White-Collar Victory

The U.S. white-collar worker, traditionally the forgotten man of labor, was remembered last week by the War Labor Board. WLB granted a wage raise, averaging $2.85 a week to 14,000 agents of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. The raise is retroactive--in some instances, to October 1942. Altogether, the company must plunk down approximately $860,000 in back pay.

This decision was a big victory for the C.I.O.'s United Office and Professional Workers. But this case is not expected to set a precedent for general wage raises for the 11,500,000 U.S. white-collar workers. Chief reasons: 1) they are not well enough organized to get their cases before the WLB; and 2) the wide variation of salaries and commissions among companies and employes within companies makes the application of any arbitrary, overall formula almost impossible.

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