The Pay Cut: Walla Walla Clerks Face Salary Reductions
Postmaster General Payne orders immediate corrections to payroll irregularities; local employees see their wages slashed effective June 1.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Walla Walla, Washington — Postmaster General Payne this afternoon made public a letter addressed to First Assistant Wynne directing that compensation for assistant postmasters and clerks in certain first and second class postoffices be made to conform to the law. Compensation of assistants is fixed by law at 50 per cent of the postmaster's salary. This amount has been exceeded in 14 offices. Twenty-two clerks in 11 offices have been paid an excess. In 17 offices persons have been found to have been improperly designated. All of these irregularities are ordered corrected at once. The salary reductions take place the first of June.
In 1903, federal workers were not immune to bureaucratic austerity measures; when 'irregularities' in pay were discovered, the remedy was immediate cuts for the lowest-paid staff. This echoes modern debates over public sector wages and the tension between administrative compliance and fair compensation for government employees.
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