materials according to specifications, using shears, and cutting pliers; splices wire cable and manila rope when necessary and splices or otherwise attaches necessary fittings onto rigging using hand tools; fabricates essential wooden and rope assemblies; nails, bolts, or ties rigging in place; tests ship rigging and crane lifting rigging on shipboard for proper functioning. May install canvas work, such as tarpaulins, hatch covers, and boat, gun, and bunk covers on board ship. May sew canvas parts by machine or by hand, using a sailmaker's needle.” Yet, despite this practical equivalence, in which any difference inclines toward the seaman who must hold a certificate issued only after 3 years' sea service and who is frequently responsible for the safety of his ship and cargo, there is a fantastic variance in wages. An able seaman receives a base wage of $145 per month, for which he works 56 hours a week without overtime, or approximately 61 cents an hour. The shipyard employee, however, will receive from $1.03 an hour for the lowest-grade rigger, to $1.20 an hour for a first-class worker. In addition, he receives time and one-half for all hours worked over 40 weekly. In the engine department, a basic rating is the fireman-watertender. According to the occupational dictionary, his duties are as follows: "Fireman, marine: Fires or stokes a boiler on a ship; ref. fireman, high pressure: May regulate amount of water in boilers; ref, water tender III: May be specifically designated according to the type of fuel burned as firemen, coal; fireman, oil. Is known as fireman- water-tender when working in ships where boiler gages and water controls are located in fireroom and no water tender III is carried." "Water tender III checks and regulates amount of water in boilers; inspects gages attached to boilers to determine need for water, operates boiler-feed water pumps to supply the water, watches operation of pumps to insure efficient funetioning and to detect defects. May sweep and clean area about pumps and boilers." He, too, must hold a certificate for which he is eligible only after long service; he, too, works 56 hours weekly, 7 days a week. Many industries use men of similar skills to operate steam plants. A stationary engineer, performing this kind of work, is defined as: "Stationary engineer, steam: A stationary engineer who operates and maintains steam-driven equipment, such as stationary steam engines, steam turbines, and steam-pumping machinery.” A fireman water tender receives $155 monthly or about 65 cents an hour. On shore, stationary engineers, who perform similar duties under far more favorable conditions, receive from $45 for a 48-hour week, to $50.48 for a 40-hour week in various industries. In the shipbuilding and repair industry, men who merely tend furnaces for heating metal and who have no boilers or gages to watch, receive from $1.03 to $1.20 an hour. The steward's department reveals a similar condition. A second cook, who also acts as the ship's baker for up to 60 men, receives only $162.50 monthly, or 68 cents an hour. Bakers ashore received in 1944 an average of 85.3 cents an hour, and this for work performed under controlled factory conditions and not handicapped by shipboard facilities. These comparisons leave out of account the versatility and the adaptability which seamen are expected to display. On the narrow issue of the specific skills required, they show that seamen have been held to wage levels far below those commensurate with their duties and responsibilities. Even if common laborer rates were used as a standard, this inequity would still exist. In the shipbuilding and repair industry, laborers receive from 78 to 80% cents an hour, with provisions for overtime. The least skilled worker on a ship must have greater qualifications. Yet this rate is higher than is received by all except an insignificant fraction of the most highly paid unlicensed seamen, mainly chief stewards. An American standard of living The Department of Labor, organized to “foster, promote, and develop" the welfare of the wage earners of America, has for 25 years not attempted any study or estimate of the necessary income for an American worker to maintain a family in health and decency. We are glad to note that steps are now being taken by the Department to organize such a budget study in the near future. In the present default of this much-needed activity of the Labor Department, it has been left to a private organization, the Heller Committee for Research in Social Economics, at the University of California, to make such studies. The 1945 report of the committee puts the necessary minimum for a wage earner with a wife and two minor children at $3,075.72. On the basis of 50 weeks' work of 40 hours each, this would amount to $1.48 an hour. The items included in this budget are as follows: 1 TABLE 5.-Wartime budget for the family of a wage earner 1 1 Heller Committee for Research in Social Economics, University of California, Wartime Budgets for Three Income Levels, March, 1945. While the foregoing minimum health and decency budget is based upon San Francisco prices, it is approximately applicable to cities throughout the country. A study made by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics in March 1943, shows New York, the largest port, to have a cost of living higher than San Francisco. Six cities are reported with a cost of living within 5 percent of the San Francisco level, and in 18 cities the figure is between 90 and 95 percent of San Francisco. In only seven cities, two of which are inland cities with no shipping, is the cost of living less than 90 percent of the San Francisco cost.1 Lowering our sights for the moment for an adequate American health and decency budget to estimates of what it costs to maintain a mere subsistence level of living, we find that the Works Progress Administration in 1943 priced such a budget, and reported the unweighted average of 33 large cities to be $1,672.86, or 80 cents an hour for a full year's work. Another reecnt survey, by the Textile Workers Union of America, CIO, the essential validity of which has been attested to by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed that the cost of living at a lower emergency level in the early part of 1944 for a family of four was $1,621, the equivalent of a wage of 78 cents an hour. If commodities and services alone are counted, the cost of this budget would be $1,415 per year, or 68 cents an hour. 1 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Estimated Intercity Differences in Cost of Living, March 1943. Monthly Labor Review, October 1943, p. 805. Heller Committee budget for wage earners, San Francisco, March 1945. 