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State Teachers College Library

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
WOMEN’S BUREAU
Bulletin No. 135

THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE
HOME THROUGH INDUSTRIAL
HOME WORK

CT^HE home has been the family shelter
-*•
through the centuries. To prevent
the distortion of its social function
through use by profit-making industries
is the responsibility of society

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary

WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director

THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE
HOME THROUGH INDUSTRIAL
HOME WORK

r
cv HE
Bulletin

of the

Women’s Bureau

No, 135

UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 193S

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.

Price 5 cents

CONTENTS
Page

Part I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.

Industrial home work—the system
Kinds and locations of industrial home work____________________
Number of homes affected.
15
Typical home workers
17
Rates of pay and earnings
24
Efforts to protect the home worker and the consumer by legisla
tion
27
VII. Efforts to protect the factory employee and employer through
abolishment or regulation of home work by N. R. A. code agree
ment
31
VIII. Difficulties encountered in efforts to abolish or regulate home
work__
IX. Public education essential
33
X. Next steps_____________________________________

1
3

32
35

APPENDIXES
A. Home work eliminated by codes
39
B. Home work prohibited by codes but some plants not complying____
C. Home work continued with some control or abolished only for some
processes of manufactures
D. Industries that have no home work but whose codes include home
work prohibition
E. Home work continues with no regulatory provisions written in codes..
F. Home work continues, no code for industry
48

42
43
47

U. S. Department of Labor
WOMEN'S BUREAU
Washington

October 19* 1935

Mr. Soy Ellis
Southwest Missouri State Teachers College
Springfield, Mo.
My dear Mr. Ellis:
We wish to call to your attention the enclosed
study "The Commercialization of the Home Through Indus
trial Home Work” which has just been completed by our
Bureau. We believe this bulletin to be a contribution
to the understanding of the problems of working women
and their families in relation to industry, and therefore
to be of value to students of sociology and economics.
Many people confuse the conditions surrounding
a home maker who produces in her leisure moments with
the situation which results when work is taken into the
- home from profit-making industry. In this study the
undermining effects of the latter type of home work on
factory working conditions and on family life are shown,
as well as the resultant cost to the community in health
and in dollars and cents through relief expenditures.
The bulletin outlines the problem, lists the industries and
localities in which home work is carried on, describes the
attempts through legislation which have been made to remedy
the situation and outlines steps to be taken to eliminate
the problem in the future.
We hope that this presentation of one of the
most serious of our present industrial problems, will be
of use to you in the classes of your economics or sociology
departments. If you wish additional copies of the bulletin
for the use of students or instructors, we shall be very
glad to send them to you.

Yours sincerely,
a
o.
y/'Zi?..
Mary Anderson, Director.
(1508)

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

United States Department of Labor,
Women’s Bureau,

Washington, May 1, 1985.
Madam: Efforts to bring about the elimination of industrial home
work have revealed that many people do not distinguish leisure-time
production within the home for family use or for personal sale from
full-time production in the home for commercial enterpiises. This
bulletin has been prepared to acquaint the consuming public with the
undermining effects of the latter type of home work upon family life
and upon standards of factory working conditions, and with its cost
to the community in health and in dollars and cents.
The research was conducted by Catharine It. Belville under the
direction of Bertha M. Nienburg. The illustrations are the work of
Carrie I vie and Phyllis K. Sellers.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Anderson, Director.
Hon. Frances Perkins,
Secretary of Labor.

IN THE SHADOW OF BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS THE
INDUSTRIAL HOME WORKERS EMBROIDER LOVELY
INFANTS' GARMENTS IN MISERABLE HOMES.

The Commercialisation of the Home Through
Industrial Home Work
Part I.—INDUSTRIAL HOME WORK—THE SYSTEM
1. What is it?
The use of the home as a workshop and of the home maker and
her children as producers by profit-making industries.
2. Why is it?
(а) Products can be manufactured more cheaply than in
especially established workrooms or factories.
Industry pays no rent for the work space, no bill for
power, light, heat, or water;
It pays little or nothing for equipment;
It pays only for perfect work and charges spoiled mate
rials to the home worker;
It pays for perfect work by the article at a rate far below
factory piecework rates;
It can require delivery of finished products in marketable
quantities in a limited time and thereby force the home
worker to work long hours and toil far into the night;
It assumes no responsibility for the continuous employ
ment of home workers during any day, any week, or any
month.
(б) The home maker, anxious to add to meager family income
and to have some earnings she can call her own, is an
easy prey to offers of pay for work in her home.
3. Where is it?
It is in every State in the Union, for it seeks out the farm homes
scattered over the countryside and the city homes in congested
districts, where poverty or lack of contact with other workers
prevents the development of any bargaining power on the part
of the home worker.
4. How long has it existed in the United States?
It dates back to the beginning of the modern industrial system.
Mechanical power, by means of which the factory system was
1

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

developed and home manufacture for home use ended, was
applied but slowly in some industries. Wherever hand pro
duction was continued and a demand for quantity production
existed, home work for profit-making industry became a vital
problem.
5. Why is it of special concern today?
(а) Efforts to raise factory wages from depression levels to
minimum standards in industries or occupations in
which any home work exists are frustrated by competi
tion from low-priced home work.
(б) Efforts to increase piece rates paid to home workers so as
to yield a minimum standard rate have failed.
(c) The public relief rolls must carry many families whose
members are employed by industry on home work.
(d) Unemployment of husbands, sons, and daughters increases
the number of home makers and other family members
ready to accept low rates of pay.
(e) The present tendency to deprive married women who have
been wage earners in the business world of their wage
earning positions forces them to take work into their
homes.

Part II.—KINDS AND LOCATIONS OF INDUSTRIAL HOME
WORK 1
[As of March 1935]

Home work can be eliminated only when its
ramifications through industry into homes in
many parts of the country are known and the
problems surrounding its elimination under
varying conditions are considered fully

1. Unskilled or Semiskilled Hand Work, Sent Out by Factories
into City Homes and/or into Rural Homes
Product

Known Home-Work
Process

Known Location

Animal soft hair

Dressing and washing hair Mainly New York City
for expensive brush manu and Philadelphia, with
facturers, furriers, and job some in Chicago. (Small
bers. Home workers are industry.)
employees who take work
out from plants after hours.

Artificial flowers

Reproducing flowers and
plants from all types of
materials except ribbon,
using glue and tapes in the
making. No sewing opera
tions.

Centers: New York City
Chicago, St. Louis, Prov
idence, Philadelphia, and
scattered in New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, on West
Coast, and in Florida.

Awnings,
tents.

Sewing sails by hand; some
cutting.

Mainly New England;
cities on Great Lakes.

Baseballs

Stuffing and stitching cheap
baseballs.

Rhode Island, New York,
Connecticut, Massachu
setts, New Jersey, Mis
souri, Kentucky, and
Tennessee.

Beads, strung

Stringing beads on slender
threads, and making these
strings up into bunches.

New York City and Leo
minster, Mass.

Beauty and barber pads
used in permanent wav
ing; also solution used
on hair during process.

Attaching felt pads to small
rectangles of paper and tin
foil. Making solution.

All over the country.

sailcovers,

1 Each of the products listed in this section and in the appendixes was reported upon by Federal or State
departments of labor, by N. R. A. code authorities or deputy administrators, or by Federal Emergency
Relief Administration home visitors. The lists do not include work done only by licensed home workers.
133907°—35—2

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

1. Unskilled or semiskilled hand work sent out by factories—Con.
Known Home-Work
Process

Product

Bone buttons--------------

Sewing buttons on cards,
known as carding.

Known Location

Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, and North
Carolina.

O
<S>w <s>

Brushes___ _

_____

Brushing bristles

Chiefly Illinois, New Jer
sey, New York, Massa
chusetts, Ohio, and Mary
land.

Buckles, bows, or other
such trim for shoes.

Making from leather, rib
bon, etc., by covering
buckle frame with leather,
or sewing beads on buck
ram top; twisting material
into bows; or making other
novelty trim.

Women’s shoe centers at
Haverhill, Lawrence, and
Lynn, Mass., and Penn
sylvania, Maine, Mis
souri, New Hampshire,
and Wisconsin.

Candles _

Decorating fancy shaped
candles.

Scattered through small
shops.

Celluloid buttons and
buckles.

Carding

Clothespins .

Attaching metal springs to
small pieces of wood to
make spring type of clothes
pin.

Farms in Vermont.

Cotton garments. _

Collar turning. _ _

Middle West and South.

Curled hair

Washing hog and goat hair;
some bleaching. Done by
factory employees at home
after hours.

._ _

Ninety percent New
. York City; rest scattered
over the country.

New York City, Chicago,
California, Indiana, Ohio,
and
Pennsylvania.
(Small industry.)

KINDS AND LOCATIONS

1. Unskilled or semiskilled hand work sent out by factories—Con.
Product

Curtain rings--------------

Known Home-Work
Process

Known Location

Crocheting thread over
rings used on cords for
window shades.

Centers: Philadelphia,
Chicago, and New York
City.

Dolls’ dresses-------------- Making by machine

Chiefly New Jersey and
New York.

Electrical wiring de
vices, e. g., floor plugs,
wall sockets, cord sets,
iron cords, fuses, etc.

