Mr. GREENMAN. I do not believe, sir, that it prevails throughout the Nation, and I cannot really give you the factual information that you are asking for at this moment.

I do believe, however, that many of the States maintain or have a minimum wage which is enforced within that State, and therefore laundries operating within that State are controlled to a degree with the minimum wage that they might pay.

I cannot name them offhand, however. I do not have that information.

Mr. BELL. That is all, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Mr. Hawkins?

Mr. HAWKINS. I do not know whether it was contained in Mr. Bell's question, but, Mr. Greenman, do you have members in any of the Southern States?

Mr. GREENMAN. Yes, sir. Our membership extends throughout the United States. We have at the moment approximately 180 member firms. The 111 listed here are what we call industry members, those who are engaged in the laundering operation and are interested in supplying commerce, industry, and mining-manufacturing, and so forth. The other 65 or 70 members are what we term associate members, people who are engaged, for example, in supplying our industry with its basic raw materials, be they textiles or chemicals, bailing wire, for example, or other services, and products which are necessary to the functioning of our individual businesses.

Mr. HAWKINS. I assume you have members in some of the Southern States where the low wages are being paid who are in direct competition, then, with those who are now exempt.

Mr. GREENMAN. Yes, sir. The chairman of our wage and hour committee, as a matter of fact, is a gentleman who operates a laundry in Memphis, and Memphis was the No. 1 culprit on my report, here.

One of our largest Government suppliers of wiping cloths to the GSA, the Army, the Navy, et cetera, is from Atlanta. And most of the southern region is covered by and supplied by—I am talking in terms of Government usage of wiping materials-another one of our members, from New Orleans, La.

So that I have covered with these three gentlemen the three points I have indicated in my report.

Our members are all over the country.

Mr. HAWKINS. Thank you.

That is all, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Mr. Greenman, we thank you very much for presenting us with a very factual statement, and answering our questions. I think you have made an excellent case. We of course do not want to prejudge the case until we have heard from the opposition, but certainly your views will be given the most careful consideration. We are grateful to you for coming before the committee. Mr. GREENMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. The committee will stand in informal recess for 10 minutes, while we try to find the next witness, or while he tries to find us; I do not know which.

(Short recess.)

Mr. ROOSEVELT. The committee will stand adjourned until 9:45 tomorrow morning, in room 304.

(Whereupon, the subcommittee recessed at 10:35 a.m., until Thursday, March 5, 1964, at 9:45 a.m.)

MINIMUM WAGE-HOUR LEGISLATION

THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1964

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
GENERAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR

OF THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR,

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to recess, in room 304, Cannon Building, Hon. James Roosevelt (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Representatives Roosevelt, Dent, Pucinski, Daniels, Hawkins, Martin, and Bell.

Present also: John Schuyler, counsel; Donald Anderson, assistant counsel for the full committee; Ray Rogers, minority counsel for labor; and Adrienne Fields, clerk.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. The committee will come to order, please.

The committee this morning welcomes Mr. Kenneth Meiklejohn the legislative representative of the AFL-CIO, who is appearing in behalf of Mr. Andrew J. Biemiller, director of department of legislattion of the AFL-CIO.

Mr. Meiklejohn, would you come forward, sir? We are happy to greet you as an old friend, and very happy to have you with us. Mr. MEIKLEJOHN. I am very glad to be here, Mr. Chairman.

STATEMENT OF KENNETH MEIKLEJOHN, LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE, AFL-CIO, ON BEHALF OF ANDREW J. BIEMILLER, DIRECTOR OF DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION; ACCOMPANIED BY NATHANIEL GOLDFINGER, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH; AND RUDOLPH OSWALD, ECONOMIST, DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH

Mr. MEIKLEJOHN. I do want to express Mr. Biemiller's regret at not being able to be here. He is unavoidably absent. He is on his way to New York to attend the funeral of Mrs. Wagner with President Johnson, and he asked me to express his regrets that he is unable to be here.

I am going to read his statement for him, Mr. Chairman, but first, I would like to ask my associates here to identify themselves. This is Mr. Goldfinger.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Mr. Goldfinger is an old friend, too.

Mr. MEIKLEJOHN. Yes, sir, and Mr. Oswald, also of the research department of the AFL-CIO.

34-421-64-pt. 1--11

I will read this as if it is Mr. Biemiller's statement, so it can go into the record as his statement.

Mr. Chairman, it will certainly come as no surprise to members of this subcommittee that we are here to urge broader coverage of the Fair Labor Standards Act. This has been the position of the AFLCIO since its founding convention in 1955. It has been reiterated time after time by succeeding conventions and by meetings of the executive council, including the most recent one which concluded last week.

