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STATE COLLEGE LIBRARY
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
WOMEN’S BUREAU
Bulletin No. 152
DIFFERENCES IN THE EARNINGS
OF WOMEN AND MEN
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary
WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director
DIFFERENCES IN THE EARNINGS
OF WOMEN AND MEN
By
MARY ELIZABETH PIDGEON
Mill
'vSjTES 6*.
Bulletin
of the
Women’s Bureau,
No. 152
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1938
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.
Price 10 cents
CONTENTS
Letter of transmittal_________________________________________
Part I.—Men’s and women’s wages________ __________________________
Information on men’s and women’s wages much in demand
Basis of information for the present report
Policy of Government to maintain women’s wages
Women’s wages ordinarily below men’s~
Low wages to women depress wage standards
Why are women’s wages lower?~__ 21
Working time
The worker’s output
The fixing of piece rates
Support of dependents2IIIII
Skill in performance_______________________________
The jobs of women and men2111
Tradition of low pay to women2______________________________ II
Part II.—Men’s and women’s wages in the same types of workIIII
Wages paid women and men in clerical work2
Payments to men and women clerical workers in Chicago as found
by the Women’s Bureau_____________________________
Payments to men and women office workers in manufacturing in
dustries surveyed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Payments to men and women office workers in New York factories.
Payments to men and women clerical workers in Ohio
^ Earnings of office employees in laundries
Wages of men and women as salespersons in stores
Wages of men and women in service occupations _
_
Wages of men and women in manufacturing occupations___121
Wages of men and women in 18 specific occupations
Men and women on same time-work jobs at different pay____
Men and women on same jobs with same pay or same rates
reported________________________________________
Men and women on same processes but with different func
tions______________________________________
Men and women in certain characteristic occupations in clothing
plants_____________________________________
Wages of men and women in certain occupations in leather-glove
plants_______________________ i_________
Earnings of women and men in selected occupations as reported by
the Bureau of Labor Statistics _ _
Part III.—Wages of women compared to wages of unskilled"men. ' _22I_
Wages of women and of unskilled men in certain industries in one State
Seamless hosiery___________________________
Men’s work clothes and shirts________________IIII_I__"
Knit underwear__________________________
Men’s suits and overcoats______
Food_________________________________ 2
2
I
Paper boxesI-IIIIIII"" II _ I 21
National Industrial Conference Board dataI_III__I2I__ I_’_I_" _
_
Wages of women and entrance rates for male common labor
_ "
Electrical machinery, apparatus, and supplies__________
_ _
Slaughtering and meat packing________________________ _
Motor-vehicle industry_________________________
Leather________________________
Comparison of wages of street and sewer laborers and of women in
manufacturing______________________
hi
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IV
CONTENTS
Page.
Part IV.—General levels of men’s and women’s wages__________________
Levels of women’s and men’s wages in manufacturing______________
Wages in three industrial States
46
Wages of women nearer to men’s in three latest years__________
Wages of women and men from earlier census data____________
Levels of women’s and men’s wages in particular industries or specific
large occupation groupings
50
Wage rates in Ohio industries, 1914-35
Wages in five New York industries, 1923-36__________________
Wages in 15 Illinois industries, 1924-36_______________ _______
Wages in three Pennsylvania industries, 1928 and 1929________
Wages in seven Tennessee industries, 1935____________________
Special industrial studies by Women’s Bureau____
__ __
Wage data from most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics studies
of 26 industries*__________________________________________
Year’s earnings in manufacturing
57
46
46
48
49
50
51
52
53
53
54
54
Tables
1. Average hourly and weekly earnings of women and men in clerical work
in three industries
20
2. Average weekly earnings or rates of men and women in manufacturing
industries in New York, Illinois, and Ohio
48
3. Men’s and women’s average earnings as reported in most recent Bureau
of Labor Statistics surveys
55
Charts
Average monthly salaries of women and of men in clerical occupations in
one city
Average weekly wages of women and of men clerical workers____________
Average weekly wages of women and of men in stores__________________
Average weekly wages of women and of men in manufacturing industries,
1923-36
Average weekly earnings of women and of men in certain clothing in
dustries
54
18
21
24
47
Illustrations
Assemblers in an electrical manufacturing plant
Stenographers and typists in a central office__
Machine operators in a garment factory______
Facing 6
Facing 16
Facing 30
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
United States Department of Labor,
Women’s Bureau,
Washington, September 1, 1937.
I have the honor to transmit the results of an inquiry made
by this Bureau into the differences in the wages of women and men.
The findings show a striking uniformity in the extent to which
women’s wages are below men’s, in spite of changes in the general
wage level, in business conditions, or in source of labor supply, and
regardless of locality, type of industry, period of time, method of pay,
or other qualifying factor.
The timeliness of presenting information on this subject is indicated
especially in the fact that any low-wage group constitutes a menace
to wage standards in general, and also in the fact that the low wages
women receive further emphasize the necessity of extending such
minimum-wage measures as now are operating in nearly half the
States.
The Women’s Bureau, throughout its entire existence, has sought in
many ways to develop more adequate standards of wage payments to
women. The present study represents another step in the continua
tion of such efforts.
The collection and preparation of material here presented was the
work of Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, chief of the Research Division, who
wrote the report. Field work for sections of the study was done by
Ethel L. Best, industrial supervisor, assisted by Catharine R. Belville,
and by Ethel Erickson, industrial supervisor.
Respectfully submitted.
Mary Anderson, Director.
Hon. Frances Perkins,
Secretary of Labor.
Madam:
WOMEN RECEIVE MUCH LOWER PAY THAN MEN
This is generally true regardless of date, industry, type
of occupation, method of pay, or other qualifying factor.
In three States that have reported men’s and women’s wages
over some 12 to 20 years, women’s average wages in manufactur
ing almost always have been less than 60 percent as great as
men’s. (For details, see p. 46.)
Women’s average earnings are considerably below the average
of the bare entrance rates of men for common labor in the same
industries. (For details, see p. 41.)
Certain recent reports show that the average wages of women
office workers ordinarily are at least one-fifth below those of men
(though the discrepancies are less in the more skilled types of
work). In States that have reported wages of men and women
clerical workers over a series of years, women in office work have
received only about 50 to 60 percent as much as men. (For
details, see p. 16.)
Women in occupations requiring considerable skill or dexterity
were paid less than men in the least skilled jobs in plants making
seamless hosiery, men’s work clothes and shirts, knit underwear,
paper boxes, men’s suits and overcoats, candy, and bakery prod
ucts. (For details, see p. 39.)
In only 3 of 18 manufacturing occupations compared were
men and women receiving the same hourly pay. Most of the
women were paid only 35 cents or less an hour, though some of
their jobs required a considerable degree of dexterity or expert
ness, and though in almost no case did any man reported in the
plant, no matter in how unskilled a job, receive less than 40
cents an hour. (For details, see p. 27.)
Recent reports of salespersons’ wages show many more women
than men at the lower pay levels, and many men but few women
at the higher levels. (For details, see p. 23.)
In occupations in plants manufacturing men’s clothing and
seamless hosiery, though in some cases women’s maximum earn
ings were higher than men’s and a number of women earned
more than any man, yet larger proportions of women than of
men usually were found in the very low pay ranges. (For details,
see p. 26.)
VI
DIFFERENCES IN THE EARNINGS OF
WOMEN AND MEN
Part I.—MEN’S AND WOMEN’S WAGES
INFORMATION ON MEN’S AND WOMEN’S WAGES MUCH IN
DEMAND
The status of women’s wages in all its many phases naturally is a
subject concerning which the Women’s Bureau receives frequent re
quests for information, and one aspect of this that continually is
called for is the relation of women’s wages to those of men. Such
demands come from a variety of sources—from trade-unions, employ
ers, educators, and students, and from various official bodies, most
recently from the International Labor Office in connection with an
inquiry being made by it into the economic situation of women.
Though wage information often is scattering, and at best tends to
grow old almost more rapidly than it can be collected and analyzed,
it seems of benefit to have brought together here some of the available
indications as to men’s and women’s wages, including certain hitherto
unpublished field data from Women’s Bureau surveys.
BASIS OF INFORMATION FOR THE PRESENT REPORT
The present report includes information from various sources show
ing the general levels of men’s and women’s wages, chiefly in manufac
turing industries, as well as the pay they receive for work of identical
or essentially similar character. Close comparisons of men’s and
women’s wages have been made along the following lines, in most
cases showing both the general wage level and the pay for particular
occupations:
Wages of men and women clerical workers, from Women’s
Bureau field surveys and other sources.
Certain Women’s Bureau data on wages of men and women
salespersons in department stores.
Comparison of women’s wages with those of men in unskilled
work.
Data on wages of men and women in manufacturing occupa
tions, from the Women’s Bureau and also from other sources.
State figures showing the general levels of men’s and women’s
wages over a period of years.
In practically all cases of the use of such basic figures in the present
report, the percents that women’s earnings form of men’s earnings
have been computed by the Women’s Bureau to show how much less
women have to live on than men have.
1
2
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
POLICY OF GOVERNMENT TO MAINTAIN WOMEN’S
WAGES
It has been the general policy of the Government of the United
States, expressed in various official documents, to advocate the
maintenance of women’s wages at a level commensurate with that of
men’s wages. For example, in 1915 the Commission on Industrial
Relations recommended “The recognition both by public opinion and
in such legislation as may be enacted, of the principle that women
should receive the same compensation as men for the same terms.”1
In 1918 the principles enunciated by the National War Labor Board
included the following:
Women in industry.—If it shall become necessary to employ women on work
ordinarily performed by men, they must be allowed equal pay for equal work
and must not be allotted tasks disproportionate to their strength.2
Despite this clear statement of policy, it was not possible to give it
full effect, and the Women’s Branch of the Ordnance Department
found that of the hundreds of plants involved only 11 could be listed
that reported having paid equal piece rates to men and women doing
the same work.
The Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor, in its employ
ment standards issued as early as 1918, upheld the policy of the same
pay for women and men on the same jobs in the following words:
Wages should be established on the basis of occupation and not on the
basis of sex or race.
Likewise the United States Railroad Administration in 1918 made
the following rule:
The pay for female employees, for the same class of work, shall be the same
as that of men, and their working conditions must be healthful and fitted to
their needs. The laws enacted foi the government of their employment must
be observed.3
And on November 5, 1919, the United States Civil Service Com
mission definitely ruled that all examinations were open to men and
women alike.4 More recently the National Recovery Administration
promulgated the following policy:
Female employees performing substantially the same work as male em
ployees shall receive the same rate of pay as male employees.5
During the life of the National Recovery Administration, 1933-35,
efforts were made to assure the same code rates for both sexes, and
Government authorities supported this, although in practically onefourth of the codes—and frequently in those for industries employing
many women—the code rate was fixed lower for women than for men.
The policy of maintaining women’s wages at a reasonable level also
has been upheld by the governments of many States, as witness the
enactment of minimum-wage legislation for women in nearly one-half
of the States.
1 Final Report of the Commission on Industrial Relations. Washington, Government Printing Office,
1916. [Reprinted from S. Doc. No. 416, 64th Cong.] p. 72.
2 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly Labor Review, May 1918, p. 57.
3 U. S. Railroad Administration. General Order No. 27, Supplement No. 13. Article VIII (a). 1918.
See Monthly Labor Review, March 1919, p. 166.
* U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. The Status of Women in the Government Service
in 1925. Bui. 53. 1926. p. 1.
5 N. R. A. release 6367, July 12, 1934.
MEN’S AND WOMEN’S WAGES
3
WOMEN’S WAGES ORDINARILY BELOW MEN’S
Despite these evidences of governmental policy to the contrary, it
is well known that in almost any type of comparison that can be
made, women’s wages ordinarily are found to be lower than those of
men. This is true of weekly earnings in industry in whatever local
ity or period reported, and, in a somewhat less marked degree, it is
the usual case with hourly earnings. It occurs in a wide variety of
occupations of many types. It is a well-known situation to the pro
fessional woman, especially the teacher, and to other white-collar
workers.
Writing in 1919, an economist who studied this subject concluded:
As adult workers their [women’s] earnings always fall short of men’s in
the same age groups and finally their range of earnings is conspicuously
more limited.6
A later study notes that—
Factory wages tend to rise, but the gap between men’s and women’s
wages remains surprisingly constant.7
It has been partly because women’s wages in their lower ranges
have been so strikingly below men’s in so many cases that strong efforts
have proceeded toward fixing a minimum wage especially for women.
The data_ collected in the present report show an almost uncanny
uniformity in the differentials in the wages of the two sexes, in spite
of changes in general wage level, in public sentiment, in business con
ditions, in source of labor supply, or in anything else.
Note, for example, the graph on page 47 showing that in more than
a decade women’s wages in manufacturing in several States bore a
percentage relation to men’s wages that varied by not more than a
few points from year to year.
Especially notable are the ratios of men’s and women’s wages in
clerical work, for here time-work pay prevails and certain factors that
might make for wider discrepancies in the wages of men and women
in manufacturing would not influence the pay for clerical work. In
the ratios shown on page 22, figures are given for the years 1914 to
1935; the period includes the World War, the depressions of 1920-21
ar.d 1930-33, and considerable development in the mechanization of
office work; at one time men’s median was 121.6 percent and women’s
was 113.8 percent above the figure for 1914; yet in the whole period of
2 decades the ratio of the women’s median earnings to those of men
varied by less than 4 points, never going above 60.2 nor below 56.6.
Even for exactly the same occupations in clerical work, the dis
crepancies between women’s and men’s wages are great, as the data
on page 19 show.
LOW WAGES TO WOMEN DEPRESS WAGE STANDARDS
It is obvious that the low wages received by women produce a low
standard of living for the women themselves and in many cases for
their families, especially in those now very numerous cases in which
wage-earning women support dependents and even entire families of
6 Hutchinson, Emilie Josephine. Women's Wages. 1919. p. 34.
7 The Activities of Women Outside the Home. By S. P. Breckinridge. In Recent Social Trends in the
United States. Vol. 1. 1933. p. 735.
17641°—38---- 2
4
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
considerable size.8 But the effect of this situation is far more wide
spread than that, since it has a definite tendency to depress wage
standards in general for both sexes, extending and perpetuating the ills
of poverty and dependency and placing a premium on the displace
ment of men and the hiring of women at reduced rates.
WHY ARE WOMEN’S WAGES LOWER?
Why have these differences in men’s and women’s wages ordinarily
been so marked and so persistent, in spite of continual efforts to elimi
nate them on the part of women and of others interested in social
welfare, and even in spite of governmental recommendations designed
to raise the level of women’s wages to that of men’s? Are these
differences based on valid and sound reasons, are they attributable
chiefly to economic forces, or do they arise mainly from some tradi
tional cause?
There is no doubt that certain causes that may be considered as
purely economic operate to some extent to keep women’s wrages low,
especially where women form a residual labor supply or wdiere they are
employed in the least attractive jobs. When the labor market is
overcrowded, women can be obtained cheap, usually cheaper than
men. But the consistent disparity in the wages as between the
two sexes, applying to nearly all types of jobs and occurring even in
industries where women are much in demand, indicates the operation
of additional causes to keep women’s wages down.
An especially important factor in the low wages of women is the
general lack of organization among employed women strong enough
to battle effectively for a more adequate wage scale.
Turning from what may be thought of as these more purely economic
factors, a number of other influences that may affect the wage scale
of women may be examined.
The reason for paying a lower wage probably might be considered
to have at least some justification if the time worked were shorter, if
the output were less, if there were less skill in the performance, if the
requirements of the job were in some wise less exacting, or if for some
other reason the employer’s demands were less or the work were less
satisfactorily done. While such differences by no means have depended
wholly on the sex of the worker, yet women’s wages consistently have
fallen below those of men.
Working time.
Where comparisons are based on weekly wages, any variations in
time must be taken into consideration before evaluating amounts
received. But where the hourly pay is concerned and the time element
therefore does not enter, though the discrepancies often are not so
great as is the case with weekly wages, yet women’s hourly earnings
still are less than men’s.
For example, while men averaged from 32 to 39 cents an hour as a
bare entrance rate for common labor, women in the same districts and
in the same industry, in which they perform work requiring con
siderable dexterity and some skill, could average only from 28 to 34
cents.9
8 For evidence as to the extent to which this is true, see, for example, Women’s Bureau bulletins 75, What
the Wage Earning Woman Contributes to Family Support; 148, The Employed Woman Homemaker in
the United States; and 155, Women in the Economy of the United States of America.
8 See p. 41.
MEN’S AND WOMEN’S WAGES
5
In a series of occupations performed by both men and women in
almost 20 plants visited by Women’s Bureau agents, women ordinarily
received not more than 35 cents an hour, though in almost every case
no man in the plant was paid less than 40 cents.10
The worker’s output.
Little information is available to form a basis for determining the
relative output of the two sexes in the same jobs, especially since
studies of output are most difficult and necessarily are of a particularist character.
Certain of the studies made during the World War give outstanding
evidence that women’s output takes its place satisfactorily with that
of men.11 For example, of 267 metal-working firms reporting on the
substitution of more than 13,000 women for men in 14 occupations,
the proportions stating that women’s output was equal to or greater
than men’s ranged from 56.8 percent of the firms reporting on grinding
and polishing to 84.6 percent of those reporting on welding.
Furthermore, of 533 firms reporting on the substitution of nearly
60,000 women for men in 9 occupational groups, more than threefourths stated that women’s work was as satisfactory as men’s or
better than men’s, and the proportions so stating in the various
industries ranged from 66.7 percent in chemical products to 100 per
cent in the rubber industry.
In another of the wartime studies reporting many women in
Cleveland, Ohio, employed in plants and on processes to which they
were not always accustomed, the output of women and girls was
found to be greater than that of men and boys by 64 percent of the
production managers reporting for the metal industries and 20 percent
of those reporting for the clothing industries. In a study of women
employed in the metal trades, made at about the same time by the
National Industrial Conference Board, two-thirds of the employers
reporting on production stated that women’s output was equal to or
greater than that of men.
In a study of the replacement of men by women in New York State
industries during the war, made by the Department of Labor in that
State, it was found that even in cases where the women produced
more than the men they received lower wages than the men doing
the same work in the same plant.
Since the period of the studies quoted, Women’s Bureau agents
have come across other similar situations, though since these have
been incidental to other surveys they are nowhere brought together.
A characteristic one of these not only illustrates the fact that women
are lower paid even with better output than men on exactly the same
job, but shows also how piece rates are cut until women earn what the
management thinks a sufficient wage for them. This instance is of
work on an automatic screw machine, newly installed.
* * * Men were assigned to the job on a piece-work basis at a certain rate
per thousand. After working on the machine a short time the men complained
that they were not able to make a decent wage at the rate paid, and the employ
ment manager and works manager decided to try women on it, transferring the
10 See p. 27.
11 See the following: (1) Women’s Bureau Bui. 12. The New Position of Women in American Industry.
1920. pp. 94, 96. (2) The Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. Committee on Industrial Welfare. The
Substitution of Woman for Man Power in Industry. July 1918. pp. 13,14. (3) National Industrial Con
ference Board. Wartime Employment of Women in the Metal Trades. July 1918. p. 30. (4) New York
State Department of Labor. Bureau of Women in Industry. The Industrial Replacement of Men by
Women in the State of New York. Special Bui. 93. 1919. pp. 27-29.
