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^ UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR FRANCES PERKINS, v, Secretary WOMEN’S BUREAU |? MA%Y ANDERSON.'Director OFFICE WORK IN RICHMOND ,1940 mu ^TES 05, Bulletin of the Women’s Bureau, No. 188-4 United States Government Printing Office Washington : 1942 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. U_ Yn A YAO Price IS cent! ^ CONTENTS Page Introduction 1 Demand for new office workers_______________________________________ 2 Beginners 2 Experienced workers 3 Extra workers3 Scope of detailed survey 3 Description of office work in Richmond’s outstanding industries_______ 4 State government 4 Manufacturing—Tobacco~~ 13 Character of office occupations 15 Occupational distribution 15 Education and experience of office workers 19 Educational status1" 19 Age and experience 19 Age and type of office 19 Number of positions held 21 Over-all experience and occupation 21 Experience and type of office 22 Earnings in 1940'__________________ ”1 24' Method of pay 24 Monthly rates by type of office_____________________ 25 women__1_________ iiii25 Men______________ 26 Distribution by rate 28 Monthly rates by occupation 30 Stenographic group____^ 30 Accounting group________________________ 32 Machine operators 32 Other clerks_____________________________________ 33 Clerks not elsewhere classified 35 Special office workers 35 Supervisory, executive, and clerical-professional 35 Distribution by rate 38 Weekly earnings compared with salary rates 38 Hours of work 40 Weekly hours40 Overtime work and pay___________________________________________40 Effect of experience and age on rates of pay_______________________________ 42 Monthly rates paid to beginners 42 Occupational experience and salary advancement 42 Type of office and salary advancement____________ 45 Age and salary, by type of office.--- 48 Age and salary, by occupation 50 Annual earnings 52 Regularity of employment 52 Annual earnings by type of office 52 Annual earnings by occupation 53 Personnel policies 57 Employment policies___ _ 57 Sex preferences________________________ 57 Marital status_________________________________________ _ _"Io8 Age-----------------------------------------------------------1----------------------- ::::::::: 58 Salary reviews 58 Dismissal________________________ 58 Vacations 59 Sick leave” 59 Insurance and hospitalization policies 59 Retirement policies~ 59 Richmond’s school facilities for training office workers 60 hi IV CONTENTS TABLES Page I. Number of offices scheduled, number of men and women they em ployed, and number of records secured, 1940, by type of office— Richmond..._* 3 II. Distribution by occupation of all employees reported, and predomi nance of men or of women in each occupation—Richmond________ 16 III. Number of women and men regular employees in the various types of office, by occupational group'—Richmond 17 IV. Age of employees by type of office—Richmond 20 V. Percent distribution of employees according to length of experience with present employer, by type of office—Richmond 22 VI. Average monthly salary rates of men and women regular employees in offices, 1940, by type of office—Richmond 28 VII. Percent distribution of men and women regular employees in offices according to monthly salary rate, 1940, by type of office—Richmond. 29 VIII. Average monthly salary rates of men and women regular employees in offices, 1940, by occupation—Richmond 31 IX. Percent distribution of men and women regular employees in offices according to monthly salary rate, 1940, by occupation—Richmond. 36 X. Average monthly salary of employees with over-all years of experience reported, by occupational group'—Richmond 44 XI. Average monthly salary according to length of service with present firm, by type of office—Richmond 46 XII. Average monthly salary of employees in the various age groups, by type of office—Richmond;_______________________________________ ____ 49 XIII. Average monthly salary of employees of various ages, by occupational group—Richmond 51 XIV. Percent distribution of employees according to annual earnings for 54 work in 48 weeks or more of 1939, by type of office—Richmond XV. Average annual earnings of employees who worked 48 weeks or more in 1939, by occupation—Richmond 56 CHARTS I. Proportion of women and of men in each of the chief occupations— II. Distribution of women and of men according to monthly salary rates, by occupation'—Richmond 37 Chart I.—PROPORTION OF WOMEN AND OF MEN IN EACH OF THE CHIEF OCCUPATIONS—RICHMOND [Each complete figure=5 percent] 100 percent - STENOGRAPHIC GROUP Secretary Stenographer Typlet and other ACCOUNTING GROUP Bookkeeper, hand Cashier, teller Audit, accounting, bookkeeping clerk MACHINE OPERATORS Bookkeeping and billing Calculating OTHER CLERKS Cost and production Yard clerk Order, stock, shipping Pay roll and timekeeper Statistical Record MMWMHOTTOMMt Transit Billing, statement, collection Checker IlMiUMIttllttWM Pile liiiowiittiiiMM Telephone OFFICE WORK IN RICHMOND, 1940 INTRODUCTION Richmond, the capital and largest city of Virginia, was chosen to represent the South Atlantic section in the office workers’ study. The natural trading location of the city, its importance as a manufac turing center, and its position as the State capital make it one of the leading industrial and commercial centers in this section. Tobacco, paper, printing, iron and steel, and rayon manufacturing predominate, but there are many other small industries in or near the city. In addition to its own population of 193,042, Richmond is re ported to service through its retail and wholesale facilities a trade area with approximately 600,000 people. To meet the needs of its manufactures and its trade, as well as its State, city, and Federal business, there are a number of financial institutions, many profes sional offices, the usual public utility and other facilities demanded in a metropolis. Richmond is served by six railroads, by steamship service, by airplane, and by motor-bus service. To carry on these many industrial and business activities, it is esti mated that there are 13,000 office employees. Government offers the largest single field of employment to such workers. Most of the centralized State offices are in Richmond, where more than 2,500 persons were employed in 1939, 1,800 of whom come within the defini tion of office workers used for this study. Federal offices, some of which have been developed since 1930, and the city and county offices bring the total of public office workers to almost 2,500 at time of survey. The next largest number are employed in manufacturing offices. While few manufacturing firms employ 50 or more office workers, the small numbers in over 300 establishments result in a total of more than 1,600 office workers employed by manufacturing companies. Insurance firms, including home offices, branch offices, and agencies, employ more than 1,400 office workers. Five Richmond banks each give employment to 50 or more workers. In addition to these large banks are a number employing fewer workers, as well as many in vestment, building and loan, and personal and chattel loan agencies. Together, these financial institutions give employment to over 1,200 workers. Several of the railroad and other public utility offices (elec tric, gas, telephone) employ in excess of 100, the total for railroads being approximately 1,300 and that for other utilities more than 600. The total of office workers in wholesale and retail distribution also is large, but in only a few such offices are 50 or more employed. The large total results from one or more office employees in the many retail and wholesale units in the city. The numbers employed in small offices are swelled further by the large number of small professional offices, real-estate offices, and non-profit-making agencies to be found in Richmond. 1 2 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 DEMAND FOR NEW OFFICE WORKERS The demand for new office workers in a particular area is not con stant but is affected by changes in general business conditions and by the turn-over of employees in the various firms. An increasing population and the extension or contraction of production in specific industries necessitate some readjustments in the composition of office forces. Between 1930 and 1940 the population of Richmond increased by 5}i percent, or somewhat less than the increase in the total popula tion in the United States. Since 1935, however, there have been substantial increases in manu facturing, commercial, and governmental activities in Richmond. According to the Census of Manufactures, the total number of workers employed in Richmond’s manufacturing industries increased by 11 percent between 1935 and 1939, but in wholesale trade the number of employees increased by 34 percent and in retail trade by 29 percent. The increase in retail sales by Richmond stores during this period was 36 percent. Other indications of the recent increase in business activities are given by the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, which reports that electric customers increased by 14 percent and business telephone connections by 22 percent during the period from 1936 to 1940. Important government agencies that have created demands for new office workers in recent years include the State Planning Board, the Unemployment Compensation Commission, the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and the Federal National Youth Ad ministration, W. P. A. clerical projects, and Wage and Hour district office. These increasing activities, in addition to replacements necessary for various reasons, make up the demand for new office 'workers. As used here, the term includes beginners entering office employment for the first time and experienced workers transferring to a specific firm from other firms or other localities. In 1939, it is estimated, all new em ployees hired comprised something over one-tenth of the total office force employed, or approximately 1,450 persons. The proportion of new employees in the total office force varies con siderably by type of office. Railroads and other public utility com panies generally have seniority promotion policies that tend to reduce the turn-over of workers, so these firms have smaller proportions of new office workers than are found elsewhere. In department and apparel stores approximately one-fourth of the office workers were first employed in 1939, and in finance and wholesale distribution about one-fifth are new employees. Beginners. Beginners, that is, persons entering office work for the first time, outnumbered the experienced workers taken on by a firm for the first time in 1939. They form, however, only 6 percent of the total num bers in Richmond offices. Beginners were taken on in relatively large proport ions by insurance companies and banks, department and apparel stores, but wholesale distributors and manufacturers also served as places in which to attain initial experience. 3 INTRODUCTION —RICHMOND Experienced workers. About two-fifths of the workers employed in new positions were persons with office experience. To what extent these had transferred from other positions or to what extent they had been unemployed when taken on is not known. Experienced persons found new em ployment in excess of beginners chiefly in manufacturing establish ments, in government offices, and in the mass of small offices included in the survey. Extra workers. Many firms find it necessary to employ extra office workers for short periods. Most of these are employed to substitute for regular em ployees on vacation, but in some offices there are periodic increases in the work to be done and additional workers must be hired. The firms reporting the use of extra or part-time workers had employed several hundred such workers in 1939. At the time of the survey there were 129 on the pay rolls. The firms were chiefly small offices, manufacturers, city and county government offices, and finance and insurance firms. The extra workers employed in finance, insurance, and small offices were largely stenographers, typists, PBX operators, file clerks, and messengers; those in city and county governments were typists; and those in manufacturing offices were stenographers, machine operators, billing clerks, file clerks, and information clerks. Railroads reported their extra employees as general clerks and in wholesale and retail trade such employees were stock clerks, stenographers, machine operators, cashiers, messengers, and general clerks. SCOPE OF DETAILED SURVEY A total of 186 offices employing 7,912 workers, were visited in the Richmond survey. In 5 establishments, comprising 2 railroads, a Table I.—Number of offices scheduled, number of men and women they employed, and number of records secured, 1940, by type of office—RICHMOND Number of men and women employed Employee records secured Num ber of offices sched uled Total Men All types. ______ ___________ 186 7,912 3,245 4,667 6,025 2.452 3, 573 59.3 Banks____________ ______ _________ Other finance ............................ .......... Insurance..... ..................................... . 8 14 17 877 134 721 482 62 203 395 72 518 877 134 721 482 62 203 395 72 518 45.0 53.7 71.8 ...... .................. 5 3 1,275 614 1,038 182 237 432 646 614 489 182 157 432 24.3 70.4 Printing and publishing.................. Tobacco____ ___ _____ ________ Other manufacturing............................ 16 5 18 217 167 537 49 108 268 168 59 269 217 167 537 49 108 268 168 59 269 77.4 35.3 50.1 Wholesale distributor, own goods__ Wholesale distributor, others’ goods. Department and apparel stores 15 11 12 272 219 284 156 90 22 116 129 262 272 219 284 156 90 22 116 129 262 42.6 58.9 92.3 Federal Government-.......................... State government City and county governments......... . 8 1 2 349 1,653 182 108 343 95 241 1,310 87 349 495 182 108 106 95 241 389 87 - 69.1 78.6 47.8 51 411 39 372 311 32 279 89.7 Type of office Railroads Other public utilities Other types of office 458912°—42——2 Wo men Women Total Men Num Percent ber of total 4 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 hospital, a school, and the State government office, employment records were obtained only for a representative sample of the employees but in the other cases the data covered all office workers. Thus personnel and pay-roll records were copied for 6,025 employees, or more than 45 percent of the estimated total of office workers m Richmond. Well over half the employees, 59 percent, were women. Though they comprised only about one-fourth of the workers in railroad offices and just over one-third of those in tobacco firms, nine-tenths or more of the employees in small offices and retail-store offices, and nearly eight-tenths of those in State government and printing and publishing offices, were women. Other types of office in which women outnum bered men are insurance, public utilities other than railroads, Federal Government, wholesale offices distributing other firms’ goods, finance, and manufacturing other than tobacco and printing and publishing. DESCRIPTION OF OFFICE WORK IN RICHMOND’S OUT STANDING INDUSTRIES State government. In Richmond the State government offers a larger field of office employment than does any other single type of business. The func tions of the State government probably touch all types of enterprise carried on by the people, and though many branches of the various departments are scattered throughout the State, the central admin istrative offices are in Richmond. A considerable proportion of the State employees are technical scientists, medical and social-service workers, engineers and mechanics, custodial workers, and investigators, inspectors, and officers engaged to insure compliance with legal standards and laws, none of whom are within the scope of this study. However, the majority of the more than 2,500 State workers in the Richmond offices are classed as execu tive and professional workers, engaged in planning, directing and coordinating the work of the various State offices, and clerical workers, engaged in preparing and keeping records and reports of the varied State activities or in other types of routine office work. Employees in the usual routine office work, such as messengers, mail and file clerks, typists, telephone operators and receptionists, stenographers, stock clerks, order clerks, clerks working on single records, and secretarial workers, are found in all the various offices. Much of the work in the State offices, however, requires persons who have training or experience in preparing and maintaining intricate financial and accounting records, who have a working knowledge of statistical and personnel principles and procedures, or who have knowledge of various laws that apply to State activities; the detailed duties and responsibilities of such workers vary with department, due to the different nature of work being carried on. According to the Register of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in September 1939 there were 2,081 employees in clerical positions, 415 in executive positions, 112 in fiscal examination and auditing positions, and 32 in statistical positions, and the majority of these are in the central administrative offices in Richmond. The Governor’s Office includes five divisions, as follows: Division of the Budget, Division of Grounds and Buildings, Division of Statutory Research and Planning, Division of Military Affairs, and Planning INTRODUCTION—RICHMOND 5 Board. Many employees in this branch, which forms the coordinating unit of the State government, are classed in various executive posi tions and do highly responsible and intricate types of work. In the Division oj the Budget they must have a working knowledge of pre paring and analyzing complex financial statements and be familiar with the accounting systems of the State, as they prepare the State budget from the estimates submitted by the various departments and agencies. They plan and maintain the central personnel files of State employees and the central inventory records of materials and supplies. Employees in the Division of Statutory Research and Planning should have a knowledge of State statutes and administrative regulations. The work of these employees consists of compiling and indexing State laws, collecting and preparing statistical data, and making special research studies for other information relating to State legislation, assisting in the drafting of bills, and checking typed drafts of bills and statutes for accuracy of typing and references. The duties of the clerical force in the Military Affairs Division also are varied. Some clerks are engaged to prepare and maintain special files and to issue orders relating to the status of the National Guard personnel. _ Others must be familiar with military terms and accounting forms in order to approve for payment and keep records of the accounts and pay rolls of the division. The storekeeping clerks must have a knowledge of military supplies and materials, as they are engaged in keeping inventory records, checking receipts of mate rials, filing requisitions, and requisitioning additional supplies to maintain sufficient stocks on hand. Special types of work in the Attorney General's Division of the Depart ment of Law requires employees who have a working knowledge of legal forms and terms and are familiar with court reports and other sources of authority on legal questions. Employees in the Motion Picture Censorship Division of the Law Department must have a knowledge of the State laws governing the censorship of motion pic tures, as they keep a record of the actions and censorships made by the board and of the reports of inspectors. In the various divisions of the Department of Finance the employees are largely trained or experienced in accounting, auditing, or general bookkeeping work. They should be familiar with the State budget system and with accounting and law as applied to the State system of accounts. Examples of the work include preparing and main taining records and accounts for the various State institutions; reviewing and recording cash receipts and disbursements; keeping inventory records and preparing inventory schedules, summaries, and expense distributions; receiving and accounting for receipts; receiving and recording warrants; auditing vouchers; and keeping a record of the budget. Much of the work is done on bookkeeping machines. The Department of Finance also includes the Division of Purchase and Printing and the Division of Motor Vehicles. Persons in the Pur chase and Printing Division who are in the responsible positions are required to have a knowledge of market conditions, current prices, traffic procedures, and of the various materials and supplies used in the department, as their work includes investigating and making records of sources of supply, preparing specifications, examining bids, and placing orders or making contract awards. 