Assembly, or putting to
gether the several small
parts composing the article.

New York City, Phila
delphia, and Chicago.

Fishing tackle

Making flies, winding bam
boo rods, sewing lines on
cards, tying cord in round
flat bunches, making small
tip parts for rods, and
winding reels.

Scattered.

Flags.

Hand trimming edges of
stars and machine sewing
stars to flag, as well as
hemming flag.

Pennsylvania.
amount.)

Fountain pens and pen
cils with inserted lead
filler.

Assembly of 10-cent pencils
and 25-cent to $1 fountain
pens.

Center: New York City,
with some in New Jersey.

Fresh-water pearl but
tons.

Cutting by means of a sim
ple lathe, done by men or
women, and carding.

Chiefly Iowa.

(S in a 11

6
1.

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

Unskilled or semiskilled hand work sent out by factories— Con.
Known Home-Work
Process

Product

Known Location

Putting /on rmetal clamps,
garter pads and hooks, etc.,
known as “stringing”;
men’s and women’s garters.

Women’s: New England,
New York, New Jersey,
and Illinois.
Men’s: Chiefly New York
and Massachusetts; also
some in New Jersey and
Connecticut.

Gold leaf_______

Hand hammering or beat
ing gold into a thin sheet
leaf; inserting leaves into a
book, form in which sold.

New York City, Boston,
Philadelphia.

Greeting cards. .______

Tying ribbon bows, hand
coloring, inserting,
and
other minor processes re
quired.

Centers:
New
York,
Ohio, Wisconsin, with
some in California. Local
stationery store may em
ploy such workers.

Hat bows_____ ______

Folding and sewing bows
for bands on men’s hats.

Philadelphia.

Hooks and eyes...

Carding.

Eastern
areas.

Scrubbing hair, done en
tirely by men employed in
the factories during the day.

Philadelphia and Chica
go. (Very small indus
try.)

Inner soles. _ ... _ _

Pasting felt or other soft
material to inner soles for
shoes.

In and around shoe cen
ters of Illinois, Massa
chusetts, Pennsylvania,
Missouri,
and
New
Hampshire.

..__ __

Pulling the thread to sepa
rate each strip of insertion
or edging from the next, in
the wide bands in which
lace is woven.
Folding
lace bands and tying.

Rhode Island, Connecti
cut, and Pennsylvania.

Lamp shades_________

Sewing pieces of silk or
other cloth over wire frame;
sometimes winding tape
around wires before making.

New York, Philadelphia,
Chicago, and other met
ropolitan centers.

Leather buttons______

Carding

_ - ___

Garters

_ .. _

Horsehair

Lace___

Boston, Providence, and
New York City.

Linens, domestic deco- Cutting off threads; some
rative.
inserting of lace.

metropolitan

Chiefly New York.

KINDS AND LOCATIONS

1. Unskilled or semiskilled hand work sent out by factories—Con.
Product

Known Home-Work
Process

Maps, valentines, or
other printed or deco
rated cards or papers.

Pasting or gluing the card
or paper on a mat or back
ing.

Scattered.

Ocean pearl buttons__

Carding

New Jersey, Connecti
cut, Massachusetts, New
York, Pennsylvania, and
Illinois.

Paper novelties for parties.

Making all types of favors
and place cards by hand.

All over the country.

Pecans, shelled.

Cracking nutshells with a
hand-operated lever and
picking out nut meats.

Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and
Arkansas.

Known Location

rrm

TT?

Picture frames

Putting glass, picture in
set, and backing in cheap
frames for sale in limitedprice stores (not done in
better grade frame manu
facture).

Largely New York City
and Chicago; New York
State, Maryland, Penn
sylvania, Ohio, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Missouri,
Texas, and California.

Powder puffs

1. Hand sewing the open
ing in seam of two disks of
cotton velours, previously
stitched by machine and
stuffed with cotton filling.
2. Pasting together the two
pieces of skin of an eider
down puff.

New York chiefly and
Chicago.

Punch boards

Filling holes in board with
numbers tom from paper.

Michigan City, Ind.

Rags, balled.

Cutting mill remnants into
strips, sewing strip ends
together, and rolling into
balls for rag rugs.

Philadelphia.

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

1. Unskilled or semiskilled hand work sent out by factories—Con.
Product

Known Home-Work
Process

Known Location

Rose buds_____

Hand sewing from ribbon
into single flowers or clus
ters of flowers.

Safety pins

Carding or
metal rings.

stringing

Ninety percent of indus
try in New York.

Eastern

metropolitan

areas.

Set-up paper boxes____

Assembling pill-box drawer
and slide sections.

Chiefly Philadelphia.

Snaps .

Carding. (Children found
using clothespin to fasten
snaps.)

Philadelphia, New York,
and other eastern seaboard districts.

Tags

Inserting cord or wire
through hole of tag and
knotting same.

New York, New Jersey,
Ohio, Indiana, and Illi
nois, but scattered else
where.
(Brought into
factories in Massachu
setts and Rhode Island.)

Tally cards.

Pasting slips of paper bear
ing hidden numbers on a
card.

(No record of localities as
yet; this is a new indus
try.)

Tobacco bags.

Attaching drawing string
and paper tag (round disk)
to tobacco bags.

Mainly Virginia, but also
near all other leaf tobacco
manufacturing centers.

Vegetable ivory buttons
(made from a South
American nut).

Carding

New York, Virginia, and
Pennsylvania.
(Small
amount.)

Veils...................................

Inserting chenille dots into
the mesh of veiling.

New York City and New
Jersey.

KINDS AND LOCATIONS

1. Unskilled or semiskilled hand work sent out by factories—Con.
_
’

Product

Wood heels___________

Known Home-Work
Process

Known Location

Gluing or cementing leather
or celluloid sheets on wooden heels.

BEAUT? SHOP PADS

Chiefly Boston, Brooklyn, and
Providence,
though around other shoe
centers also.
BOSE BUDS

GREETING CABDS

FISH 1IHE
BOXES

PICTURE

u, TOBACCO
CROCHET
CURTAIN RINGS

BASE BAILS

*1 LAMP

'powder

SHADES

>UFFS

WOODEN
SHOE HEELS

2. Skilled Work Sent Out by Factories and Done Entirely by
Machine or Partly by Machine and Partly by Hand
(a) Still part of traditional home-work system
Leather gloves.

Machine sewing of “fine”
gloves (as opposed to work
gloves), and hand finishing
them by trimming edges
and knotting and cutting
off thread ends.

In and around Fulton
County, New York.

Merchant and custom
tailoring.

Making men’s and women’s
tailored clothes to measure.

Chiefly Philadelphia,
New York, and Chicago.

Cotton garments

(1) Making women’s dress
es by machine (there may
be some hand vrork on
them).
(2) Overalls

(1) Middle West and
South, also Philadelphia.

Dresses and blouses__

Making garments and ac
cessories, or merely attach
ing buttons, frills, jabots, or
other decorative trim, by
hand or machine.

Pushed out of New York
City to New Jersey, to
Baltimore, to Kansas
City, where there is still
a little. Some also in
Philadelphia.

Fur jackets, muffs, col
lars, and cuffs, and nov
elty fur trim for cloth
as well as fur coats.

Making by hand and ma
chine.

Eighty-five percent in
New York City; next
largest center Chicago,
then Minneapolis and
St. Paul; some in St.
Louis, Spokane, Seattle,
and Los Angeles.

(jj) Modern industries

(2) Louisiana.

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

2. Skilled work for factories, entirely or partly machine—(b)
Modern industries—Continued
Known Home-Work
Process

Product

Women’s neckwear.

Chiefly machine making of
collars or other neckwear.

Known Location

Eighty percent in New
York; rest in Massachu
setts, Chicago, Los Ange
les, and San Francisco.

3. Skilled Repetitive Hand Work Having No Art Sales Value
Given Out by Factories Making Other Parts by Machine
Beaded bags, dress materials, or clothing.

Following a design with
beads, sequins, or other
type of such trim.

New York, New Jersey,
Connecticut, Pennsyl
vania, and Florida.

Berets or other head
wear.

Knitting or crocheting from
directions.

Chiefly New York, New
Jersey, Connecticut, and
Pennsylvania, but work
is done all over the coun
try.

Buttonholes
clothing).

Buttonholing by hand____

Philadelphia.

Caned chairs_________

Hand weaving of seats of
chairs.

Kentucky,
Tennessee,
North Carolina, Indiana,
and scattered.

Simple hand embroidery on—
(1) Women’s under
garments made of
cotton or silk;

Following simple design,

(men’s

(2) Children’s clothing;
(3) Table or other
household linen.

(1) New York City, Phil
adelphia, with some in
other United States cloth
ing centers; Puerto Rico.
_____do

(2) Same as above, also
northern New Jersey, In
diana, and Virginia.

______ do.

(3) Mainly Puerto Rico,
with some in New York
City.

KINDS AND LOCATIONS

3. Skilled repetitive hand work having no art sales value, for
factories making other parts by machine—Continued
Known Home-Work
Process

Product

Hosiery..

Lace, cutting _.-----

Silk blouses___

Woolen cloth, mending.

Known Location

Clocking and mending____

Pennsylvania, New York,
New England, and North
and South Carolina.

