VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION

REGULAR WAGE RATE SCHEDULES, COORDINATED FEDERAL WAGE SYSTEM-WAGE AREA, CHICAGO, ILL.

[The schedules of rates listed below are established under title 5 U.S.C. 5341(a) for wage employees covered by the coordinated Federal wage system. These rates are to be applied in accordance with instructions contained in FPM Supplement 532-1.J

1 Upon mechanical conversion to the CFWS, each nonsupervisory, leader, and supervisory employee will receive an increase over his current aggregate rate of pay which is no less than the amount shown for his new grade in this column, except that the minimum increase for each supervisory employee in grades WS-11 through 19 will be $0.11. If special rates are required by sec. 4 of Public Law 90-560, Oct. 12, 1968, such rates will be authorized later, effective retroactively to the same date shown below. To be effective at the beginning of the 1st pay period which begins on or after Apr. 16, 1970. Note: Shift differentials: 2d shift, 17 cents; 3d shift, 20 cents.

ANALYSIS OF DATA

Mr. GRINER. In order to simplify my oral presentation this morning, I have had three typical jobs identified by asteriated lines on all three insertions.

They happen to be truckdriver, light; truckdriver, medium; and truckdriver, heavy.

I have chosen these three entries because they are convenient as well as representative illustrations. First of all, private enterprises employing 10,654 blue collar truckdrivers were surveyed. Secondly, in the Federal blue collar system, these jobs cover three grades-WG-5, for truckdriver, light; WG-6, for truckdriver, medium; and WG-7, for truckdriver, heavy.

While I could have chosen any other occupation at random, I believe that the committee will find that the results and conclusions would have been the same.

The first overwhelming fact that emerges is that the table of the actual surveys of private enterprise rates show that for all three levels of truckdriver there is a wide range of rates in private enterprise. Their recapitulation and tabulation follows:

Converted into percentage terms, the spread of the range of rates in the community from bottom to top was the following:

Truckdriver (light)_
Truckdriver (medium).
Truckdriver (heavy)-

Senator FONG. How do you arrive at your weighted average?

Percent

57

78 53

Mr. GRINER. The weighted average is derived from two documents; it appears on graph in insert No. 2, Senator, which is on page 7. This weighted average reflects the number of actual jobs surveyed multiplied by the number of people, and by the rates that each proportionate group receives.

Senator FONG. Thank you.

Mr. GRINER. You will also find the weighted average in insertion No. 1, Senator; you will find there truckdriver, light; truckdriver, medium; and truckdriver, heavy; these are the three we selected, and these rates are the actual official figures taken from a recent survey conducted officially in Chicago.

We thus see the spread in pay for private enterprise truckdrivers exceeds the spread of the 10-step within-grade statutory pay systems, which have a range of only 30 percent. This is the first overwhelming fact.

As the second extraordinary fact, we should note that the top rates in private enterprise exceed the private enterprise weighted average, or prevailing rate, by 20 percent for light truckdrivers; 25 percent for medium; and 10 percent for heavy.

This relation in the private enterprise community of top pay to the average prevailing rate duplicates almost precisely the 20-percent range in the white collar statutory systems of the top step over the pay line.

The pay line in white collar is the fourth step, as you know.

It is quite clear, therefore, that there is no factual basis whatsoever for the repeated contention by administration officials that the rates of private enterprise blue collar employees do not have a spread similar to the range of pay rates of white collar enterprise employees.

In fact, as more and more surveys are taken, the data show that in the private enterprise community the ranges of rates paid blue collar employees show precisely the same kind of spread as the ranges of rates paid white collar employees.

UNDERPAYING FEDERAL TRUCKDRIVERS IN CHICAGO

I should like now to compare actual private enterprise rates paid in Chicago with the official prevailing rate which the Federal Government pays its truckdrivers. As shown by the following table, Federal truckdrivers are regularly underpaid.

Senator BELLMON. Mr. Chairman, do these figures include fringe benefits?

Mr. GRINER. No.

The CHAIRMAN. In neither private nor Government?

Mr. GRINER. Neither one. I think the fringe benefits were found over the last few years for which they were computed to be about equal in private industry as against Federal.

In every case, we find that the top Federal rate paid to Federal truckdrivers in the Chicago area is lower than the average in private enterprise.

Moreover, we find that the top rate of private enterprise exceeds the top rate in the Federal system by $0.79 per hour, or 22 percent for light truckdrivers; by $1.19 per hour, or 31.3 percent for medium truckdrivers; and by $0.60 per hour, or 15 percent for heavy truckdrivers.

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE RATES UNIVERSALLY SHOW A SPREAD OF MORE THAN 30 PERCENT

The facts we have uncovered in Chicago are universally true throughout the country. The Federal Government has consistently received data during the last 4 years showing that the spread of the range of rates exceeds 30 percent.

Moreover, this consistent spread holds true for the lowest, the intermediate, and the highest levels of blue collar pay.

I request permission to attach to my statement, as annex I, the record of additional surveys of private enterprise rates for New York, N.Y.; San Francisco, Calif.; and for Washington, D.C.

The CHAIRMAN. Those will be made a part of the record here. (The documents follow:)