The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary
CHILDREN’S BUREAU
GRACE ABBOTT, Chief
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS
IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
NEW YORK
By
ALICE CHANNING
*/'
g
Bureau Publication No. 218
3 &2 .,7
1152c,
m
- i f
U N ITE D STATES
GOVERNM ENT PRINTIN G OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1933
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Price 10 cents
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
3 4 2 ,7
35it
■*2\%
CONTENTS
in
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Page
V
3
»O CP iO 00 05
Letter of transmittal_________________________
Introduction_________________________I I I I I I __Z
The working group___________________
Termination of school iife --I I Z Z I Z I Z Z Z I I Z I I ~
""Z "
'
Age at leaving school______________________ Z .I __~Z_Z__Z~__ I
School grade completed_____________________________ ~ ~
Completion of legal requirements for leaving school.I _ZZ~Z_
Kind of school training______________________ ;____________
Training after leaving regular school_______________ __
Vocational training in part-time school___________ ~ _~ Z IZ
School progress_________________________________
Intelligence levels_____________________ ~__Z_ZZZ___ I I ___ I I . _ I . Z I I
Reasons for leaving school__________________________
Beginning of wage earning______________________ I _________ I I I I I ____
Vacation employment_________________________________
Age at beginning regular work_________________ I I I I Z .I I Z Z ____
Interval between leaving regular school and beginning work and
entering part-time school___________________________________
Certification for employment_______________________ II_
Method of obtaining employment_______ _ I ___
Occupations_______________________ _
First jobs__________1________________ZZ Z Z Z ___Z_
Z Z ~ Z Z ZZZ
A ll jobs____________________________ ZZZZZ
Learning a trade__________________ ZZZ_____ ________ Z l Z Z Z Z I
Factory employment_________________________I Z I I __I Z Z Z
""
ZZI I
"
Nonfactory employment_______________ 111111_____ I
Occupational change_______________________ Z
Special training and occupations______________________ ___ Z I I
Grade attainment and occupations_____________I _ _ I ____ Z
Mental ability and occupations__________
W ages__________________________________
Beginners’ wages________________________________I I I I I I I I I I I I
_ ~ ZZZ
Wages at date of inquiry_____________________________
Education and mental ability and w a g e s__IZ _____ I I _ I I I I _ _ I I I
Part-time school attendance and wages___________
Hours of work_______________________________
Regularity of employment_________ I I I I I I I I I ____ I Z I I I I I I I I Z I I I I
Amount of unemployment___________________I I ___ I_ Z _ I __
Age and unemployment___________________I Z Z Z I I ___________ ~ ZI
Education and unemployment_______________________
Mental ability and unemployment________________________
Duration of positions________________________________________
Relation of occupation to duration of position .. ZI
Changes in position_________________________________
The nonworking group_______________________
Summary and conclusions________________________________ I I I I I I I I
IIIII
Appendix A .— Tables showing all occupations___________ I ___ ~
Appendix B.— List of references___________________________________
161493— 33
11
13
14
14
16
18
21
21
22
22
24
26
26
27
29
30
31
36
37
39
41
43
44
44
•44
47
49
49
53
53
56
57
58
58
60
60
64
65
69
73
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
U
n it e d
S tates D
L abor,
C h il d r e n ’s B u r e a u ,
e p a r t m e n t of
Washington, April 28,1933.
]Vfa d a m . There is transmitted herewith a report on the Employed
Boys and Girls in Rochester and Utica, New York. The investiga
tion upon which this report was based was planned and carried
out under the general supervision o f Ellen Nathalie Matthews,
formerly director o f the industrial division of the Children’s Bu
reau, and was one of several studies undertaken to find out thé
kinds of work open to boys and girls and the effect of age and educa
tion upon their occupations and the stability of their employment.
The field work was directed by Alice Channing and Harriet A. Byrne
>and Alice Channing has written the report.
Thanks are due to the officials of the Rochester and Utica con
tinuation schools and to the employment-certificate officials for their
cooperation and the use of their records. Acknowledgment is also
made of the help given by Leila Martin, director of the child-study
department of the Rochester Board o f Education, in connection with
the group intelligence tests of pupils attending the Rochester
continuation schools.
