State Orders Everett Cannery to Pay Its Women
Washington's industrial welfare committee demands the Everett Fruit Products Company raise piece rates for several hundred women earning below the legal minimum.
The Industrial Welfare Committee has issued an order on the Everett Fruit Products Company at Everett demanding that the firm increase its piece rates for women employees. This ruling will affect about one-third of the women in the plant, who are being paid less than the minimum wage of $13.20 a week as required by law, also covering piece work, Edward Clifford, director of labor and industries, announced Saturday. The order will affect several hundred employees, and is understood to involve a considerable amount in back wages. The minimum was $15 a week, but an amendment later reduced it to $13.20.
“This ruling will affect about one-third of the women in the plant, who are being paid less than the minimum wage of $13.20 a week as required by law.”
A century ago Washington was already using a state wage floor to force a cannery to pay its women — and the fight was over piece rates that quietly undercut the legal minimum. The same argument resurfaces today in farm and food-processing work, where per-unit pay can hide sub-minimum earnings.
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