of families subsisting under substandard living conditions . . . constitutes a social and economic danger to the welfare of our city, the state and the nation," the petition declared.

Co-Chairmen Arthur J. Goldberg and Andrew J. Biemiller of the AFL-CIO Joint Minimum Wage Committee hailed the City Council's action and pointed out that it was taken by unanimous vote after "thorough investigation" by a special committee of the Council.

The City Council's special committee, headed by Councilman Earl Brown (D), reported that inadequate wages have placed "undue burdens" on the city's welfare, health and hospital facilities. The report noted that nearly half of the families on home relief in the city included wage earners whose pay wasn't enough to meet minimum standards.

"The privilege of doing business carries with it the responsibility of paying wages sufficient to enable the workers to live on a standard which is at least a minimum adequate for health and safety," the City Council report declared.

Unless business and industry are forced to pay a living wage, the cost of public and private social services (Continued on Page Four)
Minimum Pay Boost Need Is Cited

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will mount to a point where they cannot be met," the Council said. "These vast expenditures constitute subsidies by the taxpayers . . . to business and industry which are neither morally nor economically justifiable."

The Council called for extension of minimum wage coverage and premium pay for overtime "to employees in all businesses and industries and to regular nonprofessional employees of voluntary non-profit organizations, such as hospitals."

The petition to state officials and legislators urged the New York Legislature to enact such a law without waiting for action which may be taken by Congress.

At public hearings which led to the City Council report and petitions, both City AFL-CIO President Harry Van Arsdale, Jr., and New York Mayor Robert F. Wagner strongly urged endorsement of "at least" $1.25 an hour minimum wage.

Van Arsdale said "all responsible groups" in the city have a "collective duty" to protect workers against wage exploitation.

Wagner said that as mayor he has seen "the tragic economic and social effects of low wages." He said the price of wiping out "low-wage pockets" in the city "will be cheap when we compare it to the price that poverty exacts in terms of crime, disease, juvenile delinquency and the loss of a sense of human dignity."

The AFL-CIO Minimum Wage Committee, representing a group of unions spearheading the drive for the Kennedy-Morse-Roosevelt bill, declared "the non-partisan decision of the governing body of the nation's largest city should set to rest unfounded claims that an increase in minimum wages would be inflationary."

Declaring that "substandard wages are morally wrong and economically stupid," the AFL-CIO group called for a strong minimum wage measure, which not only increases the base wage to $1.25 but extends the coverage to millions now unprotected.