Respectfully submitted.
'G r a c e A
H
on.
F
rances
bbott,
Chief.
P e r k in s ,
Secretary o f Labor.
V
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
A L Y V n f M A ! m r*ïO JÏI. i T HI
’
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER
AND UTICA, N. Y.
INTRODUCTION
This study o f young workers in two cities of New York State is
one o f a series o f studies of the employment histories of boys and
girls who leave school for work at 14, 15, or 16 years o f age. The
purpose o f these studies was to learn what vocational opportunities
are open to such boys and girls, and to what extent their ages at be
ginning work, the type of school training received, and the grade
attained affect the types of employment open to them, their earning
power, and their stability as workers. To obtain this information
the employment histories of the boys and girls at work in five indus
trial cities o f three States have been studied. The earlier studies o f
this series were made in Newark and Paterson, N. J., and in M il
waukee, Wis. ;x the present study was made in Rochester and Utica,
N. Y. A ll these inquiries were made before the commencement of
the general industrial depression that began in 1929, so that the facts
obtained indicate the extent and nature of child employment under
relatively prosperous business conditions.
The cities in which this series of inquiries was made were all com
munities in which under the laws o f their respective States employed
minors of certain ages were required to attend continuation or parttime school at least once a week. This requirement o f attendance at
part-time school made it practicable to locate and obtain records
for all such employed children. The provisions o f the continuation
school law o f New York State in effect in 1927, when the study in
Rochester and Utica was made, required employed minors up to the
age o f 17 years to attend part-time school four hours a week, except
ing only high-school graduates.2 As the New York attendance and
child labor laws permit a child o f 14 to leave school on completion
o f the eighth grade and a child of 15 to leave school on completion of
the sixth grade, the work experience of minors who attend part-time
school until they are 17 may extend over two or three years, making
it possible to include in this study boys and girls whose work his
tories had been sufficiently long to represent fairly their occupational
experience and stability as workers.8
m Cs Ur h n ^ - lnBNew
\ TThe W orking Children o f Newark and Paterson
iaSir,CSrnd
i
^ U c a t i o n No. 199, W ashington, 1930) ; Employed Boys and
in Milwaukee (U . S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 213, Washington, 1932).
o^>/3i0ri> continuation school law as passed in 1923 required attendance at
Scai )o1
m nor,s under 18 years o f age but made the establishment o f parttt“ 1® Casses fo r minors o f 17 years optional up to September, 1928. On this date the
establishment o f such classes was to become compulsory. In March, 1928, however, the
t n ^ l nUi tiooQSCl1001
was cha.nged to apply only to minors under 17 years. (New York,
Laws o f 1923 sec. 601, amending Education Law, art. 22, and Laws o f 1928, ch. 646
amending ch. 16, Consolidated Laws, art. 23, 622, A, B, C, F .)
«T h e continuation school laws o f New Jersey require attendance o f employed minors
i?,1/ ' s° that the study made in that State related only to children o f
14 and lo . In Milwaukee, on the other hand, attendance at the continuation school is
required fo r minors under 18 years so that it was possible in the study made in that
city to Include working minors between 14 and 18 years o f age.
1
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
2
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
Furthermore, the two New York cities offered certain other advan
tages for study of the employment histories o f minors. They were
both o f a size that made it practicable to interview all the young
workers under 17 years who were residents o f the city and could
be located. Each city afforded, besides mercantile and office em
ployment, a variety of industrial opportunities for minors. Roches
ter is a center of the men’s clothing industry; cameras, shoes, elec
trical supplies, foundry and machine-shop products, optical goods,
instruments, buttons, paper boxes, and metal products are also manu
factured. Utica is a center for knit-goods manufacture and, to a less
extent, for the men’s clothing industry. Other kinds o f factories are
present in smaller numbers.4 The existence in Rochester o f a welldeveloped vocational-training program in the ju n ior5 and senior
high schools made possible a consideration of the relation of such
training to the occupational experience o f the working children in
that city. Moreover, the cooperation of the child-study department
o f the Rochester Board o f Education made available facts as to the
mental ability of the continuation-school pupils.
