The Potters Herald

Wage Act Has Increased Earnings Of Well Over One Million Workers

Washington, D. C. More than a million of the nation's lowest paid, sweated workers-many of whom had toiled for starvation pay-have had their earnings boosted to well above 30 cents an hour, thanks to the Wage-Hour Act.

That was one of the many remarkable gains cited on the occasion of the third birthday of the law by General Philip B. Fleming, its administrator. Fleming listed these other impressive benefits:

"Hundreds of thousands of American workers who once got so little for their labor that they could not live without charity or relief have been made self-supporting.

"Responsible employers who pay fair wages have been partially freed from the competition of irresponsible employers.

"More than a hundred million dollars additional is being paid to labor this year because of this law.

"The reasonable and just principle that extra long hours of work should be paid for with extra overtime pay has been firmly established.

"In enforcing the law, we have made employers pay about $16,000,000 in back wages legally due to about 500,000 workers.

The Wage-Hour Administration plans to make the 40-cent "bottom" universal in industries covered by the act, as rapidly as possible, Fleming declared.

The administrator stressed the fact that the law hasn't been a boon solely for the employes.

"Employers seem to have profited from the law quite as much as the workers," he said.