Cutting the scallop or other
design along the edge of lace
edging.

Rhode Island, New York,
and New Jersey.

Making by hand. _

Puerto Rico.

...

Darning spaces missed in
machine-making process.

Rhode Island.

4. Hand Crafts Having Art Sales Value 2
A.—Skilled Craftswomen and Men in Rural Communities and Small
Towns Employed by Local or Distant Commercial Enterprises That
Do Not Operate Factories
Baskets.

Hand weaving of different
types.

New England, southern
mountains, and South
west.

Candlewiek bedspreads-

Tufting of unbleached mus
lin sheeting with a design,
by pulling several strands of
yarn through spots marked
for tufts, then clipping yarn
so tuft is formed; French
knots sometimes included.
Some spread's fringed.

Northern Georgia, north
ern Alabama, south cen
tral Tennessee, and South
Carolina.

Embroidered
infants’
and children’s dresses,
silk lingerie for women,
linens, and novelties.

Requiring some original de
signing of embroidery pat
terns with exquisite detail of
execution.

Chiefly Puerto Rico (see
typical interior); Louisi
ana.

VT
imm

2 Craftspersons producing own work for sale are not included as industrial home workers; nor are
women making hats for customers, who come under the Retail Custom Millinery Trade code (a supple
ment to Retail Trade).
133907°—35---- 3

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

4. Hand crafts having art sales value—(a) Skilled workers in rural
communities and small towns employed by enterprises that
do not operate factories—Continued
Product

Hooked rugs___

Knitted or crocheted
sets of sacks, bootees,
and caps for infants;
also bootees (separate).

Quilted and appliqued
comfortables, robes,
cases for handkerchiefs,
lingerie, etc.

Known Home-Wobk
Process

Known Location

Dyeing materials, then cut North Carolina, Tennes
ting into strips and attach see, other southern States
ing ends. This stripping is and New England.
pushed through burlap or
other backing in short loops;
various colors used to make
pattern.
Mailed
Hand knitting or crochet Pennsylvania.
to such States as Maine,
ing.
West Virginia, Tennes
see, Ohio, Wisconsin,
Michigan,
California,
Arizona, Colorado, New
Mexico, Oregon, and
Washington.
1. Sewing outside or cover Kentucky. (Crafts permaterial and padding with sons producing own work
fine lines making a design for sale are not included).
(simple quilting), or sewing
cover material and backing
with design, then stuffing
the design with cotton
(Trapunto quilting). Work
often done on silks, neces
sitating greatest care as well
as exquisite workmanship.
2. Appliqueing of cut pieces
to cloth which may or may
not be quilted.

KINDS AND LOCATIONS

Hand crafts having art sales value—Continued.
B.—Skilled Craftswomen and Men Largely in Cities

(1) Employed by local or outside commercial entei prises that do not operate
factories
Product

Known Home-Work
Process

Known Location

Infants’ and children’s
dresses.

Making garment by hand
and often planning as well
as embroidering the tiny
details of the design.

San Antonio, Tex.

Handkerchiefs________

Rolling, whipping, hem
stitching edges, or adding
lace to them; embroidering,
appliqueing, hemstitching,
or fashioning other type of
trim on body of handker
chief.

Los Angeles, San Francis
co, San Antonio, Enid
(Okla.), and scattered.

Organdy

Women’s knitted or
crocheted sports wear.

Knitting often in fancy Largest center, Philadel
stitch or using 3 or 4 phia; but home knitters
threads to form plaid. working for a local shop
Workers usually knit skirts may be found in cities
only, or jackets only; there and towns all over the
fore samples of work must country.
be submitted so other gar
ments may be exactly
matched as to type and size
of stitch. Plans so intri
cate that patterns are drawn
for worker with directions
in language she understands.

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

4. Hand crafts having art sales value—(b) Skilled workers largely

in cities—Continued
(2) Employed by local or outside commercial enterprises operating factories
Product

Art needlework_______

Known Home-Work
Process

Making up samples that
will best illustrate the loveliest articles that can be
made from the products of
such factories as yarn mills,
embroidery-thread plants,
stamped table- or house
hold-linen factories, and
places selling novelties that
may be made up at home
and are demanded by the
personal or household styles
of the moment.

Known Location

New York City, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and
Maryland,

Part III.—NUMBER OF HOMES AFFECTED
A home worker may receive her work by calling for it at the fac
tory, through delivery from the factory to her home either by mail
or by messenger, through a contractor hired by the factory, through
subcontractors hired by contractors, or from a neighbor. Her name
and the work received may be a matter of factory record under the
first two systems, but there is no check on the number of persons in
her own or other families who may produce part of the work charged
out against her. Wien the work is handled by contractors, records
are not available concerning home-worker personnel. The situation
is complicated by shipment of home work into many States from one
center. Consequently, all statements of numbers employed at home
work are rough guesses.
When States require employers to register any home to which they
send work, or require homes to be licensed, there is much duplication.
Each employer tends to list those to whom lie may give work rather
than those to whom he is actually giving it. Nor does he know how
many in any one home may be engaged upon the work.
The United States census is the only source even fairly reliable, and
this not of the number of home workers but of the number of homes
in which the home maker is gainfully employed in the home. From
this source a rough estimate of the minimum number of homes in
which paid work is done for industry can be arrived at, minimum
because not all the women doing dressmaking or laundering are in
business for themselves in their homes.
From these records it would appear that in at least 77,000 homes,
scattered over 48 States, the home maker, assisted by members of her
family, was employed with some regularity by industry in 1930. (To
add Puerto Rico would increase this number, naturally.) Since 1930
some types of home work have increased and others have declined.
It is conservative, however, to state that the accompanying map
indicates the extent and distribution of home work at its minimum
level in the last 5 years.

IOWA

OKLA
MISS.

TEXAS

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

THE GENERAL SPREAD OF HOME WORK IN WHICH MANUFACTURING FOR INDUSTRY IS DONE, BY STATE

Part IV.—TYPICAL HOME WORKERS
While home workers have a common problem—
too meager family income—they are of many
nationalities, have varying degrees of education
and skill, and live under diversified conditions

Tlieir stories are told in the following silhouettes.
UNSKILLED WORKERS

Tag
stringing

With stolid calm, this 44-year-old Polish woman pre
sides over the table at which she and 7 of her 11 children
string tags. Only the 4 youngest boys do not assist.
The 3 oldest children not only contribute by assisting at night but
work during the day at the cotton or waste mills. The mother,
once widowed, and deserted by the second husband, keeps the old
house spotlessly clean. Her children stop at a factory on their way
from school to obtain tags for stringing. They carry home all that
are available and after an early supper gather about the table to slip
cord or wire into the holes in tags. Eight members working together
can finish 5,500 shipping tags between 6 and 9:30 o’clock. This
means 55 cents a night for their joint labors. The pile is ready to
be returned before school the next morning.
Artificial
Contrast with this a New York City tenement in
flower ma\ing
artificial flowers are made. Even with artifi
cial light the rooms are too dim for clear seeing. The
flowers and parts are scattered over the dirty, unmade beds
and the floor. Children, pale and sickly,
sit on the floor working on the flowers.
The mother’s clothes are grimy and
ragged. The children have neither shoes
nor dresses; they wear old spring coats
over their dirty underwear. One little
8-year-old girl, bending wires with her
teeth, held up a lacerated thumb caused
by working with the sharp wires used on
the leaves.
An energetic woman is Mrs. Lee. Her husband is a
Garter
ma\ing truck driver who earns about $21 a week when employed.
But his employment is not steady. Although Mrs. Lee has
budgeted the family expenditures at $15 a week, to insure payments
on their home and to meet unforeseen illnesses of her 2 children and
other demands, she makes up garters complete on her electric sewing
machine. Whenever she can, she goes to the factory for her materials

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

in the morning, returns the finished dozens by evening and secures
a second lot to work on at night. Her husband usually helps in the
evenings from 4 to 6 and sometimes her son of 14 helps a little. But
for the most part her own labor adds $5.50 to the family coffers each
week.
About the kitchen stove in a pretty vine-covered home
pulling a P°rt,u&uese mother and father and 21-year-old daughter,
a high-school graduate, work intently at pulling the threads
to separate bands of lace woven by machine in one web. The last 2
days the son and his wife have pulled lace too, first working from 8
in the morning until 11 at night, with only
meal time out, and on the second day
from 7 until 5, when the last band of lace
was folded and tied for the contractor, who
charged them 10 percent for delivery and
mmm
collection. The five adults had separated
248 bands of 1-thread lace and made $6.70
together, or $1.34 apiece for between 15 and
20 hours of work. When work can be got
nearby the men folks will work outside the home. But the Portu
guese mother will continue her lace pulling, as she has been doing for
over 10 years.
“What else I do?” Mrs. Antonio’s feeble old hands
sewing dropped in dejection into her lap. Yesterday she had
secured rags from the factory that over 40 years ago had
given her work when, a middle-aged woman, she had brought her
family to Philadelphia from Sicily. Now her son-in-law had been
laid off over 3 months from the steel mill and the daughter had been
out of work ever since her hosiery mill had moved south 5 years ago.