6 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 The Division of Motor Vehicles has a fairly large office force to do the wide variety of record, bookkeeping, and accounting work, and filing work in connection with administering the motor vehicle license, registration, and fuel tax laws, the licensing of bus lines and motor vehicles for hire, and the licensing of operators of motor vehicles. The more responsible employees, who have some supervisory duties, must have a good knowledge of State laws and regulations relating to motor vehicles and must be familiar with traffic laws and regulations and highway safety principles and practices. Other clerks are employed in more specialized types of record or bookkeeping work or in routine office work such as filing, mailing, or stenographic and typing jobs. A few examples describing the work of the various record-keeping employees follow: Hand posting of weekly accounts of licensing agents, branch offices, and tellers. Prepares monthly statements of these accounts. Keeps special fund accounts, writing check against them and reconciling bank statements. Window teller—Accepts, checks, and approves applications for certifi cates of title, duplicates, etc., and receives fees therefor. Issues licenses at window-—Accepts applications and issues transfers; delivers title certificates and receives fees; delivers fees to cashier. Examines and approves applications for refunds of gasoline tax. Issues duplicate titles, supplemental liens, etc., at window and from mail requests. Checks against files, checks forms for completeness and accuracy. Checks applications for operators’ and chauffeurs’ licenses and remittances recorded thereon. In charge of stolen-car records—Files reports on stolen and recovered cars, prepares monthly statements, prepares daily police bulletin on stolen cars and revocations of operators’ licenses. Auditing motor fuel dealers’ tax reports. In the Department of Taxation there are also many highly experi enced employees who are responsible for the administration of the various tax laws; these executive employees must have a good under standing of State tax laws, though some may become specialized in the administration of one particular tax law, as the corporation tax, the beverage tax, the inheritance and gift tax. They must have acquired the ability to apply the principles of accounting in inter preting the financial returns of individuals and corporations and the fixing and revising of assessments. Principal and senior office clerks in this department should have some knowledge of the State tax laws and a working knowledge of book keeping or accounting, as they do the routine of checking tax returns. They calculate percentage and depreciation of personal property of corporations for tax purposes, examine records of beverage companies, prepare assessment reports on the stocks of finance companies, and maintain and operate the complex files of the various tax records. Junior clerks make and verify single record entries, examine returns to sec that the blanks are properly filled, do simple file work, take care of incoming and outgoing mail, operate various types of office machines, and do other office work of a relatively simple nature. A large proportion of the employees of the Department of Education, particularly the division superintendents, rural supervisors, and the personnel of colleges and schools, are not employed in Richmond. However, several divisions are in Richmond and some of these employ an appreciable number of office workers. The Department of Educa tion sections scheduled include the administrative, maintenance of industrial rehabilitation, maintenance of libraries in public schools, INTRODUCTION-—RICHMOND 7 and two associated agencies, the board of examiners of graduate nurses and the real estate commission. The administrative staff evaluates the college records of applicants for teaching certificates and keeps a file of such records. It main tains the personnel records for the Department of Education and keeps the inventory records concerning the purchase and distribution of books and other supplies. It prepares annual reports on the operations of the department and makes research surveys on condi tions, operations, and transportation facilities at the various public schools. The office work in the other sections is largely keeping detailed records of the financial transactions of the office, requisitioning and keeping records of supplies and materials, making up the pay rolls, and other routine office work. Some workers in the library division are required to have experience in the handling of archive material as they are engaged in classifying, repairing, indexing, photostating, and filing original historical records; they must know how to operate a photostat machine and have a knowledge of binding old books and manuscripts. The Department of Public Welfare and the Department of Health perform numerous functions relating to the health of the public and to its physical and mental welfare. These departments are author ized to make and enforce rules and regulations concerning sanitary conditions in schools, State institutions, hotels, and other public places, and to investigate diseases and epidemics in the State and to find methods of preventing the spread of such diseases. They are to provide for the segregation and care of persons having contagious or infectious diseases, to maintain sanitariums for the treatment of tuberculosis and clinics for treating other diseases, and to appoint and supervise local health boards. They are charged with caring for dependent, neglected, and delinquent children, with handling cases of dependent and defective persons, with supervising mothers’ aid, veterans’ service, and public assistance programs, and with the opera tion of penal and other correctional institutions, State hospitals, and institutions for blind and deaf persons. They are required also to collect, compile, and analyze records of marriages, births, and deaths. These examples indicate the wide variety of duties which are carried on in the two departments, and though many divisions are scattered throughout the State, the administrative offices are in Richmond. A considerable proportion of the employees in the two departments are scientific, professional, and technical workers, such as physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, pharmacists, dentists, bacteriologists, laboratory technicians and workers, hospital attendants, nurses, social workers, prison guards and other prison attendants, mechanics, sanitary engineers, and many other specialized scientific workers. But each office requires the service of at least general office clerks for routine stenographic, record keeping, and filing work. The central administrative offices in Richmond also require many responsible office workers with specialized training and experience in order to coordinate the extensive financial, statistical, and personnel problems of such widespread organizations, a.nd to carry out research and publicity programs in educating the people to know of the many services available to them. 8 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 Secretarial, stenographic, and other general office clerks, as typists, file clerks, record clerks, and so forth, should be familiar with medical and social welfare terms and standards. Accounting, auditing, and bookkeeping workers, in addition to haying a working knowledge of accounting practices, must know the State fiscal procedures and the various laws relating to the distribution of funds to specific agencies and localities. These workers prepare estimates for the Bureau of the Budget, maintain detailed finance statistical records of all receipts and disbursements of funds, and prepare reports of such financial transactions. Statisticians and statistical clerks are engaged in assembling detailed reports of the activities of the various agencies and of compiling and tabulating the information to show the activities, progress, and achievements of agencies administering the various programs. The office employees engaged in planning the work, preparing the various forms for reporting data, and supervising the office force are generally classed as executive employees, but those in the lower executive classes are employed also on the more responsible types of clerical work. A considerable proportion of the clerical workers are in the more general office positions, reported as secretary, stenographer, steno grapher-secretary, stenographer-clerk, stenographer-typist, file-mail clerk, mail-messenger, stock-inventory clerk, stock-mail clerk, PBX operator, typist-record clerk, and office-machine operator (mimeo graph operator and key-punch and sorting-machine operator). Other clerks, however, are engaged in keeping various types of financial and statistical records. Examples of the work of these clerks follow: Department of Public Welfare: Statistical and audit clerk—hand posting of allotments and expenditures of public assistance funds. Keeps inventory records, receives goods from prison shops, checks and fills orders. . Requisitions and keeps records of disposal of clothing, books and supplies for clients (child welfare service). Writing case records and keeping card file on cases. In charge of setting-up and operation of statistical systems in institutions (hospitals) throughout State—involves records on 15,000 or more individuals, use of tabulating equipment. Department of Health: Keeps financial records of disbursements; checking expenses, vouchers, and so forth. ' Keeps records; compiles reports; incidental typing, filing, and pay-roll duties (Rural Health). Keeps records of, issues, and requests orders of clinic supplies, stationery, bulletins, instructions, and so forth (Tuberculosis Division). Indexes marriage reports, assists in searching records for birth certificates (Vital Statistics). Keeps a record of all requests for birth and death certificates; keeps record of money received for certificates (Vital Statistics). In charge of silver nitrate for prevention of blindness—keeps a record of silver nitrate and other supplies furnished to physicians and midwives each day. Types and keeps a list of physicians and midwives concerned with treatment of blindness. Keeps accounts from which vouchers are sent at end of year; opens reports of deaths and births mailed in (Vital Statistics). The Departments oj Agriculture and Immigration and of Conservation and Development also have many divisions outside of Richmond that INTRODUCTION---- RICHMOND 9 employ largely professional, scientific, technical, and other non clerical employees. However, the administrative offices in Richmond employ workers to plan and coordinate the work of the many divisions and agencies, to prepare and distribute the forms necessary to record the activities and progress of each unit, to set up and operate the central system of fiscal management of the departments, to receive and prepare statistical data regarding activities, and to disseminate information regarding the various laws being administered. The various classes of executive employees are responsible for planning and supervising the work of the two departments and do the more difficult work of preparing the budget estimates of expenditure and of preparing the publicity material to bo distributed. These employees are required to have experience in agriculture, marketing or conservation work, and to be familiar with the laws and regulations being administered in their departments. The detailed work in keeping records of investigations and in spections, of issuing and keeping records of permits, certificates, and licenses, and of recording samples received and tested at the labora tories, requires an appreciable number of clerical workers. Many of these clerical workers are employed as stenographers in small divisions and do all routine office work, but some are employed on specialized records, as keeping records of certificates issued and compuing statistics for the monthly bulletin concerning regulations of fertilizer control and analysis; keeping records of samples received at laboratory for chemical analysis and handling correspondence concerning the tests; receiving reports of investigations from weightsand-measures inspectors and preparing statistical data concerning such activities; preparing statistics concerning fish and game licenses issued; and recording other activities of the sections administering conservation regulations. The Department of Labor and Industry is charged with the enforce ment of labor laws and laws relating to the inspection of factories, commercial establishments, mines, and other places of business and with the collection and tabulation of statistics relating to employment and wages. The office executive supervises the force, prepares and keeps official records, and issues the notices, processes, and orders of the department. The statistician drafts questionnaires and survey and reporting forms for distribution to business establishments, compiles and analyzes the statistical data concerning employment hours of work and wages in the State, and prepares reports and articles for publication. The few clerical workers in this department do a variety of routine office jobs and assist the office supervisors, they keep books of expenditures, prepare the pay roll, do tvping and stenographic work, and make compilations of figures and computations and tabulations m connection with the statistical data obtained from business firms. The T nemployment Compensation Commission is a relatively new unit of the State government and is one of the most important offices * m ,• e viewpoint of offering employment to clerical workers. According to the State Register this agency had over 500 employees m September 1939, and a substantial proportion of them had been employed for only 1 or 2 years. Many of the employees are classed as executive or professional (attorneys, auditors, statisticians, and investigators) and these have 10 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 a wide variety of duties to perform. They assist the commissioners in supervising the activities involved in applying the State law and in cooperating with the Federal Government, they install and main tain the intricate record file systems for keeping pay-roll and contri bution reports and compensation claims, inform employers as to the requirements of the law and regulations, give aid to the commissioners in interpreting the law and in handling cases and law violations, compile and analyze statistical data concerning the coverage, benefits paid, and other activities, and prepare reports on this information, and prepare budget estimates and pay rolls for the agency. These employees are required to have considerable training and experience in their respective fields and a good knowledge of industrial employ ment conditions in the State. The large majority of employees in the Unemployment Compensa tion Commission are classed as clerical employees. A large and important group of clerks consists of file clerks, who are required to operate the complex system necessary to handle the numerous records used in conducting the compensation work. These clerks are engaged in posting employers’ names on the workers’ cards, filing addressing machine plates, filing employers’ folders and other data put in the folder when received, pulling folders for other clerks to use, filing claims data in claimants’ folders, filing benefit folders, assorting debit tickets by employer, arranging ledger cards and filing them, sorting and filing canceled checks, and other office filing duties. Other clerks are employed as stenographers, typists, messengers, and operators of office machines such as computing, key-punch, dupli cating, addressing, and bookkeeping machines. Another group of clerks are engaged in record-keeping work of a more difficult nature. These include accounting and audit clerks, statistical clerks, hand accounting and ledger clerks, and claims clerks, and it is essential that these workers have some training or experience in handling financial accounts and financial and statistical records; they should be familiar also with the terms and record forms and schedules involved in carrying out the work of the unemployment compensation program. These workers are engaged in verifying pay-roll and contribution reports and employees’ tax payments, interviewing claimants and reviewing their records, making computations on compensable claims, verifying listings to make corrections on claim ants’ warrants, compiling daily and monthly reports, checking pay orders for accuracy and completeness, verifying continued pay orders, checking claims with ledger cards to verify amount of earnings when contested, handling interstate claims, sorting and fifing canceled checks, maintaining daily bank balances, and compiling coverage and contri bution data, claims data by area, and other work of a related character. The Department of Workmen’s Compensation is authorized to approve agreements relating to compensation, to handle uncontested claims and arrange settlements, to hear contested cases and make reports of the hearings, to prepare data for the use of the commissioners in settling cases, to keep financial accounts of receipts and disburse ments, and to keep and report statistical data of coverage of agree ments, of claims, awards, and indemnities, and to maintain records of the activities and orders of the Commission. Much of the clerical work is of a technical nature requiring persons to have a knowledge of the State insurance law and to have experience INTRODUCTION—RICHMOND 11 or training in insurance methods and practices in order to review and approve agreements, examining them for amount of insurance, doc tor’s reports, employee coverage, and other pertinent data. The statistical work is quite complex and requires clerks with previous statistical experience or training; these clerks collect, compile, tabu late, and prepare reports relative to number and coverage of agree ments, the nature, frequency, and costs of industrial accidents, nature of settlement and amounts of compensation, number and nature of claims contested and decisions rendered, and they prepare special statistical reports to support legislative proposals. Stenographers and file and mail clerks should have some knowledge of industrial insurance terms and practices, as they handle office correspondence, send out notices, orders, and agreement forms and schedules, and keep the complex file system up to date by recording cancelations, expira tions, or other changes in the insurance agreements. The Division of Corporations also performs a variety of functions in regulating public service corporations and much of the work is of a highly technical nature. This division is charged with appraising and evaluating the properties of public service corporations for the purpose of assessing and taxing such companies and of regulating the rates that can be charged for their services; regulating the sale of securities; regulating motor vehicle carriers; and administering the laws and regulations relating to finance and insurance companies. Many of the employees are classed as executives and as professional and technical workers, such as auditors, accountants, statisticians, attorneys, engineers, investigators, and inspectors, and these are re quired to have extensive training and experience in their specialized fields. These do the more responsible work of reviewing and auditing l|le intricate financial statements, and examining for compliance w-ith the laws of banks and other finance companies, insurance and real estate companies, and public service corporations; making appraisals of fixed capital assets, plant construction, maintenance and operation of public utilities, reviewing and passing on qualifications of insurance companies and other corporations to receive licenses or charters to operate under Virginia laws; inspecting airports and landing fields and passing on applications for licenses for airmen and aircraft; assist ing in conducting hearings and making prosecutions for law violations; and preparing schedules, forms, and statement and order blanks that are used in carrying out the many duties of the department. The work of the clerical force also is varied, because of the many specialized records, orders, and notices relating to public utility and insurance rates, sale of securities, property valuations and assessments, licenses and charters, audits and account records, and the reports sent m by the various field investigators, which must be handled and filed, in addition to taking care of the usual routine office bookkeeping records, pay rolls, office correspondence, and statistical data. Many of the clerical workers do several of the routine office duties, particularly in the smaller divisions that employ only one or two clerks! and these are reported as secretary and stenographer, stenographerclerk, stenographer-typist, typist-clerk, record clerk and miscellaneous work, stenographer and file clerk, stenographer and general work, and other similar terms. However, others are engaged in keeping 458912°—42------ 3 12 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 specialized records or doing various specialized jobs. These include auditors employed to audit the public utility company reports, to investigate securities issues, and to receive and check tan ft and rate schedules of public utilities so that they comply with the require ments of the commission. , , Other clerks required to have some experience m accounting or statistical record work are engaged in