Information was sought regarding all young persons between the
ages of 14 and 17 who were not enrolled in the full-time day schools
in Rochester during the last week of March, 1927, and in Utica
during the last week of April, of the same year. A ll boys and girls
who were enrolled in classes in the continuation or part-time schools
o f these two cities during these weeks were included, both those who
were employed or had been employed since leaving regular full-time
school and those who had left school but who had not yet been em
ployed outside their homes. An effort was also made to locate boys
and girls who had left the regular school but had not complied with
the attendance law by registering at the part-time school. To this
end, in Rochester the school census files were checked with the con
tinuation-school enrollment files to obtain the names and addresses
o f young persons between the ages of 14 and 17 who were not enrolled
either at regular school or at part-time school. A different method
for finding these young persons was adopted in Utica, where school
census records were inadequate. In that city the names of boys and
girls between 14 and 17 who had left the public school and had not
registered at the part-time school were obtained through the publicschool transfer cards, which had been sent to the part-time school.
In addition the names of the boys and girls of these ages who had
left diocesan schools were obtained from these schools and were
checked with the part-time school enrollment. The names of highschool graduates under 17, who are not required to attend part-time
school, were obtained in both cities from the high schools. It is
believed that practically all the Rochester boys and girls between
14 and 17 years at the date of the inquiry who had left full-time
* The total population o f Rochester in 1927, the year o f the study, as estimated by the
TJ S Census Bureau, was 319,718; fo r U tica it was 100.455. (Unpublished data fur
nished by the U. S. Census Bureau.)
See also Biennial Census o f Manufactures, 1927,
nD 1480. 1482, and 1494 (U. S. Bureau o f the Census, W ashington, 1930).
4 «T h e W ork o f the Public Schools, Rochester, N. Y., 1928. pp. 386, 524, 538. Report
o f the Board o f Education, Rochester, 1928. A ccording to inform ation received in Feb
ruary 1933 from the Board o f Education o f the Rochester public schools, a change in
policy in regard to these classes had been made about three years previously, eliminating
the strictly vocational classes in the ju nior high school and reserving the intensified
vocational training fo r the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades. I t was found from ex
perience that thé age o f the junior high school pupils was not such as to give a maximum
return for this instruction. W ork in junior high school was placed upon an industrial
o r practical arts basis.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
INTRODUCTION
3
day school were located. In Utica, however, probably a considerable
number who were evading the school attendance laws were not
found.
More complete information was obtained regarding the employed
boys and girls of Rochester and Utica than was obtained in either
o f the two preceding studies in this series, as all those in the inquiry
were interviewed by representatives of the Children’s Bureau,
whereas in the earlier studies information was obtained chiefly
through questionnaires or records. Information regarding the boys
and girls was first obtained in most cases from the records o f the
part-time schools, which contained data regarding the child’s age,
name o f last school attended, grade attainment, date o f enrollment
at part-time school, name o f first and sometimes of other employers,
date of entering upon first and sometimes later jobs, and serial num
bers o f employment certificates. This was checked and supple
mented by the records o f the employment-certificate issuing office.
I f no record o f a certificate was found, the school census files were
consulted in order to eliminate possibilities of error due to differ
ences in spelling o f the names. Representatives o f the Children’s
Bureau then questioned each young person concerning his employ
ment h i s t o r y , the kinds of work he had done, the number and dura
tion of his jobs, his earnings, and hours o f work. Most o f the boys
and girls were interviewed at the continuation school, but those not
enrolled in this school or habitually absent were visited in their
homes. It was found necessary to make home visits in the case of
8 per cent of the Rochester and 14 per cent o f the Utica boys and
girls. Officials o f factories and other places o f employment were
also consulted with reference to the occupations in which they em
ployed junior workers.
As a contribution to this inquiry the child-study department of the
Rochester Board o f Education gave group intelligence tests to pupils
attending the Rochester part-time school during the week o f the
inquiry. Workers on the staff of this department administered the
tests and supervised the calculations o f mental ages and intelligence
quotients.