-Yd —

TYPICAL HOME WORKERS

But Maria, the other daughter, “who had never even talked though
she was over 30”, had to be taken care of and now they all needed
food badly.
So Mrs. Antonio had hobbled to the carpet factory where for years
she had received rags and yesterday she was given two bundles.
The son-in-law had cut rags all day yesterday, and today as the
daughter and Mrs. Antonio sewed, and Maria wound one ball, he
had begun to roll also. They had figured that in a week they could
earn $2. After the daughter had told the story more clearly, Mrs.
Antonio added, “Ya, we got house when we first come” (a neat but
now very run-down brick-front home, one of a row) “but now we
got only house, not even bread; and we can’t ask Welfare, we can’t.”
SKILLED REPETITIVE WORKERS

Chair
caning

a smaU house in Kentucky a young grandmother re
marked, “I’ve raised my family with chairs; sat and rocked
the cradle with one foot and weaved seats with the other
side of me.” Her finger nails were worn to the quick, and her hands
were sore. Chairs were stacked on the porch, in the yard, and in
the rear of the house. But the family earnings from chair caning
over the past year had been but $86.45. Her son’s earnings in the
chair-caning factory had provided most of the income. The family
garden had given them vegetables.
j•
“Yes, before I was married 15 years ago, I worked in
Brill. I wanted to get back—expenses for 10 of us
woolen cloth
are so high here in Providence. So they took me, but
I couldn’t make the number of points I had to so as to earn N. R. A.
wages. Maybe I can pick up speed working at home; they send me
plenty of cuts (100-yard rolls, 100 inches wide) to keep me busy.
They sure push people in the factory now. No, we don’t report to
the mill the time we work on home mending; we can’t, for we work
too long hours. And there’s more people doing home mending now
than ever before.”
SKILLED CRAFT WORKERS

Embroidering
The Cardenas family, in Texas, had not been expectinfants
big us. Up the sun-baked street with its tiny houses
CITCSSCS
•
...
^
we had come till we found this dilapidated one-room
wooden structure with its closet-like chamber for a kitchen in the rear
and a porch with broken-down steps in front. The outside water
tap came in handy on wash days at least.
Within the bare wood walls we found Mrs. Cardenas, sitting erect
on a pile of blankets on the floor, no rest for her back. She was ill
and on some days was not able to get out of bed. For this reason
and because her eyes were bad she did the hemming, sewed on the
narrow lace edging, and did simpler work. One girl was seated on a
133907°—35----- 4

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

wooden box, another on a bench, and a third on a rough hand-made
chest, all doing smocking on babies’ dresses. They could not sit on
the only four chairs the household possessed because the backs of
these were cushioned and used for holding the garments that were
being embellished.
Mr. Cardenas was at the sewing machine, repairing trousers for the
two boys who were out selling newspapers. The family boasted no
lamp or light bulb, and explained that when they must work after
dark they used candles. They slept on mats on the floor at night.
Often the few pennies earned from newspapers sustained them between
payments for home work.
„ .. f
A cultured Swiss woman answered the doorbell in
mrtlpng C lC San Francisco- She “had taken to making 'exqui
site’ handkerchiefs—ah, well.” Her husband had
been a violinist with a large orchestra. When be lost his position
he organized a small school to teach
the children of wealthy families
wood carving, but as the depression
deepened he lost his pupils one by
one. For a while he had kept them
without pay, for he was so eager to
pass on his art. The home was filled
with carved objects, each patterned
after some famous original; in one
corner be had built a largo doll’s house
and had made the furnishings copies
of those in palaces of the Middle
Ages. Though Mrs. M. has never earned more than $4.50 a week on
handkerchiefs and her husband’s only source of income is $4 a week for
teaching the violin, the family gets along, even keeping the 12-yearold daughter in school clothes. Rent is unpaid; however, they vow
they will do anything to keep from accepting relief.
The snow is deep about her country house in
infants’bootees Maine> hut by the light of the lamp a New England
woman is knitting babies’ bootees at 25 cents a
dozen pairs. “It is outrageous”, she declares, but what else can she
do during the long winter nights that will bring in some money to call
her own?
p
A woman 18 years old, wife of a young man, is a
needlework™ handworker at Los Angeles in Puerto Rico. She has a
pleasing personality though her clothes are in very
poor condition, torn and dirty. At present they are living with an
old woman and a boy of about 10 years in a hut made of scraps of wood
picked up after the last hurricane. They get water at a cascade, a
15-minute walk from the house.

TYPICAL HOME WORKERS

Her husband is not worldng at present so they live on what she
earns. Now she is doing sewing and embroidery on cheap cotton
nightgowns; on each she has to do all the sewing by hand and then the
embroidery, which takes 3 days of 5 hours each for one garment, and
she is paid 90 cents a dozen. As she needs the money for food and it
takes the agent some days to deliver the work from Mayaguez, she
gets her pay in groceries from the store belonging to the agent’s hus
band. She finds that in this way her pay is reduced, since articles cost
her more in this store than in any other. Sometimes she asks for some
cash at the store, but it is refused. At present she has eye trouble and
every few minutes while she is sewing she has to stand up to put some
water in her eyes.
. .
In and around Philadelphia the warm weather draws
Knitting the city’s hand knitters of women’s sports wear out of
outerwear doors to the stoops of their red brick houses. Sitting on
the top step with the intricate patterns within easy reach
and the spool rack standing on the sidewalk below, they ply their
needles from early morning until darkness.

Garment patterns so detailed that they must be drawn almost to
size, with directions in the language the worker knows best, call for
continuous reference. As many as three or more threads may fashion
a plaid, or the thread is twisted by the flying needles so as to make
a leaf design on a lacy background. Every stitch must be watched
in such work to make it perfect.. Such skilled work pays $7.50 and
$8 a blouse or sweater and takes two weeks of from 40 to 60 hours
each, while plain knitting with one thread pays $4 to $6 and requires
about a week.
One woman knits adult-size fancy-stitch sweaters with pockets and
long sleeves, for which she now receives $4.73 each; she works 6
days a week of 5 hours each, and earns an hourly rate of 14 cents.

COMMERCIALIZATION OE THE HOME

She has kept a record of her weekly earnings over the 3 years between
September 1931 and October 1934. At first she was able to make
$14 to $15 a week, but as piece rates were reduced her earnings
declined until during 1933 and 1934 she seldom reached $5 a week.
For the entire 3 years her total earnings were $360.
,
The Browns of Kentucky had just finished a chiffon
a'hhUctucin^ veJ vet bed covering, with exquisitely fine stitching out
lining the puffed sections of the decorations. Such
expensive materials are a constant source of worry to the workers,
and the Browns, for fear a fly might leave a stain or children’s
dirty hands might touch the mate
rial on its huge frame, kept it
covered with two special sheets and
locked in their one bedroom. This
left only the kitchen in which the
mother and daughter of the family
of two spent their lives.
Their home is located 6 miles
from the center, or “studio”, and
ft.
is reached by roads almost im
passable except on horseback or
afoot; they traverse country thick
with underbrush and so wild that even an occasional fox may be seen.
The Burnses of
sp/eads °f Georgia lived in a typi DoooooMDaacasocooasooooooooa:
»0a»oo
0*0 o/lfo
cal small wooden moun
»Oa,oO
So* o
tain home some distance off the
r»T*!*mTs«T»"i"8VS".
highway. With Mr. and Mrs.
A
Burns, a son 12, a daughter 10, and
/A\
5 younger children, it was fortunate
$:*:■§& \ i •
that the family could work and live
out of doors most of the year, for
1'°
the house had only three small sjfe s*
mkiz
yGromws
«•?
rooms, bare of plaster and with a
few pieces of furniture.
Although renters “on halves”,
they had not cleared anything on
the farm in 2 years. However,
they had raised a good quantity of
vegetables, meat, milk, and eggs;
and with the aid of the money
earned at odd jobs at carpentering
and from candlewicking, they had
been able to get along. Speaking
of candlewicking, Mrs. Bums said, “That’s about the only way we

TYPICAL HOME WORKERS

get our rations * * * buy nearly all our staples that way;
* * * not- got rich, just pushed us to live. Don’t know what
we’d ’a’ done without that dollar or two a week.”
Mrs. Burns works on spreads, when she can get them, every spare
minute. Early in 1933 she “had worked spreads” for as low as 6
cents, after the hauler’s commission had been deducted. She changed
to another company, however, when her husband forbade her to work
at this rate. The daughter of 10 is “very good at tufting”, though
slow. “I figger she does about one-third of what I do on them”, said
Mrs. Burns.
At the time of interview the family was working on a bedspread
that was to pay 68 cents. It was a most difficult pattern and they
were about to give up, “just can’t make it. Get up at 6 and work till
6. Cow’s dry and no churnin’ to be done, — ain’t took no time out
* * * just made a little beans for dinner and cleaned the table
up a bit.”
While the mother was speaking the son of 10 returned home.
When the mother asked him to take the baby, who by now was squall
ing vociferously, he offered no word of protest, but huge tears rolled
down his face. “He’s tired,” said the mother. “He’s been choppin’
wood all evenin’.”