making and certifying copies of corporation charters, keeping the weekly docket of hearings, and in dexing, filing, and mailing copies of all commission orders; checking proof and entering records of the dissolutions; reviewing applications and issuing licenses to operate under the securities law; checking and recording motor vehicle insurance fees; checking and filing renewal insurance policies for motor vehicles, checking qualifications and issuing licenses to insurance agents and solicitors and maintaining a file of such licenses; and verifying and coding classifications and pre mium charges on auto risks. . , „. , On the basis of number of employees the Department of Highways is by far the largest State department, with nearly 4 000 employees reported in 1939, and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control ranks third, with about 650 employees. The majority of employees are not engaged in clerical work or are not employed in Richmond, these include warehouse custodians, chemical scientists, inspection and enforcement investigators, and the personnel of the many State stores in the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the engi neers, mechanics, planning-survey statisticians, inspectors, and dis trict clerical workers in the Department of Highways. However, the central offices, including the administrative, licensing, merchandise record and warehouse, accounting and stock control, and press relations and statistics divisions in the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and the administration and engineering, and con trol warehouse and equipment divisions of the Department ol High ways, are in Richmond, and these employ an appreciable number ot executive, auditing, and clerical workers. , Employees in the various executive classes are required to nave considerable experience in specialized fields, such as accounting and auditing, merchandising, statistics, and markets and trade conditions relative to specified materials, and ability to coordinate the activities of an organization consisting of many small units scatteied through til© StSitG. . a i 17* The majority of the clerical workers in the Department oj Alcoholic Beverage Control are reported as secretaries, stenographers, typists, file clerks, mail clerks, and entry and record clerks, as a wide variety of records are checked and filed in the central office and a large amount of correspondence is necessary to conduct the business between the central account control and warehouse sections and the liquor manu facturers and distributors, the State liquor stores and investigators. The file system of this department is one of the most complex operated by any State office. , Other clerical workers reported include record clerks to keep cost price record book, to make up time sheets, compile weekly sales report, keep records of distribution of stock, audit finance reports sent in by State stores, keep records of receipts and disbursements, keep in ventory records of stocks in central warehouse, and compile statistical records of liquor prices, sales, licenses issued, and other activities ot INTRODUCTION—RICHMOND 13 the department. To facilitate the enormous amount of record-keep ing work, many employees operate office machines, such as bookkeeping, calculating, key-punch, sorting, duplicating, and_ addressing machines. A large proportion of the clerical workers in the Department of Highways also were reported as stenographers, stenographer-clerks, and typists; in addition to doing routine office work of handling correspondence, taking dictation, and typing and filing many had other record-keeping tasks, such as keeping records on maintenance and construction progress, preparing the pay roll, keeping personnel records, checking industrial accident claims, indexing information relating to deeds, writing quotations on inquiries for materials and supplies for which bids are to be taken, making record cards on projects let to contractors, and other similar jobs. Another group were reported as audit, accounting, cost-analysis, pay-roll and voucher clerks, and these are on more specialized records of auditing and checking maintenance, construction, and expense reports, supply bills, and vouchers, and checking and filing reports relating to bids, estimates, contracts, number and type of projects, and accidents. Examples of specific duties reported are making time and pay-roll audits; keeping records on claims cases and making invoices for payment of compensation, fire insurance, rentals, doctors’ bills, and attorney and witness fees; checking invoices and computing cost reports; keeping files of railroad grade crossings projects; posting to cost analysis sheets from field reports; reconciling bank statements with district ledgers; keeping records of toll tickets; keeping accounts for unit control of perpetual inventory; and keeping account books on valuation of materials and equipment. Other clerks are operators of bookkeeping, check-writing, and calculating machines, file clerks who operate the complex filing system, and stock clerks. Manufacturing—Tobacco. Among the manufacturing industries in Richmond the most important from the viewpoint of number of employees and value of product is tobacco. For this reason it is important to know something of the types of work this industry offers to clerical employees. In the present survey five plants were scheduled; of these, one was a leaf processing firm that purchased, blended, stemmed, and stored tobacco to be used by a different branch, two manufactured cigarettes, one produced cigars, and one made other types of tobacco products. Only one firm reported a departmental classification, but this firm also stated that clerical employees changed from job to job during the day. Generally speaking, stenographers, typists, mail clerks, file clerks, and PBX operators are employed in all firms to handle office corre spondence, take dictation, type letters, reports, and orders, and keep files of all records and reports relating to the business. Some firms employ computing-machine operators. Other clerks usually found in any large manufacturing concern comprise timekeepers and pay-roll clerks, social-security clerks to compute social-security payments, audit, account, and bookkeeping clerks, cost clerks and sales-ledger clerks to keep records of all receipts and disbursements, order and record clerks, invoice and billing clerks to record daily sales, to prepare and mail invoices covering shipments, and to prepare bills of lading to accompany the shipments. 14 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 For some clerical positions it is necessary to be familiar with the kinds of tobacco being processed and with terms and methods used in manufacturing. Receiving clerks and the clerks in the leaf-tobacco department weigh the leaf tobacco when it arrives at the plant to check that the auction tag shows the proper amount and kind in the lot, and keep a record of the different kinds and grades of tobacco in the department; storage clerks, stock and materials clerks, and inventory clerks keep records of the amount, kind, and grade, age, and exact position of each lot in the storage room, and make out floor and stock reports and check receipts and deliveries; and traffic clerks determine method of shipping and keep records of kind and amount of tobacco in each shipment and of the destination and the routing of each shipment. CHARACTER OF OFFICE OCCUPATIONS The occupational distribution of office workers is largely determined by the size of the firm and the nature of the business in which it is engaged. Small firms that employ only 1, 2, or 3 office clerks require persons familiar with all routine office work—taking dictation, typing, doing simple bookkeeping and keeping records peculiar to the specific kind of business. These employees usually are classed as stenographers or general office clerks. In large establishments there is a considerable degree of specializa tion of the office work and each employee has only one or a few closely related duties. Stenographic workers are employed in all types of office, but the larger firms employ such persons for one particular type of work, as secretary, stenographer, or typist, and ordinarily they are not required to be general all-round clerks. In the larger firms the stenographic workers usually are outnumbered by the spe cialized record-keeping clerks who work on the intricate production, cost, and financial records, involving accounting, statistical, tax, credit, and innumerable other kinds of work. OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION Most of the offices in Richmond are small firms. Three-fourths of the 186 scheduled employ fewer than 25 workers, and one-tenth have 25 and less than 50. Only 6 firms, in banking, insurance, rail road transportation, other public utilities, and State government, have more than 200 office workers. With so many small offices it is to be expected that stenographic workers would comprise an im portant part of the total force. More than one-fourth (28 percent) of the 5,437 regular office workers are in the stenographic group. Women generally are employed in those occupations and in Rich mond 94 percent of them are women. More than half of the men stenographers are in railroads, manufacturing other than tobacco and printing and publishing, and city and county governments. Almost one-fifth (18 percent) of the regular workers are in account ing occupations, including bookkeepers, audit, accounting, and book keeping clerks, cashiers and tellers. Practically three-fifths of this group, 57 percent, are men. In six types of office, women accounting workers outnumber men; these are insurance, “other public utilities,” printing and publishing, State government, retail-store offices, and the group of small offices. One in every 10 regular workers is employed as a machine operator. Bookkeeping and billing machines, calculating machines, and key punch and tabulating machines are operated chiefly by women, who comprise seven-tenths of all machine operators. More men than women operate duplicating machines and equal numbers of men and women use addressing machines. Banks, the unspecified publicutility group, and insurance offices employ the largest numbers of machine operators. 15 16 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 The term “other clerks” covers groups of 25 or more persons in a wide variety of occupations; many of these jobs are similar in the various types of office but they differ from one another sufficiently to make it not feasible to put them into specific classes. More than one-third (36 percent) of the regular workers are in this group; they are fairly evenly divided as to sex, 51 percent being men and 49 percent women. Table II.-—Distribution by occupation of all employees reported, and predominance of men or of women in each occupation—RICHMOND Total Occupation Women Men Num ber Percent of grand total Num ber Percent of group total Num ber All occupations.__________ ____________ Administrative, executive, clerical-professionaL_ Extra and part-time workers.._______________ Regular office workers_____ ______ ___________ 6, 025 459 129 5,437 100.0 7.6 2.1 90.2 3,573 66 114 3,393 59.3 14.4 88.4 62.4 2, 452 393 15 2, 044 Regular: Stenographic group..................... ........... ........... 1, 506 25.0 1, 423 94.5 83 5 5 Secretary. .................................................. . Stenographer....................... ......................... Typist and other....................................... 218 903 385 3.6 15.0 6.4 193 871 359 88.5 96.5 93.2 25 32 26 11.5 3,5 6.8 Accounting group..................................... .......... 997 16.5 432 43.3 565 56.7 Audit, accounting, bookkeeping clerk... Bookkeeper, hand__ ________________ _ Cashier, teller............................. ............. . 611 133 253 10.1 2.2 4.2 277 50 105 45.3 37.6 41.5 334 83 148 54.7 62.4 58.5 Machine operators.............................. .............. 556 9.2 391 70.3 165 29.7 Bookkeeping and billing.......................... Calculating________ _ ______ Other_______________________________ 254 175 127 4.2 2.9 2.1 157 157 77 61.8 89.7 60.6 97 18 50 38.2 10.3 39.4 Other clerks___________ _________________ 1,959 32.5 955 48.7 1,004 51.3 Billing, statement, collection___ ______ Checker______________ ______________ Claims examiner__ ____ _____ ________ Cost and production .______________ Credit.......................................... ............ . File_____ ______ ____________________ Mail_____ _________________________ Messenger.......... ..................................... . Order, stock, shipping. .... _______ Pay roll and timekeeper. Record...................... ................................... Statistical................................................. . Telephone. ................... ............................. Traffic and rate _______ __________ Bond and security................... .................... Transit Trouble dispatcher.............. ................. . Yard clerk___ ________ _____ ________ 151 119 62 75 72 223 57 105 193 119 121 133 143 70 70 124 31 91 2.5 2.0 1.0 1.2 1.2 3.7 .9 1.7 3.2 2.0 2.0 2.2 2.4 1.2 1.2 2.1 .5 1.5 88 92 17 3 33 182 10 5 53 56 63 66 138 2 35 72 26 14 58.3 77.3 27.4 4.0 45.8 81.6 17.5 4.8 27.5 47.1 52.1 49.6 96.5 2.9 50.0 58.1 (■) 15.4 63 27 45 72 39 41 47 100 140 63 58 67 5 68 35 52 5 77 41.7 22.7 72.5 96.0 54.2 18.4 82.5 95.2 72.5 52.9 47.9 50.4 3.5 97.1 50.0 41.9 (i) 84.6 Clerks not elsewhere classified_____ ______ Percent of group total 40.7 85.6 11.6 37.6 323 5.4 180 55.7 143 44.3 Finance and insurance Manufacturing and wholesale distributors__ ______ ____________ _____ _ Other types of office................................ . 104 1.7 58 55.8 46 44.2 83 136 1.4 2.3 40 82 48.2 60.3 43 54 51.8 39.7 Special office workers.......................................... 96 1.6 12 12.5 84 87.6 1 Percent not computed; base less than 50. 17 CHARACTER OF OCCUPATIONS—RICHMOND Table III.—Number of women and men regular employees in the various types of office, by occupational group—RICHMOND M en M en Women Women Women M en Women Women @ s o is Clerks not Other clerks (see elsewhere Special table II for classified (duties office specific depend on workers occupa type of tions) office) M en Ma chine opera tors M en Ac count ing group M en M en Women Total Steno graphic group 12 84 j Type of office N um ber of offices reportin Number of regular employees All types.............. ....... Banks Other finance..________ _ Insurance Railroads____ ____ ___ Other public utilities Printing and publishing... Tobacco Other manufacturing Wholesale distributor, own goods______ __________ Wholesale distributor, others’ goods................. _. Department and apparel stores.. ... Federal Government State government City and county governments.. _____ ... ____ Other types of office........... 186 3,393 2,044 1,423 83 432 565 391 165 955 1,004 8 14 17 5 3 16 5 18 377 71 499 154 397 160 59 263 402 50 151 421 152 41 96 233 152 37 186 78 97 59 19 138 7 2 7 21 9 1 2 12 153 14 70 205 71 14 75 154 30 2 35 33 15 113 133 53 1 11 127 72 47 12 8 1 246 227 377 12 87 93 34 159 199 2 51 69 254 73 28 37 128 38 135 16 23 43 33 28 156 66 43 14 12 4 13 19 37 23 10 43 16 64 17 12 38 81 1 15 15 9 3 180 143 28 11 136 8 197 29 135 36 24 63 3 21 10 15 23 12 11 6 9 5 34 36 6 18 81 1- 9 2 9 12 41 9 27 34 3 9 2 4 90 18 32 1 24 22 27 15 37 2 10 33 92 34 51 2 17 7 4 11 2 8 42 13 7 9 1 52 13 22 4 5 1 1 2 11 8 10 18 2 1 13 1 Many of these clerks, both men and women, are in occupations that require training or experience, such as claims examiners, cost, tax, rate, actuarial, statistical, and hilling clerks. Larger groups of men than of women are employed as record, stock, credit, and pay-roll clerks and timekeepers, and in unskilled work usuallj regarded as beginners’ jobs, such as messengers and as mail and transit clerks. The largest groups of women are file clerks, PBX operators, and transit clerks, and inform ation clerks and receptionists, but substantial numbers are checkers and record, stock, and pay-roll clerks. Another group doing various kinds of work are classed as “clerks not elsewhere classified.” They comprise employees for whom no specific occupation was reported or of whom there were too few (less than 25) in a single occupation to show separately. These have been tabulated according to the type of office in which employed. Six in every 100 regular employees are in this class, and not far from three-fifths of the total are women. The small groups for whom the occupations were reported are employed chiefly as board markers, coin-counter clerks, vault clerks, and cancelation or policy-change clerks in finance and insurance offices; as ticket sorters and equipment-repair and replace ment-record clerks in railroads; as ticket sorters, draftsmen, and direc tory clerks in other public-utility offices; as estimators, pricers, and production planners in manufacturing and wholesale offices; and as schedule clerks, copy handlers, and counter and circulation clerks in printing and publishing offices. 18 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 Another class is the special-worker group. It consists of employees whose primary duties are not of a clerical nature, since they are court clerks and reporters, purchasing agents, underwriters, loan interview ers, and others doing special and nonclerical work. Only 2 percent of the total office workers fall in this group and the majority of these are men. _ In addition to the regular office employees discussed, data were obtained for executive, administrative, and clerical-professional workers. The information regarding such employees in Richmond is incomplete, particularly so in regard to the professional workers. However, of the group scheduled, which comprises approximately 8per cent of the total, about four-fifths are in the various executive and supervisory positions, such as general manager, department and assist ant department head, office manager, chief clerk, executive secretary, and comptroller, and the others are accountants, auditors, actuaries, and statisticians. Professional and technical workers who were not included in this survey are attorneys, editors, advertising experts, doctors, pharmacists, chemists, dietitians, nurse-secretaries and super visors, and various engineers and other scientific workers. EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE OF OFFICE WORKERS In general, young people entering the labor market in recent years have at least finished grammar school and the majority have attended high school. Most of them have no experience in anv particular type of work and the extent of practical commercial courses offered by high schools is quite limited, consisting usually of typing, shorthand, and introductory bookkeeping. Many firms prefer to employ these young inexperienced people on beginning jobs, as messengers, mail and file clerks, typists, PBX oper ators, and information-desk clerks, and to have them get office experi ence in the one particular type of business. There are firms, on theother hand, that prefer to employ workers experienced in some specialized type of office work or who have had extensive training in courses offered by colleges or business and commercial schools. Educational status. Forty-six percent of the firms require that their new workers have a general education; 43 percent specify that they must have high-school education and 3 percent require college graduation. Sixteen percent of the firms require business or commercial school training in addition. Several other firms, including the various government offices, stated that educational requirements vary according to position to be filled. Age and experience. Age records were obtained for nearly all employees, but over-all office experience was reported for only about half of them, so a correl ation of age and experience has not been prepared. Generally, however, it is natural to expect older workers to have the longer work records. The largest group of the total of all women are under 25 years (29 percent, in contrast to men’s 24 percent) and the largest group of the total of all men are 40 and over (27 percent, in contrast to women’s 22 percent). Aside from these, the distribution by age is practically the same for the two sexes. Age and type of office. The age composition of employees varies greatly by typo of office. Older workers predominate in railroads, city and county governments, and banks, whereas wholesale firms, manufacturers, and “other finance,” “other public utilities,” and insurance offices employ con siderable numbers of young workers. More than half of the women in railroads are at least 40 years of age and more than half those in banks are 35 and over. In railroads, banks, printing and publishing, city, county, and State governments, in small offices, and the Federal Government the majority of women are 30 years old and over. In contrast, from one-half to more than three-fifths of the women in insurance, tobacco, wholesale trade, and the residual groups other finance, other public utilities, and other 458912°—42- 4 19 20 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 manufacturing, are under 30 years of age. In fact, over one-third of the women in wholesale offices, insurance, and the three residual groups are under 25. One-half of the men in railroad offices and nearly three-fifths (56 percent) in city and county government offices are 40 years old or more, and just over half in Federal Government are 35 or over. Other offices in which men of 30 or more predominate are banks, public utility offices other than railroads, wholesale offices distributing other firms’ goods, and State government offices. From 30 to 38 percent of the men in tobacco and “other manufacturing,” wholesale offices distribu ting other firms’ goods, and insurance offices and banks are under 25. Table IV.'