MINIMUM WAGE: A NATIONAL SCANDAL

Present Minimum Wage 4 National Scandal CIO Contends. The present federal minimum wage of 75 cents an hour is a national scandal the CIO contends urging an immediate increased minimum with broadened coverage. Every moral and economic considerationwhether it be compassion for the neediest protection for honest employers against sweatshop competitors or stimulation of production i and employmentries out for an immediate and substantial upward revision of the federal minimum wage and a broad extension of its cover age the current issue of the CIO Economic Outlook said. The publication of the CIOs De partment of Education and Research urged the new minimum wage be 125 an hour Recalling that the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act enacted in 1938 was created to maintain the mini mum standard of living necessary to health efficiency and the general wellbeing of workers the CIO pub lication called the present 76cent minimum shockingly inadequate Worse yet even this debasing and outmoded minimum fails to apply to millions of workers whose need for protection is most extreme Six million workers in intrastate commerce are specifically exclud 99 ed from the 1938 acts coverage and another 14 million are automa tically excluded because they are not.