Part V.—RATES OF PAY AND EARNINGS
Home workers are always paid by the amount produced. The rates
are set by the employer; the employee does not protest low rates nor
complain of unequal rates on different types of work. She accepts
whatever she is given, for fear the work will be turned over to someone
else.
Prevailing piece rates and earnings of skilled, unskilled, and semi
skilled home workers are shown in the summaries following.
Article

Process

Artificial flowers:1
Complete

Rate

Pay

Hourly Earnings as Re
ported
by
Various
Workers

8 cents to $3 a gross, ac
Part

Curtain
rings
(cro
cheted) .’
Carding buttons 2

Dotting veils1
Lace pulling 3 .

Needles, pins, hooks
and eyes, snaps, etc.1

Stringing tags 3

cording to type of flower.
3 to 40 cents a gross, ac
cording to process.
25 cents a gross______ ____
Not reported__

35 cents a dozen
1-thread lace—poor qual
ity, 3 cents a band (3(5
yards).
1- thread lace—good qual
ity, 3 cents a band (36
yards).
2- thread lace—poor qual
ity, 4 and 4)4 cents a band
(36 yards).
2-thread lace—good qual
ity, 4 and 4)4 cents a band
(36 yards).
Not reported

10 to 30 cents per 1,000__

6 to 37)4 cents.
3 to 30 cents.
6)4 to 8)4 cents.
Less than 5 cents to 10
and less than 15 cents.
8 cents—average (me
dian) .
14 cents.
1 to 6 cents; 3)4 cents—
average.
4 to 45 cents; 23 cents—
average.
2 to 12 cents; 5)4 cents—■
average.

8 to 48 cents; 23)4 cents—
average.
1 cent and less than 2
cents to 15 cents and
more. 8 cents—average
(median).
2% to 10 cents.

The rates for skilled repetitive hand work are not much higher.
Crocheted berets 1____
24

40 to 50 cents to $1.50 a
dozen.

4 to 5 cents.

RATES OF PAY AND EARNINGS
Hourly Earnings
ported

Article

Process

Crocheted beading on
bags.5
Embroidery 5
Lace cutting 1
2 * 4

Rate

Pay

Various

Workers

$2.20 a dozen

9 cents.

6 cents a dress to $1.25 a
dress or set of pieces.
Not reported

6 to 19 cents; 11 cents—
average.
Less than 5 cents to 40
cents; 18 cents—average
(median).

1 National Child Labor Committee. New York. Investigation of Home Work in the Artificial Flower
and Feather Industry, 1934. Exhibits I, II, and III.
a U. S. Department of Labor. A Study of Industrial Home Work in the Summer and Fall of 1934, p. 13.
(Mimeographed report.)
2 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Bui. 131. Industrial Home Work in Rhode Island.
1935. 27 pp. (Unpublished data also.)
4 Connecticut. Department of Labor. Minimum Wage Division. Home Work in the Fabricated
Metal Industry in Connecticut, pp. 8 and 9. (Mimeographed report.)
8 Code Authority for the Pleating, Stitching, and Bonnaz and Hand Embroidery Industry. Summary
of Flagrant Home Work Cases to July 31, 1934. (Unpublished material.)

Weekly earnings of persons for skilled home work

o
Percent earning—
Industry

Total
number
reporting

$1, less
than $2

$2,less
than $3

$3, less
than $4

26
3

29
22

24
33

11
19

153
121

$4, less
$5,less $7.50, less $10, less
than $5 than $7.50 than $10 than $15
4
11

4
13

$15,less
than $20

$20 and
more

Earnings of persons for year 1933; skilled {quilting) and semiskilled {chair caning)
Percent earning—
Industry

Total number
reporting

$25, not Over $50, not Over $75, not Over $100, not Over $150, not Over $300, in
$25 and under Over
over $50
over $75
over $100
over $150
over $300
cluding $750

56
129

13
68

18
19

16
7

13
5

20
2

Weekly earnings of families for skilled home work

Industry 3
Art needlework______________
Berets______________________
Gloves_________ ___________ _
Infants’ knitted outerwear____
Infants' and children’s wear___ _
Knitted garments (outerwear).
Lace cutting_________________
Needlework in Puerto Rico 4___

Total
number
109
99
50
182
128
105
88
187

Percent earning—
Less
than $1

$1, less
than $2

$2,less
than $3

$3, less
than $4

1
15

18
28

45
8

15
29
4
42
25

3
3 56

2
28

16
11
2
4
14
12
3
5

7
23
5
11
9

$4,less
$5,less $7.50, less $10, less
than $5 than $7.50 than $10 than $15
12
8
12
1
7
34
11
1

20
8
14
1
13
34
16
1

22
5
8
3

$15,'less
than $20

1
5
7
25

1
15

1 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Potential Earning Power of Southern Mountaineer Handicraft. Bui. 128, 1935, p.25.
2 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. The Hand-Made Handkerchief Industry in Continental United Spates. 1935, p. 30. (Mimeographed report.)
3 U. S. Department of Labor. A Study of Industrial Home Work in the Summer and Fall of 1934, p. 18. (Mimeographed report.)
4 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. The Employment of Women in Puerto Rico, 1934. (Unpublished data.)
6 32 percent at less than 50 cents; 24 percent at 50 cents and less than $1.
.

$20 and
more

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

Less
than $1

Part VI.—EFFORTS TO PROTECT THE HOME WORKER
AND THE CONSUMER BY LEGISLATION
A. Existing State legislation for home work
1. Fifteen States have laws prohibiting or regulating home work to
some extent.
a. Most of these laws apply to only a few of the industries in
which home work is practiced.
b. Most of these laws apply to only certain types of dwellings,
for example, tenement houses.
2. Eight of these States (Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts,
New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee) have prohibited such
work except for immediate members of a family, and with the excep
tion of Ohio certain requirements must be met before work in homes
is permitted. In general, these are cleanliness, adequate lighting and
ventilation, and freedom from infectious or contagious disease.
This type of law was aimed at the old-time “sweatshop” where
neighbors and friends came in to work. (For New York law, see
par. 5 and sec. II, par. 2.)
3. Six States (California, Connecticut, Michigan, Missouri, New
Jersey, and Wisconsin) have similar requirements as to conditions
but do not restrict work done in a home to the immediate members
of the family.
4. Three States (New Jersey, New York, and Oregon) prohibit work
at home on certain kinds of products even by members of a family.
New Jersey prohibits work on dolls or on dolls’ or children’s clothing
in tenements; New York prohibits the manufacture of food and of
stuffed animals or other stuffed toys as well as of dolls and dolls’
clothing in a home. Oregon has a State Welfare Commission order
applying to needlecraft occupations; it prohibits the sending of any
such work into private homes, insanitary basements and buildings,
or places unsafe on account of fire risks.
5. Regulation of home work has been mainly for the purpose of safe
guarding the consumer rather than of protecting the home workers.
Under the law recently passed in New York, however, home work
may be permitted if it can be carried on without jeopardy to the
wages and working conditions of factory workers in the industry
and without injury to the health and welfare of the home workers
themselves.

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

6. The. laws protecting women and children are applicable to home
workers as well as to factory workers in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and
Wisconsin. In New York the child labor law must be observed in
regard to home work.
7. Ten States (California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massa
chusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wis
consin) require employers of home workers to keep records of their
names and addresses. Illinois, however, makes this requirement
only in the case of children.
8. Seven States (California, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New
York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) require the employer to obtain
a permit to give out home work.
9. Four States (Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Penn
sylvania) require a member of the family desiring to do home work
to secure a license to use the premises for such work.
10. New York alone requires each home worker to be certificated.
B. Review of New York State law regulating home work
(effective March 19, 1935)
1. “The employment of women and minors in industry in the State
of New York under conditions resulting in wages unreasonably low and
conditions injurious to their health and general welfare is a matter of
grave and vital public concern. Any conditions of employment
especially fostering such working conditions are therefore destructive
of purposes already accepted as sound public policy by the legislature
of this State and should be brought into conformity with that policy.
Uncontrolled continuance of home work is such a condition; here
wages are notoriously lower and working conditions endanger the
health of the workers; the protection of factory industries, which must
operate in competition therewith and of the women and minors em
ployed therein and of the public interest of the community at large in
their health and well-being, require strict control and gradual elimina
tion of industrial home work. In the considered judgment of the
legislature this article is constitutional.”
2. Industrial commissioner is to determine within what industries
home work may be permitted without unduly jeopardizing wages and
working conditions of factory workers and unduly injuring the health
and welfare of the home worker.
3. Employer must secure permit before delivering material for
manufacture in a home and may deliver materials only to persons hav
ing home workers’ certificates.
4. Annual fee for employer’s permit: When less than 200 home
workers’ certificates are issued, $25; 200 but less than 500 certificates,
$50; 500 certificates or more, $100. All monies derived from operation
of the act to be paid into State treasury to credit of the general fund.

