James F. Byrnes

“ The difficulty arises from the inclusion of the $40 guaranty. The problem is whether the intention of the parties to set 67 cents an hour as the regular rate squares with their intention to guarantee a weekly income of $40. The Administrator's position is that these two objectives are inherently inconsistent and that the intention to fix the regular hourly rate at 67 cents is overridden by the intention to guarantee the $40 per week.
We cannot agree. In the first place, when an employee works more than 54 1/2 hours in a single week, he is admittedly entitled to more than the $40 guarantee. ”

“ The gist of the Administrator's objection to this interpretation is that both the basic rate and the overtime rate are so 'artificial' that the parties to the contract cannot fairly be supposed to have intended that it be so construed. It cannot be denied that the flexibility of the overtime rate is considerable, but this flexibility may well have been intended if it was the only means of securing uniformity in weekly income. Moreover, under the Administrator's interpretation, the regular rate in the example given is $40 divided by the number of hours worked each week. ”

“ Fixed salaries, as this Court agrees today in Missel's case, are to be reduced to hourly rates on the basis of a week as the unit of time. Belo's contract contains elements both of hourly wage and fixed weekly wage contracts. We come then to this point. Are the contracts here involved for weekly wages with variable hours or for hourly rates with time and a half of such rates for overtime? If the latter, respondent contends the Act has left him free to contract with his employees at such hourly regular rates as may be agreed upon, limited only by the minimum wage requirements. ”

“ Those in the mechanical departments work under a collective bargaining agreement and are not involved in the present dispute. The others, and particularly those in the newspaper business, work irregular hours. Prior to the effective date of the Act, October 24, 1938, respondent had been paying all but two or three of these employees more than the minimum wage required by the Act. They received vacations of approximately two weeks each year at full pay; special bonuses at the end of the year amounting to approximately one week's earnings ”

“ This policy is based upon a common sene recognition of the special problems confronting employer and employee in businesses where the work hours fluctuae from week to week and from day to day. Many such employees value the security of a regular weekly income. ”

“ The other officially approved arrangement is known as the 'pre-payment plan', and is also explained in Bulletin No. 4. Under this plan virtually the same arrangement as that which we have been using as an example can stand. ”