6
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
men to other work. Women were put on at the same rate and, the employment
manager said, “They ran riot with the job and before long were making over
$50 a week.” Then the men wanted another trial at the job, and, as the employ
ment manager does not approve of having women in the machine shop and tries
to discourage it, the men were given another try-out at a slightly higher rate
than the initial one. Again they failed to turn out enough work to earn a satis
factory wage. Women have been employed on this work ever since (about 3
years). Rates have been lowered several times since the women have been work
ing on the machines, as it was stated that the work was in an experimental stage
when the first rates were set.12
It is certain that differences in output continually exist between
members of the same sex, and there is no evidence that women’s
output in general is sure to be below men’s. On the contrary, from
the evidences available, it is clear that differences in output may be
considered far from sufficient to measure the great and consistent
discrepancies between men’s and women’s wages.
The fixing of piece rates.
The inadequacy of output measurement as one explanation for the
consistently low wages of women is indicated further when it is realized
how haphazard the method of fixing the piece rate may be and how
often it still is dependent in the final analysis upon the arbitrary
judgment of a foreman or manager or upon some other unscientific
factor. Even where careful time studies are made, the tendency is
to fix the piece rate, after time study, at the level of the faster rather
than the average workers, or to fix it so as to bring the wage to about
what the wage fixer thinks the worker should earn. Quotations both of
earlier and of later dates testify to the inadequate method of fixing
piece rates. Though in recent years much attention has been paid
to more scientific methods, many rates still are fixed by less accurate
rules, and this is particularly likely to be true in some of the important
woman-employing industries.
_
Says one authority in connection with the determination of piece
rates: “There are some who advise setting tasks deliberately high or
rates low so as to play safe for the future.” 13 Another makes the
following statement:
Estimates of a busy foreman as to how long it should take to do a new job
must necessarily be inaccurate, and rates set by his estimates are practically
guesses. After “the workmen have become skilled, their earnings will increase
greatly and will often be out of all proportion to the exertion put forth.
Under these conditions an adjustment of the prices based on the new records
is made; and, as the workman becomes more skillful, it is done again. Thus the
more skilled the workman becomes and the more progress he makes the greater
the penalty he has to suffer, for his prices are being continually reduced so that
he earns but little more than the incompetent man, who has never been able to
do his work in such a manner as to exceed greatly the old records.
The author adds that he knows of a very large American plant,
with an international business, in which piece rates were revised
every year to the basis of the lowest current wage for the highest
10-hour record, and that as a consequence many foreigners came to
their piece work between 4 a. m. and 5 a. m. in order to earn a living
wage by 6 p. m.14
At an earlier date an investigator reports the following situation,
which undoubtedly still is typical in many cases.
>2 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. The Effects of Labor Legislation on the Employment
Opportunities of Women. Bui. 65. 1928. p.228.
w Lytle, Charles Walter. Wage Incentive Methods. 1929. p. 167.
1* Bloomfield, Daniel. Financial Incentives for Employees and Executives. 1923. pp. 62, 76.
fjm
mmm
ASSEMBLERS IN AN ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING PLANT.
MEN’S AND WOMEN’S WAGES
I
I have known of rates that had been cut three different times, and on one
occasion a girl informed me that whenever she exceeded a certain weekly wage
her rate was cut, and as a result she decided to stand pat and do only as much
as would net her what the management indirectly told her she was to earn
* * *• When you talk with different men in different parts of a shop on dif
ferent work and have them tell you that increased production per man means
the same and in many cases less wages, there is something fundamentally wrong.15
Writing on this subject quite recently a well-known labor economist
makes the following statement:
t The rate cutting which Halsey found inevitable under the piece-work system
is apparently equally inevitable under any of the “scientific” wage-payment
plans. * * *
It is assumed to be the management’s prerogative to determine the amount
of work the employees can do and to fix prices for the work on this basis.16
Another labor economist makes this analysis of the way in which
piece rates are likely to be fixed.
The tendency is to fix piece rates in the beginning according to the capacity
of the more rapid workers; and the temptation is to cut down even these rates
(perhaps upon the basis of some slight improvements in the equipment) when
the operatives seem to be earning excessive wages per week.
* * * in some trades the output is so varied and complex that it is difficult
to establish fair rates * * * many employers are jealous of high earnings on
the part of their workmen, that they are given to assuming that some mistake
must have been made in the rates originally set, and that they frequently resort
to tinkering or “nibbling” at the rates for the sake of speeding up the pace and
cutting down the wage bill.17
Additional evidence of the fact that piece rates very often may be
based largely on traditional practice or opinion in plants where
many women are employed is found in a Women’s Bureau survey of
the shoe industry in New Hampshire, in which typical plant state
ments as to the way in which such rates were determined are as
follows:
Forelady sets them according to prevailing prices in the city, and goes over them
with foreman.
When designs change we experiment and set up in our own minds fair returns
for days or weeks worked, and piece rates are computed from basic hourly rates.
The National Industrial Conference Board, organization of large
tnanufacturing interests, says:
Early piece rates were usually based on snap judgment, reinforced by the fore
man’s recollection of about how long it took to do the job * * * as the study
and improvement of methods assumed a larger part in standard and rate setting,
time study became increasingly important as a fair and impersonal method of
determining actual time consumed in performing an operation.
In the study in which this paragraph occurs time studies were
found to be made by the foremen in slightly over 10 percent of the
388 companies giving such information, and in about one-half as
many the rates were set either by the foreman with the approval
of a higher authority (not a time-study specialist) or by a plant
executive. The firms are large for the most part, as, for example, the
clothing companies reported would average well over 800 workers,
the textile mills more than 1,000.
Furthermore, in this study the large man-employing industries
predominate, and in these smaller proportions of the workers are
J* Knoeppel, C. E. The Psychology and Ethics of Wage Payment. 1912. p. 16.
16 Leiserson, William M. The Economics of Restriction of Output. In Restriction of Output Among
Unorganized Workers. By Stanley B. Mathewson. 1931. pp. 175, 181.
11 Catlin, Warren B. The Labor Problem. Revised edition. 1935. pp. 168, 494.
8
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
paid by the piece method. For example, in the iron and steel, chem
ical, automotive, and machine and machine-tool industries, large
man-employers, some 60 to more than 80 percent of the workers
were paid by the time worked, while this was true of much smaller
proportions of those in the large woman-employers—in textiles. 45
percent, in leather 39 percent, and in clothing 16 percent were time
workers.18
It is quite likely that rate fixing by older methods occurs to a larger
extent where women are employed, and also where the establishments
are smaller, and even the newer methods afford no means of protecting
the worker from the setting of a piece rate so low that a relatively
low wage will result. This is one of the reasons why the fixing of a
minimum wage for women has been considered so important by
economists who see the necesstiy of raising wage levels.
The chaotic condition of piece-rate fixing is indicated in the wide
variation from plant to plant found in women’s earnings in five
laundry occupations taken in May 1933 and analyzed by the
Women’s Bureau.19 The range of median hourly earnings for the
same occupation in nine different plants in one State was as follows:
Flat ironers1614 to 27 cents.
Finishers1114 to 34 cents.
Press operators1214 to 28 cents.
Sorters13 to 24 cents.
Markers15J4 to 32 cents.
Support of dependents.
One argument that has been used to justify depressed wages for
women is that men have families to support. However, the un
married man, who is likely to assume less responsibility than his
sister for their parents’ obligations, is not paid less than the family
man because of his lack of dependents. In fact, a family wage system
never has been the rule in this country, and men, whether married or
single, ostensibly are paid for the job done and not according to the
number of their dependents.
Moreover, women increasingly are called upon to assume the
support of others. In a compilation made a few years ago of the
data from 22 studies affording information on this subject, it was
shown that over one-half of the more than 61,000 women reported
contributed all their earnings to the family support.20
In 10 studies more recently made, nearly 13 percent of the more
than 369,000 women reported were the sole support of families of
two or more persons. An examination of 34 studies reporting on
more than 155,000 women showed that practically 60 percent of these
contributed to the support of dependents, in some cases in addition
to those for whose support they were fully responsible. These
women included both those who were single and those who were
married; they were supporting children of their own or others, parents,
young sisters or brothers, husbands who were ill or unable to get
jobs.
The census of 1930, having gathered information for the first time
upon employed women homemakers, found that nearly a million of
these were in families of two or more persons with no man at the head,
18 National Industrial Conference Board. Financial Incentives. 1935. pp. 19, 21, 23.
1B U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Variations in Wage Rates Under Corresponding
Conditions. Bui. 122. 1935. p. 7.
2° Ibid. What the Wage-Earning Woman Contributes to Family Support. Bui. 75. 1929. p. 12.
MEN’S AND WOMEN’S WAGES
9
and that somewhat more than 450,000 of the total were the sole wageearners in their families.21
Such figures as these must effectively combat any lingering belief
that employed women have no responsibility for the support of
others.
Skill in performance.
Measurements of skill in performance are more difficult even than
measurements of output, and information regarding them is similarly
scattering. . In the New York study already cited, 80 percent of the
employers investigated claimed that women were as satisfactory as
the men they replaced, or even more satisfactory, yet they paid them
less.
An industrial engineer has stated that it is “astonishingly true
that no two people seem to agree on what skill is. ” This same expert’s
definition is: “Dexterity, plus knowledge, which can adapt itself to
changing situations and is capable of improvement.” 22
According to census figures, women form only 4.5 percent of the
laborers in factories, and census data classified by social-economic
groups show that women form 36.8 percent of the semiskilled workers
in manufacturing. In all occupations together women are 31.7 per
cent of all semiskilled, but only 22.2 percent of the unskilled.23
The instance of the automatic screw machine described on page 5
shows women doing the work so adequately that a superintendent
who did not prefer them kept them on, and they earned so much that
eventually their piece rate was cut lower than that of the men who
had been on the same job. However, since this machine was auto
matic, the requirement was one of dexterity, quickness, or alertness
rather than what ordinarily is considered a high type of skill. This
is the sort of machine-tending job upon which so many thousands of
industrial women are employed. Its rapidity and constancy exact
a tremendous toll of nervous energy..
From a recent series of observations made by a Women’s Bureau
agent there may be cited another instance that has to do with a type
of work perhaps somewhat less heavy but probably making a more
exacting requirement in terms of skill—the etching of designs or
patterns.on glassware. In some of the factories visited men were
doing this work, paid according to a union wage scale. Elsewhere
the work was not done in the making plant but was taken to a
finishing plant. Here women were employed almost exclusively.
They were paid at a much lower rate than the men who performed this
same type of work in the making plant, though the patterns they
executed were fully as complicated and the product was in every way
as satisfactory.
Two other points that may be examined in connection with the
subject of skill are the ages of the workers and the extent of their
experience. According to the 1930 census, larger proportions of the
women than of the men in employment are in the lower age groups,
more than one-third of the women but only a little over one-fifth of
the men being less than 25 years of age. However, it also is true that
in many jobs the quickness and dexterity of youth are to be desired,
but where comparisons have been made in the same industries, the
Ibid. The Employed Woman Homemaker in the United States. Bui. 148. 1936. pp. 2, 6.
22 Gilbreth, Lillian M. Skills and Satisfactions. In Trained Men. Autumn, 1930. Vol. X. p. 99.
23 Edwards, Alba M. A Social-Economic Grouping of the Gainful Workers of the United States. In
Journal of the American Statistical Association, December 1933, p. 383.
10
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
wages of women have run lower than those of men in the same age
group to much the same extent as elsewhere.24
In the matter of experience, Women’s Bureau evidence shows that
many women remain for long years in their trades, imparting a large
degree of permanency to their job-holding. Thus a low wage scale
consistently based on the expectation of only a temporary holding
of the job is not justified.
While the special skills and aptitudes of women differ somewhat from
those of men, as will be discussed shortly, in the jobs they perform
women are quite as important to industry as men are, and are worthy
of better wage consideration than they now receive. Such evidence
as can be found goes to show that the differences in skill that may
exist are far from sufficient to justify a wage to women that frequently
is only 60 or 70 percent as great as that paid men.
The jobs of women and men.
Though there are instances in which men and women are doing the
same type of work, for the most part their occupations differ. As was
stated some years ago in a British report written by Beatrice Webb:
It is extremely rare, in industry, to find men and women performing exactly
the same operations, making identical things by the same processes, or doing the
whole of each other’s jobs. Even where women are substituted for men, there
is, practically always, some alteration in the process, or in the machinery em
ployed, or in the arrangement of the tasks of the operatives, or in the way in
which the labor is divided.25 26
But this is not to say that the jobs performed by women are less
skilled than those of men or less important to industry. Indeed,
there are types of work in which women excel and in which their
particular skills are most necessary. Listed as an “important
discovery” attributed to World War engineering studies is the follow
ing:
Women are superior to men on light repetitive work requiring manual dexterity
and quickness of hand, eye, or brain. They learn to perform operations involving
muscular coordination more rapidly than men.28
A “light” machine requiring great speed of operation or the accom
plishment of a quick monotonous process may be far more exacting,
actually may use up far more of the performer’s physical energy, and
consequently may be worth a better wage than work on a machine
requiring muscle or brawn alone but entailing little speed, dexterity,
or judgment. In fact, indication is available that women are far
better suited to certain fine operations that cannot be performed by
men with any commensurate degree of adequacy or skill.27
Testimony frequently is received from employers that they find
women more efficient in work on many types of jobs requiring delicate
handling or the assembling of fine parts, as for example in the making
of watches, dentists’ tools, various small parts, kitchenware, auto
mobile accessories. Many of t’hese jobs require considerably more
than mere “helper” ability, and their scale of pay should be somewhat
higher in consequence. Thoy are as vital to the industry as many of
the jobs designated as “heavier” in type that are performed by men
and that are likely to be paid higher, and their exaction from the
24 Hutchinson, Emilie Josephine. Women’s Wages. 1919. p. 34.
2fi Webb, Mrs. Sidney. The Relation Between Men’s and Women’s Wages. Minority Report of [Great
Britain’s] War Cabinet Committee on Women in Industry. 1919. p. 270.
26 Dana, Richard T. The Human Machine in Industry. 1927. p. 215.
27 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Employed Women Under N. R. A. Codes. Bui.
130. 1935. p. 24.
MEN’S AND WOMEN’S WAGES
11
worker in terms of nervous energy often corresponds quite fully to
the exaction of jobs requiring muscular strength.
The report for 1936 of the Director of the International Labor Office
cites striking testimony to the importance of women’s work in an
industry in which the scale of women’s wages had tended to be very
low. He says:
* * * With the revival of the textile industry, both in Belgium and Great
Britain, the reemployment of men was restricted in a number of instances owing
to the absence of a sufficient number of skilled women.28
In support of this it was reported in Great Britain that if more
women reelers and winders could be found, additional machinery
could be started in certain Yorkshire cotton mills, thus giving employ
ment to some of the men spinners and twiners who were out of work.
TRADITION OF LOW PAY TO WOMEN
The foregoing discussion has set forth in some detail the various pos
sible causes for the low_ standards of women’s wages. The levels of
women s wages are consistently below those of men’s, even where it is
the hourly wage that is under consideration. This is the case even
with age groups corresponding for the two sexes and even with experi
enced women workers. It has been found to be true even when wo
men s output is not less than men’s, and even though women are per
forming skilled jobs and are known to be especially proficient in certain
types of work necessary to industry. Further, low pay to women
cannot be justified by their lack of responsibility for the support of
others, since very many employed women have dependents.
i The,extent which women’s wages fall below men’s cannot be ex
plained fully by the purely economic causes, such as oversupply of
labor, for their pay remains low even for jobs in which they are much
in demand. _ While women’s lack of organization undoubtedly forms a
large factor in keeping their wages at low levels, the whole situation
scarcely can be referred to this cause.
The conclusion must be that in many instances the payment of a low
wage to women is a hangover from the traditional attitude that assigns
a low money value to work thought of as “women’s work.” Certain
jobs so designated are paid at a low rate regardless of their importance
or the skill required; others are classified as “light repetitive” work
and considered worth only a low wage, regardless of their importance
to the mdustry or of the tremendous nervous attention they require
or physical toll they exact.
rh*e situation is aggravated by the fact that there really are some
unskilled jobs, some helpers’ jobs, even some machine-tending jobs,
that do not involve difficulty or great energy and that ordinarily
would be rated at a low-pay scale, and in these types of work women
often are employed. It becomes very easy for the management, the
foreman, or the rate-fixing agency to exaggerate greatly the number of
jobs that fall in this class, and to fail to recognize the real exactions
of the work or to change attitude when significant changes are made in
the process. Since the financial interest of the management is involved
in keeping down the labor cost, a premium is put upon the extension
iG^rS,(SlfrFeebei2T193e5ntieth SeS5i°n' Gen6Va’ 19?6' Eep°rt 0f th6
17641°—31
-3
P- 66-
12
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
to more and more kinds of work of this old tradition of the little worth
of women. Thus both in thinking and in action a low-wage designa
tion is applied to many jobs performed by women that should be better
paid. Two illustrations drawn from the experience of code making
under the N. R. A. will suffice to show how the work of women tends
to be paid on a traditionally low basis regardless of the character of the
work itself.
In the code for the saddlery industry the minimum fixed for unskilled
labor was 35 cents (except in certain States where it was 32% cents),
skilled labor to be paid at least 20 cents more. But for “women
making pads used under collars, harness, or saddles, or making canvas
stitched back bands, or open-bottom cotton fiber stuffed cotton collars,
or fly nets, or horse covers” the minimum was 2% cents below that of
unskilled labor, though some of these occupations certainly are not the
least skilled in the industry.
Similarly, in the bakery code, the minimum was 40 cents, but clean
ers, wrappers, and icers could be paid as low as 32 cents. Cleaners
frequently are men or boys, and their work often includes pan
greasing. There seems little reason why wrapping, and especially
icing, which often is a relatively skilled job, should be paid as low as
cleaning and lower than any other unskilled job in the industry.
Part II.—MEN’S AND WOMEN’S WAGES IN THE SAME
TYPES OF WORK
The question most frequently asked about men’s and women’s
wages is as to their pay for the same types of work. In general,
wan611 an<^ men are likely to be employed on different types of work.
While women’s jobs are as important to the industry as men’s, and
the so-called “light work” of women often requires such dexterity
and speed that it is as exacting to the worker in terms of physical
energy and of adjustment to rapid machines as are the so-called
‘heavy” jobs, nevertheless these women’s jobs are likely to be paid
less than men’s, more because of the traditional view as to the low
value of “women’s work” than for any reason based on sound
demonstration.
There are, however, cases of men’s and women’s jobs that can be
compared with reasonable accuracy, and this section of the report
deals especially with these. It shows wages of men and women in
certain manufacturing occupations, in certain types of clerical work,
and as salespersons in general mercantile establishments. It also
compares the wages of women in certain industries with the pay of
men in unskilled work in the same industry, and women’s wages in
certain well-defined productive jobs with the entrance rates paid men
for common labor.
Throughout this discussion the findings show that women’s pay is
definitely lower than men’s for essentially identical work, and that for
the most part their pay in productive manufacturing jobs falls below
that received by men performing common labor requiring little skill
or training.