LEGISLATION

5. Conditions of manufacture: (1) Only residents of a home may
work in that home; (2) only persons complying with law may carry on
industrial home work; (3) no child permitted to do home work except
in accordance with cliild labor law; (4) employer must keep as pre
scribed and furnish to commissioner on demand record of home
workers, of work places, of materials furnished, of products manu
factured, and of wages paid to each worker; (5) each home worker
must have certificate which must be posted in the home; (6) manu
facture in a home of articles of food, dolls, dolls’ clothing, and stuffed
animals or other stuffed toys prohibited.
6. Periodic inspection: (1) Of premises and materials; (2) com
missioner shall order tenant of any home that is not clean to clean it;
(3) commissioner shall notify health official of insanitary condition or
infectious or communicable disease.
7. Notice of unlawful manufacture is to be served by commissioner
on employer; articles unlawfully made to be so labeled or held by
commissioner and destroyed if unclaimed within 30 days. Only
commissioner may interfere with, remove, or deface tag.
8. Commissioner may inspect records of department of health and
request help of that department in home inspections.
9. Commissioner may revoke or suspend permit of employer,
license of owner, or certificate of home worker for violation of the
terms of permit, license, or certificate, or violation of terms of this
law, or for noncompliance with order issued by himself. .Reason
able notice shall be given and opportunity for hearing before such
action is taken.
10. Owner of home where industrial home work is carried on in
violation of act must cause work to cease within 10 days of noti
fication from commissioner; if unable to do so he shall institute
within 15 days and prosecute proceedings to dispossess the occupants.
11. Commissioner has power to make rules and regulations neces
sary to carry out the provisions of law.
12. Appropriation of $50,000 for the operation of this law.
C. Legislation on industrial home work pending in other States
in 1935
Connecticut

Senate bill no. 252 would provide for the elimination of home work
Maryland

House bill no. 649 would prohibit home work on certain articles,
the most important being foodstuffs, tobaccos, drugs, poisons, ex
plosives, fireworks, children’s or infants’ clothing, and toys or other
articles intended for use of children. Other home-work manufacture
is to be regulated through certification and inspection.

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

New Jersey

Assembly bill no. 148 would prohibit home work on any article
now or hereafter prohibited by a code, or by National or State
laws; it specifically prohibits home work on foodstuffs, tobaccos,
drugs, poisons, explosives, fireworks, sanitary goods, children’s
clothes, toys, or other articles intended for the use of children. For
permitted home work a 20 percent tax on the pay roll is required.
Pennsylvania

House bill no. 340 prohibits home work on the same articles as
the New Jersey bill and in general contains the same provisions.

Part VII. — EFFORTS TO PROTECT THE FACTORY
EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYER THROUGH ABOLISHMENT
OR REGULATION OF HOME WORK BY N. R. A. CODE
AGREEMENT
Establishment of minimum-wage rates and maximum hours of
work for employees through code agreement immediately brought
to the fore the importance of elimination or regulation of home work
in order to prevent its use in undermining factory code regulations.
In 53 codes home work was to be abolished at the effective date or
after a period permitted for adjustment.
In the gathering of material for the present study a representative
of the Women’s Bureau made inquiries as to the effectiveness of
elimination or regulation, as of March 1935, and the statements and
appendixes following are based on opinions from such informed
sources as code authorities, organized labor, and State departments
of labor.
1. In 22 of these industries the code provisions are believed to
be effective as of March 1935. (See appendixes A and B.)
2. In 17 codes home work was partially regulated or partially
abolished. (See appendix C.) Code authorities in home
work industries have been unable to bring about general
adherence to regulations concerning wage rates.
Compliance officers have not had sufficient staff to attempt
to seek out scattered homes to learn rates paid.
3. Clauses prohibiting home work were inserted in 44 codes for
industries in which no home work exists today. (See ap
pendix D.)
4. Home work continues without regulating provisions in 5
codes. (See appendix E.)
5. Home work continues in 18 home-work industries because
industries not included in any code. (See appendix F.)

Part VIII—DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN EFFORTS TO
ABOLISH OR REGULATE HOME WORK
1. Persons with practical experience in regulating work agree that
home work is extremely difficult to regulate because—
a. It is so scattered and shifting as to places of operation;
b. The giving out of work is sometimes difficult to trace, par
ticularly if home workers live at a distance from the
factory;
c. The employer may live in one State and have the work
done in several other States far distant from source of
origin of work;
d. The employer may shift his responsibility to a contractor;
e. It is almost impossible for any force of inspectors to ascer
tain what hours are being worked in the home, whether
children are being employed, whether contagious disease is
present at any time.
2. Code authorities have found difficulty, save where employees are
strongly organized, in bringing about prohibitive code agree
ments because—
a. Employers desiring to do home work that is prohibited or
regulated by the codes under which they should file, reg
ister under other codes in which home work is not men
tioned ;
b. Employers shift their responsibility to contractors;
c. Compliance forces have not been sufficiently large to give
attention to the problem;
d. Employers are slow to change over to the all-factory
system because of the added space and equipment required.
3. Misconception on the part of the public concerning the character
of industrial home work is due to—
Confusion of leisure-time activities of home makers with use
of the home to produce in quantity for industry within the
time limits set by industry.
32

Part IX.—PUBLIC EDUCATION ESSENTIAL
1. As to the undermining effects of industrial home work upon family
life.
Industry produces for definite orders or definite markets. Its
products, whether made in the home or in the factory, must be com
pleted on time. It cannot give way to normal demands of home and
children upon the housewife and mother. When a homemaker
becomes an industrial home worker she must subordinate all home
demands to the demands of industry.
The results are—
a. Neglect of family whenever industry requires her services;
b. Forcing young children to assist in unskilled operations in
order to turn out more work;
c. Use of living or sleeping rooms as industrial work space to
the detriment of family social life;
d. Work far into the night to complete orders, with its bad
effect on nerves and general health;
e. Demoralization of home as the family shelter from the stress
and strain of the outside world.
2. As to the undermining effects of industrial home work on standards
of factory working conditions.
The thoughtful employer recognizes the importance of paying fairwages to employees in order that they, in turn, may buy the goods
that modern industry can produce. He will pay standard rates if
he is assured his selling prices cannot be underbid by other employers
who pay less than standard rates.
Home work is an outstanding method of undermining factory wage
rates because—
a. The homo worker—whose name, especially in economic
depressions, is legion—has no bargaining power; she
accepts any pay offered without complaint;
b. The employer will not pay her any standard factory rate
because it would be simpler to have work done on his
premises under supervision if he had to pay such rates;
c. All efforts to control home-work rates have proved futile
because determined enforcement in one community causes
the employer to send it into other communities too far
away and too scattered to be reached.

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

3. As to the price society pays.
From 15 percent to 50 percent of home workers on specified products
were on relief rolls in 1934.
Taxpayers of the country are paying the difference between what the
employer of home workers pays his workers and a living wage,
thus permitting him to shift the burden of workshop overhead
expenses to the home and build up his own profits.
Inspection of sanitary conditions in homes used as workshops is
expensive and yet cannot adequately protect the consuming public.
Taxpayers are paying the factory-inspection bills, yet consumers
of the articles made in homes cannot be protected from the spread
of disease.

Part X.—NEXT STEPS
1. Meeting the needs of many skilled craftswomen to supplement
family income and yet care for their families by—■
Development of handicraft production centers in rural, small
town, or city-neighborhood sections in which women may find
part-time employment at wage scales commensurate with their
skill and where work may be carried on under controlled condi
tions. Many craftswomen have indicated their willingness to
go to such centers.
Coordination of buying, selling, and overhead expenses of such
centers is necessary to permit adequate wages and yet allow
prices the consuming public can pay.
2. Public protection of such centers against competing low-paid home
work and other competition by use of advertised trade marks
and education.
3. Bringing into factories all unskilled or semiskilled home work now
sent out into homes, by charging all costs of regulation and inspec
tion up to the specific factory concerned.
4. Finally, legal abolishment of all types of home work in all States.
The State legislative program recommended by the Association of
Governmental Labor Officials in 1926 was as follows:
1. Legal prohibition of all kinds of factory work in the home
seems most desirable.
2. If home work is permitted the following standards are advo
cated:
a. Absolute prohibition of manufacture of certain kinds of
articles in homes, in some instances for protection of
consumers (foodstuffs and clothing), in other cases for
protection of workers (articles requiring handling of
poisonous and otherwise injurious substances).
b. All labor laws of State (for example, those dealing with
child labor, hours of work, minimum wage, working
conditions, workmen’s compensation) should apply to
home work.
c. Responsibility for compliance with laws should be placed
upon the manufacturer giving out home work. He
should keep careful register of records and description of
home workers and kind and amount of work, rates of
pay, and actual wages, etc.; and should send a copy
periodically to State department of labor. He should
have license permitting home work.

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

d. Adequate authority for law enforcement should be given
by law to State labor department, and an adequate
inspection staff allowing for periodic inspection of home
work premises should be provided.
e. Local boards of health should notify State labor depart
ment daily of all cases of communicable diseases in their
area (with names and addresses), and the labor depart
ment in turn should notify employers of such diseased
persons.
/. A label with employer’s and workers’ names, addresses,
and nature and quantity of work should be placed on
each unit of delivery and not removed until finished and
returned to employer.
g. Use of home-work license for individual home or family
should be retained in States where such system is in
force, but not necessarily extended to other States,
as effectiveness of this system is questionable.
A special committee at the national conference on labor legislation
convened by Secretary Perkins, February 14-15, 1934, in Washing
ton, passed the following Resolutions:
The Committee on Industrial Home Work, approved by Secretary
Perkins in 1934, concluded that the abolition of home work is the only
way to control its growing evils. Probably at the present time this
can best be accomplished by regulations which will assure to the home
worker the same standards of wage and working conditions as are
established for the worker in the factory. We recommend that
wherever possible State home-work legislation be enacted to embody
the following standards:
1. Any place in which home work is done must be licensed and
inspected to insure suitability as a work place and freedom
from communicable disease.
2. Every home worker should be certified.
3. Employers giving out home work must be licensed at least
annually and must keep complete registers of all home
workers.
4. Employers should be held responsible for violations of the
home-work law and other labor laws such as compensation,
child labor, hours, and minimum-wage laws.
5. Employers of home workers should defray all the costs of ade
quate home-work regulations, either through license fees,
or a tax on articles manufactured at home, or both.