—Age of employees, by type of office—RICHMOND Type of office Num ber of em ployees Under 20 re ported years Percent of employees whose age was— 25, under 30 years 20, under 25 years 30, under 35 years 35, under 40 years 40 years and over WOMEN Total.................................-........... 3, 380 6.6 22.6 17.0 17.6 13.9 22.3 Banks..... .................................................. Other finance------ -------- ---------------Insurance.......... .............-....................... Railroads_____ ____ _____ ____ ____ Other public utilities-.......................... Printing and publishing...................... Tobacco_______________ -.................. Other manufacturing-------------------Wholesale distributor, own goods. Wholesale distributor, others’ goods Department and apparel stores-----Federal Government--------------------State government------------------------City and county governments.......... Other types of office.................... ......... 377 70 498 152 397 160 59 262 113 127 243 227 373 68 254 6.6 11.4 10.0 1.3 9.8 3.1 6.8 7.6 8.8 12.6 4.1 5.7 1.1 8.8 4.3 17.8 27.1 26.1 4.6 26.7 19.4 23.7 28.6 31.0 21.3 27.2 20.3 19.3 13.2 24.0 10.3 21.4 13.5 5.9 14.1 12.5 20.3 25.2 19.5 17.3 18.5 22.5 24.7 17.6 17.7 12.5 15.7 18.1 6.6 23.9 21.3 18.6 19.1 15.9 15.7 16.9 15.4 19.3 13.2 20.5 18.8 11.4 14.7 27.6 13.1 15.6 6.8 7.3 10.6 13.4 12.8 11.5 12.9 19.1 11.8 34.0 12.9 17.7 53.9 12.3 28.1 23.7 12.2 14.2 19.7 20.6 24.7 22.8 27.9 21.7 MEN Total............................................. i 2, 040 5.9 18.5 17.8 17.7 13.6 26.5 Banks....................................................... Insurance............................................... Railroads________________________ Other public utilities........................ . Tobacco.................. ..............................Other manufacturing-------------------Wholesale distributor, own goods... Wholesale distributor, others’ goods. Federal Government................. .......... State government.......... ..................... City and county governments........... 402 151 420 152 95 233 133 72 87 92 73 10.2 13.2 1.9 5.2 4.2 4.3 6.8 2.8 4.6 21.9 24.5 6.7 17.8 26.3 26.2 20.3 30.6 11.5 17.4 6.8 17.7 19.9 3.8 26.3 20.0 29.6 27.8 15.3 14.9 28.3 4.1 20.1 21.9 14.3 15.1 20.0 17.2 16.5 15.3 17.2 18.5 15.1 13.2 7.9 23.8 8.6 11.6 9.4 12.8 11.1 12.6 9.8 16.4 16.9 12.6 49.5 27.0 17.9 13.3 15.8 25.0 39.1 26.1 56.2 1.4 1 Includes employees in other finance (49), printing and publishing (41), retail stores (12), and other types of offices (28), not shown separately. A correlation of age and occupation shows that 50 percent of the men and 52 percent of the women employed as stenographic clerks are under 30, but that 26 percent of the men so employed, in contrast to 19 percent of the women, are 40 or more; that 47 percent of the women and 53 percent of the men in accounting and bookkeeping jobs are 35 or more, most of those so reported being at least 40; and that only 51 percent of the women machine operators, in contrast to 75 percent of the men in such jobs, are under 30, the majority in each case being under 25. EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE---- RICHMOND 21 Where clerks other than those specified are concerned, in general larger proportions of men than of women are under 30. For example, 60 percent of the men in finance and insurance together, in contrast to 39 percent of the women, are under 30, and 25 percent of the women but only 12 percent of the men are as much as 40. Number of positions held. A considerable proportion of the employees for whom over-all and variety of experience were reported, 56 percent of the 1,568 women and 44 percent of the 1,017 men, had held office positions in more than one firm. This was particularly so in the case of women who had been employed for 3 or more years, almost two-thirds having been employed by other firms. Of the men employed for less than 10 years, only three-tenths had worked with 2 or more firms. The great majority of women with less than 3 years of office experi ence had been employed by only 1 firm, but 59 percent of the 503 women with 3 and less than 10 years of office experience, and 66 per cent of the women and 55 percent of the men who had been working for 10 or more years, had worked for 2 or more firms. Less than onesixth of the women, but one-fourth of the men, had seen continuous service in 1 firm for 10 or more years. Over-all experience and occupation. The large majority of office workers in the Richmond firms visited had beeen working for a considerable time; about one-half of the women and three-fifths of the men had service records of 10 or more years, and just over one-sixth of the women and about one-tenth of the men had worked 5 and under 10 years. Only about one-eighth of each group had been working for less than 2 years. In several occupational classes large proportions of the women had been in office work for 10 or more years—59 percent of the accounting and bookkeeping clerks, 47 percent of the stenographic group, and 46 percent of the machine operators. Of the clerks not elsewhere classified, 49 percent of those in various government offices and 40 percent of those in manufacturing and distribution had seen 10 or more years of service. Women with office experience of less than 3 years comprised 26 percent of the machine operators, but only 19 and 17 percent, respec tively, of the stenographic group and the bookkeeping and accounting group. No less than 74 percent of the men bookkeepers and accountants had office experience of 10 or more years, and 63 percent of the steno graphic group also were so reported; but men machine operators who had worked so long comprised only 32 percent. Among the clerks not elsewhere classified, those with experience of 10 or more years were 90 percent of the total in railroads, 51 percent of that in wholesale distributing, and 40 and 39 percent, respectively, of those in govern ment and manufacturing. Of the special office workers, 68 percent had worked at least 10 years. Men with office experience of less than 3 years comprised 42 percent of the machine operators, but only 18 percent of the stenographic clerks and an even smaller proportion—9 percent—of the bookkeepers and accountants. Of the clerks not elsewhere classified, those with experi ence of less than 3 years comprised 30 percent of those in manufactur ing, 23 percent of those in wholesale distributing, 18 percent of those 22 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 in government, but only 6 percent of those in railroads. And less than 2}i percent of the special office workers had experience of under 3 years. Experience and type of office. The number of years employees had been working for the firm in which scheduled was reported for a total of 3,353 women and 1,998 men. Approximately 11 of every 100 women and 16 of every 100 men had been with one firm for 20 years or longer, and similar numbers had worked 15 and under 20 years. However, 34 of every 100 women and 27 of every 100 men had been working for less than 3 years. An examination of table V shows wide differences in the experience records of employees in the various types of office. Railroad offices employed the largest proportion of experienced workers, as threefourths of the women and nearly four-fifths of the men had been work ing for the present companies for 15 or more years and roughly only one-tenth of each group had been employed for less than 5 years. Table V.—Percent distribution of employees according to length of experience with present employer, by type of office—RICHMOND Percent employed by present firm— Total re Un port der ed 1 year Type of office 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20 un un un un un un un years der der der der der der der and 2 3 4 5 10 15 20 years years years years years years years over WOMEN All types................................... ... 3,353 14,6 9.6 9.3 8.1 6.5 16.5 14.0 10.6 10.8 376 71 497 141 397 157 57 263 113 127 238 218 376 68 254 13.3 25.4 16.7 5.7 20.4 12.1 15.8 24.7 18.6 11.8 11.8 17.9 .5 13.2 16.9 8.2 7.0 7.6 1.9 5.6 8.0 5.0 11.5 5.3 13.7 14.2 13.4 12.2 16.5 9.3 13.2 11.4 3.8 5.7 10.5 15.6 10.6 7. 1 10.9 9.6 18.9 8.8 17.7 4.3 14.1 6.6 1.4 5.5 7.6 5.3 6.8 9.7 10.2 9.2 14.2 13.8 2.9 9.4 5.1 5.6 4. 6 2.1 6.5 1.3 10.5 3.4 12.4 5.5 7.1 16.5 7.4 8.8 7.5 17.3 16.9 14.1 1.4 17.4 14.0 12.3 15.6 19.5 18.9 19.3 16.5 22.6 26.5 13.4 9.0 16.9 18.3 14.9 21.9 21.0 14.0 9. 1 6.2 16.5 14. 7 .9 14.4 13.2 12 6 16.8 7.0 11.9 29.1 10.8 15.3 14.0 4.2 6.2 7.1 6.7 3.2 9.3 10.3 7.9 24.2 1.4 12.1 45.4 8.6 11.5 12.3 6.8 2. 7 9.4 8.0 4.6 3.7 2.9 3.1 Banks Tobacco. __ _______ _______ - Other manufacturing- _ _____ Wholesale distributor, own goods Wholesale distributor, others’ goods___ Department and apparel stores.-____ Federal Government.______ __________ State government. . . City and county governments Other types of office............................... . MEN All types........................................... 1,998 Banks ___________ _____ ______ _____ Tobacco______________ ____ ______ _ Other manufacturing___ ________ .. Wholesale distributor, own goods. ---Wholesale distributor, others’ goods___ Federal Government_________ ____ ___ State government___ ____ ________ .. City and county governments 402 i 48 151 389 152 i 40 94 231 133 72 i 11 82 93 73 l 27 1 Percents not computed; base too small. 12.6 7.0 7.7 7.5 6. 1 13.1 13.8 16.5 15.9 14.4 8.5 5.7 7.0 4-7 16.9 13.9 14.2 14.7 11.9 5.4 13.2 6.0 .5 5.9 7.9 1.0 3.9 6.6 2. 1 13.8 3.3 2.1 7.2 16.6 1.5 13.8 20.5 8.0 23.0 14.6 40.1 9.2 12.6 39.3 9.9 11.7 16.9 17.3 16.7 2.1 15.6 6.8 6.9 4.3 12.6 12.8 2.8 12.8 7.8 4.5 6.9 4.3 5.6 5.3 9.7 12.8 13.4 18.0 15.3 22.3 11.7 18.0 11.1 10.6 7.8 11.3 13.9 19.1 8.7 6.0 16.7 17.1 1.1 11.0 9.8 8.6 2.7 14.6 24.7 5.5 9.8 12.9 6.8 31.7 11.8 6.8 17.1 23.7 19.2 7.5 21.9 4.3 17.8 5.4 8.2 EDUCATION AND EXPEDIENCE—RICHMOND 23 One-half of the women in banks and just over one-half of the men in tobacco offices had worked 10 or more years. Service records of 10 or more years were reported also for over two-fifths of both women and men in insurance and 1‘other public utility” offices, of the women in printing and publishing and tobacco offices, and of men in city and county government offices, banks, and wholesale offices distributing others’ goods. In contrast, roughly one-half both of men and of women in “other manufacturing offices, two-fifths of those in Federal Government offices, and two-fifths of those in wholesale offices distributing their own goods had been employed for less than 3 years, as had more than one-third of the women in other finance, retail stores, and city and county governments, and of the men in State government. EARNINGS IN 1940 The pay-roll data analyzed in this section wore obtained in 186 offices and cover a total of 6,025 employees—2,452 men and 3,573 women. The great majority of the total, 2,044 men and 3,393 women, are regu lar full-time employees. A relatively small number are employed in supervisory, administrative, and executive positions or are professional accountants and statisticians (393 men and 66 women), and a smaller group work on a part-time or extra basis (15 men and 114 women). METHOD OF PAY Most of the employees in the offices scheduled, roughly three-fourths of the total, are paid yearly or monthly rates of pay, but there is con siderable variation by type of office and certain classes pay some of their employees by the week or by the day. All employees in government offices and over 95 percent of those in banks and “other finance” offices are on yearly or monthly rates of pay. The proportion of employees who are paid these rates varies from seven-tenths to nine-tenths or more in manufacturing other than tobacco and printing, insurance offices,wholesale offices that distribute their own merchandise, electric, gas, and telephone offices, and the group of small offices. Nearly two-tliirds of both men and women in tobacco offices and nearly as large a proportion of the men in whole sale offices that distribute merchandise of other firms also are paid by the year or the month. In contrast, all but 1 of 258 office employees in department and apparel stores and more than three-fifths of both men and women in printing and publishing offices and of women in wholesale offices dis tributing merchandise of other firms are paid by the week. In railroad offices three-fifths of the women are paid weekly rates, but a similar proportion of the men are on a daily rate of pay. The proportion of men and women in each type of office who are paid yearly or monthly rates of pay follows: Type of office Percent of employees with monthly or year ly rates of pay Women City and county governments---------- -------------------------------------- -------------------- 1 Percent not computed; base less than 50. 24 100.0 100.0 100.0 99.7 95.8 88.2 86.1 72.5 79.6 71.5 64.4 36.2 39.6 34.4 .4 Men 0) 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 « 0) 98.0 82.8 82.0 70.8 64.6 61.1 40.1 EARNINGS IN 1940—RICHMOND 25 In each type of office one or more persons are employed on a part time or extra basis. However, approximately three-fourths of the 129 such workers are employed in five types, as follows: Banks, insur ance, other public utilities,” and city and county governments, and the group of small offices. The largest group of these part-time or extra workers, just over two-fifths, are paid a weekly rate of pay; one-third are paid daily or hourly rates. MONTHLY RATES BY TYPE OF OFFICE The average salary paid to men in Richmond offices amounts to $133 a month, while women average $97. As in other cities studied, there are extremely wide variations in the average salaries of employees in the different types of office, and also in the proportion of employees m the relatively high- or low-paid occupations in the same types of office. Women. The average monthly salaries of women clerical workers range from less than $90 in retail department and apparel stores, insurance, small offices, and wholesale offices that handle other firms’ goods, to $110 m tobacco offices and to a high of $139 in railroad offices. Women employed in printing and publishing, in electric, gas, and telephone utilities, and in the various government offices have average salaries varying from $100 to $109; and those in banks and other finance, in manufacturing other than tobacco and printing, in whole sale offices distributing their own products, with averages at a lower level, varying from $92 to $98. The tables show for the Richmond offices the usual difference be tween men’s and women’s salaries. The average salary of women falls below the average of men by $10 to $20 a month in State government, small offices, printing and publishing, banks and other finance, and railroad offices, but the difference is over $30 to $50 in the wholesale offices, in manufacturing other than tobacco and printing and publish ing, and in Federal and city and county government offices. The amount of the average salaries in the various types of office is influenced to a considerable degree by the proportions of women employed in relatively high-wage or low-wage occupations. For example, more than one-half of the women in railroad offices, working mainly as stenographers, billing and statement clerks, and secretaries, have average salaries of more than $140 a month; and no occupational group of 5 or more women averages so little as $120. In tobacco offices over one-third of the small group of women, including stenographers and pay-roll clerks, average more than $12o’ but nearly as many are machine operators and PBX operators with averages below $100. In the various government offices also there are fairly large numbers of women in both high-wage and low-wage occupations. Nearly onefifth of the women in Federal offices are secretaries and bookkeeping or other record clerks with average salaries of about $130 and over, but nearly one-fourth are typists and file clerks averaging $94 and $93. In State offices, which rank next in the wage scale, about one-tenth of the women are secretaries and statistical and tax clerks, with sala ries of about $120 and over, and one-fourth are typists and file clerks 26 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 averaging about $90. More than a third (36 percent) of the women in State offices are stenographers, and these average $107 a month. One-fourth in city and county offices are secretaries and special office workers, who average over $120, but nearly as large a group are typists, who average only $78. In department and apparel store offices over two-fifths of the women work as cashiers, audit clerks, correspondence clerks, claims examiners, ledger clerks, and typists, with average salaries varying downward from $78 to $65. Only one occupational group with five or more women averages as much as $100; these are secretaries. In small offices, also, several occupational groups, with about onelialf of the women, have salaries varying from $66 to $79; these include PBX operators, typists, machine operators, audit and ledger clerks, stenographers, and record clerks. Only two groups, secretaries and hand bookkeepers, with about one-fourth of the women, average as much as $100. There is considerable concentration of salaries in finance offices other than banks and in insurance offices. No group in finance with as many as five women averages more than $95 and no group averages less than $85. In insurance offices less than one-fourth, including check clerks, cashiers, ledger clerks, and secretaries, average more than $100, and just over one-third, chiefly typists, file and record clerks, and most machine operators, average less than $85. In whole sale offices distributing other firms’ goods, where the general average salary of women is fairly low, about one-third are stenographers, averaging $85, but nearly one-fourth are billing and statement clerks, typists, file clerks, and PBX operators, who average less than this. Banks, wholesale offices distributing their own goods, and manu facturing offices other than printing and publishing and tobacco are in an intermediate position, with average salaries approximating the general average for all women. The largest group of women in each of these, varying from one-fourth in wholesale offices to over onethird in manufacturing other than tobacco and printing and publish ing, are stenographers, with average salaries varying from $96 in wholesale offices to $108 in banks. However, one-fourth in each type of office, including mainly typists, most machine operators, file clerks, and billing and statement clerks in “other manufacturing” offices, have averages below $90. _ In electric, gas, and telephone offices and in printing and publishing offices there are significant numbers of women in both relatively highwage and low-wage occupations. More than one-fifth in printing and publishing are secretaries, hand bookkeepers, and cashiers, with average salaries of more than $115, but nearly as large a group, in cluding PBX operators, copy handling and directory clerks, and typists, average less than $85. Over one-fifth in the “other public utilities” group, including trouble dispatchers, statistical clerks, sec retaries, audit and accounting clerks, and cashiers, average more than $115, and one-fourth who are machine operators, ticket sorters, and stock clerks have averages below $85. Men. In the case of men, railroad offices have the highest average salary, followed by city and county governments and Federal Government; in each of these the group averages more than $150. More than EARNINGS IN 1940----RICHMOND 27 one-fourth of the men in railroad offices are in such high-wage occu pations as rate and statistical clerk, claims examiner, secretary, hand bookkeeper, cashier, and repair, replacement, and equipment record clerk, where average salaries are over $170; almost one-fifth are audit clerks, with an average of $164. Almost three-fifths of the small group of men in city and county government offices are special office workers, secretaries, hand book keepers, cashiers, and record clerks, and these groups have average salaries of $140 to almost $200. Slightly less than one-half of the men in Federal Government offices are special office workers, claims examiners, and audit and accounting clerks, with averages of more than $140. About one-sixth of the men in Federal offices are stock clerks, and these average $110. The three classes of government have few men employed as messengers, mail and file clerks, machine operators, or general office workers; as a rule these types of work require little or no skill or extensive training and are low-wage occu pations. Tobacco companies and wholesale offices that