In some of the occupations considered here, both men and women
are paid according to time worked. However, since many of the
manufacturing occupations discussed are piece-work jobs, a further
word should be said at this point in regard to such methods of pay.1
In the first place, the manufacturing industries in which women are
largely concentrated are likely to employ piece work to a great extent,
and this is less true of certain of the great man-employers. For ex
ample, in a recent study by the National Industrial Conference Board,
large proportions of the workers were on time rates in several important
man-employing industries as follows: Automotive, 83 percent; chemi
cals 64 percent; machine and machine tools, 63 percent; and iron and
steel, 61 percent. The outstanding woman-employers had much
smaller proportions of time workers, as follows: Textiles, 45 percent'
leather, 39 percent; clothing, 16 percent.2
. Modern industry has been characterized by efforts to standardize
piece rates where they are in use, and to work them out on a fair and
scientific basis. Outstanding cases can be cited in which union agree
ments with employers have achieved a large measure of success in the
1 See also part I, p. 6.
2 National Industrial Conference Board. Financial Incentives. 1935. p. 19.
13
14
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
fixing of piece rates satisfactory to both sides. A notable recent
example is in the agreements reached in the silk-dress industry, in
which a carefully worked out method of establishing rates for the
thousands of models involved has been developed through joint action
of the organizations of employers and workers.3 Similar instances of
effective agreements can be cited for some other branches of clothing
manufacture.4
That these successful efforts exist and that both industry and labor
are seeking to give wider application to similar methods is encouraging,
but the fact cannot be entirely obscured that in very many plants
this stage has not yet been reached. Further, there is considerable
evidence that in many instances piece rates still are not fixed upon the
basis of reasonable time studies. In the National Industrial Con
ference Board study referred to, it was found that in practically onetenth of the plants reported such rates were set by the foreman on
his own responsibility, and in about one-half as many plants by the
foreman with approval by a higher authority, not a time-study
specialist, or by a plant executive.5 6
In regard to the fixing of piece rates, the same agency states: “It
is by reference to the time wage in the same or similar occupations
that their reasonableness is measured.”8 Now when the custom has
been to consider the work done by women at a low value, and the time
wage accordingly has been fixed low; and when the previous time wage,
based on the traditional view of the low worth of “women’s jobs” is
used as a measure of the reasonableness of a piece rate, used frequently
by a foreman not fully trained in the evaluation of the worth of a job;
it is obvious that piece rates will be, as in fact they too often are,
fixed relatively low for jobs that are considered “women’s work” (even
though some men may be employed on them), and fixed somewhat
higher on jobs ordinarily performed by men, even though the attribut
ing of superior skill to such work is largely based on the old tradition
of men’s work being good for somewhat more pay.
The importance of a process to an industry and the proficiency of
its performance are more sound criteria of its wage value than any
consideration of the mass or weight of the machines used, or of whether
the articles incident to the process are large or small, light or heavy.
One job may require muscular force, another may demand a special
fineness of handling or delicacy of touch, yet the “light” job may be
as necessary as the heavy work to completion of the product. A tell
ing example is found in the making of glassine bags. At one end of
the machine process a man lifts the heavy roll of the glassine paper
and places it in the machine, a job requiring chiefly strength; at the ,
other end, a woman deftly takes off the small bags, finished and
counted, gives them a rapid double inspection, eliminates any that
may be imperfect, and packs them into a box so evenly as to make a
tight fill, a job requiring speed, dexterity, care, and accuracy. Both
jobs are integral parts of the process of bag production. Both should
be worth a living wage.
3 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Piece Work in the Silk-Dress Industry. Bui. 141. 1936,
pp. 35, 36, and Women’s Bureau News Letter, February 1936.
4 Agreements, like the N. R. A. codes, represent as much as a bargain can arrange and often women’s wages
still are lower. For example, in an agreement in the textile dyeing and finishing industry of Aug. 21, 1936,
signed by 122 companies employing 17,000 workers, women’s minimum hourly rates were to be 48 cents,
men's 66 cents. See Monthly Labor Review, October 1936, p. 9*9.
6 National Industrial Conference Board. Financial Incentives. 1935. p. 23.
6 Ibid. Systems of Wage Payment. 1930. p. 27.
WAGES IN THE SAME TYPES OF WORK
15
Further evidence of the fact that piece rates very often may be
based largely on traditional practice or opinion in plants where many
women are employed is found in a Women’s Bureau survey of the
shoe industry in N ew Hampshire 7 in which typical plant statements
as to the way in which such rates were determined are as follows:
Forelady sets them according to prevailing prices in the city, and goes over
them with foreman.
When designs change we experiment and set up in our own minds fair returns
for days or weeks worked, and piece rates are computed from basic hourly rates.
Figure what they can pay on that job.
Some persons have drawn the conclusion that where the hourly
earnings of women are below those of men at the same piece rate,
women must be less efficient. That this by no means follows is proven
by the many instances in which some women are found to earn more
than any man on the job. (For examples, see p. 5.) Moreover,
variations in the run of material, in the coarseness, fineness, or other
attribute of the product worked upon may make great differences in
the rapidity with which the job can be done and consequently in the
pay received.
The pages following give comparisons of men’s and women’s wages
where engaged upon essentially similar work in clerical occupations,
as salespersons in department stores, and in manufacturing occupa
tions. Since the material used in this section has been taken from
many studies made at different times and on bases that cannot always
be compared each to each, it has had to be presented in somewhat
piecemeal form. Nevertheless, when considered as a whole it com
prises a mass of testimony to the fact that even when women put forth
as great exertion and contribute as greatly to the resultant product
as do men, on the whole their pay envelopes contain amounts dis
tressingly lower than those of their brothers.
7 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. A Survey of the Shoe Industry in New Hampshire.
Bui. 121. 1935. pp. 80, 81.
WAGES PAID WOMEN AND MEN IN CLERICAL WORK
A good illustration of the relation between the general levels of
men’s and women’s wages is in the clerical occupations, since regular
work of this type usually is paid on a time basis. Information on this
subject from various sources has been examined. Some of this bears
on the general wage levels in this type of work, and some of it shows
women’s and men’s wages in particular clerical occupations.
The data taken together show that for the most part women receive
far less than men for clerical work, which, according to the 1930
census, is the greatest of all occupational fields for women except
domestic and personal service.
The clerical earnings of women came somewhat nearer to those of
men in the manufacturing plants reported than in the general business
concerns such as mail-order houses, insurance companies, and the like,
but even in these manufacturing plants, when women were averaging
in the neighborhood of $20, men averaged about $24 or $25.
Reports for all clerical work from one State, including a very large
proportion of all such employees in the State and covering, with but
one break, a 21-year period, show that the average rate for women in
this type of employment was as much as 60 percent of men’s in only 1
year.
Such information as is available shows wide differences from one
clerical occupation to another in the extent to which women’s earnings
approach men’s. As file clerks and as calculating-machine operators,
women’s rates averaged practically the same as men’s; as operators of
bookkeeping and billing machines their average was more than men’s;
but as general clerks of all types women averaged less than 80 percent
as much as men, as correspondents less than 70 percent as much, and
as supervisors less than 65 percent as much.
The sources of the data that are analyzed in the pages following are
these:
1. A study made by the Women’s Bureau in the fall and early
winter of 1931, which shows the monthly rates of pay for clerical
work done by men and women in Chicago in different types of
business organization and also in particular office occupations.
2. Reports on the weekly and hourly pay received by the office
workers in several of the manufacturing industries recently sur
veyed by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
3. Reports on weekly payments to office workers in manufac
turing plants, issued once a year (in November) by the Depart
ment of Labor in New York from the information it obtains
regularly from a sampling of the State’s industries.
4. The yearly reports of clerical workers’ weekly salary rates as
collected by the Department of Industrial Relations in Ohio for
the great majority of all persons employed in the State.
16
I.T &*&«***
STENOGRAPHERS AND TYPISTS IN A CENTRAL OFFICE.
yj
WAGES PAID IN CLERICAL WORK
Payments to men and women clerical workers in Chicago as found
by the Women’s Bureau.
Median salary rates of the women clerical workers in Chicago,
reported by the Women’s Bureau in the winter of 1931, were somewhat
less than three-fourths as great as men’s.8 The following table shows
that the relation of the -women’s to the men’s wages varied considerably
according to the type of business, women’s average rates ranging from
about 63 to nearly 86 percent of men’s.
Median monthly salary
rate 1
Type of office
Percent distribu
tion of employees
with rates reported
Men
Percent
women's
rate
formed of
men’s
$135
All offices_______
Advertising agencies__ _ __________
Banks___ ____ ________ .
Insurance companies___________ ... .
Investment houses________________
Mail-order houses 2....... .......................... . _. _
Public utilities_______________ __ ...
Publishers_ __________________
_
Ratio of lowest to highest median. __......... .
Women
$99
73.3
100.0
100.0
145
133
128
156
103
1.58
152
65.2
117
114
93
127
75
100
106
59.0
80.7
85.7
72.7
81.4
72.8
63.3
69.7
2.4
35.9
9. 6
11. 8
12. 7
25.0
2. 6
3.3
17.6
Men
(7,016)
Women
(8,909)
23 8
17. 7
9 6
1 One-half earned more, one-half less, than the amount stated.
2 Includes a few chain stores.
The largest proportion of the women reported were in mail-order
houses, and this was the lowest-paying type of office, for men as well
as for women. Banks, which employed much the largest proportion
of the men reported, paid relatively high salaries to both sexes. It is
apparent that the type of clerical work and the attendant responsibility
might differ considerably as between banks and mail-order houses.
If a single major occupation be considered, that of “general clerk”,
it is found that mail-order houses and insurance companies paid low
to both men and women, while banks, investment houses, and pub
lishers paid relatively high. These data show that the women aver
aged somewhat more than the men as general clerks in banks. For
general clerks as a group, the ratio of women’s average rate to men’s
was higher than that for all office workers, but it still was only 78.3.
The following summary 9 shows the median monthly salary rate of
general clerks in offices.
Median monthly salary rate
Men
Women
.______
$115
$90
Advertising agencies._
.______
Banks
_
______
Insurance companies
.______
Investment houses ____ _______
Mail-order houses 10__ __ . .___
Public utilities.. ___ _ .______
Publishers__ __ _ ... ______
108
111
109
125
108
124
121
98
114
88
111
72
97
100
All types
__
* Ibid. The Employment of Women in Offices. Bui. 120. 1934. pp. 71. 72.
•Ibid. p. 75.
11 Includes a few chain stores.
Percent women's
rate formed of
men’s
78. 3
90.
102.
80.
88.
66.
78.
82.
7
7
7
8
7
2
6
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
18
Considering more in detail the special clerical occupations in which
men as well as women were engaged, it is found that the rates of file
clerks averaged the same for women as for men, and those of oper
ators of bookkeeping or billing machines considerably more for women.
Women’s pay was lower than men’s in all other occupations, particu
larly as supervisors, correspondents, and mail-order clerks, in none
of which occupations did women’s salaries average as much as 70
percent of men’s.
_
Even as supervisors women averaged only a little over $150, and
it must be remembered that this was a price scale applying in one of
AVERAGE MONTHLY SALARIES OF WOMEN AND OF MEN IN CLERICAL
OCCUPATIONS IN ONE CITY
□
| Women's wages
Dollars
Men's wages
125
100
-
75
50
S5
ALL
OCCUPATIONS
GENERAL
CLERKS
FILE
CLERKS
BOOKKEEPING
OR BILLING
MACHINE
OPERATORS
CALCULATING
MACHINE
OPERATORS
the largest cities in the United States, where living is not cheap.
The averages for men hand bookkeepers and correspondents (as well
as men supervisors) were much more than this amount. Though in
many instances the women supervisors may have had less authority
or responsibility than the men, this but shows the lack of full oppor
tunity accorded women and the reflection of this in their pay en
velopes. The data on distribution of men’s and women’s salaries
show much the same situation—namely, much larger proportions of
men than of women had earnings in the higher brackets. The follow
ing summary11 shows the median salary rates of women and men in
the various occupations and the percent distribution of these workers.
11 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. The Employment of Women in Offices. Bui. 120.
1934. pp. 73, 75.
WAGES PAID IN CLERICAL WORK
19
Median monthly salary rate
Percent distribu
tion of employees
with salaries re
ported
Occupation
Men
All occupations..... .....................................
Correspondent_____ ____ ________
File clerk____ _ ....... ............. ...... ..
Hand bookkeeper_______________
General clerk....... .......................... .
Machine operator
Bookkeeping or billing_________ ___________
Calculating..______ ___ ______________
Messenger_________
_.
Supervisor_________________
Merchandising (mail order) .
Percent
women’s
Women rate formed
of men’s
Men
(7,014)
W omen
(8,867)
$135
$99
73.3
i 100. 0
i 100.0
174
80
162
115
120
80
122
90
69.0
100.0
75.3
78.3
1.4
1.0
7.2
33.9
1.9
6 5
24
30.0
98
98
65
241
97
108
95
56
153
67
110.2
96.9
86.2
63. 5
69.1
1. 2
2.3
10. 5
10. 6
7. 1
5.8
3.9
1. 5
3 7
4.3
1 Total exceeds details, since only occupations engaged in by both sexes are shown in detail. Approxi
mately 30 percent of the women were stenographers or typists or both, and over 8 percent of the men were
tellers.
Payments to men and women office workers in manufacturing indus
tries surveyed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The earnings of men and women as clerical workers in manufactur
ing plants_ have been reported by the United States Bureau of Labor
Statistics in connection with its recent surveys of plants malting auto
mobiles, car parts, set-up paper boxes, and folding paper boxes, and
of plants finishing and dyeing cotton goods and silk and rayon ma
terials.
In none of these instances did the average earnings of women
clerical workers, whether taken on an hourly or a weekly basis, run
as high as 86 percent of men’s; in 11 of the 20 cases the women aver
aged less than 80 percent of the men’s earnings in this class of work.
Where women were averaging only $20 (or a little more or less),
men were averaging from about $24 to $27, and in the dyeing and
finishing of silk and rayon, where the average wage of men clerical
workers was $23.84, that of women clerical workers was only $16.73.
This may be another illustration of the fact frequently found, that
many more men than women are given a chance at the more advanced
jobs.
Table 1 shows the data discussed in the foregoing as to earnings of
men and women clerical workers in manufacturing plants.
17641°
-38------ 4
20
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
Table
1.—Average hourly and weekly earnings of women and men in clerical work
in three industries
Industry
Date
reported
Average hourly Average weekly Percent wom
en’s earnings
earnings
earnings
formed of men’s1
Men
Automobile plants:2
Cars___ ________________________
Parts----- -----------------------------*
Paper-box plants:
Folding boxes 3 (North)
Set-up boxes 4 (North)
Women
Men Women Hourly Weekly
Apr.
Sept.
Apr.
Sept.
1934
1934
1934
1934
Cents
66.4
68.9
62.0
63.6
Cents
52.1
52.6
50.5
51.2
$27.00
26. 25
25.06
24. 24
$20. 51
20. 40
19.89
20.06
78.5
76.3
81.5
80.5
75.8
77.7
79.4
82.8
Aug.
Aug.
Aug.
Aug.
1934
1935
1934
1935
58.6
69.0
57.1
55.8
49.1
50.3
47.6
47.1
23. 74
24.88
21.43
22. 58
19. 40
20.10
13. 52
14.15
83.8
85.3
83.4
84.4
81.7
80.8
63.1
62.7
51.0
62.3
40.2
44. 2
19.38
23.84
15. 00
16. 73
78.8
70.9
77.4
70.2
Textile dyeing and finishing plants: 5
Cotton--------------------------------------- Aug. 1934
Silk and rayon ------------------------- --.do
1 Computed in Women’s Bureau to indicate how much less women have to live on than men have.
2 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly Labor Keview, March 1936, p. 527. Applies to “office
employees.”
3 Ibid., June 1936, pp. 1597, 1612. Applies to “clerical employees, office and plant.”
* Ibid., August 1936, pp. 420, 421, 430. Applies to “clerical employees, office and plant.”
6 Ibid., May 1936, pp. 1343, 1347, 1355, 1359. Applies to “clerks, factory.”
Payments to men and women office workers in New York factories.
The New York State Department of Labor issues each year in its
November bulletin the average weekly earnings for October of the
men and women office workers reported in manufacturing plants.
In each of the 14 years reported these women clerical workers were
paid only about half as much as men were. The following summary
shows the average weekly earnings of the two sexes as reported for
New York State factories:12
Average weekly earnings
Men
1923__ __________ __________
1924_____________ _________
1925_____________ ________
1926_____________ __________
1927_____________ __________
1928_____________ __________
1929_____________ __________
1930_____________ ________
1931_____________ __________
1932_____________ __________
1933_____________ __________
1934_____________ __________
1935_____________ __________
1936_____________ __________
S42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
46.
48.
49.
46.
42.
41.
42.
42.
42.
18
60
38
54
73
70
24
34
22
14
52
71
04
67
Women
$20.
21.
22.
23.
23.
24.
24.
24.
23.
20.
20.
21.
21.
21.
77
29
63
17
41
05
38
42
25
49
63
15
23
31
Percent women's
earnings formed
of men's
49.
48.
51.
50.
50.
51.
50.
49.
50.
48.
49.
49.
50.
49.
2
8
0
9
1
5
5
5
3
6
7
5
5
9
Such data are reported for women in office employments in eight
different manufacturing industries. These show that in almost every
year women averaged less than one-half as much as men in metal and
machinery plants; chemical, oil, and paint factories; and printing and
paper-goods factories. The smallest ratio of women’s earnings to
men’s was 43.1, in chemical, oil, and paint plants in 1931, and in
printing and paper goods in 1932. In clothing and millinery plants
in most years women’s average was over 55 percent of men’s, the
highest ratio for women in any industry being in clothing and millinery
12 New York. Department of Labor. The Industrial Bulletin, November issue, 1923 to 1936.
21
WAGES PAID IN CLERICAL WORK
in 1926, where their average was 61.7 percent of the men’s, though the
same relation was found in furs, leather, and rubber in 1935.
From an examination of the data for office workers in these manu
facturing plants over the 14-year period reported, the following sum
mary shows the proportion the earnings of women formed of men’s in
AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGES OF WOMEN AND OF MEN CLERICAL WORKERS
Women's wages
Men’s wages
NEW YORK, CLERICAL WORKERS IN MANUFACTURING
o
------------- 1-------------- 1-------------- 1-------------- 1---------------1-------------- 1--------------- 1-------------- 1---------------1---------------iillI
—i
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
OHIO, BOOKKEEPERS, STENOGRAPHERS AND OFFICE CLERKS
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
the year in which women’s earnings ranked the highest, in comparison
with men’s, in the particular industry:
Metals and machinery, 1928
Wood manufactures, 1925
Furs, leather, and rubber, 1935
Chemicals, oils, and paints, 1936
Printing and paper goods, 1923
Textiles, 1925______________ ____________________________
Clothing and millinery, 1926
Food and tobacco, 1929
50.
54.
61.
54.
50.
58.
61.
59.
3
3
7
3
5
8
7
6
The men in factory offices reported in New York ordinarily averaged
$40 to $50 a week, the amounts running under $35 for several years
in the fur, leather, and rubber group, and above $55 in 3 years in
printing and paper-goods plants. The women, on the other hand,
ordinarily averaged only $20 to $25 a week, running below $19 in
1 or 2 years in four industries and above $25 in several cases in three
industries but never above $27.66.