APPENDIXES
Appendix
Appendix
Appendix

Appendix

Appendix
Appendix

A—HOME WORK ELIMINATED BY CODES.
B—HOME WORK PROHIBITED BY CODES BUT
SOME PLANTS NOT COMPLYING
C—HOME WORK CONTINUED WITH SOME CON
TROL OR ABOLISHED ONLY FOR SOME
PROCESSES OR MANUFACTURES.
D—INDUSTRIES WHICH HAVE NO HOME WORK
BUT WHOSE CODES INCLUDE HOME-WORK
PROHIBITION.
E—HOME WORK CONTINUES WITH NO REGU
LATORY PROVISIONS WRITTEN IN CODES.
F—HOME WORK CONTINUES, NO CODE FOR
INDUSTRY.

Appendix A.—HOME WORK ELIMINATED BY CODES
[In 22 industries homework existing prior to the National Recovery Administra
tion Codes is claimed by code authorities and labor officials to have been
eliminated by such codes in March 1935 M

Industry Code

Product

Academic costumes___

Academic Costume

Advertising mediums,
such as calendars, blot
ters, badges, etc.
Candy

Advertising Specialty

Caps and cloth hats —

Cap and Cloth Hat

Clinical thermometers.

Scientific Apparatus

Coats and suits_______

Coat and Suit

Dress shields

Sanitary and Waterproof
Specialties.

Fluted cups, pan liners,
and lace paper.
Leather bill folds and

Fluted Cup, Pan Liner, and
Lace Paper.
Luggage and Fancy Leather
Goods.

purses.

Candy____________

blank

Loose-Leaf and Blank Book.

Medium and low priced
jewelry.1
Men’s neckwear1

Bulk
Drinking
Straw,
Wrapped Drinking Straw,
Wrapped Toothpick, and
Wrapped Manicure Stick.
Medium and Low Priced
Jewelry.
Men’s Neckwear

Loose-leaf
books.

and

Manicure sticks

Known Home-work
Process

Sewing machine and/or
hand w o r k—s mall
amount of home work.
Color brushwork.

Wrapping candy ciga
rettes.
Sewing-machine work—■
small amount of home
work.
Making entire product in
home—very
small
amount.
Sewing machine and hand
work.
Sewing some parts of
shield, small factories
only.
.
Making paper party fa
vors and novelties.
Adding leather thong,
knotted trim along out
side edges, known as
“lacing”—very
small
amount of work.
Assembly of small metal
parts of binders—not
much home work.
Wrapping manicure
sticks.

Stone setting.
Slip-stitching tic together,
usually done by hand.
In some instances rest of
the making too.

1 New Jersey State labor inspector reports some home work in medium and low-priced jewelry and
men's neckwear appearing in northern New Jersey in June 1935.

COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE HOME

Product

Industry Code

Millinery
Photographic mounts..

Millinery___________
Photographic Mount

Sample cards

Sample Card..

Shoe lacers

Narrow Fabric

Shoulder pads

Shoulder Pad.

Stickers, labels, and
seals
(Christmas or
other types).
Umbrella “puffs”

Gummed Label and Em
bossed Seal.

Undergarments and
negligees.
Women’s belts

Undergarment and Negli
gee.
Women’s Belt

Umbrella

Known Home-Work
Process

Making of hats.
Inserting of tissue into
folders (small orders)—
small shops.
Making up where hand
cutting of fabric and hand
mounting are required.
Pairing, banding, and
boxing. '
Making of pads for shoul
ders of coats or for sleeves
by sewing wadding mate
rials into shaped pad
form.
Counting out and boxing
odd or small orders—
small shops.
Making of small “puff”
or disk of tucked and
hemmed silk used to
cover joining of ribs.
Making by machine and/
or by hand.
Attaching buckle to strap
by hand sewing.

Appendix B.—HOME WORK PROHIBITED BY CODES BUT
SOME PLANTS NOT COMPLYING
[Reference is hereby made to codes so that persons referring to codes may know
titles. Articles coming under these codes may be found in part II of this
report]
Title op Code

Title or Code

Animal Soft Hair
Artificial Flower and Feather
Athletic Goods
Beauty and Barber Shop Mechanical
Equipment
Blouse and Skirt
Candle Manufacturing and the Bees
wax Bleachers and Refiners
Canvas Goods
Celluloid Button, Buckle, and Novelty
Cigarette, Snuff, Chewing, and Smok
ing Tobacco
Corset and Brassiere
Dental Laboratory
Drapery and Upholstery Trimming
Dress
Electrical Manufacturing 1
Portable Electric Lamp and
Shade 1
Wiring Device 1
Flag

Fur
Hat
Men’s Clothing
Men’s Garter, Suspender, and Belt
Merchant and Custom Tailoring
Pasted Shoe Stock
Picture Moulding and Picture Frame
Pleating, Stitching, and Bonnaz and
Hand Embroidery (in continental
U. S. A.)
Powder Puff
Retail Custom Millinery Trade
Schiffli, the Hand Machine Embroid
ery, and the Embroidery Thread
and Scallop Cutting
Set-up Paper Box
Stay
Tag
Toy and Playthings
Wood Heel '

1 Home work provision in this supplement to the Electrical Manufacturing Code, though no such
provision in the code.

Appendix C—HOME WORK CONTINUED WITH SOME
CONTROL OR ABOLISHED ONLY FOR SOME PROCESSES
OF MANUFACTURES
Code

History

Code Provisions

Effective date March 26, 1934. “This provision shall not prohibit
home work on the finishing of samples and display models not in
tended for resale, but the name and address of every employee so
engaged shall be reported to the Code Authority.” The home work prohibited
must be discontinued by April 1, 1934, or, if this works hardship to employer,
he may be granted additional time up to 2 months.
February 16, 1935. The
National Industrial Recovery Board requires that the home-work committee,
consisting of two representatives of industry, one from the Research and Plan
ning Division of the N. R. A., and one from the Labor Advisory Board, prepare
within 90 days schedules of rates of pay for home workers, and investigate the
broad problem of home work and make recommendations within 90 days as to
the possibility of either eliminating or regulating home work.
Art
needleivor\

Brush

Effective date April 2, 1934. “All home work in this industry is hereby
prohibited, except by specific permission of the Administrator in each
individual case, and provided employees engaged in home work shall be paid
the same wage rates that are paid for identical occupations in the shop.”
Effective date June 11, 1934. Provision specified minimum piece
rates for home workers. These rates were 8 cents per ounce on
60/60 spreads or less (25 cents minimum on any pattern), 10 cents
on over 60/60 spreads (30 cents minimum). Definition of employer and em
ployee, as appearing in the code, relieved the members of the industry from any
responsibility as employers of home workers. Code has been under discussion
since Julv 16, 1934.
bedspread "

^
garment

Effective date November 27, 1933. After 3 months from effective
date no sewing machine work shall be done in homes but all such
work shall be done in the plants. After application to Code Author
ity for exemption, members of industry may be permitted turning of collars
(which have a laundry wash before shipping) and hand embroidery in homes.
“Within 3 months the Cotton Garment Code Authority shall report on the
home-work problem so that the Administrator, after due notice and hearing,
may determine whether or not this provision shall be changed.” Members of the
industry shall report at once to Code Authority names of workers employed
under provisions of this section and reasons for such employment, the total of
such employment not to be increased after effective date beyond number so
employed prior to July 15, 1933.
Fishing tac\le

Effective date August 29, 1933. Same rates to be paid to home
workers as to workers in factories.