distribute their own goods pay somewhat lower salaries though more than the general average for all men. These offices also have substantial proportions of high-wage employees; nearly one-fifth of the men in the wholesale offices are hand bookkeepers, estimators, price and cost clerks, with average salaries of more than $160, and over one-fourth are credit and statistical clerks and cashiers, who average between $150 and $160. About one-fourth of the office men in tobacco companies are cost clerks, with an average salary of $159, and one-seventh are billing and statement clerks and hand bookkeepers, who average more than $170. Roughly one-fifth of the wholesale office men are stock, billing, and statement clerks, machine operators, and mail and file clerks, averaging less than $125, and about one-sixth in tobacco offices are timekeepers, accounting clerks, and general clerks, with averages of $110 or less. Men's lowest average salaries, $115 and less, are found in printing and publishing, State government, insurance, finance other than banks, and small offices. About one-fourth of the small group of men in printing and publishing offices are messengers and file clerks and half as many are circulation, counter, and directory clerks; these average below $85. Machine operators, file clerks, messengers, record and check clerks, with averages below $100, comprise approximately onefourth of the men in the State government offices, and about onefifth are accounting clerks and mail clerks with averages of $110 or less. In insurance offices, messengers, machine operators, and record clerks, mail and general and cancellation clerks, with average salaries of about $90 or less, make up two-fifths of the men clerical workers, and in finance offices other than banks, board markers, ledger clerks, and accounting clerks, with average salaries varying from $65 to $95, account for just over two-fifths of the men. In each of these four office classes only from about one-tenth to approximately threetenths of the men are employed in occupations where average salaries are as much as $140. The average salaries of men in banks and in wholesale offices dis tributing others’ goods also are relatively low. More than two-fifths of the large group of men in banks are transit clerks, machine operators, messengers, and mail and file clerks, and these have averages varying 458912°—42------5 28 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 downward from $94 to $60. A large group of men in the wholesale offices, nearly two-fiftlis, are in occupations—special office workers, pricing clerks, hand bookkeepers, secretaries, cashiers, and several groups of record clerks—averaging more than $140; however, approxi mately one-third, consisting chiefly of machine operators, messengers, mail and file clerks, average $100 or less, half of this group as low as $60. . The average salaries of men in manufacturing offices other than tobacco and printing and publishing and in electric, gas, and telephone offices are nearly as high as the general average for all men. About one-tenth of the men in manufacturing offices and one-seventh of those in the public-utility group are special office workers, hand bookkeepers, and cashiers or tellers who have average salaries at the levels of $160 to $200. In both classes there are fairly large groups of messengers, mail and file clerks, and machine operators with averages varying from $65 to $100. The average and quartile salaries of employees in each type of office are given in table VI. Table VI.—Average monthly salary rates of men and women regular employees in offices, 1940, by type of office—RICHMOND Men Women Average salary rates 1 Average salary rates 1 Type of office Total num ber of women Mean All types___________ _______ 3,393 $97 Quartiles Me First dian Third $78 Total num ber of men Mean Quartiles Me Third First dian $95 $114 2,044 $133 $96 $131 $164 402 50 151 116 109 113 85 76 66 115 111 94 141 134 150 Insurance______ _____ -.................... 377 71 499 98 92 85 80 80 66 100 89 81 111 101 101 Other public utilities------- --------— 154 397 139 101 126 80 137 101 152 118 421 152 159 129 136 101 161 132 185 155 Other manufacturing,...................... . 160 59 263 100 110 96 78 92 80 98 108 95 116 126 110 41 96 233 115 138 131 93 100 138 126 168 151 Wholesale distributor, own poods . Wholesale distributor, others' goods. Department and apparel stores----- 113 127 246 97 87 80 81 70 67 94 87 78 111 99 88 133 72 12 140 120 100 76 146 109 170 143 State government --------------City and county governments------- 227 377 69 109 104 103 86 86 80 105 100 100 125 115 121 87 93 73 151 114 153 105 100 135 150 110 151 175 126 176 254 86 66 81 100 28 54 157 135 153 174 231 218 171 211 260 Supervisory (not included above): All types-------- ------------------- i Mean—arithmetic average. First qaartile—one-fourth of the rates are below and three-fourths above the figure given; median—one-half are below and one-half above; third quartile—three-fourths are below and one-fourth above. Averages not computed on very small bases. Distribution by rate. The average is an excellent indicator of the general wage level in the various types of office, but it is also important to know to what extent the salaries of individuals fall above or below the general average and Table VII.—Percent distribution of men and women regular employees in offices according to monthly salary rate. 19^0, by type of office RICHMOND Women Type of office Percent1 of women with monthly salary rate of— Under $75 $75, under $100 $100, under $125 $125, under $150 $150 and over Total number of men Percent1 of men with monthly salary rate of— Under $75 $75, under $100 $100, under $125 $125, under $150 All types.................. .................. 3,393 20.3 34.2 27.6 12.7 5.1 2,044 10.8 14.9 17.5 20.1 Banks__________________ _________ Other finance--------- --------------------Insurance____ ____ —......................... 377 71 499 18.0 14.1 37. 1 27.3 52.1 35.7 41.6 23.9 19.0 10.3 8.5 5.0 2.6 16.7 28.5 19.9 18.0 23.2 22.4 1.4 3.2 402 50 151 18. 2 24.0 14. 6 Railroads................................... ........... . Other public utilities_____________ 154 397 2.6 55.2 17.6 29.2 421 152 2.4 9.9 3.1 12.5 10.2 21.1 Printing and publishing..................... Tobacco______ _______ ____ ______ Other manufacturing-------------------- 10.2 22.0 20.0 $150, under $200 $200 and over 9.0 8.6 18.7 16.0 13.9 11.3 23.3 25.0 48.7 28.3 12.4 3.3 4.2 19.9 24.9 13.0 34.8 160 59 263 20.6 6.8 14.4 33.8 35.6 45.2 26.9 28.8 26.6 11.9 18.6 11.8 41 96 233 10.4 1.9 6.0 16.7 18.5 15.6 21.9 11.5 25.3 32.3 18.0 13.5 10.3 Wholesale distributor, own goods ... Wholesale distributor, others’ goods. Department and apparel stores____ 113 127 246 15.0 33.9 44.3 41.6 41.7 43.1 25.7 19.7 15.9 3.1 1.8 1.6 133 72 5.3 23.6 19.5 13.9 11.3 22.2 15.0 15.3 39.1 13.9 11.1 Federal Government_____________ State government___________ _____ City and county governments........... 227 377 69 1.8 36.1 38.5 34.8 33. 5 40.6 29.0 4.6 14.9 21.5 5.5 12.6 36.6 13.7 17.2 32.3 21.9 33.3 6.5 43.8 3.0 7.8 27.7 Other types of office -------------- -----Supervisory (not included above): All types___________ ________ 13.0 11.0 35.8 54 1.9 11.1 2.8 6.9 1.2 .4 12 16.7 15.9 11.9 5.1 11.6 11.6 87 93 73 5.9 3.9 28 1.1 9.8 17.2 EARNINGS IN 1 9 4 0 — RICHMOND Total number of women Men 2.2 15.1 1 Percents not computed on very small bases. to cC 30 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 where the concentration of salaries occurs in the different offices. The details in regard to salary distribution are given in table VII. Roughly three-fifths of the men in railroad and city and county government offices earn $150 and over, but in State government offices less than one-tenth and in finance offices other than banks less than one-fifth earn as much as $150. The great majority, three-fifths, in insurance, other finance, and wholesale offices distributing other firms’ goods have salaries of less than $125. The contrast is even more striking among women. More than fourfifths in railroad offices, but less than one-twentieth in retail stores and wholesale offices distributing other firms’ goods, are paid salaries of $125 or more. Considerably more than four-fifths in the retailstore offices and two-thirds or more in “ other finance,” insurance, small offices, and wholesale offices distributing other firms’ goods are paid salaries of less than $100. MONTHLY RATES BY OCCUPATION Salary rates not only vary by type of office but vary among in dividuals by occupation. Consequently, a clearer understanding must be gained by ascertaining, first, the variations in salaries paid to employees doing different kinds of work, and second, the variations in the salaries of employees in different office classes who are engaged in the same type of work. Table YIII shows, for men and women in each occupational group, the mean salaries (computed for groups of 25 or more persons) and the quartile salaries (computed for groups of 50 or more). Stenographic group. Stenographic workers, chiefly secretaries, stenographers, and typists, are largely women; over two-fifths of all women office workers are in these occupations, more than one-fourth being stenographers. Secre taries are the highest-paid group of women, with an average salary of $126 a month. They have their highest average in railroad offices, $170, but also have relatively high averages in insurance offices, $155, State government, $148, and in “other public utilities,” $139. Banks, printing and publishing, and city, county, and Federal Governments pay their women secretaries salaries that average approximately $130. Their lowest averages, varying from $92 to $110, are in finance other than banks, retail-store offices, wholesale offices distributing their own goods, and small offices. _ _ . Women stenographers have their highest average salaries in railroad offices, $141, and in tobacco offices, $121; their lowest are in small offices, $77, retail-store offices, $84, and wholesale offices distributing others’ goods, $85. In the remaining 10 classes, stenographers average from $90 to $110, the lower amount in insurance and city and county governments and the higher amount in electric, gas, and telephone offices. . . Typists and other clerks (correspondence clerks and dictatingmachine transcribers) have an average salary of $83 a month. In railroad offices these women average $125, and in wholesale offices distributing their own goods they average $105. They average more than the general average, from $88 to $96, in “other public utilities,” and State and Federal Government offices, and slightly less, from $78 31 EARNINGS IN 19 40—RICHMOND Table VIII.—Average monthly isalary rates of men and women regular employees in offices, 194-0, by occupation—RICHMOND Women Occupation Men Average salary rates1 2 Total num Quartiles ber of wom Meap en Me Third First dian Average salary rates1 Total num ber of men Mean First 3,393 $97 $78 $95 $144 2,044 $133 Stenographic group: Secretary.................................. . Stenographer......... ................ ....... Typist and other----------- ------ - 193 871 359 126 102 83 100 85 69 126 101 81 150 120 96 25 32 26 167 111 126 Accounting group: • Audit, accounting, bookkeep ing clerk............ .......................... Bookkeeper, hand-----------------Cashier, teller.............................. 277 50 105 101 119 100 76 99 75 101 112 95 118 140 120 334 83 148 Machine operators: Bookkeeping and billing--------Calculating............ ....................... Other............................................... 157 157 77 91 95 89 77 80 72 88 92 881 101 105 101 88 92 103 85 77 71 97 82 126 101 33 182 81 87 75 86 97 53 56 63 66 138 87 99 93 108 85 71 79 75 87 74 79 98 87 109 83 106 116 113 126 100 35 72 26 100 94 122 80 101 110 All occupations Other clerks: Billing, statement, collection... Checker________________ ____ Claims examiner...................... . Cost and production................... Credit............................................ . File........................... .................... Mail......................... ................... Messenger....... ............................... Order, stock, shipping Pay roll and timekeeper........... Record......................................... Statistical....................................... Telephone................................ . Traffic and rate_______ _____ _ Bond and security................... , Transit_______ ______________ Trouble dispatcher Yard clerk................................... Clerks not elsewhere classified in— Finance and insurance Manufacturing and wholesale distributors _________ ____ Other types of office..................... 69 91 46 116 87 94 Special office workers......................... 12 Supervisors 2...... .................................. 54 $157 71 70 $135 91 90 $153 Quartiles Me dian Third $96 $131 $164 139 174 149 113 136 121 141 173 146 161 201 171 97 86 75 86 100 68 100 76 97 126 63 27 45 72 39 41 47 100 140 63 58 67 139 110 174 101 140 166 131 143 93 87 62 120 122 115 156 154 176 55 100 92 91 126 60 120 121 113 151 141 150 135 180 68 35 52 178 143 94 161 180 198 63 100 116 77 156 136 156 165 111 46 100 114 45 62 139 129 100 126 153 84 208 170 200 251 231 $218 $171 $211 $260 $174 1 Mean—arithmetic average. First quartile—one-fourth of the rates are below and three-fourths above the figure given; median—one-half are below and one-half above; third quartile—three-fourths are below and one-fourth above. Averages not computed on very small bases. 2 Not included in total. to $82, in city and county governments, banks, and other manufactur ing. Typists earn less than $70 a month in insurance and retail-store offices and in wholesale offices distributing others’ goods. Relatively few men, about one-twentieth of the total, hold steno graphic positions. The average salaries of these men vary from $111 for stenographers and $126 for typists and other clerks (correspondence clerks and dictating-macliine transcribers) to $167 for secretaries. Railroad offices pay the highest salaries, the average varying from $133 for stenographers to $213 for secretaries. City and county offices pay an average of $143 to their men secretaries and “other public utilities” 32 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 pay them an average of $131. facturing” averages $128. The typist group in “other manu Accounting group. Men included in this group have average salaries varying from $139 for the audit, accounting, and bookkeeping clerks and $149 for cashiers and tellers to $174 for hand bookkeepers. Men doing hand bookkeeping average $230 in tobacco offices, just over $200 in insur ance offices, and from nearly $180 down to $166 in city and county governments, wholesale offices distributing their own goods, banks, and printing and publishing offices. Such employees have their lowest salaries, from $131 to $159, in small offices, wholesale offices distributing others’ goods, and the residual groups other finance and other manufacturing. Railroad and insurance offices pay their cashiers just over $180, compared to the $172 average in city and county governments, over $160 in the electric, gas, and telephone offices, about $155 in wholesale offices distributing their own goods, and $140 in banks. The audit group also have their highest average in railroad offices, $155; these workers average close to $140 in Federal Government and banks, about $130 in wholesale offices distributing their own goods, and in “other public utility” and “other manufacturing,” and from $116 down to $91 in insurance and State government, wholesale offices distributing others’ goods, tobacco, and “other finance.” There are fewer women than men in the accounting occupations, and their salaries are considerably lower. Women cashiers and tellers average $100, the audit, accounting, and bookkeeping group average $101, and the hand bookkeepers $119. Printing and publishing and the “other public utilities” group pay their cashiers and their tellers just over $120, and banks and insurance offices average below $110, but in retail stores, other finance, and small offices cashiers average from less than $80 to $94. Hand bookkeepers average close to $120. in insurance, “other manufacturing,” and small offices, but only $86 in retail stores. Federal Government and railroad offices pay women audit, account ing, and bookkeeping clerks salaries that average about $135, or approximately $25 a month more than these clerks average in banks, State government, and electric, gas, and telephone offices, about $45 more than they earn in “other manufacturing,” insurance, and “other finance,” and about $60 more than they average in retail stores and small offices. Machine operators. Office-machine operators are largely women; they number 391, or 12 percent of all the office women included, while men operating office machines number 165, or about 8 percent of the male office force. The average of the salaries paid to women varies from $95 for the calculator operators to $91 for bookkeeping- and billing-machine operators and $89 for those operating other machines, such as ad dressing, duplicating, tabulating, key-punch, and check-writing machines. Women calculator operators have their highest salaries in railroad offices, nearly $140, followed by wholesale offices distributing their own goods, then State government, tobacco, and wholesale offices EARNINGS IN 1940—RICHMOND 33 distributing others’ goods; they are paid the least, below $90 in each case, in banks, “other manufacturing,” insurance, and the “other public utility” group. Women operating bookkeeping and billing machines average $100 or mbre in Federal Government, “other manu facturing,” and State government offices, just below $100 in printing and publishing, wholesale offices distributing others’ goods, and “other finance,” less than $90 in wholesale offices distributing their own goods, retail stores, and “other public utility” offices. Railroad offices have a considerably higher average, nearly $130, for women operating other types of office machines, followed by State govern ment, “other public utilities,” and “other manufacturing” offices, with averages below $100, insurance and bank offices with over $80, and small offices with an average of $75. Men operating bookkeeping and billing machines have an average of $86 a month. This is slightly less than the average for women operating such machines, due to the fact that four-fifths of the men are in banks and average $88, whereas only 7 percent of the women are in banks, where they average $70. Men operating all other types of machines have been tabulated together and these have an average varying from $87 to $106 in insurance, “other public utilities,” State government, and “other manufacturing,” but more than $125 in railroads. Other clerks. There are many other office employees, in a wide variety of occupa tions, and though a number of them have duties somewhat similar in different types of offices it is not practicable to group them in classes. Many of these employees are doing highly skilled or technical work, such as claims examiners, statistical, rate, and cost and production clerks, and are paid relatively high salaries comparable to those of the better-paid employees in other occupational groups. Others, how ever, are doing work that requires little or no experience, usually regarded as beginning occupations, and these are paid much lower salaries. Women tabulated as “other clerks” generally are not those paid at the higher wage levels. Women trouble dispatchers have much the highest average, $122, followed by statistical and tax clerks with $108. State government and the “other public utility” group pay a high average to statistical and tax clerks, but in banks and retail stores these workers earn less than the general average. Women record and transit clerks, pay-roll clerks and timekeepers, bond and security clerks, and billing, statement, and collection clerks arc in an intermediate position, with average salaries varying from $93 to $103. On the basis of groups of five or more employees, rail road, “other public utility,” Federal Government, and tobacco of fices usually pay salaries above the general average for women in these groups, and small offices, retail stores, printing and publishing, “other manufacturing,” and wholesale offices distributing others’ goods pay such workers less than the general average. Insurance offices pay billing, statement, and collection clerks more than the general average, but pay their bond and security and record clerks below such level. In banks the opposite is true; bond and security clerks are paid more and billing, statement, and collection clerks are paid less than the general averages for their respective groups. 