I would like to offer for the record the resolution adopted by the executive council at its meeting in Miami.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Without objection, it will be included at this point in the record.

Mr. MEIKLEJOHN. Thank you.

(The resolution to be furnished follows:)

RESOLUTION BY THE AFL-CIO EXECUTIVE COUNCIL ON FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT, BAL HARBOUR, FLA., FEBRUARY 20, 1964

Immediate congressional action to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act is needed to improve the lot of low-wage American workers-as a fundamental step toward wiping out poverty.

Coverage of the act must be expanded to protect as many as possible of those workers still excluded from the law. Moreover, the minimum wage must be increased to $2 an hour, in order to provide workers with minimum incomes that more nearly approach a decent standard of American family living in 1964.

EXTEND COVERAGE

At present, 27 million of America's 44 million nonsupervisory, nongovernmental workers are covered by the Federal wage-hour law. Many low-wage workers, who need Government protection most are excluded from the law's coverage.

Fair Labor Standards Act protection should be extended to include 2 to 3 million additional workers now exempt or excluded from the law's coverage. These people work in restaurants, hotels, laundries, agricultural processing, cotton ginning, small logging operations, hospitals, and other health services, theaters, nonprofit organizations, and farms. Full protection also should be extended to all merchant seamen.

The action by Congress in 1961 in extending the law to 31⁄2 million retail and other employees showed that extended coverage is both feasible and beneficial. There is no evidence of adverse effects on prices or employment resulting from extending coverage to these previously unprotected workers. Instead, the effects were advantageous, as the wages of thousands of workers were raised and excessive hours of work were curtailed.

In 1961, Congress recognized that a gas station doing $250,000 worth of business is interstate commerce. So, too, Congress should recognize, now that any retail establishment, restaurant, hotel, or laundry doing $250.000 worth of business is also in interstate commerce. All such establishments, not merely those that are part of million dollar enterprises, should be covered by the provisions of the Federal wage-hour law.

Furthermore, the specific exemptions in the law should be removed for workers in small logging operations, as well as for certain agricultural processing workers including those engaged in cotton ginning.

Employees of hospitals and other health services, theaters, and nonprofit organizations also should be accorded the protection of the Fair Labor Standards Act. These Americans are among the lowest paid workers in the Nation, and thus are most in need of such protection.

REMOVE OVERTIME EXEMPTIONS

Many workers who now are accorded minimum wage protection under Fair Labor Standards Act, are exempted from the law's overtime protection.

Overtime exemptions for workers in gas stations and transportation industries, including those in local transit, should be removed. The hours standards which apply to other retail establishments should also apply to gas stations. Transportation employees, long covered by the act, have also been inequitably excluded from overtime protection.

Agricultural processing workers are particularly plagued with overlapping and duplicating overtime exemptions. These provisions that allow overtime

exemptions to agricultural processors should be removed.

RAISE MINIMUM TO $2

The minimum wage must be raised from $1.25 to $2 an hour. Such action by Congress would be a step in the right direction toward providing low-wage workers enough income for a decent living.

If poverty is to be eliminated for those Americans who are already employed, an increase of the minimum wage must be given top priority. Even a $2 hourly wage would provide a full-time worker with an income that is only slightly above the poverty level. But an increase of the minimum wage to $2 an hour would represent a significant step forward in the war against poverty for millions of workers and their families.

EARLY ACTION NEEDED

Therefore, we call upon Congress to enact promptly, amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act and to extend the act's coverage to millions of workers still excluded from its protection.

We are gratified that the House Subcommittee on Labor has scheduled continued hearings on the extension of Fair Labor Standards Act coverage. Since the subcommittee has already held hearings on such legislation, including regional hearings in the field, the hearings to be held in February and March can and should be concluded expeditiously so that the House of Representatives may be in a position to act at the earliest practicable date.

We further urge Congress to raise the minimum wage to $2 an hour.

Mr. MEIKLEJOHN. Mr. Chairman, we welcome the administration's proposals for extended coverage, as set forth in Congressman Roosevelt's bill, H.R. 9824. But we strongly urge the committee to go further along the road-the road that leads toward legal safeguards for those wage earners who are most in need of them.

Specifically, we ask that wage-and-hour protection be provided for some 2.7 million workers in 11 occupational groups; and that overtime coverage be given to nearly 2 million others, in 3 occupational groups, who are now covered only with respect to wages.

I have here, Mr. Chairman, and there is attached to the mimeographed material which you have already included in the record, a table which sets forth the number of workers in each category, and I ask that this be included in the record at this point.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. With no objection, so ordered.