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Show WMi MINIMUM WAGE OF $21 URGED BY UNIONS; LABOR HOLDS $16 A WEEK NOHNOOGIi Employers, on Other Hand, Move for Reduction From i Present Scale CITE LIVING COSTS Unions Declare Present Wage Disregards Women ! With Children SAN FRANCISCO. Cal . Jan. 24 n increase to $21.20 as the minimum; wage for women in California is pro-I pro-I posed ln a brief prepared by the State Federation of labor for submls- sion to the State Industrial commission commis-sion and made public today, j The present minimum wage Is $16 , and hearing will be held soon on nl i proposal by employers, that the wage. ; be reduced. The present wag", labor's brief 'holds, Is based on the needs of a self-ideppndnt self-ideppndnt wnmnn and the Industrial commission is urged to substitute a ! budget fixed on the basi.s of a wo-man wo-man with two dependents;. i In n budget submitted with the ' brief as showing minimum BUbsls-l ! tence costs an allowance of $4 a week is made for room and $8 for board, the latter figure being based, It is le-' clared, on cafeteria prices and "to l- low any working women to eat when' hungry." (NOTE California's minimum waj-'c law was brought to an l-sue when a large group of unemployed factory girls stormed the office of the commission In San Francisco recently pleading to be permitted to go to worl it "starvation1' wages rather than be j entirely without work and pay They had been denied employment on the grounds that the factory could not afford to operate If required to) pay wages, a? fixed by California statutes. stat-utes. The management said it could operate if a lower wage scale was fixed fix-ed The unemployed factory girls lu g ged to be permitted to accept wages below the standard fixed as tie low-, est upon which a woman couid live! respectfully The Union labor element on the' other hand, contended that factories, j can operate and pay the minimum wage. They charge that there is ai movement to force down the minimum wage by keeping factories closed.) i fin |