34 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 Women “other clerks” in low-wage occupations include order, stock, and shipping clerks, file clerks, PBX operators, and check and credit clerks; these have average salaries varying from $87 down to $81. Tobacco, bank, and Federal Government offices usually pay these workers relatively good salaries; retail stores and wholesale offices distributing others’ goods pay them less than the general average. Insurance offices pay more than the average to check clerks, but less to file clerks and PBX operators. File and order, stock, and shipping clerks have relatively low average salaries and PBX operators a relatively high one in “other manufacturing”; but in the “other public utility” group file and check clerks have averages above the general averages and order, stock, and shipping clerks have one below the figure for all such clerks combined. There are 994 men classed as “other clerks.” The highest-paid groups, with average salaries of $155 to $178, are cost and production clerks, statistical and tax clerks, yard clerks, claims examiners, and traffic and rate clerks. Railroad offices pay these workers consider ably more than they average in other offices, varying from $186 to $200. The “other public utility” and “other manufacturing” offices, as also insurance and banks, pay statistical and tax clerks salaries that average below $150, and tobacco companies show an average of less than $150 for traffic and rate clerks. Claims examiners average over $210 in insurance offices and about $120 in those of State government. Cost and production clerks earn more than the general average in tobacco offices, but less in “other manufacturing,” these two types of office employing nearly nine-tenths of all such clerks reported. At a lower level in the wage scale, with average salaries varying from $143 down to $110, are credit clerks, bond and security clerks, billing, statement, and collection clerks, pay-roll clerks and time keepers, and order, stock, and shipping, record, and check clerks. Bond and security clerks in hanks earn more than the general average, but those in other finance offices earn less than such average. Credit clerks earn above the general average in wholesale offices distributing their own goods, but less than such average in banks. Billing, statement, and collection clerks have a high average in tobacco offices, one slightly lower in railroad offices, and one considerably less in “other manufacturing” and in banks. The group of “other public utility” offices pay more than the general average to pay-roll clerks and timekeepers, but such workers have lower average salaries in tobacco and “other manufacturing.” Order, stock, and shipping clerks, the largest of these occupational groups, have their highest averages in tobacco and “other manufacturing,” in wholesale offices distributing their own goods, and in State government, and their lowest in banks and insurance offices, wholesale offices distributing others’ goods, Federal Government, and the residual public utility offices. City and county government and “other public utility” offices pay high wages to record clerks, but in “other manufacturing” and insurance offices these clerks are below the general average. Check clerks have their highest average in railroad offices, but rela tively low averages in State government and insurance. I ho lowest-paid men are transit, file, and mail clerks, and messen gers; these have average earnings varying from $94 down to $62. EARNINGS IN 1940—RICHMOND 35 Railroads pay file and mail clerks considerably more .than the general average, but pay their messengers about the same as the general average. File clerks have relatively low averages in State govern ment, the “other manufacturing” group, and insurance offices. Mail clerks are paid best in State government, about the same as the general average in banks, and relatively poorly in the “other manu facturing” group. Messengers are paid more than the general average in “other manufacturing,” Federal Government, and “other public utilities,” and less than the general average in insurance, printing and publishing, and banks. Clerks not elsewhere classified. Office employees whose specific occupations were not reported or were in occupational groups of too few employees to show separately, numbering less than 25, are classified by type of office in which employed. Among the few men reported (table VIII), the average salaries of men vary from $100 in finance and insurance to $139 in manufacturing and wholesale distributing. In other types of office men have an average salary of $129. Women clerks not elsewhere classified have an average of $87 in manufacturing and wholesale offices, $91 in finance and insurance, and $94 in the other types of office. Special office workers. These employees are classed separately because usually they have some duties not strictly office clerical work. Eighty-four men but only 12 women are in this group. The men have an average salary of $208 a month, one-fourth of the group averaging just over $250. For certain offices the averages follow: Nearly $240 in Federal Govern ment and in wholesale offices distributing their own goods; something over $210 in manufacturing other than tobacco and printing and publishing and in retail stores; something over $190 in banks; and something over $170 in city and county governments, electric, gas, and telephone utilities, and insurance. The small group of women classed as special office workers, most of whom are in city, county, or State governments, average $135. Supervisory, executive, and clerical-professional. This includes supervisors, administrators, and executives, and such professionals as accountants and statisticians. The number for whom wage data are reported comprises 393 men and 66 women. The en tire group of men have an average salary of $243. By occupation the average varies from $218 for supervisors to $247 for accountants and to $312 for the administrators and executives. In the various types of office, men in the supervisory, administra tive, and professional group have averages as follows: Less than $200 in State government; $209 to $229 in wholesale offices distributing their own goods, other finance, banks, “other public utilities,” and city, county, and Federal Governments; roughly $250 in wholesale offices distributing others’ goods, retail trade, and railroad offices; over $260 in “other manufacturing,” about $290 in insurance and tobacco; nearly $325 in printing and publishing. The small group of women in this class, of whom just over fourfifths are supervisors, have an average of $171; supervisors alone aver age $157, Table IX. Percent distribution of men and women regular employees in offices according to monthly salary rate, 1940, by occupationRICHMOND Women Total of women All occupations 2_. Stenographic group: Secretary_________ _________________ Stenographer_______________________ Typist and other___________________ Accounting group: Audit, accounting, bookkeeping clerks Bookkeeper, hand__________________ Cashier, teller______________________ Machine operators: Bookkeeping and billing____________ Calculating______ __________________ Other_____ ______________ ______ ____ Other clerks: Billing, statement, collection Checker________ _ _ _ _____ Cost and production________ File_______ ____ ___________ Messenger_________________ Order, stock, shipping _____ Pay roll and timekeeper_____ Record_______ ____________ Statistical____ _____________ Telephone_________________ Traffic and rate_____________ Transit____________________ Yard clerk_________________ Clerks not elsewhere classified in Finance and insurance______ Other types of office________ Special office workers.. Supervisors 3 _______ 1 Percents not computed on very small bases. 3 Not included in total. Men Percent1 of women with monthly salary rate of— Percent1 of men with monthly salary rate of—■ number of men Under $75 $75, under $100 $100, under $125 $125, under $150 3,393 20.3 34.2 27.6 12.7 5.1 2,044 193 871 359 2.6 11.8 34.8 19.2 32.8 42.6 24.9 33.5 16.7 27.5 17.3 5.0 25.9 4.5 .8 25 32 26 277 50 105 22.4 4.0 23.8 20.9 22.0 29.5 35.4 38.0 24.8 13.4 14.0 11.4 7.9 22.0 10.5 157 157 77 20.4 17.2 27.3 47.8 45.2 40.3 23.6 24.8 24.7 7.0 10.2 7.8 1.3 2.5 88 92 22.7 29.3 29.5 43.5 20.5 20.7 21.6 6.5 5.7 $150 and over Under $75 $75, under $100 $100, under $125 $125, under $150 $150, under $200 10.8 14.9 17.5 20.1 27.7 9.0 334 83 148 3.0 1.4 10.8 1.2 9.5 17.7 12.0 15.5 26.6 22.9 25.0 36.8 33.7 36.5 5.1 30.1 12.2 97 24.7 48.5 24.7 2.1 68 14.7 36.8 22.1 23. 5 2.9 63 27 4.8 15.9 15.9 14.3 39.7 9. 5 2.8 15.3 27.8 43.1 11.1 .7 3.2 1.7 16.4 $200 and* over 182 23.6 52.2 19.2 3.8 1.1 41 53 56 63 66 138 35.8 19.6 22.2 10.6 28.3 34.0 30.4 41.3 27.3 44.9 22.6 28.6 27.0 28.8 23.9 3.8 16. 1 6.3 30.3 2.2 3.8 5.4 3.2 3.0 .7 140 63 .58 67 2.1 9.5 8.6 22.1 22.2 25.9 4.5 30.0 22.2 25.9 14.9 27.1 19.0 27.6 17.9 17.9 23.8 10.3 46.3 72 20.8 19.4 55.6 4.2 68 52 26.9 21.2 36. 5 2.6 7. 7 42.9 7. 7 49.4 17.7 21.0 27.4 25.8 3.2 .4 4.8 3.0 3.6 7.8 40.5 27.7 51. 2 61.0 69 116 12 54 | 29.0 30.2 24.6 25.9 _____ 1.9 0> 40.6 20.7 11.1 1.4 19.8 24.1 4.3 3.4 46 62 63.0 84 231 4.8 2 Total exceeds details due to the omission of occupations having as many as 50 for neither sex. 22.1 5.2 OFFICE W O RK AND OFFICE W O R K ER S IN 1 9 4 0 Occupation CO Chart II—DISTRIBUTION OF WOMEN AND OF MEN ACCORDING TO MONTHLY SALARY RATES, BY OCCUPATION—RICHMOND. STENOGRAPHIC GROUP Under *100 $100, under 3125 $125, under $150 □ mx 1 $150 and over i —I 100 percent Secretary Y/omen Stenographer Y/omen Typist and other Women AAAZAAm 'VAAAAA/AAA/AA im:iJ ACCOUNTING GROUP Women 1AAAAZ2222A22M Bookkeeper, hand Men Women AAA/AA/AA Cashier, teller Men Audit, accounting, bookkeeping clerk WZZZ1 Women Men vaa/aaaaaaaa: AA'AAA MACHINE OPERATORS Women Bookkeeping and billing Men Calculating Women OTHER CLERKS Women Order, stock, shipping Men _______ VAAAAAAAAA Women ' VAAAAAAAA ■ SMMHi V//////y//A~Z„. Pay roll and timekeeper Men V//////A VA//AAAAAAA Statistical .............1 V//y Women VAAAA/TAAa I Record Men Women Transit AA/AAAAAAa aa///////////////////a.\ Men Billing, statement, collection Checker File Women VAAAAAAX Telephone 37 38 OFFICE WORK A'ND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 Distribution by rate. Table IX gives in some detail the salary distribution of the employ ees. It is apparent that there is wide variation in concentration. In only two groups do as many as half the women fall in a $25 inter val; 52 percent of the women file clerks earn $75 and under $100 and 56 percent of the transit clerks earn $100 and under $125. More than two-fifths of the women machine operators, check and record clerks, and telephone operators earn $75 and under $100; and over one-third of the stenographers, hand bookkeepers, audit, accounting, and bookkeeping clerks, and over two-fifths of the finance and insur ance clerks not elsewhere classified, earn $100 and less than $125. The proportion of women with salaries of $150 or more varies from less than 2 percent of the telephone operators, typists, file clerks, and bookkeeping- and billing-machine operators to 22 percent of the hand bookkeepers and 26 percent of the secretaries. The concentration of men’s salaries is at a higher level; three-fifths of the traffic and rate clerks, more than two-fifths of the yard clerks, statistical clerks, cost and production clerks, and special office workers, and over one-third of the billing, statement, and collection clerks and the accounting group receive salaries of $150 and under $200. Just over one-half of the special office workers earn at least $200. Nearly nine-tenths of the messengers have salaries below $75. WEEKLY EARNINGS COMPARED WITH SALARY RATES The foregoing analysis has given the monthly salaries that office workers receive for full-time work. However, though office work generally is fairly steady, some employees may work overtime and others lose time during a month. For this reason a transcript was made of the actual amounts received by the employees for a oneweek pay period. Week’s earnings records were copied for 3,287 women and 1,767 men, the same numbers for whom the monthly salary rate was re ported in each type of office but railroad offices, where week’s earn ings records were available for only one-third of the employees for whom monthly rates were reported. The average earnings on the week’s pay roll are $30 for men and $22 for women. When these are increased to a monthly basis it is apparent that there is relatively little difference between earnings and rate: The earnings would equal $130 for men and $95 for women, instead of the respective rates of $133 and $97. The relative position of the different offices on the basis of average week’s earnings is the same as the relative position based on average monthly rate; that is, men have their highest week’s earnings in rail road offices followed by city and county governments, Federal Govern ment, wholesale offices distributing the irown products, and tobacco offices. Lowest average week’s earnings received by men are in small offices and in “other finance” and insurance offices. Women have their highest week’s earnings in railroads, followed by tobacco and the government offices; their lowest averages are in retail stores, insurance, small offices, wholesale offices distributing others’ goods, and “other finance.” EARNINGS IN 1940—RICHMOND 39 There are only 5 instances—men in printing and publishing, the distribution of others’ products, finance other than banks, and manu facturing, and women in railroad offices—where the actual earnings exceed the rate by as much as $3 a month. For the last named the difference was practically $4, for men in distribution it was well over $5, and for men in printing and publishing it was more than $6. The only significant cases of earnings falling below the rate are men in railroads, for whom the difference was $3, and men in the small offices, for whom it was about $8.50. Women employees Type of office Number All types............. ..................... Banks____ ____ __________________ Other finance____________________ Insurance________________________ Railroads.............. ............... . ........ Other public utilities ___________ Printing and publishing__________ Tobacco_________________________ Other manufacturing_________ Wholesale distributor, own goods . Wholesale distributor, others’ goods Department and apparel stores____ Federal Q overament_____________ State government________________ City and county governments_____ Other types of office______________ 1 Not computed; number too small. Average week's earnings Men employees Number Average week’s earnings 3,287 $22. 00 1,767 $30.00 377 71 499 48 397 160 59 263 113 127 246 227 377 69 254 22. 50 21. 50 19. 50 33. 00 23. 50 23. 00 25. 50 22. 50 22. 50 20. 50 18.50 25. 00 24.00 23.50 20.00 402 50 151 144 152 41 96 233 133 72 12 87 93 73 28 27.00 26.00 26. 00 36.00 30.00 28.00 32.00 31.00 32. 50 29.00 0) 35.00 26. ,50 35. 50 22. 50 HOURS OF WORK Weekly hours. There is considerable variety in the number of hours employees are expected to work in the different offices. However, just over half of the employees, 52 percent, employed in 77 of the 160 offices reporting, are on a regular schedule of 39 to 40 hours, and only 12 percent of the workers, employed in 40 offices, have regular working hours of more than 40. Fifteen percent of the workers, employed in 9 offices, have no schedule that is the same from week to week. Insurance offices maintain the most favorable workweek, as twothirds of the employees have a regular schedule of less than 37% hours and no one is on a schedule of more than 39 hours. Approximately half the employees in wholesale offices distributing their own goods and just over half those in electric, gas, and telephone offices are on a regular schedule of 37% hours. About three-fourths in tobacco offices and three-fifths in “other manufacturing” offices have a work week of over 35 and including 38 hours. The most unfavorable workweek is in railroad offices, where more than four-fifths of the employees have irregular work schedules, and in retail-store offices, where nearly nine-tenths are scheduled to work over 44 hours. The majority of the employees in banks (69 percent), in wholesale offices distributing others’ goods (64 percent), and in printing and publishing (62 percent) are expected to work 40 hours a week. All employees in State government offices have a regular schedule of 39% hours, and all Federal Government workers and over four-fifths of the city and county government workers have one of 39 hours. About four-fifths in the small-office group are scheduled to work 39 and under 40 hours. Overtime work and pay. The policy in regard to overtime work and pay was reported by 154 firms. Of these, 84 reported no overtime work, but in the other 70 there was some overtime during the year. In this latter group were 16 firms (in banks, other finance, insurance, printing and pub lishing, “other manufacturing,” retail stores, Federal Government, and small offices) in which employees worked overtime but received no compensation for such hours. Nine firms (in insurance, tobacco, “other manufacturing,” wholesale offices distributing their own goods, stores, and small offices) gave compensatory time off, and in 2 firms employees working overtime were given pay for an evening meal. Among the remaining 43 offices, the policy in 19 (in banks, other finance, “other public utilities,” printing and publishing, tobacco, other manufacturing, wholesale distributing of own goods, stores, and small offices) was to pay the regular rate of pay for overtime hours, and the policy in 24 (in banks, other finance, insurance, railroads, printing and' publishing, manufacturing other than tobacco and 40 HOUBS OF WORK---- RICHMOND 41 printing and publishing, and wholesale offices distributing own or others’ products) was to pay time and a half for overtime. Ihe amount of overtime paid for in the one-week pay period taken was reported by the ffims visited. The numbers of employees who received pay for overtime work are 120 women, or 4 percent of the total, and 137 men, or 7 percent of all men. No employee in insur ance, tobacco, retail stores, or city, county, and State governments received pay for overtime work in that week. Of the 120 women paid for overtime work, over seven-tenths were in banks and other finance and wholesale offices distributing own or others’ products, and over one-fifth were in printing and publishing and the “other manufacturing” group. Just over one-half of the 137 men were in banks and other finance and “other manufacturing,” and nearly three-tenths were in wholesale offices distributing own or others’ goods. The overtime hours worked by women were few, as 65 percent of the group were paid for less than 2 hours and 20 percent for 2 and under 4 hours. Only 7 percent of the group were paid for 6 or more hours of overtime; these were employed in printing and publishing, “other manufacturing,” wholesale distributing of others’ goods, and small offices. Though nearly one-tliird of the men were paid for less than 2 hours of overtime, it appears that men had considerably more overtime work than women had, since one-seventh were paid for as many as 10 hours and nearly one-fifth for 6 and under 10 hours. EFFECT OF EXPERIENCE AND AGE ON RATES OF PAY The general differences in salaries paid to employees in various offices and occupations have been discussed. However, experience and age have a significant bearing on the amount of the salaries paid to workers, and it is important to correlate these factors with the salary rates. Monthly rates paid to beginners. In the offices visited in Richmond, data were obtained for a total of 250 beginners—144 women and 106 men—who were working at the time of the survey. Wholesale offices employed the largest group, about one-sixth of all, but banks and other finance, “other manufac turing,” and government offices each employed about one-eighth of the total. Only three types of office, insurance, printing and pub lishing, and tobacco, had less than 5 percent. For the majority of the girls the beginning jobs were as stenogra phers, typists, machine operators, general office clerks, and telephone operators; about three-fourths of the total were in these occupations. Just over one-tenth were in occupations included in the accounting group of clerks. The remaining girls were employed as billing, statement, record, credit, order, shipping, pay-roll, and file clerks, as tube-room girls, and as messengers and receptionists. Wage data were reported for 134 girls and their average monthly salary was $67. About throe-fifths of the group earned $60 and under $80 and one-fourth earned less than $60. Only 3 percent received as much as $100 a month. One-third of the men were employed as messengers and somewhat more than one-third as machine operators, file clerks, general office clerks, timekeepers, shipping clerks, board markers, receptionists, and as statistical and transit clerks. The average monthly salary of the 100 men beginners with wage data reported was $74; more than half the group, 53 percent, had salaries of $60 and under $80, and 24 percent earned less than $60, but as many as 17 percent earned $100 and over. Percent with a beginning monthly rate of— Sex Number Average of monthly begin salary rate ners Under $50 $50, under $60 $60, under $70 $70, under $80 $80, under $90 $90, under $100 $67 74 4.5 5.0 20.9 19.0 35.1 37.0 23.9 16.0 9.0 4.0 3.7 2.0 Women Men........ .............. 