The National War Labor Board set a new minimum wage last week for U.S. industry. The minimum: 55¢ an hour. The Board jacked up the wage floor from 50¢ simply by issuing a new definition of "substandard" wages, the same method it used to authorize raises to 50,000 textile workers a fortnight ago.
Although some 4,000,000 workers in the textile industry, Southern railroads, and service industries, etc. are now eligible for increases, WLB estimates that only about 750,000 may eventually get them. The reason: regional labor boards can hand out raises only if the increases do not boost retail prices...
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