APPENDIXES

„ ,
Effective date March 12, 1934. “The Code Authority shall
pearl button
the problem of home work in this industry and propose to
the Administrator, not longer than 5 months after the effective
date of this code, appropriate provisions for the regulation and control of such
home work, and when approved by the Administrator, shall become binding upon
all members of this industry.”
Effective date December 18, 1933. Thirty-cent minimum
rate set for the South and for employees in any factory more
than 90 percent of whose output consists of chairs with
double woven cane seats.
January 13, 1934. Order issued at the request of the Southern Furniture Man
ufacturers’ Association staying the labor and anti-home-work provisions of code
as they apply to hand weaving, at home, of chair seats and backs.
October 30, 1934. Rates for home work set at 6 to 8 cents per 100 square inches
of caning".
Furniture (chair
caning only homewor\ process)

Effective date October 19, 1933. Prohibition for all except
1
handkerchiefs made entirely by hand, and those on which labor
cost of the hand operations is 60 percent or more of the total labor cost of the
finished handkerchief provided the wholesale price is not less than $3.50 per
dozen.
October 31, 1934. Commission appointed to investigate production of handker
chiefs in the home and to recommend minimum piecework or hourly rates.
lid'H-dKC'KCfi'icr

Effective date September 4, 1933. “Where the proofs show' that the
worker can only work at home, and requires such work as a means of
livelihood”, the Code Authority may grant permits for home work.
,
Effective date April 9, 1934. Only machine sewing prohibited.
children'“s^u'ear Rates to be set so as to net -workers 32l/i cents in the North and
30 cents in the South. “The Code Authority shall, within 6
months of the effective date of this code, recommend to the Administrator appro
priate means for the regulation and control of such home work in this industry as
is not provided for.”
May 21, 1934. Six Texas concerns granted exemption from the hourly rate for
factory employees with the new hourly rate fixed at 20 cents for factory and home
workers. Within 30 days the industry is required to submit a plan for the appro
priate control of home work and reserves the rignt to modify this order at any
time.
.
outerwear

Effective date January 1, 1934. Home work prohibited with the
excePtion of hand knitting, which is limited to 1 year after the
effective date.
“The Administrator may fix, on or before January 15, 1934, after notice to the
Code Authority, and may change from time to time after like notice, minimum
piecework rates.” The Administrator is to appoint a committee to report within
30 days after the effective date—or to permit of more time for such report if
allowed by Administrator or deputy—with respect to the proper minimum piece
work rates, and shall make a study of and report within 6 months from effective
date of the code, upon the practicability of discontinuing home work or setting
up a system of control for home workers.
February 6, 1935. The prohibition of home work is stayed to April 1, 1935, if
manufacturers and contractors pledge to follow certain regulations: There shall
be the appointment of a commission to recommend on or before April 1, 1935,
“the most practical method” of enforcing the home-work provisions of the code;

COMMERCIALIZATION OP THE HOME

manufacturers to file with Home Work Bureau, headquartered in New York, lists
of home workers and home-work contractors in their employ; home-work con
tractors to file names of manufacturers employing them; commission to recom
mend minimum piecework rates after classification; complete records to be kept
of all transactions relating to home work. Stay has been extended to May 15,
1935.
Ladies’
Effective date March 26, 1934. “No member of the industry shall
hand bag
ou^ worE 1° be performed in any home or dwelling place, except
that this prohibition shall not apply to hand beading, hand crochet
ing, or hand embroidering, and except that hand sewing at home shall be permitted
until July 1, 1934, but shall not be permitted thereafter.” Home work has been
eliminated on braided and leather link hand bags.
Leather
and woolen
ip n't glove

Effective date November 13, 1933. Home work on sewing ma
chines to be reduced 25 percent within 6 months, and within 1 year
after effective date another reduction of home work by at least 25
percent. No subsequent data.

_
Puertc>URicx>W

Effective date July 19, 1934. Code to apply till October 19,
1934. Rates set for home work are $5 for 40 hours’ work

as the minimum weekly pay on sewing-machine work and
a week on hand work.
Prohibition of stamping, cutting, washing, pressing, folding, ribboning, or ticket
ing in the home. Machine sewing may continue in homes if it was performed
there during the year preceding the effective date on home workers’ sewing
machines and provided the names and machines are registered with the Code
Authority. The Administrator is to appoint a commission to study the com
munity workroom plan, and if that is not feasible it is to propose an alternate
plan which will take as many home workers as practicable from their homes
to community workrooms. The report of the plans is to be made within 90
days after the first meeting.
.
August 11, 1934, an order stays these rates until August 16, 1934.
October 19, 1934, the above rates are extended 6 months.
Beginning on January 8, 1935, to remain in effect until June 16, 1935, or Janu
ary 1,1936, there will be a reduction in some of the piecework rates for home work
and a conditional exemption of the industry from the code’s basic minimum wage
for home work; these revisions apply to handkerchiefs, cotton undergarments,
art linen, and infants’ and children’s dresses.
January 11, 1935, National
Industrial Recovery Board has revised the schedule of piece rates approved
under the code, to become effective January 23, 1935. The new rates are in
the main lower than those previously adopted; certain rates have been excessive,
and their application has resulted in a considerable loss of business to members
of the industry and in unemployment among needleworkers.

Effective date of amendment 2 (which contained the home
Novelty curtain,
work provision), August 24, 1934. “The doing of work or
drapery, bedspread,
the performance of labor on any product of the Domestic
and novelty pillow
Decorative Linens Branch of the industry in the home of a
worker shall be prohibited.” (Note that this applies only to the branch of the
industry specified—the original code, effective November 11, 1933, had no home
work provision.)
Effective date June 18, 1934. The Code Authority with the
Administrator and others designated by him shall study the
problem of home work and propose to the Administrator within
a reasonable time after the effective date appropriate provisions for the regulation
and control of home work.
ivory button

Appendixes
,
and scarf

,
°

Effective date January 7, 1935. Home work permitted
if at same rate as is paid for same type of work in factory
if worker is certificated by the State authority or other
officer designated by the United States Department of Labor. “In addition
to persons who may be permitted to do home work as hereinbefore set forth,
home work may be given out * * * if subsequent to the effective date
of the code at least one-half of the total number of articles of each type are
produced in a factory maintained by, or operated for, said member.” Rates
of pay for all home work shall not be less than rates for such work in the factory,
and names and addresses of home workers registered with Code Authority,
exact record of work and prices paid home workers to be kept by manufacturers,
and Code Authority shall have right of examination of such records. A com
mittee is to be appointed by the Code Authority to investigate the home-work
problem, to report its findings within 60 days, and to make such recommenda
tions as will enable the Code Authority to control home work to safeguard the
labor standards provided for under the code.

•

Appendix D.—INDUSTRIES THAT HAVE NO HOME WORK
BUT WHOSE CODES INCLUDE HOME-WORK PROHI
BITION 1
Assembled Watch
Blackboard and Blackboard Eraser
Cigar Container
Clock a
Cloth Reel
Cocoa and Chocolate
Corrugated and Solid Fiber Shipping
Container
Cylindrical Liquid Tight Paper Con
tainer
Dental Goods and Equipment
Envelop
Expanding and Specialty Paper Prod
ucts
Fiber and Metal Work Clothing Button
Fiber Can and Tube
Folding Paper Box
Food Dish and Pulp and Paper Plate
Glazed and Fancy Paper
Graphic Arts
Grass and Fiber Rug
Gumming
Light Sewing (except garments) !
Open Paper Drinking Cup and Round
Nesting Paper Food Container
Ornamental Molding, Carving, and
Turning1 2

Package Medicine
Paper Disk Milk Bottle Cap
Perfume, Cosmetic, and Other Toilet
Preparations
Precious Jewelry Producing
Printer’s Rollers
Ready-Made Furniture Slip Covers
Robe and Allied Products
Rubber Rainwear (included in Rubber
Manufacturing Code)
Sanitary Milk Bottle Closure
Shoe Pattern
Silverware
Slit Fabric
Stereotype Dry Mat
Tanning Extract
Transparent Materials Converters
Umbrella Frame and Umbrella Hard
ware
Underwear and Allied Products
Used Textile Bag
Watch Case
Waterproof Paper
Welt Manufacturing
Wood-Cased Lead Pencil

1 In addition the codes for the Brattice Cloth Manufacturing Industry and the Chlorine Control Appa
ratus Industry and Trade provide for further administrative action if home work on any part of the products
is found.
2 Limitation in this case.

Appendix E.—HOME WORK CONTINUES WITH NO REGU
LATORY PROVISIONS WRITTEN IN CODES
Clothespin Division (included in Wood
Turning and Shaping Code)
Curled Hair Manufacturing and Horse
Hair Dressing

Lace
Pecan Shelling
Punch Board

Appendix F.—HOME WORK CONTINUES, NO CODE FOR
INDUSTRY
Home-work Process

Industry

Bead Stringing.
Plastic Fabrication
Bone Button Carding_______________________ ______ Bone Button
Fountain Pen and Mechanical Pencil Assembling____ Fountain Pen and Me
chanical Pencil
Gold Leaf Making and Booking
Gold Leaf
Greeting Card Coloring, Ribboning, Inserting, etc___ Greeting Card
Hand Quilting and Hand Appliqueing
Hand Quilted Textiles
Hooked Rug Making
Hooked Rug
Hook and Eye Carding
Hooks and Eyes
Leather Button Carding
Leather Button
Mounting of Maps, etc
Mounter and Finisher
Needle Packing__________________ _________________ Needle
Pin Carding
Pin
Ocean Pearl Button Carding_______________________ Ocean Pearl Button
Rag Sewing
Rag Sewing
Rosebud Making by Sewing from Ribbon
Rosebud
Safety-Pin Carding
Safety Pin
Snap Carding
Snap
Pasting slips of paper bearing hidden numbers on card Tally Card
.
48

RECENT STATISTICAL REPORTS ON SPECIFIC TYPES OF
HOME WORK
United States Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. The Employment of
Women in Puerto Rico.
------------------ — Potential Earning Power of Southern Mountaineer Handicraft.
------ —- — ------ The Hand-Made Handkerchief Industry in Continental United
States.
-------------------- Industrial Home Work in Rhode Island.
United States Department of Labor. A Study of Industrial Home Work in the
Summer and Fall of 1934.

Full text of The Commercialization of the Home Through Industrial Home Work : Women's Bureau Bulletin, No. 135

FRASER