134 100 $100 and over 3.0 17.0 Occupational experience and salary advancement. In many offices employment records in detail were not complete, but records of over-all office experience were available for a total of 42 EFFECT QF EXPERIENCE AND AGE----RICHMOND 43 2,753 employees, of whom 1,632 were women and 1,121 were men. As there are too few employees in the detailed occupations to show separately, employees doing somewhat similar types of work are combined into major groups. The classes used here are: The steno graphic workers, including secretaries, stenographers, typists, and a few dictating-machine transcribers and correspondence clerks; the accounting group, including hand bookkeepers, cashiers, tellers, and audit, accounting, and bookkeeping clerks; office-machine operators; and special office workers. All others are tabulated only by type of office. On examining table X it is apparent that there is an appreciable advance in the average salaries of employees as their experience in office work increases. Newly employed women, those with less than 2 years in office work, have an average salary of $71 a month; in contrast, women who have been working 5 but less than 10 years average $96, and those with 10 or more years of experience have an average of $115. Nearly one-half of the women are stenographic workers; with less than 2 years of office experience these average $72 a month, but as they gain in experience their average salary increases to $101 for the group at 5 and under 10 years and to $121 for the large group in office 10 or more years. The most experienced women in the accounting group, having at least 10 years of office work, average $50 a month more than the small group who have worked less than 3 years, and the most experienced machine operators average $27 a month more than those inexperienced. In the manufacturing and wholesale distributing offices, women doing the more general kinds of clerical work after 10 or more years of office experience average $39 more than clerks with less than 3 years of experience. In the other types of office such difference is $40. The men just starting office work average $77, or $13 less than the group with 1 and under 2 years of work, $31 less than those at 4 and under 5 years, and $84 a month less than the group with 10 or more years of experience. The average salary of $161 reported for the men who began work at least 10 years ago is due partly to the fact that a larger proportion of employees have advanced with experience in the higher-wage occupations. For example, nine-tenths of the residual group in railroad offices, seven-tenths of the accounting workers and special office workers, and over six-tenths of the stenographic workers have 10 or more years of experience, in contrast to two-fifths or less of the machine operators and of the residual group in finance and insurance and government offices. There are large differences in the salaries paid to men in the various experience groups. Those in the accounting group less than 3 years at work have an average salary $64 below the average for those 10 or more years at work, and the beginners among machine operators average nearly $40 a month less than the operators at work 5 or more years. Among the clerks classified only by type of office, those in manufacturing offices who have worked 10 or more years have an average over $70 higher than the average for clerks with less than 3 years of experience. 44 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 Table X.—Average monthly salary 1 of employees with over-all years of experience reported, by occupational group—RICHMOND Employees with over-all experience reported Occupational group Number and average salary * of employees whose experience since first office job was— Under 3 years 3, under 5 years 5, under 10 years 10 years and over Aver Num Aver Num Aver Num Aver Num Aver Num age age age age age ber salary ber salary ber salary ber salary ber salary WOMEN $100 326 $74 221 $87 283 $96 802 $115 104 103 98 148 37 50 76 68 82 116 21 26 89 145 31 27 101 94 100 370 127 86 121 118 109 51 77 11 6 9 25 79 110 135 148 91 97 91 27 20 33 72 15 24 13 24 25 22 96 44 66 80 111 106 107 All occupations ______ 1,632 Stenographic group------------Machine operators.......... ......... All other 1 in— Manufacturing and 779 216 189 67 89 4 4 MEN All occupations.............. Accounting group All other 2 in— Manufacturing 1,121 $138 203 $88 121 $103 121 40 308 66 148 146 92 7 28 28 96 74 4 25 10 97 4 26 7 46 206 166 98 85 65 97 163 126 135 91 7 8 25 12 16 , 12 100 117 19 12 49 23 15 21 41 204 1 no 2 $126 676 $161 120 25 229 21 173 160 128 16 186 65 50 34 22 169 163 160 119 28 219 4 27 13 20 10 10 1 Not computed for groups of less than 25. 1 Includes both “other clerks” and those “not elsewhere classified." Figures indicate that, with few exceptions, employees with corre sponding experience records have somewhat better salaries when they have remained with one firm than when they have worked for two or more employers. This difference is much less pronounced in the case of women than of men. Women who have been working 10 or more years average $4 a month more when their experience is with one firm than when they have worked for two or more employers, and those with 3 and less than 4 years of experience average $2 a month more when the work has been for one firm. However, the average salaries are the same for the groups with 2 and under 3 years of experience, and women who have had 5 and under 10 years of work in 2 or more firms average $8 a month more than the corresponding group working with one firm. The average salaries of men who have worked in only one firm exceed the averages of those who have worked in two or more firms by $4 a month when the experience is less than 3 years, by $17 a month when it is 3 and less than 5 years, by $8 when it is 5 and less than 10 years, and by $6 when the experience is 10 years or longer. EFFECT OF EXPERIENCE AND AGE----RICHMOND 45 Type of office and salary advancement. Records of the number of years that employees had worked in the office in which employed at time of survey were very nearly complete; they were available for 3,353 women and 1,998 men. The average monthly salaries of those employees, grouped according to number of years with the firm, are given in table XI. Though these figures show that continuous service for one firm is important in securing increases in salary, there are extremely wide differences between the beginners’ and the experienced workers’ salaries in the various types of office. Continuous service with the same firm appears to be more advanta geous to men than to women, as their salary advancement is much more rapid. For example, women who have worked in the same office for 20 or more years have an average monthly salary higher by $54 than the average of women employed for less than a year, but the difference between the average salaries of the corresponding groups of men is $98 a month. This probably is due to the fact that of the technical jobs, or jobs that require considerable experience, more are filled by men than by women, and advancement to these jobs from occupations that are more like women’s would account partly for the greater increases in the salaries of men. As previously noted, a much larger proportion of the men than of the women are in account ing and bookkeeping occupations, or in keeping various kinds of specialized records, and as special office workers. From the extreme right-hand columns of table XI it is possible to compare the average salaries of the newer employees and those 15 or more years in the service. For women such averages differ by $30 to $38 in stores, manufacturing other than printing and publishing and tobacco, and State government; by $40 to $45 in insurance, all offices combined, banks, and the residual group of other types of office; and by respectively $52 and $58 in printing and publishing and the “other public utilities” group. Among the men for whom comparisons are possible, the averages for the more experienced employees are $66 and $67 above those of recent employees in “other manufacturing” and “other public utilities,” $75 in all offices com bined, $79 in railroads, $83 in banks, and $111 in insurance. The actual change from the first to the present salary in an office was reported for 602 women and 522 men. For the great majority of these employees—83 percent of the women and 86 percent of the men—such change was an increase. For 15 percent of the women and 11 percent of the men there had been no change in salary; the majority of these had been with the firm less than 3 years. For less than 2 percent of the women and between 2 and 3 percent of the men the present salary was less than the first salary; of these 24 employees, 8 had worked for the firm 10 or more years and 7 had worked 5 and under 10 years. Of the 948 employees who had received increases in salaries, twofifths of the women and half of the men had been working for 10 or more years, but one-fourth of the women and one-fifth of the men had worked for less than 3 years, so it is to be expected that there would be wide variations in the amount of the increase in salary received by different individuals. Table XL—Average monthly salary 1 according to length of service with present firm, by type of office—RICHMOND 1,124 $78 716 $121 88 27 161 8 116 46 18 142 49 41 83 96 108 24 117 70 76 66 154 6 119 105 77 42 15 29 10 21 35 17 49 9 28 113 salary A verago N um ber 15 years and over Average salary Under 3 years N um ber N um ber Average salary Average salary N um ber 20 years and over | Average salary N um ber 10, under 15, under 20 years 15 years N um ber N um ber Average salary N um ber 5, under 10 years N um ber Num ber Average salary 4, under 5 years Average salary 3, under 4 years Average salary 2, under 3 years Average salary 1, under 2 years Average salary salary A vcrage N um ber Under 1 year WOMEN Total-......................................... Other types of office- ........ .............. ............ 3,353 71 497 141 397 157 57 263 113 127 238 218 376 68 254 $97 98 92 85 139 101 99 111 96 97 87 80 108 104 103 86 490 50 18 83 8 81 19 9 65 21 15 28 39 2 9 43 $72 67 62 68 79 63 93 67 322 31 5 38 20 18 3 36 16 17 29 36 35 9 29 $80 74 68 86 67 97 87 74 312 7 4 40 15 9 6 41 12 9 26 21 71 6 45 $85 72 96 74 91 78 271 16 10 33 2 22 12 3 18 11 13 22 31 52 2 24 $91 79 106 97 219 19 4 23 3 26 2 6 9 14 7 17 36 28 6 19 $92 90 104 99 553 $101 65 12 70 2 69 22 7 41 22 24 46 36 85 18 34 103 86 110 110 85 126 107 92 470 $107 34 12 91 21 87 33 8 24 7 21 35 2 54 9 32 107 96 116 107 88 115 102 355 $116 63 5 59 41 43 24 8 11 7 9 16 7 35 7 20 108 102 141 126 121 361 $126 91 1 60 64 34 18 7 18 3 12 19 10 14 2 8 116 109 147 134 72 76 86 83 75 68 96 90 72 106 145 130 128 117 98 128 117 O FFICE W O RK AND OFFICE W O R K ER S IN 1 9 4 0 Type ol office N um ber Number and average salary 1 of employees who had been with present firm— All em ployees reported MEN Total........................................................ 1,998 $132 Other manufacturing. _____ Wholesale distributor, own goods Wholesale distributor, others’ goods Department and apparel stores!........ ......... Federal Government... _______ State government____________ _________ City and county governments............... Other types of office_____ __ ' Not computed for groups of less than 25. 116 107 113 159 129 115 138 131 140 120 152 114 153 100 251 $80 58 8 18 21 20 9 63 39 23 12 3 14 1 8 6 98 139 $95 153 $113 149 $106 77 7 9 2 9 3 2 36 9 5 1 8 8 2 4 110 121 $122 262 $136 276 $140 329 $158 124 127 142 93 5 12 9 10 6 21 29 17 2 1 12 23 4 7 128 18 6 5 1 8 12 5 3 2 318 $178 59 115 168 543 $93 647 $168 11" 72 11G 155 l80~ 160 147 13 7 7 1 26 31 24 143 150 27 3 14 1 3 2 136 95 18 20 10 12 104 111’ 107 162 38 22 100 1 17 1 177 E FFE C T OF E X PE R IE N C E AND AGE ---- RICH M O N D Other finance..................................... . Insurance ______ ___________________ Railroads Other public utilities__________ ______ 402 48 151 389 152 40 94 231 133 72 11 82 93 73 27 -4 48 OFFICE WORK A'ND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 As shown in the following summary, the increase from the first to the present monthly salary in the same company was less than 50 percent for three-fifths of the women but was at least 100 percent for one-seventh of their group. Among the men, on the other hand, not far from one-half had received salary increases of 100 percent or more, and for only one-third was the increase less than 50 percent. Amount of salary increase Number of employees with in creases be under 100 per tween first Under 25 25, under 50, under 75, per cent and and present percent 50 percent 75 percent 100 cent over salaries Experience with present firm Percent of employees ...... 499 28.3 32.3 16.4 8.6 14.4 Under 3 years............. ................................... 120 88 87 204 68.3 33.0 16. 1 7.8 23.3 43.2 56.3 22.5 6.7 19.3 11.5 23.0 .8 4.5 10.3 14.2 5.7 32.4 Total women....................... . 5, under 10" years 10 years and over--------- ------ --------------- .8 .......... .................... 449 18.9 14.5 12.9 7.3 46.3 3, under 5 years 5, under 10 years ______________ ____ 10 years and over....................................... . 93 71 58 227 52. 7 19.7 15.5 5.7 34.4 25.4 10.3 4.0 12.9 29.6 10.3 8.4 11.3 19.0 6.2 14.1 44.8 75.8 Total men........ Age and salary, by type of office. The average monthly salary increases consistently with age of employees, and the increase is more rapid for men than for women. The youngest women, those under 20, have an average salary of $68 a month, compared to just over $100 for those who are 30 and under 35 and $116 for womeD of 40 or more, the last named a difference of $48. Men who are 40 or more years old average $171, or $107 above the average of men who are under 20. As shown in table XII, the extent of salary increase with age varies greatly with type of office. Comparing the women of 20 and under 25 years with those of 40 years and over—the largest groups and almost equal in size—the average salaries of the older women exceed the averages of the younger women by the following amounts: $20 and under $30 in stores, the residual “other types,” State government, and wholesalers distributing others’ goods; $30 and under $40 in “other manufacturing,” insurance, Federal Government, and the total; and $40 to $50 in banks, printing and publishing, and “other public utilities.” For the corresponding age groups of men the differences in average salary are much greater: $65 in railroads, $73 in other public utilities, $78 in “other manufacturing,” $81 in banks, and $84 for all offices combined. Table XII.—Average monthly salary 1 of employees in the various age groups, by type of office RICHMOND Number and average salary 1 of employees whose age wasTotal employees Type of office Aver age salary Num- Num salary Aver salary 25, under 30 years Num Numsalary WOMEN All types 3, 380 Banks Other finance Insurance. Railroads Other public utilities. Printing and publishing Tobacco.......... ............. Other maiiufacturing Wholesale distributor, own goods Wholesale distributor, others’ goods Department and apparel stores Federal Government State government . City and county governments Other types of office MEN All types Banks Other finance Insurance Railroads. Other public utilities Printing and publishing Tobacco_______ _ Other manufacturing Wholesale distributor, own goods Wholesale distributor, others’ goods Department and apparel stores Federal Government State government. City and county governments Other types of office 30, under 35 years salary 35, under 43 Num ber Aver age salary 40 years and over Num- A versalary E FFE C T OF E X PE R IE N C E AND AGE — RICH M O N D Num ber Under 20 years 20, under 25 CD ■ Not computed for groups of less than 25. 50 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 Age and salary, by occupation. There are wide variations with age in the occupational classes also he larger differences in salaries are found in the occupational groups in which some employees do highly technical or specialized work and others are in jobs requiring little or no skill or training; for example, the stenographic workers include both secretaries and typists, and the accounting group includes hand bookkeepers as well as audit, account ing, and bookkeeping workers. Women in the stenographic group who are 40 years old and over average $41 a month more than the larger group who are 20 and under -5. 1 he difference is $45 for the accounting clerks but only $29 for the machine operators. Among the women classed only by type of office, the older group averages $20 more than the younger group in government, $23 more in insurance, and $35 more in manufacturing and wholesale distribution and in the residual “other types.” For men, the difference between the younger and the older group is $78 for those m accounting, $80 for “other clerks” in manufacturing, and $87 tor the uncfassined clerks in finance and insurance. Table XIII.—Average monthly salary 1 of employees of various ages, by occupational group—RICHMOND Number and average salary 1 of employees whose age was— Employees reported 20, under 25 years ber Average salary Average salary ber Average salary ber 25, under 30 years 30, under 35 years Averber salary ber 35, under 40 years Aver- 40 years and over Average salary Number salary Number Aversalary WOMEN All occupations_________ ____ ... Stenographic group..------------------------------ -----------------M achine operators_______ ______________________ ______ All other 2 in— $97 223 $68 765 $79 573 $93 595 $102 471 $110 753 $116 1. 419 101 102 70 362 82 274 97 230 109 177 115 274 123 390 92 43 72 98 79 59 95 74 97 47 102 69 108 39 102 96 121 57 110 97 53 40 111 104 105 3, 380 19 19 208 90 54 76 35 70 89 24 86 35 75 91 16 26 83 111 104 4 2 I MEN All occupations.----------------- -------- ------------------------ All other 2 in— Finance and insurance _______________ 2,040 $133 120 82 564 165 133 146 92 1 5 15 282 228 268 133 129 105 103 161 125 130 121 115 50 6 22 8 4 9 84 208 • Not computed for groups of less than 25. Includes both “other clerks” and those “not elsewhere classified." 2 $64 57 377 $87 363 25 60 66 100 94 79 15 98 42 74 12 67 30 21 21 73 89 90 44 5 67 37 23 28 1 4 $119 362 119 100 14 105 23 111 127 134 117 51 31 52 29 21 18 18 $142 278 142 6 106 9 125 155 151 151 28 54 26 12 19 10 8 $155 540 $171 163 21 190 10 172 140 162 157 35 120 34 17 41 19 160 174 169 53 221 E FFE C T OF E X PE R IE N C E AND AGE ---- RICHM OND Occupational group 139 Cn k ANNUAL EARNINGS Regularity of employment. To show the amount of employment that office workers may expect on an annual basis, records of the number of weeks worked and the earnings received for such work were copied for all employees who had obtained employment prior to 1939. In general, employment is much steadier for office workers than for employees doing other kinds of work, even in the same firm. A larger number of women than of men lost some weeks of work in 1939, though in both cases the proportion of employees affected was less than 4 percent. All employees in finance offices other than banks and in city, county, and State government offices, and all men in printing and publishing, tobacco, wholesale, and retail-store offices, were paid for the 52 weeks (including paid vacations) of the year. With one exception, in no type of office were there more than 3 in 100 men who did not work throughout the year, but among the women there were 7 in 100 in “other manufacturing” and insurance offices, 9 in 100 in printing and publishing offices, and 11 in 100 in retail-store offices who lost some time during the year; most of these employees who missed time were in the class who worked 39 and under 52 weeks. Annual earnings by type of office. In 1939 the average annual earnings of women office workers in Richmond amounted to $1,210; one-seventh of the entire group had earnings of less than $900 and nearly one-eighth had as much as $1,600 for the year. Railroad offices show much the highest average for women, $1,674, followed by tobacco offices with an average of $1,362. In printing and publishing, the “other public utility” group, the various government and finance offices, and wholesale offices dis tributing their own goods, women’s average earnings were between $1,200 and $1,300 a year. Lowest average earnings were those in insurance and small offices and wholesale offices distributing others’ goods, where women averaged about $1,080 to $1,085, and in retailstore offices where they averaged $980. Railroad offices also show the highest average earnings for men, $1,938 for the year. Wholesale offices distributing their own goods and city and county and Federal Government offices paid men amounts that averaged from $1,801 to $1,898, and tobacco offices had an average of $1,736 a year. At the other extreme are finance and insurance offices, where men averaged less than $1,500, and State government offices, where they averaged $1,337, equivalent to just over $110 a month. There are wide differences in the annual earnings of individual em ployees in the various types of office. For example, less than onetenth of the women in retail-store offices and wholesale offices dis 52 ANNUAL EARNINGS—RICHMOND 53 tributing others’ goods earned as much as $1,500; in contrast, over one-fourth in city and county and Federal Government and in printing and publishing offices, and four-fifths in railroad offices, earned $1,500 or more. Less than 2 percent of the women in railroad offices, about 14 percent in other public utility offices and banks, but from 37 to 59 percent in wholesale offices distributing others’ goods, small offices, and retail offices had annual earnings of less than $1,000. The distribution of annual earnings show's a wider range for men than for women. Less than 10 percent of the men in State govern ment offices and 14 percent in banks, compared to 33 percent in city and county government offices and 45 percent in railroad offices, earned $2,000 or more. No man in city and county governments and only 2 percent in railroads, but 18 percent in banks and State govern ment and 29 percent in insurance, earned less than $1,000 a year. Annual earnings by occupation. On the basis of occupation, the highest-paid women.workers are the secretaries, who averaged $1,517 a year, and the hand bookkeepers, who averaged $1,452. Several groups, including cashiers, tellers, statistical clerks, billing, statement, and collection clerks, stenogra phers, audit, accounting, and bookkeeping clerks, transit clerks, cal culating-machine operators, unclassified clerks in “other offices,” and bond and interest clerks, averaged over $1,200 but less than $1,300, or just over $100 a month through the year. The lowest-paid women, with average earnings of about $1,050 down to $1,024, were the file clerks, the PBX operators, and the audit and check clerks. Typists and order, stock, and shipping clerks averaged $1,067. The average annual earnings of men varied from a low of $769 for messengers and $1,005 for bookkeeping- and billing-machine operators to more than $2,050 for claims examiners and hand bookkeepers, over $2,100 for traffic and rate clerks, and $2,430 for special office workers. Yard clerks, statistical clerks, secretaries, and unclassified clerks in manufacturing and distributing offices also had relatively high earn ings, their averages being above $1,800 a year. Table XIV.