22
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
One explanation of the extremely low wages paid women in com
parison with men as reported in this State undoubtedly lies in the
differences in the exact occupations performed by the two sexes, since
the figures include office clerks, stenographers, bookkeepers, account
ants, cashiers, stock clerks, office managers, and superintendents. Yet
the two last-named, occupations likely because of custom to be made
up largely of men, also are likely to be relatively small groups, and the
figures do show a striking difference in the levels of men’s and women’s
wages. Moreover, it will be remembered that Women’s Bureau data
for Chicago show that women supervisors in large clerical establish
ments averaged only 63.5 percent as much as men in this identical
occupation.
Payments to men and women clerical workers in Ohio.
The average weekly rates of men and women clerical workers have
been reported in Ohio for nearly every year as far back as 1914. These
include all types of clerical workers, not only those in manufacturing
establishments. Over this entire period (except for the earliest year,
1914, when the wage level was lower than in any later year) women’s
wages for clerical work never were so much as 60 percent of men’s.
The following shows for Ohio, in the various years, the average
weekly wage rates of men and women clerical workers 18 years of age
or over, and the relation of women’s rates to those of men: 13
Average weekly rate Percent women’s
rate formed of
men’s
Men Women
Average weekly rate Percent women’s
------------------------- - rate formed of
Men Women
men’s
1914___ $17. 47 $10. 52
17. 88 10. 63
1915___
1916____ 19. 13 11. 24
1917___
22. 09 12. 77
1918____ 27. 38 15. 50
31. 21 17. 75
1919___
35. 32 20. 78
1920___
34. 97 20. 12
1921___
O4)
(I4)
1922___
35. 39 21. 02
1923___
1924____ 36. 67 21. 48
60.
59.
58.
57.
56.
56.
58.
57.
2
5
8
8
6
9
8
5
__ _
59. 4
58. 5
1925-__ $37. 12 $21. 78
1926--- 37. 63 22. 09
1927___ 38. 20 22. 28
1928__- 38. 47 22. 35
1929, - 38. 57 22. 40
1930--- 38. 71 22. 49
1931-__ 36. 76 21. 36
1932___ 33. 13 19. 32
1933.__ 31. 22 18. 37
1934-__ 32. 05 18. 56
1935-_ 32. 74 18. 81
58.
58.
58.
58.
58.
58.
58.
58.
58.
57.
57.
7
7
3
1
0
1
1
3
8
9
5
Throughout the latest 10 years reported, the average rate of women
was from about $13 to $16 below that of men. Men’s average had a
range of only about $7.50, and women’s a range of only just over $4,
from high to low in the 10 years. During this time the women’s
average was never so high as 60 percent of the men’s average
Earnings of office employees in laundries.15
In a laundry survey made by the Women’s Bureau in 22 cities the
average weekly earnings were reported for 114 men and 420 women
employed in the offices of these establishments in 1934. The highest
average for women in any city was $19.90. In only 5 of the 20 cities
in which men office employees were reported were their earnings as
low as that, and the highest average for men in any city was $47.56.
13 Information through 1926 from Information Bureau on Women’s Work. Wage Rates, Earnings, and
Fluctuation of Employment: Ohio, 191A-26, pp. 47, 70; for 1927-29, from the Department of Industrial Rela
tions and the Industrial Commission of Ohio. Division of Labor Statistics. Bui. 19, 1927-28, pp. 22, 198,
and Bui. 26,1929, p. 132; for 1930-35, from unpublished data compiled by the Ohio Division of Labor Statis
tics. Medians for the years since 1926 computed by Women’s Bureau.
14 No record.
.
is u. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Factors Affecting Wages in Power Laundries. Bui.
143. 1936. p. 35.
WAGES OF MEN AND WOMEN AS SALESPERSONS IN STORES
The earnings of salespersons in department stores give a good illus
tration of the wage levels of women and men, since this is an occupation
usually paid on a time basis.
In a survey made by the Women’s Bureau in one State in 1936
there were 150 salesmen and 1,229 saleswomen at work in the depart
ment stores covered. In general, the men earned considerably more
than the women, though the pay of the two sexes compared more
favorably when salesmanship was combined with other work usually
considered somewhat more responsible.
That the amounts paid salesmen and saleswomen were very unequal
is shown by the following:
Men
Median hourly earnings (cents) 36. 7
Percent receiving—
Under 30 cents an hour 34. 7
60 cents an hour or more 26. 0
Women
28. 4
70. 5
2. 8
Many of these saleswomen received even less than men in unskilled
jobs in the stores. Twenty men were reported in such jobs as general
utility, packer, cleaner, and parcel check boy. While 7 of these men
earned more than 30 cents an hour, 867 saleswomen, more than 70
percent of all those reported, were paid less than 30 cents an hour.
Where men and women both were in jobs that would appear to
involve somewhat more skill, their earnings more nearly approached
the same standard regardless of sex, though there still were women
receiving less than any of the men at the same type of work. This
statement is borne out by data for 25 women and 5 men reported to
be buyers as well as salespersons. The higher-paid women earned
as much as the men, one woman receiving $1.19 an hour, more than
was paid any man. Seven men reported as doormen, or sales and
floor, earned from 51.5 to 60.7 cents an hour. Nine of the women who
were buyers as well as saleswomen received more than this. But the
lower-paid told another story: None of the men earned so little as 45
cents an hour, but six women received less than this amount, two of
them less than 35 cents.
Another source of information on salespersons in stores is the Ohio
State figures. The following summary for persons 18 years of age
and over shows that women’s average weekly rate at this type of work
for the years 1923-35 had been only about half as great as men’s,
less in most years, though in 1933, 1934, and 1935 they were more
than 60 percent as great as men’s.16 Undoubtedly this was in large
part due to the fact that men’s wages had fallen during the depression
and women’s later had been raised by the N. R. A.18
18 Information for 1923-29 is from the Department of Industrial Relations and the Industrial Commission
of Ohio. Division of Labor Statistics. Rates of Wages, Fluctuation of Employment, Wage and Salary
Payments in Ohio, Buis. 8, 19, 26. 1923, 1928, 1929. Information for 1930 to 1935 is from unpublished data
compiled by the Ohio Division of Labor Statistics. Medians computed by the Women's Bureau.
23
24
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
Average weekly rate Percent women's
rate formed
Men
Women
of men's
1923___ $29. 22 $15. 21
1924«L__ 29. 96 15. 48
1925I7-_ 30. 49 14. 98
192617__. 31. 19 15. 43
192717.__ 30. 92 15. 47
1928___
30. 54 15. 36
1929___
29. 50 15. 21
52.
51.
49.
49.
50.
50.
51.
1
7
1
5
0
3
6
Average weekly rate Percent women's
rate formed
Men
Women
of men's
1930__ $31. 36 $15. 42
1931__ 28. 34 14. 54
1932__ 23. 71 12. 63
1933__ 19. 63 13. 61
1934__ 19. 97 13. 57
1935__ 19. 87 13. 54
49.
51.
53.
69.
68.
68.
2
3
3
3
0
1
Further data on the wages of men and women in department stores
have been reported from Illinois. These show women earning less
AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGES OF WOMEN AND OF MEN IN STORES
Women's wages ——
Dollars
1923
Men's wages•••••«•
ILLINOIS, DEPARTMENT-STORE EMPLOYEES
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1935
1936
OHIO, SALESPERSONS
40 -
o >--------1-------- 1--------1-------- 1--------1-------- 1--------1-------- 1-------- 1-------- 1-------- 1-------- 1i
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
than half as much as men before 1930, and never so high as 62 percent
of men’s wages. The figures are as follows:
Average weekly wage Percent women's
------------------------wage formed
Men
Women
of men’s
1924___ $32. 82 $14. 39
1925___ 34. 25 14 56
1926___ 36. 07 15. 14
1927___ 35. 76 16. 07
1928___ 36. 28 17. 89
1929___ 37. 14 17. 65
1930___ 34. 15 17. 97
43.
42.
42.
44
49.
47.
52.
8
5
0
9
3
5
6
Average weekly wage Percent women's
wage formed
Men
Women
of men's
1931.
$30. 26 $17. 52
1932__ 25. 55 15. 67
1933___ 22. 38 11. 54
1934-.- 21. 55 13. 11
1935-__ 21. 46 13. 17
1936__ 22. 27 12. 49
57.
61.
51.
60.
61.
56.
9
3
6
8
4
1
17 The figures for this year arc for salespersons in all trades, not stores alone. More detailed figures are
not available, but the vast majority of the workers are in stores.
WAGES OF MEN AND WOMEN IN SERVICE OCCUPATIONS 18
A survey of wages paid to its nonprofessional workers made by
the Young Women’s Christian Association in 1935-36 covered 2,217
women and 851 men in all parts of the country, and included those
engaged in maintenance, food service, and clerical work. It is unique
in affording information on the wages of the two sexes in comparable
service occupations.
The median wages of those in maintenance and food service were
as follows:
Median week's earnings
Percent women’s
--------------------------------- earnings formed
Men
Women
of men’s
Maintenance
Food service
$20.90
16. 96
$13. 82
16. 00
66. 1
88. 4
Of those in maintenance, 94 percent of the women but only 39
percent of the men received less than $20, while 33 percent of the
men but less than 2 percent of the women received $25 or more.
Of those in food service, 48 percent of the women but only 30 percent
of the men received less than $15, while 27 percent of the men but
only 13% percent of the women received $20 or more.
In two special occupations reported, much larger proportions of the
women than of the men received less than $15, the percentages at
at these lower wages being as follows:
Men
Dishwashers
41. 5
Kitchen helpers_____________________ ______
Women
27. 1
70. 8
57. 9
The report states that the skills required for these occupations
“are obviously the same whether performed by men or women.”
This also applied to elevator operators, of whom 34 of 36 men but
only 19 of 46 women received as much as $15.18
18 Harper, Elsie D. Study of Standards of Wort of Association Employees Other Than Professional,
1936-38. Young Women’s Christian Association. [No publication date.] pp. 12,13,14.
25
WAGES OF MEN AND WOMEN IN MANUFACTURING
OCCUPATIONS
Any comparison of men’s and women’s wages in manufacturing
occupations presents greater difficulties than such a comparison for
the somewhat more homogeneous types of work that have been pre
sented earlier, since manufacturing occupations vary so greatly and
are so undefined that a term or designation frequently does not mean
the same when applied to different plants or even when applied to
different individuals in the same plant. Even minute changes in the
job may have a great effect on output or on pay.
On the whole, women and men are engaged in different types of
work, and since the particular skills of women are considerably in
demand for certain kinds of jobs that are of a highly dexterous order,
there seems little justification for classifying such jobs at relatively
low wage scales for the chief apparent reason that they are in the main
performed by women.
A few manufacturing employments may be found in which a man
and a woman are doing essentially the same work, and some jobs exist
that are fairly uniform in requirements regardless of the sex of the
worker. The following pages give information on the wages paid men
and women in some occupations of such character.
Wherever possible, jobs paid on the basis of time worked are pre
sented, and hourly earnings are used to eliminate the complications of
showing a time scale. Piece work sometimes is a factor, but discrep
ancies between the wages of the two sexes scarcely can be assigned
solely or chiefly to this cause, when it is remembered, as referred to
earlier in this report, that the piece rate is very likely to be set at what
will yield an amount considered to be suitable payment for the work.
Hence, when it is fixed in jobs traditionally thought to be “women’s
work” it is likely to be set low. (See pp. 6 and 13.)
In some piece-work occupations, where no minimum is fixed for
women, considerably more women than men are found receiving pay
in the very low ranges, yet a group of women also will be found making
more than any man. Thus, the range of pay will be much greater for
women than for men. A typical example is shown by two large piece
work occupations in which considerable numbers of men and women
were engaged in seamless-hosiery mills in one State, as recently report
ed by Women’s Bureau agents; much larger proportions of women
than of men received low hourly earnings, but an appreciable propor
tion of women received more than any man, as the following shows:
Percent with hourly earnings of—
Less than 25 cents
Men
Knitters
2. 8
LoopersT_______________________
26
6. 3
Women
30. 3
14. 7
^5 cents or more
Men
0. 0
0. 0
Women
1. 7
8. 1
WAGES IN MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS
27
The same data, as well as additional data from work-clothing plants,
show women’s hourly earnings, not protected by any fixed minimum,
dropping very much below men’s, while they also rose very much
higher at the other extreme:
Seamless-hosiery mills:
Knitters_________
Loopers_________
Work-clothing plants:
Machine operators
Range of men's earnings Range of women's earn(cents')
ings (cents)
13. 9 to 43. 3
19. 5 to 41. 7
3. 9 to 52. 8
8. 1 to 67. 4
23. 8 to 48. 8
5. 0 to 73. 9
WAGES OF MEN AND WOMEN IN 18 SPECIFIC OCCUPATIONS
Visits of Women’s Bureau agents to plants in several large industrial
States on the East Coast and in the Middle West in the early months
of 1935 gave information on men’s and women’s wages in 18 occupa
tions that could be compared for the two sexes, and the processes
performed and wages paid will be described in the pages following.
It should be noted that these are in the nature of individual case
histories of occupations and consequently most of them involve only
small numbers. However, they do represent some of the best typical
instances of the two sexes engaged in closely similar or identical
occupations'—something that is far from universally found in indus
trial employment.
Nearly all these 18 occupations were in factories making some type
of paper product. In only three of the occupations were men and
women receiving exactly the same amounts per hour, though in two
others in which the full earnings were not given the rate of pay was
reported to be the same for the two sexes.
There were almost no instances in which any man in these plants
with wages reported, no matter in what occupation, received less
than 40 cents an hour, but many of the women in the occupations
described below were paid only 35 cents or less, though some of them
required a considerable degree of dexterity or expertness.
Of the 18 occupations at least 5 were reported to be exactly the
same for men and women and 9 others were so described as to seem
to be the same for the two sexes. In most of these the pay differed
for men and women. Eleven of them were time-work occupations,
and the learning period reported as necessary to reach proficiency ordi
narily was short, in practically all cases not more than 3 or 4 months
at the outside, and usually very much less.
Men and women on same time-work jobs at different pay.
In the nine occupations noted and described below, men and women
were paid by time for the most part, but in every case women or girls
received less per hour than did men or boys. It is even more signifi
cant to note that in every case reported the women or girls in these
occupations, some of which were quite exacting, received an hourly
time-work wage less than that paid any men engaged on any job (no
matter how unskilled) reported in the entire plant. It must be re
membered that a lower wage rate for women was set by the codes
covering these industries and that these manufacturers were within
the law when they paid lower wages to women, though the industry
proposed the code provisions and hence bore the major responsibility
for the inclusion of such wage-differential provisions in the codes.
28
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
In a collapsible-tube factory, punch-press operators were feeding
metal discs into a machine that shaped the tube when the worker
pressed the treadle. This wms reported as a job taking only 10 days
to learn, was paid by time, and was identical regardless of the worker’s
sex. Three men received 40 cents an hour, but for 3 women this was
the highest pay, and the earnings ran down to 37% cents. No men
reported in this plant on any occupation received less than 40 cents.
Another operation identical for the two sexes was found in a vene
tian-blind plant, and consisted in assembling the slats and feeding
them into the paint machines. Both boys and girls brought up their
own slats to the machine, and the paint for both was mixed by a paint
man. Pay was by time, the two boys receiving 35 cents an hour, the
three girls only 32% cents, though the forewomen got 37% cents. No
men reported on any job in this plant were paid less than 35 cents an
hour, and in another such plant 40 cents was the least any man received.
In a plant making gummed labels a man and two women were doing
identical work as seal-press operators. For each, another worker
would set up and repair the machines. Pay was by time, and the
learning period necessary was reported as only 1 week. One of these
women, an experienced worker, was receiving only 38 cents, though
the man was a beginner and was paid 40 cents. The other woman,
also a beginner, was paid only 35 cents. No man reported on any
job in the plant received less than 40 cents an hour.
In a plant making paper food dishes, men and women (numbers not
reported) were pounding out sections from piles of die-cut boxes.
The jobs were identical, but the men received time-work pay of 40
cents, the women of only 35 cents, an hour. The minimum pay for
men reported in any job in the plant was 40 cents an hour.
In another food-dish factory, workers stood at a bench machine
that put glue on the paper for the sides of cups. The process consisted
of taking the cup form from the blanking machine that had shaped it,
pressing it against the gluing mechanism, and then placing it on a
moving belt to be taken off and stacked. The pay was by time and
bonus, and the work was said to require a 6-weelc learning period.
Two men received 43 cents an hour. Women had received only 35
to 37 cents, though no woman was on the operation at the time the
plant was visited. No man reported at any work in the plant received
less than 40 cents an hour.
In a paper-bag plant members of each sex were employed as platenpress operators, paid by time worked. Presses were set up by a
separate worker. They were automatic and the feeding had to be
carefully timed, a month’s period being estimated as required to reach
proficiency. For this operation two men were paid 40 cents an hour,
but a woman received only 35 cents. The lowest pay of any man
reported in this plant on any job was 40 cents an hour.
In a factory making gummed tape, men and women were at work
interchangeably on hand wrapping the rolls of tape and sealing the
ends. The women especially might also be shifted to other jobs,
hence adaptability was required on their part though the learning
period for either sex was reported as not more than a few days. The
pay was by time, and the number of men was not reported. Men
received from 40 to 43 cents an hour, but women only 35 cents. No
man reported on any job in this plant was paid less than 40 cents an
hour.
WAGES IN MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS
29
In a plant making blackboards and erasers men and women were
paid by time for operating slitting machines. Felt was fed auto
matically into these, to be cut into strips for the making of the eraser.
The worker had to see that it went through smoothly and properly,
and this was estimated to take about a month for proficiency. The
man reported received 45 cents an hour, but the woman only 35 cents.
The lowest-paid man reported on any occupation in the plant received
40 cents an hour.
In a loose-leaf and blank-book factory general workers were shifted
more or less interchangeably on several jobs, including inspecting and
the operation of power punch presses. It was estimated that several
months were required to learn these somewhat varied jobs, which
were paid by time worked. Four boys so engaged earned 35 cents an
hour, the lowest pay of any man reported in the plant, but a girl at
this same job received only 30 cents.
Men and women on same jobs with same pay or same rates reported.
In the five occupations following, women and men were performing
essentially identical tasks and the pay either was reported at exactly
the same per hour or the piece rate was the same. Two of these were
time-work jobs, one was piece work, and two were not reported as to
method of pay. In one case a boy was paid less than girls for the
operation.
Gold stamping in a loose-leaf and blank-book factory is a press
operation not frequently required, though the learning time reported
was 3 or 4 months. Hence, it is not steadily engaged in by men and
not often by women. It is paid by time. A man and a woman found
on this operation in one plant each received 48 cents an hour. The
performance consists of placing the corner of the book under the press
after the gold leaf has been applied by hand, pulling the lever, re
leasing it, and taking the book out.
In the same industry men and women were found hand gluing
and assembling cases, an operation reported to require a 2-week
learning period and to be paid the same piece rates for the two sexes.
Men and women pressfeeders in a graphic-arts plant (numbers not
reported) were receiving the same time-work pay, 47% cents an hour.