The Rochester study included 3,727 boys and girls between the
ages o f 14 and 17 years, of whom 3,416 (92 per cent) had been em
ployed after leaving school. (Table 1.) Although the latter were
not all working at the time of the study, they will be referred to in
this report as the il employed boys and girls ” or the u w orkin g
group ” to distinguish them from the 311 boys and girls who had
not been employed at all since leaving school. Most of the latter
group had completed the educational requirements of the child labor
and compulsory school attendance laws, and the girls, who formed
90 per cent of the group, had in most instances been issued employ
ment certificates for domestic work at home, so their absence from
regular day school was not illegal. A boy or girl who was working
for his or her parents at home was not considered as employed for
the purpose of this study.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
4
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIBLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
T able 1.—Employment since leaving regular school and enrollment in part-time
school
Rochester
Employment since leaving regular school and enroll
ment in part-time school
Utica
Total
Boys
Girls
Total
Boys
Girls
Total......................................... „..........................
3,727
1,754
1,973
1,125
511
614
Employed—................................................................. —
3,416
1,726
1,690
997
480
517
Enrolled in part-time school................................ —
Not enrolled in part-time school......................... —
3,362
54
1,693
33
1,669
21
925
72
443
37
482
35
Never employed—................. - .............. ........................
311
28
283
128
31
97
Enrolled in part-time school___________________
Not enrolled in part-time school________________
291
20
26
2
265
18
78
50
10
21
68
29
The total number of Utica boys and girls included in the study
was 1,125, o f whom 997 (89 per cent) had been employed after
leaving school. As in Rochester, girls were more numerous than
boys among those who had not been employed, no doubt partly be
cause of the fact that in this city as in Rochester permits for employ
ment at domestic work in their own homes were not usually granted
to boys.
In both cities almost all the young persons were registered at parttime school at the time o f the inquiry. The 3,653 Rochester boys
and girls who were enrolled in part-time school were 98 per cent
o f the total number included in the study, 98 per cent of the working
group, and 94 per cent of those who had not been employed after
leaving school, being enrolled. . Five of those not enrolled were
high-school graduates and, therefore, were not required to attend
part-time school. The others not enrolled, 69, o f whom 20 had
not been employed after leaving regular day school, had not .com
pleted the high-school course and should have been attending either
full-time or part-time school under the requirements of the law.
In Utica 1,003 boys and girls (89 per cent) were enrolled in the
part-time school. As in Rochester, a larger proportion o f the
working than o f the nonworking group (93 per cent as compared
with 61 per cent) were so enrolled. None of the Utica boys and
girls not enrolled in part-time school was legally exempt from such
attendance as none was a high-school graduate.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
The working group in Rochester was made up o f almost equal
numbers of boys and girls. Nearly two-thirds were 16 years o f
age at the time of the study, one-third were 15, and only 3 per cent
were 14; the girls were slightly younger than the boys. (Table 2.)
In Utica girls were more numerous than boys among the workin0*
group. Approximately three-fifths o f the young workers were 16
years o f age, 36 per cent were 15, and 4 per cent were 14. (Table 2.)
T able
2.
Age at date of study of employed boys and girls
Kochester
Utica
Total
Age at date of study
Total
Per cent
Number distribu
tion
Total________________
Age reported____________
14 years............................
15 years_______________
16 years_____________
Age not reported_________
3,416
Boys
Girls
Per cent
Number distribu
tion
Boys
Girls
1,726
1,690
997
480
517
3,416
100
1,726
1,690
996
100
480
516
113
1,080
2,223
3
32
65
46
536
1,144
67
544
1,079
37
354
605
4
36
61
14
172
294
23
182
311
1
The small proportion of boys and girls o f 14 years of age who were
at work in both Rochester and Utica probabily is representative of the
proportion of 14-year-old children among continuation-school pupils
throughout the State. Similar proportions o f employed children of
14 years were revealed in a study of more than 5,000 continuationschool pupils in eight up-State cities and in New York City con
ducted by the New York Child Labor Committee in 1928 and 1929.
Four per cent o f the pupils in up-State cities and about 5 per cent
. thpse in New York City were 14 years o f age, a proportion
significant, the report of this study states, of the few calls by
employers for the youngest children legally eligible for employment.6
•
Bureau study, made in 1925, of employed ‘minors
m Milwaukee, Wis., where, as in New York State, children o f 14
years were required to have completed the eighth grade before they
could be legally employed, 5 per cent o f the working boys and girls
under 17 were 14 years of age.7
Owing to the fact that the majority of children in each city had
left school after reaching the age of 15 (see Table 3), most o f them
o f Continuation-School Pupils in New York State p. 5. Investigation
conducted by the New York Child Labor Committee, 1928—1929. New York. Mimeograpnea.