—Percent distribution 1 of employees according to annual earnings for work in 48 weeks or more of 1939, by type of office—RICHMOND Cn Percent1 of employees who worked 48 weeks or more in 1939 and earned— WOMEN All types----------- ------ ----------------------- Insurance _ ______ __ ------ 2, 539 $1, 210 _____ _ _ Department and apparel stores.._____________ ... Other types of office......................................... ............. 294 41 394 126 293 108 45 169 78 94 171 155 337 52 182 1, 247 l' 221 1/078 1, 674 1, 292 1, 296 1, 362 1,196 1, 215 1,086 '980 1, 286 1, 219 1,287 1,085 2.4 5.0 6.8 13.4 13.4 10.0 13.6 10.3 5.9 7.1 4.2 2.0 2. 4 5.1 6.1 14.6 9.9 20.1 20.7 5.4 8.5 1.7 2.7 9.5 7.4 13.2 16.2 .8 12. 3 9.3 9. 2 4.6 6.6 .8 18. 8 14.8 8.6 4.8 15. 7 12.0 4.8 11.9 9.6 6.5 3.6 23.8 7.8 8.3 2.0 13. 5 .9 5.1 9.2 14.0 1. 6 7.8 12.0 9.6 .3 3.8 4.6 3. 6 3. 9 14.9 18.7 2. 0 .3 1.9 15.3 5. 4 6. 4 9. 6 15.2 1. 9 .3 5.7 10.5 17. 2 8.9 10. 6 18.2 21. 9 14 2 20. 5 16.0 15.2 10. 3 16. 0 7. 7 18.1 9.9 7. 7 11.8 23.1 8. 5 7.0 16 8 11 8 3.8 6 5 5 9 7. 7 2.2 6.5 3.9 9. 6 17.0 15. 4 11.5 9. 6 4.9 15. 4 14.8 4.1 3 9 9. 6 7.1 4. 3 3.5 7. 7 3 0 7.7 3.8 2.4 1.4 1.2 0.5 0.3 .8 14. 3 1.0 11.1 1.3 7.1 .8 7 9 .5 .3 2.8 5.6 1 3 1.2 7 1 11. 5 3.3 2.8 1.2 .6 5.8 4.2 1.2 1.1 1.1 1.5 3.3 2.2 i. 9 .......... O FFICE W O RK AND OFFICE W ORKERS IN 1 9 4 0 Type of office MEN 1,625 $1, 663 1 Percents not computed where base less than 50. 1 Not computed; number too small. 1,483 1, 448 1,456 1,938 1,584 1,569 1,736 l’ 583 1,801 l| 682 (2) 1,898 1, 337 1,874 (<) 10.5 1.4 2.3 2.7 5.1 4.9 4.7 7.1 6.1 5.5 8.9 6.6 5.0 8.9 5.4 9.4 5.4 1.2 5.4 5.4 5.7 5.4 5.0 10.4 8.8 6.0 10.4 6.3 5.0 8.5 2.2 5.7 2.8 5.6 8.7 .6 4. 7 .6 .8 5.5 .3 3.2 10.3 .8 2.4 11.0 .8 6.6 7.1 .6 5.7 6.3 1.7 12.3 3.9 5.5 4.9 5.5 4.7 7.4 6.3 6.1 9.0 2.4 6.4 9.8 .8 9.7 2.5 5.5 8.3 12.3 3.2 9.7 1.6 3.9 17.2 13.9 2.4 13.6 4.1 12 6 13.6 3.3 .6 1.0 1.8 2.5 3.0 1.0 3.6 7.4 4.2 5.0 7.3 4.9 6.1 4.0 1.8 4.9 11. 5 2.0 10.9 7.4 7.9 3.0 9.1 4.9 6.1 4.0 9.1 3.7 8.5 5.0 3.6 6.2 10.9 7.0 10.9 3.7 7.9 4.0 5.5 9.9 2.4 8.0 6.2 4. 2 15.0 10.9 8. 6 6. 7 10.0 1.8 7.4 4. 2 16.0 7.3 6.2 3.6 4.0 1.8 14.8 10.9 11.0 14.5 4.7 3.2 3. 2 16.8 4. 6 6.0 4.8 6.0 1.6 4. 6 19.3 4.8 1. 6 9. 6 3.2 3.1 9. 6 1.6 14.1 18.1 6.3 4. 6 2.4 15.9 6.3 1. 2 1. 6 18. 8 3. 6 15.9 1. 2 11.1 14.3 2. 4 3.2 23.3 2.4 15.9 1.2 1.2 1.2 7.8 ANNUAL EARNINGS ---- RICHM OND 317 34 127 361 122 28 81 165 100 55 7 64 83 63 18 Oi Cnt 56 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 Table XV.—Average annual earnings of employees who worked 48 weeks or more in 1989, by occupation—RICHMOND Women Occupation Secretaries__________ ______ _____ ____ Bookkeepers, hand............................... ....... Cashiers, tellers............................................. Statistical clerks Billing, statement, collection clerks Stenographers Audit, accounting, bookkeeping clerks- Transit clerks_________ _____ ______ Calculating-machine operators Clerks not elsewhere classified, other types of office_____________ _________ Bond and security clerks Pay-roll clerks and timekeepers Clerks not elsewhere classified, manu facturing and wholesale distributors. Bookkeeping- and billing-machine oper ators-- __________________________ Clerks not elsewhere classified, finance and insurance Record clerks............................................. . Other machine operators Typists and other Order, stock, shipping clerks File clerks1 Telephone operators Checkers_______________ ______ ______ Men Average year’s earnings $1,517 1,452 1,281 1,280 1,267 1.256 1,237 1,229 1,221 1,207 1,203 1,192 1,160 1,139 1,138 1,103 1.093 1,067 1,067 1,054 1,050 1,024 Occupation Special office workers__ ______ _________ Traffic and rate clerks... Bookkeepers, hand-.__________________ Claims examiners Secretaries and correspondents.................... Yard clerks_______________ ____ ______ Statistical clerks_________ ______ ______ Clerks not elsewhere classified, manuff cturing and wholesale distributors___ -. Cashiers, tellers- . Cost and production clerks Credit clerks._____ ____________________ Billing, statement, collection clerks........... Audit, accounting, bookkeeping clerks. Clerks not elsewhere classified, other types of office___ ____ Pay-roll clerks and timekeepers Bond and security clerks Order, stock, shipping clerks Record clerks and checkers Stenographers and typists__________ ____ Clerks not elsewhere classified, finance and insurance.______________________ Transit clerks_ Other machine operators............_________ Mail and file clerks _ _ Bookkeeping- and billing-machine opera tors................................................................. Messengers............................................... ......... Average year’s earnings $2,430 2,120 2, 077 2,057 1,905 1,866 1,855 1,807 1,775 1,760 1,710 1,692 1,675 1,590 1,516 1,485 1,424 1,360 1,353 1,340 1,294 1, 245 1,196 1,005 769 PERSONNEL POLICIES Employment policies. In nearly three-fourths of the offices one person or central depart ment is responsible for employing new workers. Usually such person is a firm official, as the president., vice president, executive secretary, or office manager, but in several instances these duties are performed by a lower staff officer, as the auditor, comptroller, cashier, chief clerk, or registrar. Nine percent of the firms have a personnel department or director to handle employee problems. Over one-fifth of the total reported that the employment of new workers is not a centralized function but that the supervisor or head of each department or section does his own hiring. In regard to source of applicants, 142 offices reported the methods by which they secure new workers; and though many firms obtained workers by several methods, it is interesting to note that in about onehalf of the firms applicants obtain jobs through their own initiative, that is, they make personal application or are recommended by friends employed by the firm. Three-tenths of all firms consult high schools, colleges, or business or commercial schools and over one-fifth secure workers through employment agencies or newspaper advertisements. Sex preferences. No firms scheduled in Richmond reported that all office positions are open to men only or to women only. Information as to preference for either sex was not reported in 42 firms (including the State gov ernment), and the employment of workers in the Federal Government offices is regulated according to Civil Service requirements. Of the remaining firms, however, 101 reported that some positions are filled by women only and 70 employed only men for some jobs; conversely, 35 firms have no jobs exclusively for women and 66 have no jobs to be filled by men only. In nearly all cases where women are preferred exclusively for some jobs they are employed largely as stenographers, typists, secretaries, PBX operators, and file clerks. This is particularly true in finance and insurance offices, manufacturing offices, wholesale, and retail-store offices, and the small offices. Some of the firms in the factories, stores, and small offices also employ only women as calculating-machine operators, billing clerks, bookkeeping-machine operators, cashiers, and receptionists. Railroad offices prefer women as calculating-machine operators, PBX operators, and file clerks, and prefer men only on jobs that definitely are not suitable for women, such as secretaries who do considerable traveling or clerks in such departments as the round house and warehouse departments. The positions filled by men are extremely varied. Generally men are preferred in supervisory positions and in accounting and auditing work. In addition, finance and insurance offices employ men as tellers, messengers, and field representatives or agents, and manufac- 57 58 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 turing and wholesale offices hire them as estimators, pricers, and stock and mail clerks. Marital status. Thirty-one firms did not report their policy regarding the employ ment of married women, but more than four-fifths of the remaining 155 asserted that marital status is not a consideration when employing workers. The types of firm that do not employ married women in clude finance offices (5), insurance offices (8), railroads (2), manufactur ing offices (7), wholesale offices (2), and small offices (4). One-tenth of the firms reported also that women who marry while in service are not allowed to remain with the firm. Over three-fifths (63 percent) of the women employed are single, less than three-tenths (28 percent) are married, and one-eleventh are widowed or divorced. The proportion of women who are single varies from 50 to 70 percent in all types of office except retail stores, where the proportion is 47 percent, and insurance offices, where 85 percent are single. More than two-fifths (44 percent) of the women in retail-store offices and over one-third of those in tobacco, printing and publishing, and city and county government offices are married. In contrast, married women comprise only one-tenth of the women in insurance offices and just over one-fifth of those in finance offices other than banks. The majority of the men, 58 percent, are married, but 39 percent are single. Single men outnumber married men in banks, other finance, and insurance offices, printing and publishing, and small offices. Age. Many firms did not specify any age requirements for new workers, but some stated that they prefer to employ young workers who may be trained in the practices of the firm rather than workers experienced in other types of business. More than two-fifths of all firms said they would employ beginners under 20 years of age, and only 1 percent reported a minimum age requirement as high as 25 years. Six percent reported that they would not employ anyone over 25 or 30 and 1 percent employ no one over 35 or 40. Salary reviews. Nearly one-fourth of the firms stated that they review salaries at periodic intervals, either annually or semiannually, for the purpose of determining promotions and raises, and over one-sixth said they have a promotions policy with irregular advancement or raises depending on seniority, the individual employee’s ability, type of job, or on gen eral business conditions. Dismissal. Of the 128 firms reporting on dismissal practices, the majority give a dismissal wage, advance notice, or both such wage and notice." In 10 percent of these firms the dismissal wage or notice is for 1 week, in 29 percent for a 2-week or half-month period, and in 8 percent for as much as one month. In 30 percent of the firms a wage or notice is given but the amount was not reported. PERSONNEL POLICIES---- RICHMOND 59 Vacations. I he vast majority of firms give their office workers vacations. Three percent in insurance, printing and publishing, manufacturing, retail stores, and small offices, give no vacations, and 16 percent made no statement concerning vacations. Basic vacations of 1 week or 10 days were reported by 35 percent of the firms, of 2 to 3 weeks by 40 percent. In the majority of these firms the vacation is not granted until after the employee has worked a specified time, usually 6 months or a year. The Federal agencies grant 26 days of annual leave, and one manufacturer allows vacations of 1 month to office workers. Sick leave. The amount of sick leave granted to office workers is not so definite as in the case of vacations, but about four-fifths of the firms reported that sick leave is allowed. Of 18 firms reporting the amount of sick leave, 8 allow 15 days, 5 allow 1 week, 4 give 2 weeks, and 1 gives 3 weeks. In the other firms the amount of leave depends on the individual case or on the length of service with the firm. Insurance and hospitalization policies. As many as 71 firms reported that their office employees are covered by group life and disability insurance policies; in 58 percent of these the employees pay all costs, in 28 percent both the firm and the employees contribute, and in 14 percent the insurance is supported entirely by the firm. Seventy-five firms reported hospitalization plans for the workers. In 7 percent of these both the company and the workers make contri butions but in the others the workers pay all costs. Retirement policies. Retirement pension systems were reported by only about one-fifth of the firms. These are in finance and insurance, railroads and other public utilities, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and Federal Government. Of these, throe-fourths reported a definite retirement system for all regular office workers; less than one-tenth had plans that covered only part of the force, and one-sixth stated that retirement plans varied according to individual cases. RICHMOND’S SCHOOL FACILITIES FOR TRAINING OFFICE WORKERS There are many educational institutions in Richmond that offer courses designed to qualify students for office work. Some of them teach only a few courses to give a knowledge of one particular line of office work, but others offer complete courses to train the student in the business fundamentals, from typing and filing to bookkeeping and advanced accounting. These schools include public and parochial high schools, colleges, private business or commercial schools, officemachine schools conducted by the machine distributors, a corre spondence school, and the Department of Adult Education conducted by the Richmond Public Schools. Four junior high schools offer typing and business training courses; during the 1939-40 school year "a total of 413 students completed business training and 141 completed typing. These subjects are not intended to equip students for immediate office employment but are offered as “try-out” subjects, and to prepare the students to take a commercial course in senior high school. Three public and three parochial senior high schools offer commercial subjects, and in each group two of the schools are for white children and one is for Negro children. All these schools teach typing, book keeping, and shorthand; in addition, some of them give courses in transcribing, office practice, commercial law, commercial art, business arithmetic, or business English. _ In the 1939-40 school year, 1,052 students were enrolled in the commercial course in the two public high schools for white students; 114 of them graduated. The school for Negro students has no commercial course, but more than 125 students were enrolled in commercial subjects and as many as 47 of 326 graduates had taken some commercial work. One of the parochial schools for white students is a 4-year school and about 70 percent of the students were commercial majors, but the other school is only a 2-year commercial school, and the 2-year course is not considered sufficient to prepare a student for office employment. The parochial school for Negro students offers commercial subjects to graduate students only. The enrollment in these three schools in commercial subjects in November 1940 totaled 108 white and 39 Negro (graduate) students, and 45 white and 30 Negro students had been graduated in June 1940. None of the high schools has an organized placement service and though it was reported that requests for students sometimes were made by employers, the number probably would not exceed 40 or 50 a year. The Department of Adult Education, part of the public school system, is an evening school for high-school graduates. During the 1939-40 school year there was a total enrollment in the commercial department of 581 students, and 348, or 60 percent, completed the courses they were taking. The subjects given include typing, short hand, bookkeeping, business English, spelling, arithmetic, and commercial law. An evening technical school, the Virginia Mechanics’ Institute, has a department of business in addition to engineering or science depart60 SCHOOL FACILITIES—RICHMOND ments, and offers courses in banking, accounting, business adminis tration, traffic management, and credits and collections. Post graduate courses in banking and accounting also are given. The total number of students taking business courses was not reported, but 32 students completed a 4-year “diploma” course in 1940. From 90 to 95 percent of the students in the Department of Adult Education and the V irginia Mechanics7 Institute were already employed, so both schools consider placement service a very incidental function of the schools. There is also a branch of an accounting correspondence school in Richmond. In 1939 from 30 to 35 courses were sold, but the local representative had no record of the number who completed the course. Practically all the people taking these courses were employed and could not be considered a potential supply of new office workers. Four private business schools and four office-machine schools give courses designed specifically to prepare students for office work. All the business schools offer complete stenographic courses, including stenography, typing, business English and spelling, indexing and filing, and office routine; and secretarial courses, including the subjects just mentioned plus bookkeeping, secretarial correspondence, commercial law, accounting, and business administration. One of these specializes m medical secretarial and stenographic courses, and one offers various foreign languages that may be combined with the different courses of study. The other two schools offer advanced business, accounting, and bookkeeping courses in addition to the secretarial and stenographic courses, and one of these also teaches stenotyping. There is a large turn-over of students in the business schools, as courses vary in length and there is no regular term of semester arrange ment; rather, students enroll when convenient and leave when their course is completed. Further, it was reported that there is such a demand for competent office workers that a considerable number leave before they complete the course; one school reported that approxi mately three-fourths of the students who enroll complete their course, but another reported that only about 3 of every 10 do so. Each of the business schools maintains a free employment service for their own students and graduates; and 3 of the 4 reported that they also place other persons, charging a registration or placement fee. in November 1940, approximately 835 students and 255 night students were enrolled in these 4 schools. The number of day students who completed their course in 1939-40 totaled roughly 335. Nearly all the night students were employed and were taking the additional training so as to increase their efficiency in their work. The business-machine schools teach the operation of only the ma chines distributed by the firms with which they are connected. Only 1 of the 4 offers regular courses of instruction and the other 3 give individual instruction to persons interested in a particular type of machine or to persons working in an office where new types of machines have been installed. The number enrolled in November 1940 totaled 116 persons, but the number completing courses in the year 1939 was estimated to be about 265. The number of placements made by 3 of the 4 schools during the year was estimated to be about 80 in perma nent jobs and 410 in temporary jobs; persons placed in temporary jobs more than once during the year are counted each time they are employed. o
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