On an automatic-clasp machine in a loose-leaf and blank-hook
factory a boy and a girl were receiving the “same pay”, but the
superintendent stated, “The girl is faster.” It was estimated that a
2-year learning period was required, though in another plant the time
was stated as only 1 month. In this second plant the only boy re
ported received 40 cents, while the girls on the automatic machines
(number not reported) earned 44 cents.
In the plant last mentioned men cutting tabs, an operation re
ported to require a 4-month learning period, received the same pay
as girls, 46 cents an hour. The men were on at night, the girls on
the day shift.
Men and women on same processes but with different functions.
In the four occupations described next the actual processes per
formed by men and women admittedly are not the same, but the pay
of the two sexes varies so widely as to raise the question whether the
differences in the respective requirements the job makes of men and
women actually are so great as the differences in their pay.
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
30
In these machine processes the men carry their own materials, but
the women have theirs brought by another worker. In each, one man
and one woman are reported, and each is paid by time. No man
reported on any job in the plant is paid less than 40 cents.
Average hourly
rate
Product
Machine operation
Man
Cutting corners of boxes 1
Loose-leaf and blank books---------------- Riveting, punching, eyeleting 2_
Cents
45
50
Woman
Cents
33
37 H
Percent
by which
woman’s
rate
is below
man’s
27
25
1 Man’s learning time reported as several months, woman’s as 1 week.
2 Both man and woman set up own machine.
In the two occupations discussed in the following it is evident that
women and men perform different parts of the process, which is a
situation entirely distinct from that in which, for example, the differ
ence consists merely in that the man works on heavier paper or trans
ports his own materials while the woman has them brought to her.
In two-toning in a loose-leaf and blank-book plant the man wipes
the paint on to a raised design on the article, then the woman rubs
the raised surfaces with a cloth soaked in a solvent, which takes off
the color from the parts touched, a delicate operation since care must
be taken to avoid contact with parts on which color must remain.
It was reported that this work took a year’s learning period. The
difference in the time-work wage of the two sexes seems very much
greater than the difference in the care required in the process. An
experienced woman received only 37 cents an hour, while an in
experienced male helper got 60 cents, and an experienced man $1.
No man in this plant was paid less than 60 cents an hour. _
In a tag plant a girl running a patching machine, a kick-press
operation reported to require a 2-month learning time, received 35
cents an hour plus bonus, wdiile the man who puts the roll of material
on the machine received 45 cents and bonus. No man on any job
reported in this plant was paid less than 40 cents an hour.
MEN AND WOMEN IN CERTAIN CHARACTERISTIC OCCUPATIONS IN
CLOTHING PLANTS
A recent Women’s Bureau survey in one State has yielded consider
able data on men’s and women’s wages in clothing plants of various
types in certain characteristic occupations likely to make similar
requirements of the worker regardless of sex: Machine operating in
work-clothes factories and in men’s-clothing plants, and knitting,
looping, and boarding in seamless-hosiery mills. While these are
chiefly piece-work occupations, the maximum pay to women was con
siderably above that to men, though much larger proportions of
women than of men received pay in the lower ranges. Moreover,
since women in some of the characteristic occupations in these indus
tries were paid less than were men in wholly unskilled jobs, it would
appear that piece rates in these jobs, in most of which women were in
the great majority, were likely to have been fixed too low.
i£ S
MACHINE OPERATORS IN A GARMENT FACTORY.
WAGES IN MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS
31
An example of a great difference in maximum earnings of machine
operators,19 and in the percent paid less than 30 cents, follows:20
Men
Median hourly earnings (cents)_____________
Maximum hourly earnings (cents)___________
Percent receiving—
Under 30 cents an hour________________
40 cents an hour or more_______________
Women
32. 1
48. 8
31.5
73.9
25. 0
8. 9
39.6
7.2
Machine operators of both sexes also were reported in five plants
making men’s suits and overcoats, though only a very few of these
were men. While all the men machine operators averaged at least
40 cents an hour (several of them over 75 cents), fewer than half the
women averaged so much and nearly one-fifth of them averaged less
than 30 cents. The men were sewing together major parts of the
garments, while women sewed linings and other parts. However,
this seems not sufficient to account for so wide a difference in the pay
of the two sexes.
Another occupation in work-clothing plants, while employing fewer
workers, gives a similar picture. Of 91 women inspectors, 60 averaged
less than 30 cents an hour and none were paid as much as 45 cents,
though of the 14 men reported none received as little as 30 cents and
4 earned 45 cents or over. The men were more likely to be final
inspectors or inspectors for filling orders, who might have to carry
heavy piles of garments, but the women were inspecting for quality
and perfect work and hence had to exercise great care.
As knitters in 14 seamless-hosiery plants the maximum hourly
earnings of women or girls were very much higher than those of men
or boys, and a number of women received more than any men; but
regardless of these earnings in the higher ranges, very much larger
proportions of women than of men were paid less than 30 cents, as
the following data on average hourly earnings of knitters show:
Men
Median hourly earninas (cents)_____________
Maximum hourly earnings (cents)___________
Percent receiving—
Under 30 cents an hour________________
45 cents an hour or more_______________
Women
33. 4
43.3
31.6
117.3
8. 9
0
38. 6
2. 2
As loopers, women’s earnings ran much higher than men’s, and also
a relatively smaller proportion of women than of men received less
than 30 cents, as the following shows:
Men
Maximum hourly earnings (cents)___________
Percent receiving—
Under 30 cents an hour
31.
45 cent an hour or more________________
Women
41. 7
67. 4
3
27. 8
8. 1
0
In further explanation of the apparently high wage for women, it
may be said that this was a job on which the few men employed
usually were those with some definite physical handicap.
As boarders, an occupation in which few women were found, men’s
earnings ran much the higher.
Men
Maximum hourly earnings (cents)___________
91. 5
Percent receiving—■
Under 30 cents an hour________________
5. 9
45 cents an hour or more_________________
10.8
Women
41. 9
11. 1
0
“ Many of these workers were sewing-machine operators, but some operated other machines, such as
those putting on buttons or clasps.
20 In spite of the small total numbers involved in some cases, percents have been computed to clarify the
interpretation.
32
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
WAGES OF MEN AND WOMEN IN CERTAIN OCCUPATIONS IN LEATHERGLOVE PLANTS
In a survey of leather-glove plants in New York State in June 1933
the Women’s Bureau reported the following median earnings for men
and women and for certain occupations: 21 All men, $23.45, cutters,
$25.30; all women, $12.65, all makers, $12.85, gage makers, $15.
Cutting of whatever type, performed almost wholly by men, is a
highly skilled occupation, and it is not surprising to find it receiving
the highest pay in the industry. Gage-making is the highest paid
of the women’s jobs, and requires a high degree of skill. It consists
of sewing the seams on the outside, usually of the heavier leather
gloves, using a gage attachment on the machine that keeps the
stitching a uniform distance from the edge, carefully fitting the edges
of the small finger-pieces together so that the glove comes out per
fectly made, trimming off the surplus leather at the finger ends where
the gage cannot operate well, and pulling the thread ends through
to the wrong side after the seaming has been done. Women’s average
earnings in this occupation were slightly less than 60 percent of those
of men cutters, though it would seem that for such obviously skilled
work their wage should be higher than it is, if it were not one of those
instances in which the tradition of “women’s work” prevailed in
keeping down the wage.
EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN IN SELECTED OCCUPATIONS AS
REPORTED BY THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
Data on both the average hourly and the average weekly wages of
men and women engaged in the same occupations have been reported
in studies of nine industries recently made by the United States Bureau
of Labor Statistics.22 23 *
In all, some 65 occupations were reported that employed both
women and men 28, and from these the selections made as a basis for
the following discussion have included those that are likely to be
most uniform in their requirements, regardless of sex of the operator.
In all but a very few cases women received substantially less than
men did, and in only 12 of the entire 48 occupations considered in this
study was women’s hourly average as much as 90 percent of that of
men. Caution must be exercised against making too absolute an
interpretation of these data, since even when the process was exactly
the same, some other difference may have entered in, as for example,
work on a larger or smaller product, or with a finer or coarser material,
or with lighter or heavier machines. Though one of the best sources
in this country for the type of data under discussion, this agency has
not in most cases given specific descriptions of the occupations for
which the wage is reported in such terms that minute differences
could be ascertained.
21 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Hours and Earnings in the Leather-Glove Industry.
Bui. 119. 1934. p. 5.
.
22 Since many of these are piece-work occupations, the discussion of the fixing of piece rates, pp. 6 and
13, should be referred to again and kept fully in mind during the reading of this section of the report.
23 Occupations included in this discussion are those employing the largest numbers of women, in no case
fewer than 100 of each sex being reported,
WAGES IN MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS
33
Where such differences are probable, this will be noted, but for the
most part the occupations considered here are likely to be quite uni
form in requirements and the numbers involved large enough to mini
mize any slight variations that might be possible from such causes.
The outstanding fact remains that the women’s pay ordinarily was
below the men’s to a degree much greater than could be explained by
any notable difference in the requirements of the job or the efficiency
of the workers.
In three 24 of these industries—cotton goods, hosiery, and under
wear, employing respectively more than 33,000, 20,000, and 9,500
women'—men’s hourly earnings in 15 out of 16 occupations considered
for the two sexes averaged less than 45 cents. Though in the occupa
tions in these industries women’s pay more nearly approached men’s
than in occupations where men’s wage level was higher, in most cases
women stiff were paid less per hour than men were paid.
In the cotton industry women were receiving very nearly as much as
men in both their lowest-paid and their highest-paid occupation in
the North. There is less difference in the earnings of the two groups
than in most lines of employment, and the difference that does exist
is due_ chiefly to the men carrying a heavier load of the work. The
following shows the average hourly earnings of both sexes in the five
occupations in which the largest numbers of women and also consid
erable numbers of men were reported.
Average hourly earnings Percent women’s
earnings formed of
men’s
Men
Women
Filling hands:
North (712 men, 780 women)___
South (1,422 men, 1,950 women)
Speeder tenders:
North (480 men, 1,427 women)..
South (2,778 men, 656 women)..
Spinners, frame:
North (418 men, 2,493 women)__
South (827 men, 7,401 women)..
Spooler tenders:
North (136 men, 1,779 women) __
South (215 men, 3,842 women)..
Weavers:
North (3,507 men, 2,813 women)
South (4,603 men, 2,271 women)
(Cents)
(Cents)
34. 3
31. 1
33. 5
30. 7
97. 7
98. 7
45. 4
36. 8
40. 2
35. 3
88. 5
95. 9
44. 5
33. 8
37. 8
32. 1
84. 9
95. 0
(25)
33. 2
38. 0
33. 4
100. 6
44. 2
40. 1
43. 5
38. 2
98. 4
95. 3
This summary shows that in the North women’s average hourly
earnings were from 85 to 98 percent of men’s average. In the South,
where the entire scale was lower, women’s average was 95 percent or
more of men’s; in one occupation women received slightly more than
men did. The earnings differed much more from North to South for
either sex than the variation between the sexes in either North or
South alone, but this is most likely to be explained by differences in
the types of material handled in the product.25
“ TJ. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Textile Report, pt. I, Wage Rates and Weekly Earnings in the
Cotton-Goods Industry from July 1933 to August 1934. February 1935. pp. 38-39 and 63-55; and Ibid.,
Wages and Hours of Labor in the Hosiery and Underwear Industries. 1932. Bui. 591. 1933. pp. 6-7,39 ff.
25 Not reported.
34
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
In three out of four characteristic occupations performed by both
sexes in hosiery mills, women earned more than men per hour, as
follows:
Average hourly earnings Percent women’s
earnings formed of
men’s
Men
Women
Boarders (1,513 men, 726 women) 38.
Knitters—seamless automatic (436 men, 266
women) 30.
Toppers'—full fashioned (349 men, 2,771 women).
Transferrers (167 men, 1,488 women)__________
(Cents)
6
6
32. 2
19. 6
(Cents)
41. 6
109.5
25. 7
36. 9
20. 5
84.0
114.6
104.6
The earnings of the toppers in these full-fashioned plants varied
considerably with the locality, though women usually were paid more
than men, as the following shows.26
Average hourly earnings Percent women’s
earnings formed
of men’s
Men
Women
(Cents)
Indiana (44 men, 169 women) 39. 5
Minnesota and Wisconsin (94 men, 239 women)..
New Jersey (36 men, 202 women) 39.
North Carolina (45 men, 236 women)__________
Eastern Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia
(114 men, 1,330 women)_______ ____________
(Cents)
28.4
1
27. 2
34. 7
35.4
40. 5
32. 4
87. 8
124.6
103. 6
119. 1
34. 2
39. 7
116. 1
The figures indicate a general irregularity in payments for this
occupation rather than any significant information regarding the
level of women’s and men’s earnings. For women, the lowest pay
was only 80 percent of the highest; for men, the lowest was less than
70 percent of the highest. A more definite analysis would require
fuller knowledge than is now available of plant differences in the
numbers of either sex employed and, if possible, differences in proc
esses.
In underwear plants, in the two occupations employing as many as
100 persons of each sex, women had an average hourly wage con
siderably less than men’s, these hourly averages being as follows:
Average hourly earnings Percent women’s
earnings formed
of men’s
Men
Women
Cutters, hand layers up and markers (186 men, (Cents)
341 women) 38. 5
Knitters, web and tube (362 men, 133 women)._ 39. 0
(Cents)
28. 6
32. 2
74. 3
82. 6
In the cutting referred to in the foregoing, men ordinarily are
cutting the larger parts and have, on the whole, a heavier job, but
women, on the other hand, cut the smaller parts, which means some
times even more care in fitting, as well as good planning to avoid
waste of material, and thus a probable slowing up of the piece worker.
Data for two other textile industries 27 afford information on occu
pations each of which employs several hundred women—the woolen
and worsted industry with a total of more than 13,500 women reported,
and silk and rayon manufacture with more than 15,000 women. Of
these, woolen and worsted gives women the best showing. Women
averaged over 90 percent as much as men in three of four occupations
26 Several localities excluded because no men were employed as toppers.
27 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Textile Report, pt. II, Wage Rates and Weekly Earnings in the
Silk and Rayon Goods Industry from April 1933 to August 1934. Mar. 25, 1935. pp. 17, 23; and pt. Ill,
Wage Rates and Weekly Earnings in the Woolen and Worsted Goods Industry from January 1932 to August
1934. Apr. 17, 1935. pp. 25, 41, and unpublished data.
WAGES IN MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS
35
reported here, one of these being weaving, the most highly paid for
both sexes. Frame spinners, well paid if they were men, received very
much less if they were women. The following shows the average
hourly earnings in these occupations in woolen and worsted plants.
Average hourly earnings Percent women’s
earnings formed
of men’s
Men
Women
m
{Cents)
Drawing frame tenders (200 men, 1,235 women) __ 39.3
Gill box tenders (316 men, 395 women)________ 38. 9
Spinners, frame (502 men, 983 women)________
53. 4
Weavers (3,333 men, 1,240 women)
56. 2
{Cents)
37.8
37. 5
41. 2
51. 5
96.2
96. 4
77. 2
91. 6
In occupations reported in silk mills, women’s hourly earnings
ranged from about 78 to nearly 90 percent of men’s. As warpers, the
highest-paid occupation for both sexes, they earned about 80 percent
as much as men. Here it may be noted that men workers sometimes
take off the product from their own machines, women frequently do
not. The following shows the hourly earnings of both sexes in three
occupations in silk mills.
Average hourly earnings Percent women’s
earnings formed
of men's
Men
Women
{Cents)
Spinners (1,008 men, 1,326 women)
Warpers (410 men, 949 women)_
_
Weavers (5,393 men, 3,468 women)
{Cents)
45. 6
62. 0
48. 2
35. 6
49. 9
43. 3
78. 1
80. 5
89. 8
The five industries just discussed are those that give the most
hopeful showing for women. In the other cases reported women’s
earnings fall farther below those of men.
The boot and shoe industry 28 is an important employer of women,
more than 21,500 being reported. It also is an industry in which,
though women and men are likely to be employed in the greatest
numbers in different occupations the operations women perform are
quite skilled. Yet in only one of eight occupations engaging both
sexes did women average as much as 35 cents, though the men received
more than this in all but one occupation and averaged over 43 cents
in five occupations. The largest numbers of women were in the three
types of work that paid the best for men and probably were the most
skilled of all reported, yet even in these 35.5 cents an hour was the
highest average for women and in one of them women received only
about one-half so much as men. The wage averages in these three
occupations were as follows:
Average hourly earnings Percent women's
earnings formed
of men’8
Men
Women
{Cents)
Fancy stitchers (176 men, 3,486 women)___ __
Top stitchers (115 men, 1,449 women)______
Vampers (283 men, 1,097 women)_
_ ___
{Cents)
59. 2
60.3
56.9
30. 1
33. 8
35. 5
50. 8
56. 1
62. 4
Only in the lowest-paid occupation of men, sole cementer, where
men averaged only 32.1 cents, was the average pay of women as much
as three-fourths of that of men. In one of the least skilled occupations
28 Ibid. Wages and Hours of Labor in the Boot and Shoe Industry, 1910-32. Bui. 579. March 1933.
p. 3 ff,
36
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
reported, shoe cleaning, men averaged 35.6 cents, women only 24.7
cents.
Another industry employing many women is the manufacture of
paper boxes, especially set-up boxes,29 in which nearly 8,500 women
were reported, most of them in northern mills. In two factory occu
pations in which both sexes were reported in the North, women had
an average wage of 34.5 and 36.5 cents, respectively 83 and 80 per
cent of men’s. However, women’s higher average, 36.5 cents, was
considerably below that of what men received in the lower-paid of
their two jobs. The figures follow:
Average hourly earnings Percent women’s
_________________
earnings formed
of men’s
Men
Women
{Cents)
Bundlers and packers (154 men, 214 women)___
Miscellaneous machine feeders (185 men, 253
women) 45. 7
{Cents)
41. 5
34. 5
83. 1
36. 5
79. 9
In folding-paper-box plants30 about 1,800 women were reported,
chiefly in northern mills, to which the following figures apply. Again
men’s lowest average, 45.3 cents, was above women’s highest in any
occupation, 38.4 cents. As machine helpers, likely to be unskilled,
men were paid 45.3 cents, women only 36.9 cents, or 81.5 percent as
much as men. In the highest-paid men’s job, press feeder, men were
paid 50.6 cents and women only 38.4 cents, or 75.9 percent as much
as men. The figures follow:
Average hourly earnings Percent women’s
earnings formed
of men's
Men
Women
{Cents)
Machine helpers (578 men, 409 women)
_.
Press feeders (1,020 men, 218 women)___ ____
Strippers (605 men, 252 women)___ _ _ _.
{Cents)
45.3
50. 6
48.3
36. 9
38. 4
37. 6
81. 5
75. 9
77. 8
In two industries, men’s-clothing and motor-vehicle manufacture,
men’s wages, on the whole, ran higher than those discussed in the
foregoing, and in most occupations women’s wages were much further
below men’s than in the other industries.31 Indeed, women’s highest
wages in the men’s-clothing and motor-vehicle occupations reported as
employing both sexes were lower than was usual in the shoe, paper-box,
and most textile industries.