1, 672.86 78 A seaman's cost of living differs little from that of any other worker in the same income range. While he is at sea the expenses for rent, food, and clothing for his family continue. While the bases of the foregoing estimates are not entirely uniform, they constitute conclusive evidence that the 65-cent minimum wage rate proposed by the bill under consideration is an extremely conservative, if not inadequate, figure from the standpoint of affording a seaman a decent minimum standard of living. Seamen's yearly earnings Another way of approaching the seamen's wage problems is to consider their total annual earnings. Because of a high incidence of illness and injury in the maritime industry, and because of the need for periods ashore with family and friends, the average employment of seamen during the year ranges from 8 to 9 months. It is important to note that in 6 months at sea the seaman has as many workdays as the shoreside worker has in 8 months on land. The seaman is paid only while under ship's articles. This intermittent, though not seasonal, type of employment complicates the problem of determining data on seamen's earnings which will be comparable to data for shore-side workers, most of whom in ordinary times earn fairly steadily throughout the year. Three comprehensive studies have been made which throw some light on the question of seamen's annual earnings. One is the study by the United Seamen's Service already cited. The second is an analysis by the United States Maritime Commission in June 1945. A third is a study made by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics jointly with the United States Maritime Commission in June 1945. All three studies were made while the war bonuses were in effect, and before the recent War Labor Board award of $45 flat increase in base pay, which only partly filled the gap caused by the termination of the bonuses. The wages shown in these studies, therefore, are at least 25 percent higher than those actually received at the present time. The United Seamen's Service study showed an over-all average wartime wage of $1,677.14 a year, or $32.25 a week. The most numerous group was that receiving between $1,600 and $1,799.99 a year. More than half the men received less than $1,800, fewer than half received more than that figure. TABLE 7.-Average estimated wartime earnings of unlicensed seamen for 12 months 1 John W. Hastie, Unemployment, Annual Income, and Family Status of Seamen. $400 to $599.99 TABLE 8.-Distribution of unlicensed seamen by yearly wartime income1 Cumulative 1 percent earned less than $600. $600 to $799.99. Total.. 1 John W. Hastie, Unemployment, Annual Income, and Family Status of Seamen. The earnings shown in tables 7 and 8, be it remembered, were based on ships' articles which showed actual sums earned for service on voyages of different lengths and in different areas. They thus included not only base pay, but all overtime penalty pay, and bonuses, and any other special remuneration. The United States Maritime Commission study of 98 Liberty ship voyages was completed in November 1944. It showed monthly earnings of unlicensed seamen ranging from $200 for a wiper to $334 for a chief steward. These wages also included overtime, penalty pay, bonuses, and any other special remuneration. Using these figures as a monthly basis, and multiplying by 8 and by 9 we arrive at an approximation to typical wartime annual earnings. Reducing these earnings by 25 percent to show the net effect of the abolition of war bonuses, we arrive at approximate estimates of seamen's wages under peacetime conditions. TABLE 9.-Typical monthly and yearly wartime earnings and estimated peacetime yearly earnings of unlicensed seamen 1 1 Based on U. S. Maritime Commission, Weighted Average Monthly Labor Cost, by Rating, for Operating a Liberty Ship From Continental United States Ports on Certain Deep-Sea Voyages, November 1944. Finally, there is the recent joint study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Maritime Commission. While the information so far released contains no individual wage figures, it shows the number of men in six wage brackets, each with a span of $500. As shown in table 10, derived from the study, the largest single group of unlicensed seamen, 240 out of 740, or 32.4 percent, were in the $2,500 to $2,999 bracket. More than half the men, however, fell below the $2,500 lower limit of this bracket, and less than half were in this bracket or above it. TABLE 10.-Average gross annual income of unlicensed seamen in selected occupations, Oct. 1, 1943, to Sept. 30, 19441 Num- Per- Num- Per- Num- Per- Num- Per- Num- Per-Num- Perber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent 1 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U. S. Maritime Commission survey, June 1945. Certain facts stand out from these studies. All agree that in wartime the great bulk of the seamen earned less than the $3,075 a year required for family health and decency by the Heller budget. The Bureau of Labor Statistics places more than half the incomes below $2,500. The United States Maritime Commission figures reveal that more than half the men got only $2,178 or less. The United Seamen's Service report shows 58 percent of the men receiving less than $1,800 and as high as 42 percent receiving less than $1,600. Many seamen, because of illness, injury, and other factors, were able to earn only $400 to $500 in the course of a year. And be it remembered, these figures were collected before the war bonuses were cut off and should be reduced at least 25 percent to reflect present conditions. SEAMEN'S SUBSISTENCE IS NOT WAGES H. R. 3914, in addition to repealing section 13 (a) (3) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, proposes to amend section 3 (m) of that act excluding the cost of board, lodging, or other facilities provided by the employer from the computation of wages for members of the crew of a vessel. This exclusion of subsistence from the calculation of a minimum wage for seamen is necessitated by conditions unique to this industry. This amendment is essential if seamen are not to be deprived of a living wage on the basis of deliberate misinformation. The shipowners seek to use the subsistence question as a subterfuge to defeat the minimum-wage provisions of this bill. The question presented to the committee is that of eliminating a substandard condition by the establishment by law of a 65-cent minimum wage. The effectiveness of the legislation must not be destroyed by permitting the deduction from the minimum wage rate of any amount purporting to be the value of subsistence furnished to the seamen aboard ship. Basic to the whole case is the unquestionable fact that if the establishment of a 65-cent minimum is motivated by the policy of eliminating a substandard condition, the deduction of any amount whatever for subsistence aboard ship can only have the effect of undoing the very thing which the 65-cent minimum is designed to accomplish. Since the seaman, in the maintenance of a home ashore, and of an appropriate minimum standard of health and decency therein, cannot in any way draw upon the subsistence which is supplied to him aboard ship, any deduction for such subsistence from the minimum wage can only serve to reduce that minimum below a substandard level. The Congress, in its effort to eliminate substandard conditions, cannot logically enact a 65-cent minimum wage and at the same time permit a deduction whose effect would be to reduce the minimum wage far below the accepted substandard level. |