390
Keeping the same end in view, the preservation in a state of physical fitness of a number of young clerks on certain specified occasions, nothing remained for me but to recommend a graduated scale of overtime pay, out of which as a condition precedent, a meal was to be provided.
A $20 clerk's pay is 75 cents a day; if a scale of pay was to be granted to him for increasing his day from 5 to 12 hours it could hardly be less than $1.00, part, say 50 cents, to be spent in refreshment, and the other part he would be very thankful for, never having had anything before.
A man getting double the $20 man's pay should in fair justice get double his overtime pay. He could not eat double the amount, but if the principle of any remuneration is entertained it would be manifestly inequitable to give the senior clerk on $140 a month the same as the boy who joined today on $20.00; if the Government thinks it fair to give the one $1.00, I submit $3.00 for the other is not excessive.
On these grounds I advocated three broad lines: under $50.00 one dollar a day, under $100 two dollars, $100 and upwards three dollars.
Double pay on Sundays is, I further submit, not extravagant