More than 16,500 women were reported in the men’s-clothing in
dustry, the great majority of them as machine operators on coats,
pants, or vests, or as basters or hand sewers on coats. The last-named
occupation was the largest woman-employer, but the number of men at
such work was relatively small. Men in these occupations always were
paid more than 56 cents an hour, but women never received so much as
41 cents, and never were paid so much as 67 percent of the men’s
hourly average. The relative amounts received by the two sexes in
four of these importan t woman-employing occupations were as follows:
29 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly Labor Review, August 1936, p. 411 ff.
so Ibid., June 1936, pp. 1689, 1597.
3i U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wages and Hours of Labor in the Men’s-Clothing Industry, 1932.
jBul. 594. 1933. pp. 4, 23 ff.; and Monthly Labor Review, June 1933, p. 1367 ff.
WAGES IN MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS
37
Average hourly earnings Percent women's
earnings formed
of men's
Men
Women
(Cents)
Hand sewers, coats (385 men, 4,025 women)___
Operators, coats (2,926 men, 3,086 women)_____
Operators, pants (1,345 men, 2,484 women)____
Operators, vests (506 men, 1,050 women)______
Ratio of low to high------------------------------
59.
68.
59.
69.
1
7
4
1
85. 5
(Cents')
34.
40.
39.
39.
5
7
6
6
58.4
59.2
66.7
57.3
84.8
As hand sewers on coats and as sewing-machine operators on coats,
women were paid about 58 or 59 percent as much as men. These “were
the two occupations on which the largest numbers of women were re
ported, the former employing relatively small proportions of men, the
latter having a nearly equal division of the sexes. The variations
between the payments to men and to women in each of these occupa
tions differ considerably according to locality. In three cities, each of
which reported more than 600 women hand sewers on coats, the aver
age hourly earnings of the women and the men were as follows:
Average hourly earnings Percent women's
earnings formed
of men’s
Men
Women
(Cents)
Chicago (122 men, 646 women)____ ._ __ ____
New York (173 men, 1,140 women)__
____
Rochester (4 men, 626 women)____ ______ _____
Ratio of low to high. .
__ _____
(Cents)
59. 7
61. 3
47. 8
48. 3
33. 5
37. 3
78. 0
69. 4
80. 9
54. 6
78. 0
In New York, where men’s pay was the highest, women received only
54.6 percent as much as men, though in Chicago, where men were paid
only a little less than in New York, women received over 80 percent as
much. In their lowest-paying city men earned 78 percent as much as
in their highest-paying, but women in their lowest-paying earned only
69.4 percent as much as in their highest-paying.
In each of seven cities more than 200 women sewing-machine op
erators on coats were reported, and the ratios of their wages to those of
men so occupied were as follows:
Average hourly earnings Percent women’s
- earnings formed
of men's
Men
Women
(Cents)
(Cents)
Baltimore (42 men, 332 women) . ______ ____
Chicago (324 men, 335 women)__
______
Cincinnati (53 men, 288 women) _
_
____
Cleveland (7 men, 460 women). __
____
____
New York (1,569 men, 254 women) __
Rochester (170 men, 419 women) ______ ____
St. Louis (23 men, 203 women).. .__ . ____
49. 4
75.7
65. 1
39. 1
70. 7
74. 6
58. 4
26. 2
68. 0
45. 7
40. 7
43. 4
50. 2
34. 1
_____
51. 7
38. 5
Ratio of low to high
_____
53.
89.
70.
104.
61.
67.
58.
0
8
2
1
4
3
4
In Cleveland, where the wages of men were lowest, women averaged
more than men. In Chicago, where the pay was highest for both
sexes, women received nearly 90 percent as much as men, but in
Rochester and New York, where men’s pay was not greatly below that
in Chicago, women received only from about 61 to about 67 percent
as much as men. In Baltimore, where the wages of women were
lowest, they were 53 percent of those of men.
38
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
Men in their lowest-paying city earned only 51.7 percent as much
as in their highest-paying, but this was raised to about 65 percent with
the omission of Cleveland; women earned 38.5 percent as much in
their lowest- as in their highest-paying city, about 50 percent as much
if Baltimore be omitted.
A finer division shows the occupation according to the parts sewed
by the machine operators on coats. In four of these that employed
considerable numbers of each sex, women’s average was less than
three-fourths of men’s, ranging from 58.5 to 72.1 percent of men’s.
Women’s average never ran so high as 44 cents, though in no case
was men’s less than 59 cents. Much the largest numbers, both of
women and of men, were pocket makers, and this was the highestpaid occupation for men, their average earnings running up to 73.7
cents an horn. Of course, type or special pattern of garment, condi
tion of machine, arrangement of work, coarseness or heaviness of
material, or other factors often not controllable by the worker have a
great effect on the earnings of piece workers. The figures for the four
machine operations referred to follow:
Average hourly earnings Percent women's
■ earnings formed
Men
Women
of men’s
Joiners, side and back seams (225 men, 103 (Cents)
women).. _
._
_____
.
. ___ 70. 2
Lining makers (320 men, 246 women)
_ _ ___ 63. 6
Pocket makers (774 men, 508 women) _. _ ___ 73. 7
Sleeve seamers (235 men, 216 women) _ .. ___ 59. 2
Ratio of lowest to highest. ...
.. ___
80. 3
{Cents)
41.
41.
43.
42.
6
9
1
7
59.
65.
58.
72.
3
9
5
1
96. 5
The manufacture of motor vehicles is predominantly a man-employ
ing industry, though nearly 4,500 women were reported in the 1932
study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In each of seven occupations
employing both sexes, women’s average hourly earnings were less
than three-fourths of those of men. Though it is probable that in
this industry the work of the two sexes varied considerably in the
same occupation, yet the wage differences seem greater than such
variations should produce.
As laborers, men averaged 57.5 cents an hour, women only 36.4
cents, or 63.3 percent as much as men. The largest group of women,
nearly 1,000, worked as trim-bench hands and averaged only 35.4
cents an hour, or just over 68 percent of the 51.8 cents of men.
Average hourly earnings Percent women’s
earnings formed
of men's
Men
Women
Assemblers, chassis and final (7,354 men, 265
women)
Inspectors (5,593 men, 256 women)
Laborers (9,651 men, 117 women)
Punch-press operators (4,002 men, 178 women) _
Sheet-metal workers (2,522 men, 121 women)..
Top builders and trimmers (3,714 men, 294
women)
Trim-bench hands (219 men, 925 women)
{Cents)
{Cents)
57.
66.
57.
64.
57.
34.
36.
36.
33.
31.
0
4
5
6
4
60. 3
51. 8
9
1
4
2
7
36. 1
35. 4
61.
54.
63.
51.
55.
2
4
3
4
2
59. 9
68. 3
Part III.—WAGES OF WOMEN COMPARED TO WAGES
OF UNSKILLED MEN
WAGES OF WOMEN AND OF UNSKILLED MEN IN CERTAIN
INDUSTRIES IN ONE STATE
A comparison of the wages paid unskilled men with amounts received
by women in all types of work in the same industry shows that such
men, in their unskilled jobs, fare better on the whole than do women
performing jobs that require at least great care and dexterity and
sometimes considerable skill.
Such a comparison can be made from data recently reported by
Women’s Bureau agents in a field survey covering several industries
in one State.\ More than 1,000 women were reported in each of
four of these industries. The following gives the details as to their
earnings and those of the unskilled men and also shows similar data
for three industries in which smaller numbers were reported.
Seamless hosiery.
In seamless-hosiery plants 13 men or boys were reported in such
unskilled jobs as carrying yam or bundles of work or as helpers of
various types. Only two of these were paid less than 30 cents an
hour, though practically one-third of all the women reported in these
plants had received less than 30 cents. Nearly 40 percent of the
women knitters and more than 25 percent of the women loopers
were paid less than 30 cents, though these are occupations requiring
considerable dexterity such as would be thought to justify more than
the wage of a yarn carrier or helper.
Men’s work clothes and shirts.
In factories making men’s work clothes and shirts 22 men and
boys were reported in such unskilled work as bundle carrier, beltboy,
cutter’s helper, general, and miscellaneous and shipping clerk. Only
five of these received less than 30 cents an hour, though the median
for all the women reported in this industry was only 26 cents an hour
and 70 percent of them were paid less than 30 cents. More than 60
percent of the women sewing-machine operators and of the inspectors
were paid less than 30 cents an hour, occupations that would be
thought to warrant more than the wage of unskilled helpers.
Knit underwear.
In knit-underwear plants 29 men and boys were reported in such
unskilled jobs as carrying work or bundles, giving out work, general,
beltboy, and helpers of various types. Only three of these were
paid less than 30 cents an hour, though more than one-fourth of all
the women reported had received less than 30 cents. The median
for all women reported was 32 cents an hour, and practically one1 For this comparison only white unskilled men and white women have been used, in order that the
figures should not be complicated by the added factor of racial differences in pay.
39
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
40
fourth of the sewing-machine operators were paid less than 30 cents.
The hourly earnings of four men “general” workers ranged from 45
to 70 cents, though only a very small proportion of the women reported
received as much as 45 cents.
Men’s suits and overcoats.
In factories making men’s suits and overcoats 20 men and boys
were reported on such unskilled work as bundle carrying, general
utility, or helping. None of these was paid less than 30 cents an
hour, though 15 percent of all the women reported, whatever their
jobs, received less than this amount, as did nearly 20 percent of the
women sewing-machine operators. The median for all women
reported was only 38 cents, which means that half were paid less than
this, though two bundle boys each received just over 49 cents, several
male helpers were paid 46 cents, and one boy who turned coats received
54.6 cents an hour.
Food.
In the candy factories and in the bakeries reported, the majority
of all the women were paid from 25 to 35 cents an hour, a great
majority in the candy plants. The pay range for most of the un
skilled men and boys with such jobs as greasing and cleaning_ pans,
dumping cakes, putting in and taking out of oven, or helping in
various ways, was from 30 to 40 cents. The median hourly earnings
of women were below those of unskilled men, as the following shows:
Unskilled
men
(Cents)
Bakeries
35
Candy factories
32. 6
Women in
all jobs
(Cents)
32
28
Very few of these unskilled men received less than 30 cents an
hour, but these low earnings were the portion of more than 80 percent
of the women in candy factories, of nearly as large a proportion of the
candy packers, and of 32 percent of the women in bakeries.
Paper boxes.
In paper-box factories, 27 men and boys were reported in such
unskilled work as tying bundles of paper, machine helping, or hand
wrapping. Most of these workers received 35 cents an hour or more
and two hand wrappers were paid 45 cents. However, the median
for all the women reported, whatever the job, was only 32 cents, and
well over one-fourth of them were paid less than 30 cents an hour.
NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE BOARD DATA
Another source of information on the wages of women compared
with those of unskilled men is the periodic wage reports of the National
Industrial Conference Board, an organization of large manufacturing
interests. Over a period of years extending regularly back to 1920, this
agency has reported the average weekly earnings of skilled and semi
skilled men, unskilled men, and women, monthly and also with an
average for the year. For the most part the average for women,
whatever the job, has been only about three-fourths as niuch as that
of unskilled men, running to larger proportions, however, in the depres
sion years when men’s wages were very low. The levels of men’s and
women’s wages as reported from this source are shown graphically on
WAGES OF WOMEN AND OF UNSKILLED MEN
4]
page 47. The proportions women’s average weekly earnings formed of
those of unskilled men in the various years are as follows: 2
jPercent
19203
1921.
1922 4 5
1923.
1924.
1925.
1926.
1927..
women’s
earnings formed
of men’s
68. 0
77.
78.
77.
74.
74.
74.
73.
1
0
4
7
9
4
8
Percent women7s
earnings formed
of men’s
1928.
1929
1930
1933
1932.
1933
1934
1935
71.
72.
73.
76.
81.
82.
87.
83.
8
2
0
6
0
8
9
6
These figures include more workers from the large man-employing
industries, such as steel, automobiles, building construction, and the
heavier metal industries, than from the more outstanding womanemployers. When the data for separate industries are taken and the
more important of the woman-employers reported are considered, it
is found that in the boot-and-shoe and the hosiery and knitwear
industries, in which women perform jobs of considerable skill at piece
rates, women earned more than unskilled men (though still not nearly
so much as all men together); in six other industries women received
appreciably less than unskilled men. These figures fqr a late month
(November 1936) are as follows:
Percent women’s
earnings formed
of unskilled men’s
Boots and shoes
113.
Cotton (North)
80.
Electrical manufacturing
79.
Hosiery and knit goods
102.
Meat packing
80.
Paper products _
Silk
65.
Wool
90.
6
6
6
8
1
75. 1
5
0
WAGES OF WOMEN AND ENTRANCE RATES FOR MALE
COMMON LABOR
Women’s wages may be compared with the hourly entrance rates
of male common labor in certain industries in which most women
employees are definitely engaged in the productive processes, fre
quently as tenders of machines, and many of them are performing
work requiring great dexterity and often a considerable degree of skill.
The entrance rates for male common labor, secured periodically by
the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics from the various firms
reporting to that Bureau, are the rates paid adult males when first
hired by an industry to “perform physical or manual labor of general
character requiring little skill or training,” workers “having no specific
productive jobs or occupations,” “thus excluding machine operators
and semiskilled employees” (whose pay would be presumed to be some
what more).6 While the reports are somewhat scattered they
undoubtedly are of an adequately representative character, and the
wages shown for male common labor compare most favorably with the
2 National Industrial Conference Board. Wages, Hours, and Employment in the United States, 1914-36.
1937. pp. 48-51, 52-55.
3 Average of 7 months’ reports.
4 Average of 6 months’ reports.
5 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly Labor Review, December 1934, p. 1452; March 1936, p. 699.
42
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
all-too-low pay to women in industries where women’s jobs are
chiefly of the type ordinarily designated as semiskilled, and often
require at least a high order of dexterity.
_
A summary of the comparisons discussed in fuller detail in the pages
following shows the wages paid to unskilled male laborers upon their
entrance and those paid to women in industries where women’s jobs
are at least semiskilled.
Weekly averages:
Electrical supply, 1929
1934
Meat packing, 1928—
1929 —
Hourly averages:
Motor-vehicle manufacture, 1934
Leather, 1932:
New England-------------------Middle Atlantic----------------East North Central-----------
Average en
Women’s average
trance rates
for male com weekly earnings in
factory occupations
mon labor
$22. 84
14.
16.
16.
19.
18.
73
84
92
57
65
$19.
21.
15.
16.
00
06
00
85
19. 25
16. 93
18. 50
(Cents)
(Cents)
54. 9
50. 5
38. 4
38. 8
32. 4 •
31. 9
33 to 34.2
27.8 to 30.5
To show how the figures for comparison were obtained, further
details as to the rates for these industries are discussed in the follow
ing, as are certain additional wage data along the same line. The
male entrance rates reported are for the month of July in each case.
Electrical machinery, apparatus, and supplies.
In July 1929, the reports covered 3,806 common laborers in the
electrical machinery, apparatus, and supply industry. The average
hourly entrance rate was 48.4 cents for those included who worked in
the East North Central region (which includes Ohio and Illinois).6
In October 1929, average weekly hours worked in the electrical-appara
tus industry in Illinois were 47.2, which would mean at 48.4 cents an
hour an average weekly wage for common labor of $22.84.7 Women’s
weekly earnings in this industry in Illinois in July averaged $21.06.8 *
In Ohio, women’s weekly earnings in electrical machinery, apparatus,
and supply factories averaged only about $19 for the year 8 Thus
women’s average in factory jobs, including those on production, was
less than men’s average in the first rate paid them on entering com
mon labor jobs.
The available hour data are not separated by sex, but even if the
lower wage of women should be due in part to more short time, this
greater irregularity of employment time with its attendant wage
uncertainty is but an added factor in the low standard of women’s
wages.
In July 1934, the hourly entrance rates reported for common labor
in the same section of the United States averaged 43.7 cents.10 Aver
age hours worked per week in this industry in July (the month for
which the rates were reported) were 33.7,11 which thus would provide
6 u. S. Bureau of Labor of Labor. Labor Bulletin, NovemberOctober 1929, p. 173.
7 Illinois. Department Statistics. Monthly Labor Review, 1929, p. 68.
8 Ibid., August 1929, p. 30.
.
_
,
, __
» Ohio. Department of Industrial Relations. Rates of Wages, Fluctuation in Employment, Wage
and Salary Payments in Ohio, 1929. 1931. p. 29.
n> U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly Labor Review, December 1934, p. 1455,
H Ibid., September 1934, p. 742.
WAOES OF WOMEN AND OF UNSKILLED MEN
43
an average of $14.73 as an entrance weekly wage for common labor.
Women’s earnings in Ohio 12 in that year showed a median of only
$15, though it is well known that many of the processes they perform
in electrical-supply factories require considerable skill.13
Slaughtering and meat packing.
In a Women’s Bureau survey of the meat-packing industry, made
in 1928, women’s median week’s earnings, chiefly in May and June,
were only $16.85, though three-fourths of those reported had worked
longer than 40 hours.14 Nearly one-fifth of these women were time
workers, and of these practically 90 percent had received less than 40
cents an hour, 80 percent being paid less than 35 cents an hour.
In the West North Central cities with large numbers reported (over
500 women in each case) median week’s earnings of women were: In
Kansas City (Kans.) $17.50, in Omaha $16.50, as compared to an
average entrance rate of $16.92 for male common labor. In Chicago
the women’s median was $17.40 compared to an average of $16.84
entrance wage for male common labor in the East North Central
region.
In Bureau of Labor Statistics reports for July 1928 nearly 12,000
male common laborers in the meat-packing industry were included.
In the two districts in which this industry is primarily concentrated,
the East North Central (including Illinois) and the West North
Central (including Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska) the average
hourly entrance rates of common labor were respectively 42.1 cents
and 42.3 cents, or well above the hourly earnings of women.15 At these
average rates a 40-hour week would yield $16.84 and $16.92 in the
respective districts.
In the late fall of 1929 the Bureau of Labor Statistics surveyed
this industry, reporting women’s average hourly earnings as 41.4
cents and 38.4 cents in the two districts most nearly corresponding to
those just discussed,16 in each of which entrance rates for common
labor averaged just over 42 cents. The average hours worked by
women in the two districts were respectively 46.5 and 44.1, and for
these their earnings averaged $19.25 and $16.93. But these hours at
men’s entrance rates for common labor in the corresponding districts
would average $19.57 where women averaged $19.25, and $18.65
where women averaged only $16.93. Illinois reports show women’s
average weekly earnings to have been $18.50 in October 1929.
Motor-vehicle industry.
In the automobile industry entrance rates for common labor in
July 1934 were reported as averaging 54.9 cents.17 But the average
hourly earnings of women factory employees in motor-vehicle plants
were reported as only 50.5 cents in April, the peak season.18 In car
12 From unpublished wage data furnished the Women8s Bureau by the Ohio Department of Industrial
Relations.
13 For example, see Women’s Bureau Bui. 65, The Effect of Labor Legislation on the Employment
Opportunities of Women, p. 55 ff.
14 U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. The Employment of Women in Slaughtering and
Meat Packing. Bui. 88. 1932. pp. 9, 66, 67, 73, 145.
18 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly Labor Review, October 1928, pp. 96-98.
16 Ibid. Wages and Hours of Labor in the Slaughtering and Meat-Packing Industry, 1929. Bui. 535.
1931. p. 105. District 1, averaging 41.4 cents for women, consisted of Chicago, and district 2, with an
average of 38.4 cents for women, included Kansas City, Omaha, St. Joseph, St. Louis, and East St. Louis.
