---
title: Railroad wage order (trunklines and shortlines)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/railroad-wage-order-department-of-labor-1942/
description: 'Text-only legal notice from the Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division: ''RAILROAD WAGE ORDER'' in large type.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Railroad wage order (trunklines and shortlines)

[![Railroad wage order, 1942 US poster: Text-only legal notice from the Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/railroad-wage-order-department-of-labor-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/railroad-wage-order-department-of-labor-1942.jpg)

# Railroad wage order (trunklines and shortlines)

Text-only legal notice from the Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division: 'RAILROAD WAGE ORDER' in large type, a 40-cent hourly minimum from 31 August 1942, penalties for violating employers, and definitions in small print, with two printed signatures. The technique is faint here; the closest is transfer, the official seal and signatures carrying the authority of the order.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Department of Labor • Wage and Hour Division
NEW YORK, N. Y.
RAILROAD
WAGE ORDER
(TRUNKLINES AND SHORTLINES)
Every employee employed by a railroad or a company engaged in allied operations as defined below shall be paid a wage of
NOT LESS THAN 40¢ AN HOUR
on and after August 31, 1942. The term "employee" includes Red Cap porters. Violating employers may be fined $10,000 for each offense. They may be imprisoned for six months (except in cases of first offenders). Discrimination against any employee for filing a suit or complaint is a violation. Complaints may be filed with any regional, branch, or field office of the Wage and Hour Division, or through the National Office, 165 West 46th Street, New York, N. Y. Employees may sue and recover twice the amount due them.
DEDUCTIONS
"Wage" paid to any employee includes the reasonable cost, as determined by the Administrator, to the employer of furnishing such employee with board, lodging, or other facilities, if such board, lodging, or other facilities are customarily furnished by such employer to his employees. The term "reasonable cost" is to be not more than the actual cost to the employer of the board, lodging, or other facilities.
Reasonable cost does not include a profit to the employer or to any affiliated person.
The term "wage" shall not include the cost of uniforms and of their laundering or other maintenance thereof where the occupation requires the employee to wear the uniform.
DEFINITION
For the purpose of this order, the term "Railroad Carrier Industry" means:
The industry carried on by any express company, sleeping car company or carrier by railroad, subject to Part I of the Interstate Commerce Act, and by any company which is directly or indirectly owned or controlled by one or more such carriers or under common control therewith, and which operates any equipment or facility or performs any service (except trucking service, casual service and the casual operation of equipment or facilities) in connection with the transportation of passengers or property by railroad, or the receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer in transit, refrigeration or icing, storage, or handling of property transported by railroad, and by any receiver, trustee, or other individual or body, judicial or otherwise, when in the possession of the property or operating all or any part of the business of any such carrier by railroad: Provided, however, That the term "railroad carrier industry" shall not include the industry carried on by any street, interurban, or suburban electric railway, unless such railway is operating as a part of a general steam-railroad system of transportation, but shall not exclude any part of the general steam-railroad system of transportation now or hereafter operated by any other motive power.
This notice shall be posted within thirty (30) days from the effective date of the Railroad Wage Order and maintained continuously in readable condition on all the usual and customary bulletin boards giving information to employees, and at all tool houses and supply rooms and at such other places as may be necessary to make it accessible to all employees. This notice which supersedes the previous notice for this industry, effective March 1, 1941, is not to be hidden by other papers or otherwise obscured from view.
[signature: Secretary of Labor]
SECRETARY OF LABOR
[signature: L. Metcalfe Walling]
ADMINISTRATOR
[imprint: U. S. Government Printing Office : 1942—O—478578]
```

[← Notice: Rags, Rope and String Must Not Be Destroyed, Thrown Away or Mixed With Refuse](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/rags-rope-string-salvage-order-notice-1942/) [Rationing safeguards your share →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/rationing-safeguards-your-share-opa-1942/)

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