EXCERPTS FROM STATEMENT BY PROFESSOR YALE BROZEN [A]pplication of the provisions of the proposed legislation to the employment of students would deny many students the opportunity for gainful employment, impair their educational opportunities, raise the costs of operations of many public and private colleges especially those outside of major metropolitan centers and force more college closings than have already occurred because of the consequent deterioration of their financial health. [A minimum wage] forces a great many [students] into poverty by causing unemployment. We have already seen job losses caused on some college campuses where student assisted union organizing campaigns have forced wage rates to $2.00 an hour and higher for student employees in dormitory and food service operations. The result has been to force these colleges to discontinue many of their on-premise food preparation operations. Instead of peeling and french cutting their own potatoe they have turned to the use of frozen, french cut potatoes prepared by machines in central processing plants. On those campuses where wage rates have moved to [a $2.00] level, bus boys are no longer hired to bus dishes. Students are now required to bus their own dishes in student cafeterias. College snack shops no longer operate sixteen hours a day. They have either discontinued operation or cut their hours to eight a day or less and close on Saturdays and Sundays with a consequent loss of jobs for the students they formerly employed. Incidentally, I should cite one instance where the discontinuance of a college snack shop operation caused such inconvenience to students that they petitioned the college administration for permission to reopen the shop as a student run operation. That shop now operates under student management with student volunteers whose wage is zero. Every category of college operation will feel the effects of an increased minimum wage for students. Library operations and hours will have to be curtailed. Student assistance for professorial research will be reduced. Secretarial services now manned by students will be reduced in ATTACHMENT C scope. Windows will be washed less frequently. Fewer ushers will be hired to assist patrons in finding their seats at college football and basketball games. Hours of operation of college swimming pools and gymnasia will have to be curtailed to economize on the use of more expensive student life guards and supervisors. Even with such economies, a rise in costs will occur which will force an increase in student fees and tuition at both publicly and privately operated colleges. Public schools as well as private schools have found it necessary to raise fees as costs have gone up. The result of increasing educational expenses is a restriction on educational opportunities both because of the rise in costs and because of a decline in the opportunities for earning from employment the funds required to meet some portion of the cost of attending college. One of the arguments made for a rise in the minimum wage is almost totally inapplicable to students. It has been argued that the present minimum wage does not provide enough income even with full time work to cross the poverty line of $3,968. However, two points should be recognized concerning this poverty line. It is a definition of the poverty line for a family of four in urban circumstances. Most students do not support families of four and a great many are attending colleges in small towns, not in high cost metropolitan areas. The present minimum wage provides an income well in excess of the poverty line for a single person, which most students are, even in urban areas. EXCERPTS FROM ARTICLE IN NATION'S BUSINESS OF SEPTEMBER, 1971, " "We hired girls for our College Boards, for example,' says C. V. Martin, board chairman [Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co., Chicago department store]. "They were sort of assistant clerks, models and fashion coordinators. We hired boys for jobs like stock boy or to work at our soda fountain. "But we didn't have nearly as many this summer as we did before. "One factor is the economy. minimum wage. adult jobs.' But another is the It's just too high for these marginal, non He adds: "It's a tragedy, on two counts. "Not only do young people lose the chance to earn some money. They also miss an opportunity to learn what it is like to work in a department store and perhaps decide they'd like to become merchants. "It was kind of a vocational training." p. 88 says "It [minimum wage] may help some workers, Prof. Charles T. Stewart, Jr., noted George Washington University economist. "But it doesn't help the marginal people the inexperienced, the unskilled or handicapped workers. "It hurts them. And teen-agers make up the largest pool of marginal workers in the nation." p. 89 Arthur F. Burns, now chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, once made the same point. In his book, "The Management of Prosperity," he said: "The ratio of the unemployment rate of teen-agers to that of male adults was invariably higher during the six months following an increase of the minimum wage than it was in the preceding half year." ATTACHMENT D even keel Then he posed this question. What would happen if the economy stayed on an A 25 per cent increase would hike white teen-age unemployment by as much as 8 per cent, he estimated. p. 89 "The man who is new on the job," he [Secretary Hodgson says, "is worth less than the man who is experienced. "The worker who is skilled is worth much more than the unskilled. And the mature adult who has disciplined himself to work is worth more to an employer than the youngster who hasn't. That's the way the world of work works. "We want to give an employer an incentive to give these younger people their first job. And the way to do it is to have a wage differential that makes hiring them attractive. ་་ p. 90 STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE ON S. 1861 and S. 1725 A BILL TO AMEND THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT OF 1938, AS AMENDED JUNE 8, 1973 The National Association of Manufacturers, speaking for American industry, welcomes this opportunity to present its view on the pending legislation. The policies which guide this Association's statement to Congress are based on the considered deliberations of our Board of Directors and our membership, consisting of manufacturing companies, of all sizes and in all sections of the country. These policies are prepared by a process of careful deliberation by committees composed of individual representatives of member companies. One bill under consideration, S. 1861, would raise the statutory minimum wage to an amount 25 percent above its present level ($2.00 over $1.60 per hour) sixty days after enactment, and 37.5 percent above its present level ($2.20 over $1.60 per hour) a year later. It would extend coverage of the minimum wage to 7 million new workers and repeal many wage or overtime exemptions that have. historically been recognized as necessary in marginally-profitable industries. Our We question the wisdom of the enactment of this legislation. opposition is based in part on considerations related to the present state of the U.S. economy and in part on past experience with legislation increasing the minimum wage. It is our belief that enactment of these proposals would be a mistake in national economic policy. STATE OF THE ECONOMY In the United States we have, at present, an unusual combination of economic problems, each of which would, in our judgment, be made worse by the proposed amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act, and as a consequence believe that this is not the time to raise the minimum wage or extend its |