See p. 61.
17 Ibid. Monthly Labor Review, December 1934, p. 1454.
18 Ibid., March 1936, Wages, Hours, Employment, and Annual Earnings in the Motor-Vehicle Industry,
p. 523.
44
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
factories the average hourly earnings for women in the same month
were 51.8 cents, in parts factories only 45 cents.
Leather.
In leather industries the average hourly entrance rates of male com
mon labor reported in July 1932 were in every case above the highest
hourly averages of women in corresponding districts, as the following
shows: 19
Average hourly
entrance rates
Range of women's
for male common
average hourly
labor
earnings
{cents)
{cents)
New England States_____
Middle Atlantic States___
East North Central States.
__ 38. 4
__ 38. 8
32.4
31. 9 20
33 to 34. 2 21
27. 8 to 30. 5 22
The women receiving these wages that were below the commonlabor entrance rate were largely in finishing departments, including
trimmers, glazing-machine operators, hand and machine seasoners,
driers, and hand or machine ironers, and in sorting and shipping
departments, including measuring-machine operators, sorters, and
packers and shippers.
Compared to weekly earnings of at least $15.97 that would be
received by New England men on wholly unskilled jobs, on the basis
of their entrance rate and at the average hours reported for women,
women in Massachusetts and New Hampshire were averaging only
$13.28. On the same basis in Middle Atlantic States, where men
entering common labor would average from $15.95 to $17.11, women
were averaging only from $14.06 to $15.08. In the East North Cen
tral States, where men as common laborers would average $12.15 to
$14.87, women would average only $10.43 to $14.
COMPARISON OF WAGES OF STREET AND SEWER LABORERS
AND OF WOMEN IN MANUFACTURING
The reports on entrance rates of common labor include information
on such amounts paid in September 1935 to laborers on new construc
tion, repair, and cleaning for both street and sewer work. Of these
laborers, 166 were reported from Tennessee, and their average hourly
entrance rate was 32.2 cents. More than one-third of the 4,750
street and sewer laborers reported in the entire South were paid en
trance rates of 37.5 or over.23
Women’s Bureau reports of wages of women workers in Tennessee
in the fall of 1935 showed that white women employed in manufac
turing, stores, and laundries were receiving average hourly pay that
was practically the same as or was even less than the beginning wage
for common labor. More than 17,000 white women employed in
manufacturing plants had an hourly average of 32.3 cents. In the
three types of manufacturing employing the largest numbers of women
11 Ibid., October 1932, pp. 906, 919.
20 Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
21 New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
22 Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
23 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly Labor Review, November 1936, pp. 1229, 1231, 1232.
WAGES OF WOMEN AND OF UNSKILLED MEN
45
in this State, the average hourly earnings of white women were as
follows:
Cents
Seamless hosiery 32
Men’s work clothing and shirts
Cotton mills 33
26
In department stores and laundries the pay was still lower, the aver
ages per hour for white women being respectively 27 and 17 cents.
Negro women were paid still less. These averages seem especially
low when it is considered that under the N. R. A. the effort had been
to maintain a minimum of 40 cents an hour.
Women’s average earnings in manufacturing industries in three
States surveyed by the Women’s Bureau in 1936 were lower than the
September 1935 entrance rate for common labor on streets and sewers
in the same States, as the following shows:
Average hourly
entrance rate
for common
tabor
(Cents)
24. 6
38. 6
39. 5
Arkansas__ _
Delaware____
West Virginia.
Average hourly
earnings of white
women in manu
facturing
(Cents)
23. 1
33. 6
34. 5
In the group of southern States as reported by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 45 percent of the more than 4,700 street and sewer laborers
reported had an entrance wage below 32% cents an hour; in the
group of northern States, less than 1 percent of the more than 34,000
such laborers received less than 32% cents an hour.
Of the women reported in manufacturing plants in the three States
surveyed by the Women’s Bureau the following proportions received
less than 30 cents an hour:
Percent
Arkansas 74. 9
Delaware 39. 4
West Virginia 21. 8
Part IV.—GENERAL LEVELS OF MEN’S AND WOMEN’S
WAGES
The foregoing section has brought together evidence as to women’s
and men’s wages in comparable occupations, or of women’s wages in
productive as compared to men’s in unskilled occupations. As a
general background for the material, this section will give sum
maries showing the relation between the general levels of women’s
and men’s manufacturing wages. This will include reports from a
few special studies in various States and industries, and also will
bring together from several sources information that has been col
lected regularly over a number of years.
In two States surveyed by the Women’s Bureau in 1935 or 1936,
the median week’s earnings of the men and women in manufacturing
were as follows:
Median week's earnings Percent women s
— ------------------------earnings formed
Men
Women
of men's
Arkansas, 1936 (white)(Negro)
Tennessee, 1935 (white) (Negro)
$14.
12.
15.
12.
80
00
80
45
$9.
7.
12.
6.
50
40
00
75
64. 2
61. 7
75. 9
54. 2
LEVELS OF WOMEN’S AND MEN’S WAGES IN
MANUFACTURING
The general levels of men’s and women’s earnings as reported peri
odically from several sources will bo presented next.
Wages in three industrial States.
Such data as are available reporting women’s and men’s wages regu
larly over a period of years show very definitely that the level of
women’s wages at all times falls below men’s. Consequently, working
women have much less to live on than men have. In no case, over a
period of from 13 to 14 years in three large industrial States, did
women’s average wages in manufacturing run as high as 65 percent of
men’s. The figures showing this are given in table 2.
The discrepancy between women’s and men’s wages appeared con
sistently, regardless of time, locality, size of sample, method of pay,
proportion of women in the total, type of industry represented, or
any of the other manifold variants that affect wage figures.
The ratio of women’s wages to those of men had a range in the 13 or
14 years as follows:
Ohio (rate) 52.7 to 63.4
New York51.9 to 58.2
Illinois 55.5 to 60.2
46
GENERAL LEVELS OF WAGES
47
AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGES OF WOMEN AND OF MEN IN MANUFACTUR
ING INDUSTRIES, 1923-36
Men's Wages..............
Women's Wages
Dollars
ILLINOIS
NEW YORK
30
C
NATL. INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE BD.
FIGURES FOR 44 STATES
20
10
0 ---- 1___ i___
1923 19 21* 1925
____ I_____ I_____ ■
1926
1927
1928
1929
---- 1___ i___ i
1930 1931 1932
------- I-------- 1I
1933
1934
1935
1936
48
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
Ordinarily women’s wages approach men’s more closely in Illinois
and New York, where the figures are average weekly earnings, than in
Ohio, where they are median rates. The coverage is greatest in Ohio
(better than 95 percent where examined), but on the other hand these
data are reported only once a year, whereas those of the other two
States, though based only on a sample, are the result of monthly
reporting.
Table 2.—Average weekly earnings or rates of men and women in manufacturing
industries in New York, Illinois, and Ohio
l^ew York 1
Year
1923
___
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935..._____________
1936
Men
$31. 43
31.01
31. 48
32. 72
33. 20
33. 47
33. 97
32. 37
29. 56
25. 36
24. 27
25. 62
26. 79
28. 37
Percent
women’s
Women earnings
formed
of men’s4
$16.31
16. 65
17.12
18. 08
18. 62
18. 49
18. 75
17.97
16. 60
13. 75
13. 35
14.90
15. 40
15.83
Ohio 3
Illinois 2
51.9
53.7
54.4
55.3
56.1
55.2
55.2
55.5
56.2
54.2
55.0
58.2
57. 5
55.8
Men
(5)
$30.07
30. 57
31.39
31.27
31.23
31.26
29. 73
26. 09
20.90
20. 46
22. 39
24.35
26.61
Percent
women’s
Women earnings
formed
of men’s4
(4)
$17.42
17. 51
17. 78
17. 92
17. 33
17. 49
17. 33
15. 37
12.15
11. 68
13. 47
14. 40
15.12
57.9
57.3
56.6
57.3
55.5
56.0
58.3
58.9
58. 1
57.1
60.2
59. 1
56.8
Percent
women’s
Men Women earnings
formed
of men’s4
$29.81
30.27
30. 85
31.03
31.23
31. 53
31. 66
30. 62
27. 53
23. 55
21. 48
23.21
24. 77
0)
$15.99
16.37
16. 37
16. 74
16. 62
16. 74
16. 73
16. 20
14.50
12. 72
13.61
14. 55
15. 33
«
53.6
54.1
53.1
53.9
53.2
53.1
52.8
52.9
52.7
54.0
63.4
62.7
61.9
0)
1 Factual Brief for Respondent, People ex rel. Tipaldo, Court of Appeals, State of New York, filed
January 1936. p. 108. Compiled from figures published monthly by the New York State Department of
Labor in the Industrial Bulletin, 1923-36.
2 Computed by Women’s Bureau from monthly figures issued by Illinois Department of Labor. Figures
for 1933 are for 11 months only.
3 Rates of wages of wage earners 18 years of age and over in manufacturing. Source: Rates of Wages,
Fluctuation of Employment, Wages and Salary Payments in Ohio. 1923. Report No. 8. p. 10; ibid., 1928.
Report No. 19. pp. 8, 84, for 1924-28; ibid., 1929. Report No. 26. p. 10 for 1929; unpublished data for
1930-35. Ohio Department of Industrial Relations. Medians and percents computed in Womens’ Bureau.
* Computed by Women’s Bureau to indicate the difference in amounts women and men have to live on.
4 Not available at this time.
Both in New York and in Ohio men’s and women’s wages are
reported for clerical workers as well as for manufacturing wage earners.
These are shown for New York on page 20 and for Ohio on page 22.
In Ohio, in most years, womens’ wages more nearly approached
those of men in clerical work than in factory occupations. In New
York, however, the opposite was the case, women clerical workers
when compared with men being less well off than women wage earners.
It will be remembered that the clerical workers reported in New York
were only those in factory offices, while in Ohio those reported were in
all types of clerical work.
In Ohio the wage rates of men and women as salespersons not travel
ing also were reported, and the rates for salespersons in stores are
shown on page 23. Womeh in this work as compared with men fared
less well hi almost every year than did those in manufacturing.
Wages of women nearer to men’s in three latest years.
The data for the three States, Illinois, New York, and Ohio, show
that women’s wages more nearly approached men’s in the last 3 years
reported than in most of the earlier years.
GENERAL LEVELS OP WAGES
49
This may be explained as follows:
First: For. the most part men’s wages declined more than
women's during the depression, and since women’s wages already
were so near the bottom levels in many cases, men’s wages
obviously had farther to go in the depression decline than women’s
had. The figures indicate that this was the case to a small extent
in Illinois and markedly so in Ohio.
Second: Women’s wages appear to have recovered more rapidly
than men’s did. The summary following indicates that this
rather than the first cause has been the more powerful, which
undoubtedly is in a large part due to the effectiveness of the
efforts of the National Recovery Administration to raise the
lowest levels of wages.
The percent decline in wages in manufacturing from 1929 to the
depression low 1 was as follows:
Men
Illinois_____________
New York
28.
Ohio----------------------------------------------------------
34. 5
6
32. 2
Women
33. 2
28. 8
24. 0
The percent increase in wages from the depression low 1 to 1936 2
was as follows:
Men
Illinois-----------------------------------New York
16.
Ohio----------------------------------------------------------
Women
30. 1
9
5. 2
29. 5
18. 6
20. 5
Wages of women and men from earlier census data.
The consistent degree in which women’s wages fell short of men’s
in the three States discussed corresponds with earlier studies, notably
wage estimates made from the data of the census of manufactures
showing the annual earnings of women and men. From 1899 to
1923, census figures for the United States as a whole show that women’s
earnings were less than 55 percent of men’s. This was a lower level
than the average weekly earnings for practically all the later years
in Illinois and New York, and than the average rates of wage earners
in Ohio, the State with the most complete coverage. The estimated
amounts of money earnings per capita, taken from the census material,3
are as follows:
Estimated annual earnings Percent women’s
------------------------------------ earnings formed
Men
Women
of men’s4
1899-______
1904--------------------------------------------1909-----------------------------1914-----------------------1919--------------------------------------------1921--------------------------------------------1923---------------------------------------------
$498
640
631
644
1, 354
1,170
1, 562
$267
289
339
344
726
627
837
63.6
53.5
63. 7
53. 4
53. 6
53.6
53. 6
1 In 1933, except for women in Ohio, which was in 1932. The decline to 1933 for women in Ohio was 19
percent.
2 Increase to 1935 for Ohio, since the 1936 figures were not available when this table was prepared. In
Illinois and New York, for both sexes, 1936 showed an increase over 1935.
3 U. S. Bureau of the Census. Census Monographs, X. Earnings of Factory Workers, 1899 to 1927. By
Paul F. Brissenden. 1929. p. 94.
4 Percents computed by the Women’s Bureau.
50
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
LEVELS OF WOMEN’S AND MEN’S WAGES IN PARTICULAR
INDUSTRIES OR SPECIFIC LARGE OCCUPATION GROUP
INGS
The chief consideration in the foregoing discussion has been that
of all manufacturing industries taken together. When attention is
given to particular industries, however, a similar situation appears—
namely, that the level of women’s average earnings always falls well
below that of men’s. The average weekly earnings of women and
men as reported from five States for specific industries, chiefly in
manufacturing, are discussed in the following pages.
Wage rates in Ohio industries, 1914-35.
Data on four manufacturing industries in Ohio over a 22-year period,
1914-35 (excepting only 1922), are included here. These reports
are based on the rates of pay in the reporting factories for the week
of greatest employment in the year.
In two of these industries, men’s clothing and women’s clothing,
from roughly two-thirds to more than three-fourths of the wage earners
in any year were women. Average weekly rates of men were rela
tively high, but in men’s clothing women’s average rates amounted
to less than 60 percent of men’s in 16 of the 21 years. In women’s
clothing women averaged less than 45 percent as much as men in the
13 years beginning with 1923. When men were averaging more than
$30 a week (sometimes more than $40) in women’s clothing, women
in that industry, in most years, averaged less than $20.
In hosiery and knit goods, where at least three-fourths of the workers
in each year were women, men’s weekly rate never (except in the peak
of 1920) averaged so high as $25, but in 14 of the 21 years reported
women’s rates were less than 70 percent of men’s. Though in many
years men averaged over $20 a week, women often averaged less than
$15.
In rubber, less than one-fourth of the workers were women—less
than one-fifth in most years. Men’s average weekly rates were prac
tically $35 or more in one-half the years, while women usually averaged
less than $20. In 9 of the 21 years women’s average weekly wages
were less than 55 percent of men’s.
Percent women’s rates formed of men’s1
Percent women’s rates formed of men’s1
Year
1914
1915___ .
1916_
1917
1918.........
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
Hosiery
Men’s
Rubber and knit clothing
goods
51.3
49.0
54.9
52.4
53. 2
54.0
53.9
53.9
0
53.0
57.3
69.9
68. 5
83.8
78.6
66. 3
64.0
66.7
69.3
<*>
65.5
65.0
57.2
55.3
54.1
54.0
56.0
55.6
51.9
55.5
«
57.5
60.0
Women’s
clothing
0
48. 6
46. 7
46.7
50.0
48. 7
48.7
47.0
46.2
44.2
42.8
Year
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930....... .
1931
1932
1933
1934 ____
1935......... .
Hosiery
Men’s
Rubber and knit clothing
goods
55.7
56.4
56.6
56.9
56.3
58.6
56.8
55.2
58.9
57.2
58.0
70.3
70. 2
65.7
69.3
67.6
68.0
63.2
69.3
80.5
80.4
81.1
58.8
57. 5
59.3
57.0
57.2
60.8
61.0
58. 5
60.7
60.1
59.4
Women’s
clothing
42.7
41.4
42.8
42.7
39.4
40.0
36.6
33.9
39.3
41.5
41.6
1 Source: Ohio. Information Bureau of Women’s Work. Ohio Wage Earners in the Manufacture of
Rubber Products, 1914r-28; ibid., Ohio Wage Earners in the Manufacture of Textiles and Textile Products,
1914-27; The Department of Industrial Relations and the Industrial Commission of Ohio, Buis. 19, 26.
3 Not available.
GENERAL LEVELS OF WAGES
51
The summary following shows for wage earners in 10 manufacturing
and 6 nonmanufacturing employments in Ohio (including the 4 just
discussed) the ratio of women’s rates to those of men in the 5 years
1928, 1932, 1933, 1934, and 1935. It is apparent that even in 1933,
when men’s and women’s wages ordinarily were much below those of
1928, and women’s in most cases formed a larger proportion of men’s
than in 1928, women’s average rate was as much as three-fourths of
men’s average rate in only 1 of the 10 manufacturing and 2 of the 6
nonmanufacturing industries. In five of these employments, women’s
average was less than 60 percent of men’s average.
Percent women’s rates formed of men’s1
1928
Manufacturing:
Boots and shoes___________________ _______
Metal and metal products___ ___ _ ____ _
Printing and publishing____ ____ _______
Rubber products_____________ ______
Stone, clay, and glass products._____ _________
Men’s clothing. ......... ......... ........................... .
Women’s clothing________ _________ _____
Hosiery and knit goods______ ___________ ___
Tobacco manufactures..........................................
Electrical machinery_____ _________________
Nonmanufacturing:
Hospitals................. .......................... .....................
Hotels __________________________________
Laundries and dry cleaning--------------------------Restaurants.............. ...............................................
Stores, retail and wholesale_____ _______ _
Telephone and telegraph........... ................ ...........
1932
1933
1934
1935
62.8
60.2
44.0
56.9
55.3
57.0
42.7
69.3
64.9
57.3
59.6
60.6
43.5
55.2
60.9
58.5
33.9
69.3
61.0
60.2
72.3
69.4
49.5
58.9
69.4
60.7
39.3
80.5
65.3
64.2
66.9
67.8
51.0
57.2
69.9
60.1
41.5
80.4
70.0
69.5
67.6
67.1
48.9
58.0
66.5
59.4
41.6
81.1
68.0
69.5
69. 1
72.4
48.0
68.2
60.3
57.8
68.4
79.2
50.3
72. 6
56.9
54.9
73.1
84.0
56.3
78.6
71.0
54.3
78.3
84.8
57. 7
76. 1
70.4
52.2
78.8
84.7
56.3
74.1
68.1
49.2
1 For source, see references in footnote 3, p. 48.
Wages in five New York industries, 1923-36.
The summary following shows the percent that women’s average
weekly earnings were of men’s average in five New York manufacturing
industries over a 14-year period, 1923-36. These averages for the
year are computed from reports received monthly from a fixed list of
firms providing a representation of the industries.
In none of these industries in any year reported were women’s
average weekly earnings as much as 65 percent of men’s, and in
about one-fourth of the cases they were less than 55 percent of men’s.
In the candy, knit-goods, paper-box, and shoe industries in the pre
depression years, when men’s average weekly earnings were from
about $25 to nearly $33, women never averaged so much as $19 in
shoes, so much as $18 in paper boxes, nor so much as $17 in candy and
in knit goods. In women’s clothing, when men were averaging be
tween $40 and $50 a week in the predepression years, women never
averaged so much as $29, and later, when men’s wages were from
$33.50 to $37, women’s highest were less than $20.50. In each of the
five industries, when men’s wages showed a depression drop, women’s
also declined, and the relation of women’s wages to men’s was much
the same as before.
