controlled hours in retail trade. Median hours worked by men in all types of retail establishments averaged 47.1 in 1944, with 26 percent working over 48 hours per week.30 It is clear that we cannot have one large segment of the economy characterized by both the lowest wages and highest hours without being forthright in our attack upon the gross inequity of the situation. XI. RETAIL CHAINS CLEARLY ENGAGED IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE We contend that the exemption of retail employees from coverage of the Fair Labor Standards Act is specific discrimination against a major group of wage and salary earners many, of whom are employed in establishments clearly engaged in interstate commerce. Chain-store operations are, in the vast majority of cases, interstate in every aspect; the movement of goods, money, and personnel across State borders is apparent. And retail chain stores comprise a significant proportion of all retail establishments. In 1942 chain-store sales comprised 24.4 percent and in 1943, 22.8 percent of all retail sales." Of the total of 5,469,000 employees engaged in retail trade in 1939, 1,441,783, or over 25 percent were employed in chain establishments. 32 We are urging revision of the wording of the present act so that all employees in establishments, the operations of which affect interstate commerce, will be protected by its wage and hour provisions. But we are unable to understand why even such establishments as would normally be covered under the present provisions should be given full freedom through specific exemption to pay substandard wages. There is no moral or economic justification for continued exemption of retail employees from protection of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Their living costs are equally high if not higher than those of the average manufacturing employee. They comprise a substantial portion of our working population. Their low level of earnings tends to depress the general level of wages, resulting in reduced buying power and an unhealthy and stagnant economy. They suffer want amidst the plenty of their industry. Along with the president of a Chicago department store we feel that: "The proposed 65-cent minimum for all workers will result in a higher purchasing power and hence a better retail volume than during the 40-cent minimum ** * 33 But the United Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Employees demand the 65-cent minimum for the department-store employees as well. SAMUEL WOLCHOK, President, United Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Employees of America. TABLE I.-Estimated average number of full-time and part-time employees in wholesale and retail trade, 1939–431 1 Source: Department of Commerce-Survey of Current Business, June 1945, p. 18. ? Includes only wage and salary earners. Excludes proprietors, own account workers, or unpaid family workers. 30 New York State-Report of the Industrial Commissioner to the Retail Minimum Wage Board. June 1945, p. 87 31 See chart II for graphic presentation of relationship between all retail sales and chainstore sales. 32 Census of Business. Retail Trade: 1939. U. S. Department of Commerce. 33 Women's Wear Daily. September 11, 1945. TABLE II.-Medium straight-time hourly earnings in selected occupational classifications in limited-price variety stores, by size of city, spring and summer, 19431 1 From the Monthly Labor Review (June 1944) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Department of Labor. TABLE III.-Medium hourly earnings in selected job classifications in department and clothing stores, by city size and region, spring and summer of 1945 All cities. Cities with a population $1. 18 $0.83 $1.05 $0.84 $0.49 $0. 50 $0.49 $0. 60 $0. 58 $0. 48 $0.39 $0. 50 $0.43 $0.39 1 Exclusive of premium pay for overtime or late-shift work. In general, the cashier, grade I, accepts payments on charge accounts, cashes customers' checks, and sells gift certificates besides assuming, whenever necessary, the duties of cashier, grade II, who accepts payment for sales slips made out by clerks, makes change, and may also wrap packages. Source: Bulletin 801, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Department of Labor, Wages in Department and Clothing Stores, Large Cities, Spring and Summer, 1943. TABLE IV.-Trend of average hourly earnings in all manufacturing and in selectei low-wage industries, 1935 to June 1945 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hourly Earnings in Manufacturing and Nonmanufacturing Indus tries, Annual Averages 1939-44, and Hours and Earnings, June 1945. TABLE V.-Straight-time average hourly earnings,1 December 1943, in key opera tions in selected industries in 12 towns, and percent of change since January 1941 Statistics, U. S. Department of Labor, Bulletin No. 783. Source: Trend of Earnings Among White-Collar Workers During the War, May 1944. Bureau of Labe TABLE VII.-Estimated number of employees receiving less than 40 cents an hour, August 1944 Retail trade_. Agriculture (excluding unpaid family labor). Services (except domestic) Domestic services-- Other industries, including manufacturing, wholesale, trade, finance, and Government_. 1,900,00 1,300,00 750,000 700,000 250,000 Total number of employees earning less than 40 cents an hour__ 4,900,000 Source: Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Division, U. S. Department of Labor. TABLE VIII.-Hourly earnings of women in the major types of retail stores in 19¡¡ Source: Summary of the report of the industrial commissioner, June 1945, to the Retail Trade Minin.co Wage Board. Source: Summary of the Report of the Industrial Commissioner to the Retail Trade Minimum Wage Board, June 1945 |