52
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
Percent women's earnings formed of men’s 1
Year
Candy
Knit
goods 1
2
56.0
57.0
56. 5
57.5
56. 1
58.3
52.4
51.0
52.5
50.0
51.3
58.0
56.3
54.6
62. 2
57.9
61.0
58.4
58.3
58.3
58.4
53. 7
52.3
50.3
55.9
61. 9
61.7
60.9
1923_____
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932_____
1933
1934
1935
19364
Paper
boxes 3
Shoes
60.1
60.1
60.8
56. 1
54.7
55.9
54.5
53. 1
49.8
52.5
55. 7
60.8
59. 2
57.6
64.5
62.0
58.4
59.9
59.6
58.7
59. 7
59.7
56.9
55.3
58. 5
63. 2
63.3
64.9
Women’s
clothing
55.8
54.7
55.4
55.8
57.2
55.6
57.0
59.6
57.8
53. 6
54.9
57.7
55.5
57.7
1 Source: Factual Brief for Respondent, People ex rcl. Joseph Tipaldo, Court of Appeals, State of New
York, filed January 1936, p. 108. Compiled from figures published monthly by the New York State Depart
ment of Labor in the Industrial Bulletin, 1923-35.
2 Except silk.
3 Includes tubes.
4 Figures for this year are averages computed by the Women’s Bureau.
Wages in 15 Illinois industries, 1924-36.
The following summary shows the ratio of women’s average earn
ings to those of men in 10 manufacturing and 5 nonmanufacturing
industries in Illinois in 1924, 1928, 1932, 1933, 1935, and 1936.
The closest approach of women's earnings to men’s in any manu
facturing industry was in slaughtering and meat packing, where in 4
years women’s average was 69 or 70 percent of men’s.
Women’s pay envelopes contained less than half as much as men’s
in most years in women’s clothing and in job printing, in both of which
men’s wages were high as compared to other industries. Likewise
the pay of women in laundries ordinarily was less than half of men’s,
though men’s earnings were not particularly high in these establish
ments.
Percent women’s earnings formed of men’s1
1924
Manufacturing:
1928
1932
1933
1935
1936
60.7
55.9
53. 5
64.3
54.8
50. 5
64.8
52.5
69.3
50.9
Women’s clothing______________________ ____
Nonmanufacturing:
}
60.9
55.2
62.4
61. 1
56. 1
46.4
63.2
41.6
68.8
51.5
66.0
60.4
58. 5
65.1
49. 1
49.0
60.7
34.3
70. 4
48.9
59. 6
56. 1
63. 0
65.4
54. 0
46. 4
60.8
38.2
68. 9
55.7
61. 6
60.1
(2)
67.0
61. 2
46.8
61. 3
45.9
64. 4
61.6
62.3
57. 9
(2)
66. 6
57.8
47. 2
61. 5
44.0
64. 7
56. 2
43.8
m
49.3
(*)
46.9
53.4
61.3
69.5
41.2
52.7
51.6
61.4
70. 2
70.5 / 4 80. 4
\*
41. 9
45. 3
52.9
52.2
56.1
73.8
82. 3
45. 4
50.4
44.7
58.2
1 Source: Monthly reports of Illinois Department of Labor.
2 Classification changed in this year, so figures are not comparable to those of earlier years.
3 First report, June 1928.
4 Reported separately for last 6 months of year.
GENERAL LEVELS OP WAGES
53
Wages in three Pennsylvania industries, 1928 and 1929.
Data on women’s and men’s earnings in two Pennsylvania indus
tries in 1928 and one in 1929 are shown in the summary following.
These are taken from special pay-roll studies applying in each case to
a week’s period within 1 month of the year.
The median of women’s weekly earnings was less than 65 percent
of men’s median except in one branch of the silk industry (throwing),
where men’s earnings were quite low, and even there women’s wage
was less than 68 percent of men’s. In seamless hosiery women’s
earnings had a median less than half as large as men’s.
When men averaged $19, women averaged less than $13; when men
averaged $32.50, women averaged less than $21. In every case but
silk weaving the lowest median of earnings received by men in any
plant6 *
was above the median for all women reported.
The variations in pay from plant to plant were very wide for men
(in some cases more so than for women); men’s median earnings in the
lowest-paying plant ranged from just under 30 to 60 percent of their
median in the highest-paying in the several industries. Yet in one
branch of the hosiery industry—the seamless product—there was a
greater difference between men’s and women’s wages than there was
between the wages of men in the highest-paying and those in the
lowest-paying plant.
" Median week s earnings Percent women's
....
,,
A
------------------------------earnings formed
Men
Women
of men’s8
Silk v—Weaving-------------------------------------- $29. 66
Throwing-----------19. 12
Hosiery 8—Full-fashioned
32. 49
Seamless--------------------------------25. 99
Knit goods 9---------------------------------------------23.82
$18.
12.
20.
12.
15.
30
88
77
35
38
61.
67.
63.
4L
64.
7
4
9
5
6
Wages in seven Tennessee industries, 1935.
In seven manufacturing industries in Tennessee reported by the
Women’s Bureau in the fall of 1935, women’s median weekly earnings
in all such industries taken together were only about three-fourths
as much as those of the men reported. In full-fashioned hosiery
mills, the highest-paying group for the men reported, women’s median
was little over half the median for men, or roughly $13.50 to men’s
$25.50. In cotton mills, one of the lower-paid industries for the men
reported, women’s median earnings were 94 percent of men’s, or
$12.50 to men’s $13.25. The summary following shows the median
earnings of white women and men in these industries:
Median week’s earnings
—----------- ---------------Men
Women
Manufacturing 10------------------ -----------------Cotton mills------------------------------------Hosiery—Full-fashioned______________
Seamless----------------------------Knit underwear-------------------------------Men’s suits and overcoats____________
Men’s work clothes
14.
Shoes-----------------------------------------------
$15.80
13. 25
25. 55
12. 65
14. 40
22. 05
15
20. 45
$12.00
12. 50
13. 40
10. 20
12. 10
13. 25
9 55
14. 15
Percent women’s
earnings formed
of men’s
75.9
94 3
52. 4
80. 6
84. 0
60' 1
67 5
6R 2
8 Plants with fewer than 25 employees of each sex are omitted from this comparison.
8 Computed by Women’s Bureau.
o-nPrn?sy}vani^ Department of Labor and Industry. Hours and Earnings of Men and Women in the
Silk Industry. Bui. 29. 1929. pp. 25, 28. Figures for February 1928.
8
Hours and Earnings of Men and Women in the Hosiery Industry. Bui. 31. 1930. d 25 Fieures for June 1928.
'
&
9 Ibid. Hours and Earnings of Men and Women in the Knit-Goods Industry. Bui. 35. 1931 p. 21.
Figures for April 1929.
'
10 Includes other industries surveyed besides those shown in detail.
54
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
Negro women received only a little more than half as much as Negro
men. The median weekly earnings of Negro workers were as follows:
Median week’s earnings
Percent women’s
----------------------------- earnings formed
Men
Women
of men’s
Manufacturing $12. 45
Laundries
9. 35
$6. 75
5. 65
54. 2
60. 4
Special industrial studies by Women’s Bureau.
In addition to these State figures, which cover wage data for the
two sexes over a series of years, the following table shows the average
AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND OF
MEN IN CERTAIN
CLOTHING INDUSTRIES
MEN'S
DRESS
SHIRTS
(11 States)
MEN'S
WORK
SHIRTS
(g States)
MEN'S
KNIT
UNDERWEAR
(12 States)
MEN'S
COTTON
UNDERWEAR
(9 States)
MEN'S
WORK
CLOTHING
(17 States)
SEAMLESS
HOSIERY
(12 States)
WELT BOOTS
AND SHOES
(13 States)
(median) weekly earnings reported in special studies of particular
industries made during the last 3 years by the Women’s Bureau:
Median week’s earnings
Men
Beauty shops, 1934
Laundries (21 cities, 1934, produc
tive workers, by city). 11
Leather gloves (New York, July
1933) _
____
___
Men’s clothing, 1936:
Shirts—Dress (11 States)
Work (8 States)
Underwear—'Cotton (9 States)
Knit (12 States).
Work clothing (17 States)
Seamless hosiery (12 States), 1936. _
Men’s welt boots and shoes (13
States), 1936-37
$22. 50
12. 50 to
21. 45 12
Women
$14. 25
6. 67 to
13. 05 I2
Percent women’s
earnings formed
of men’s
63. 3
33. 2 to
67. 8 11
23. 45
12. 65
53.9
18.
15.
16.
18.
17.
15.
13.
9.
11.
12.
12.
11.
73.
63.
68.
71.
72.
79.
35
55
70
10
25
05
23. 80
50
85
40
85
50
95
16. 35
6
3
3
0
5
4
68. 7
Wage data from most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics studies of 26
industries.
Table 3 following shows the average weekly and hourly earnings of
women and men from the most recent studies of 26 industries or
branches of industries made by the United States Bureau of Labor
11 Average for all cities combined not obtainable. Low and high not the same in the 3 columns.
12 Arithmetic mean.
GENERAL LEVELS OF WAGES
55
Statistics. In each instance more than 500 women were reported and
most cases included over 5,000 women.13 The wages reported are
based on data secured in the field directly from factory pay rolls.
Table 3.
Men’s and women’s average earnings as reported in most recent Bureau of
Labor Statistics surveys 1
Number of
employees
Industry
Bakery products............................
Bread
Cake___________________ ”
Boots and shoes
Cane-sugar refineries'
Cigarettes, snuff, chewing and
smoking toabcco4
White__ ___________ ______
Negro______________ IZIIIII
Cotton textiles6___________
North_________________
South______________ ____
Dyeing and finishing of textiles 6...
Cotton............. ........................
Silk and rayon_____________
Furniture
Hosiery_ _____ ___________~~~
_
Leather
Machine-shop products
Men’s clothing1 _.
Motor vehicles 7
Factory___ ________________
Cars.__________________
Parts__________________
Office_____________________
Cars_____ ____________
Parts__________________
Paper boxes, folding«
North_________
South__________
Set-up9
North_________
South_________
Pottery__________________ _____
Semivitreous___________
Vitreous________ _________
Rayon and other synthetic yarns..
Shipping containers (corrugated
and solid fiber)11_
_ _
North_________________ ‘
South_____________________
Silk and rayon goods_________
Slaughtering and meat packing___
Underwear— knitted
Women’s neckwear and scarfs ,2_ _ _
New York City____________
East (except New York City) ..
Midwest and far West___
Woolen and worsted goods 13
Date
of
pay
roll
Men
Average weekly
earnings
Percent
Percent
women’s
women’s
Wom
Men Wom earnings Men Worn earnings
en
en
en
formed
formed
of men’s
of men’s2
1932
1930
(3)
(3)
c3)
c3)
27,856
591 $29. 82 $13. 93
1,552 1, 240 24. 25 12. 11
28, 046 21, 620 19.73 12. 58
11, 027
863 25. 96 12. 42
1935
11, 564 12, 241
0
0
(3)
1934
1931
1932
1932
1931
1932
1934
1935
1935
1932
1932
1935
1931
1931
1932
1935
(3)
3
20, 164 14,891
41, 561 22,786
(3)
(3)
10, 528 2,530
4, 306
567
28, 876 1, 783
12,908 20,319
18, 755 2,644
64,921 1, 017
16, 511 16, 540
146, 450 14,134
139, 792 9, 711
(3)
(3)
(3)
(3)
6,658 4, 423
(3)
(3)
6,034 1,831
5,616 1, 702
418
129
4,194 8, 487
3, 821 7,893
373
594
(3)
(3)
4,086 2,381
1,425
994
14,869 10, 457
8
9, 291 2, 748
8,463 2, 529
828
219
21, 885 27,151
45, 523 8, 032
2,174 9,564
(3)
(3)
hourly
earnings
3
(3)
V3)
(3)
(3)
18,091 13,893
17.11 12.23
19. 48 13.16
13.13 10. 30
(3)
(3)
14. 48 12.18
10.29
9.19
(3)
(3)
17.32 12.46
20. 01 14. 05
17. 22 11. 40
21. 80 11. 54
20. 78 12.41
24. 36 15. 85
24. 75 13.01
27. 45 17. 80
27. 49 17. 67
28. 45 19.16
24. 68 15. 30
26. 56 18. 08
27.06 20.51
25.06 19.89
23. 25 14. 62
23. 68 14. 86
17. 52 11.44
22.08 13. 99
22. 58 14.15
16. 98 11. 85
(3)
(3)
1031. 74 1015. 95
i«25. 03 1010. 72
19.51 12. 55
22. 38
22.84
17. 64
23. 45
21.57
17. 72
(3)
33.14
25. 89
26.83
17. 58
15.00
15.28
11.90
14. 46
13.61
9. 56
(3)
21.12
13. 79
14. 19
11.94
46.7
49.9
63.8
47.8
71.5
67.6
78. 4
84. 1
89.3
71.9
70.2
66.2
52.9
59. 7
65.1
52.6
64.8
64.3
67.3
62.0
68. 1
75.8
79.4
62.9
62.8
65.3
63.4
62.7
69.8
50.3
42.8
64.3
67.0
66.9
67.5
61.7
63.1
54.0
62.6
53.3
52.9
67.9
Ct.
(3)
55.3
48.6
49.3
47. 2
Ct.
(3)
29.8
27.5
30.8
28.9
48.5
54.8
37.7
(3)
42.1
33.9
(3)
49.5
61.7
41. 6
49.4
49.3
63. 7
64. 1
70.7
71. 0
73.0
65. 1
65.3
66. 4
62.0
57.7
58.6
44.4
54. 5
55.6
42.9
(3)
53.5
54. 6
40.8
37.3
40. 4
30.8
(3)
37.3
32.1
(3)
40. 1
43.8
31.4
29.2
30.3
40.8
36.1
48.9
50.5
51.8
45.0
45.9
52.1
50.5
38.9
39.5
31.6
37.8
38.2
32.5
(3)
29. 2
26.4
28.3
53.8
54.9
42. 6
48.5
47.0
40.8
(3)
88.0
64.0
70. 0
39.8
40.2
34.5
33.5
32. 1
26.0
0
58.0
36.0
41.0
«
1 Except as noted, from summary in Monthly Labor Review, July 1933, pp. 140-143
2 Computed by Women’s Bureau.
3! Not available.P1 Labor Statistics. Monthly Labor Review, May 1936, p. 1326
:?i?reav
• Ibid., March 1936, pp. 617, 619, 622.
’p
« Ibid., May 1936, pp. 1337, 1343, 1347, 1362, 1366, 1369.
7 Ibid., March 1936, pp. 623, 624, 527.
8 Ibid., August 1936, pp. 412, 414, 430.
• Ibid., June 1936, pp. 1689, 1591, 1608.
10 jl;, ?■ Burea,u of Labor Statistics. Monthly Labor Review, September 1936, p. 687.
'! 2-week pay roll.
1 iDiu., July 1936, p. 150.
11 Ibid., June 1935, pp. 1451, 1457.
73 Number in women’s neckwear and scarfs not reported, but 39 plants included.
53.9
56.6
62.5
61.2
76.9
73. 7
81.7
88. 6
94.7
81.0
71.0
75.5
59.1
61.5
64.1
56.3
69.2
71.7
71.0
69.1
70.3
78. 5
81.5
67.4
67.4
71.2
69.4
68.7
75.8
54.6
48.4
69.4
74.0
73.2
80.9
69. 1
68.3
63.7
65.9
56.3
58.6
DIFFERENCES IN EARNINGS OF WOMEN AND MEN
56
In only 5 of the 42 cases cited in these industries did women average
per week more than three-fourths as much as men, and in 3 of these
5 the men’s average earnings were less than $15, as follows:
Percent women's
Men's average earnings formed
week’s earnings
of men’s
Cotton—North
$14. 48
South _____________________________
Cigarettes, snuff, chewing and smoking tobacco—
Negroes
_______________________
10.29
84. 1
89.3
13. 13
78. 4
In four cases women received less than half as much as men, and
in all these men earned at least $24, while women’s wage was less
than $14, as follows:
Percent women's
Men's average earnings formed
weekly earnings
of men’s
Bread
$29. 82
Cake
Cane-sugar refinery__________________________
Vitreous pottery
24. 25
25. 69
25. 03
46.
49.
47.
42.
7
9
8
8
The figures in table 3 enable a comparison of men’s and women’s
average hourly as well as average weekly earnings, thus showing the
difference in the earnings of the two sexes entirely without regard to
time worked. Though women are more likely to approach men’s
wages by the hour than in the amounts they have to live on through
the week, they averaged as much as 80 percent of the men’s hourly
wage in only six instances, in four of which men were getting less than
45 cents an hour, as’is shown in the following summary:
Men’s average Percent women’s
hourly earnings earnings formed
(cents)
of men’s
Cotton textiles—North_______________________
South_______________________
Cotton dyeing__________________________ _____
Cigarettes, snuff, chewing and smoking tobacco—
Negroes
Motor-vehicle parts—office----------------------------Shipping containers (corrugated and solid fiber)'—•
&uth
42. 1
33. 9
49. 5
88. 6
94 7
81. 0
37. 7
62. 0
81. 7
81. 5
42.6
80.9
In eight cases women averaged less than 60 percent as much as
men, though in five of these men’s average hourly earnings were less
than 56 cents, as follows:
Men’s average Percent women’s
hourly earnings earnings formed
(cents)
of men’s
Bread__________________________ _____ _______
Cake_______________________________ ________
Hosiery
Men’s clothing----------------------------------------------Pottery—Semivitreous_______________________
Vitreous___________________________
Women’s neckwear and scarfs:
East (except New York)_________________
Midwest and West_______________________
55.3
48. 6
49. 4
64 1
53. 5
54 6
53.9
56. 6
59. 1
56. 3
54 6
48. 4
64 0
70. 0
56. 3
58. 6
The one outstanding exception to certain of the foregoing analyses
is that of office employees in car and parts factories, who averaged
more than three-fourths of men’s weekly earnings even though these
were over $25, and roughly 80 percent of men’s hourly averages,
though these were above 60 cents.
GENERAL LEVELS OF WAGES
57
Year’s earnings in manufacturing.
If weekly earnings and even hourly earnings of women are so far
below those of men, as indicated, it is obvious that women’s yearly
earnings fall below those of men to a still greater extent. Year’s
earnings of men and women in 8 years in which the census of manu
facturesreported them by sex, are available in an estimate made in
a special study of such census data.14
It is a striking fact that in only one instance—that of tobacco,
cigars, and cigarettes in 1919—in any of these 18 industries did the
proportion women’s wages formed of men’s differ by as much as a
lull pomt from one year to another. In no case did women’s earning's
in any year rise to 80 percent of men’s.
Analysis of the 8 years reported shows that in five industries women’s
annual earnings were below 50 percent of men’s, and in five others
they were below 60 percent. Women’s earnings were nearest to
men s m cotton textiles, but in this industry men had received less
than in almost every other. Women’s earnings were farthest below
men s—not one-third so much—in glass manufacturing, but this was
an mdustry that paid men comparatively high wages in every year
the highest in 3 years.
’
By Paul' IUUBr?ssendene '1929™'
Census Monographs, X. Earnings of Factory Workers, 1899 to 1927.
o
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