7 Employed Boys and Girls in Milwaukee, p. 5.
5
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
6
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
had been employed less than two years prior to the time o f this
study. In Rochester, their complete work history (that is, the length
of time between the date of entering the first job and the date o f the
study) was less than a year for 66 per cent and between one and
two years for 30 per cent o f the young workers. The few remaining
Rochester boys and girls (that is, those who had left school at 14
and were nearly 17 of the date of the study) had work histories
o f between two and three years.
In Utica 62 per cent o f the young workers had work histories of
less than one year and 35 per cent had work histories of between
one and two years; the remainder, of two years or longer.
TERMINATION OF SCHOOL LIFE
Under the'New York State law all children under 16 must be
either employed or in attendance at regular day school.8 Upon proof
o f physical fitness, a child o f 14, if he has completed the eighth
grade, and a child of 15, if he has completed the sixth grade,9 may
obtain an employment certificate permitting him to leave school for
work. It is the practice in Rochester and Utica to issue such certifi
cates, informally called home permits, to girls, and occasionally to
boys, to work in their own homes. For the usual type of employment
certificate it is necessary to have the promise of a job, but when
the child is to work at home a statement from the parent that the
child’s services are required is sufficient.
Age at leaving school.
Almost nine-tenths o f the Rochester children had left school before
they were 16, including 36 per cent who had left school while they
were 14 or younger.10 The children who left school before they
were 14 usually had left in June or in January at the end of a
school term and reached their fourteenth birthdays before school
reopened, so that they had fulfilled the age requirement of the com
pulsory school attendance law. The girls left, school at somewhat
earlier ages than the boys, 31 per cent o f the boys and 42 per cent
of the girls leaving regular school while they were 14 years or
younger. (Table 3.)
The Utica children were slightly younger when they left school
than the Rochester children. As in Rochester, the Utica girls left
at younger ages than the boys; 38 per cent of the boys and 48 per cent
o f the girls left before they were 15.
* N. Y., Labor Law, ch. 50, art. 4, secs. 130, 1 3 1 ; Education Law, secs. 631—635.
9 Children were regarded as having finished the age-grade requirements if they had
completed eight grades and were 14 or if they left school before they were 14 at the end
o f a school term but reached their fourteenth birthday before school reopened. Similarly,
children who had completed the sixth grade and were 15 or who had left school before
they were 15 but reached this age before school reopened were regarded as fulfilling the
educational requirements o f the iaw. Children who had completed eight academic grades
or seven or six academic grades and in addition one or two years, respectively, in nonacademic grades were also regarded as having completed the eighth grade.
10 This difference between the proportion who were under 15 at the time o f the study
(3 per cent) and the proportion who left school while under 15 (36 per cent) appears to
he due in part to the fa ct that about two-thirds o f those who left school while still 14
years o f age or less had left during the half year immediately before they became 15, and
in part to the circum stance that the study was made late in the school year.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
7
THE WORKING GROUP
T able 3.—Age at leaving regular school of employed boys and girls
Rochester
Total
Age at leaving regular
school
Boys
Utica
Girls
Boys
Girls
Per
Per
Per
Per
Per
Per
cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent
Num distridistridistridistridistridistriber buber
ber
ber buber buber bububution
tion
tiqp
tion
tion
tion
Total......................... 3,416
1,726
1,690
3,409
100 1,723
100 1,686
14 years, under 14)4___
14)4 years, under 15___
15 years, under 15)4___
15)4 years, under 16___
16 years, under 16)4___
16)4 years, under Ì7___
Total
155
319
741
1,214
615
332
33
7
5
9
22
36
18
10
1
45
121
354
625
348
209
21
3
3
7
21
36
20
12
1
110
198
387
589
267
123
12
4
997
480
517
100
989
100
475
100
514
100
7
12
23
35
16
7
1
51
100
277
383
128
46
4
5
10
28
39
13
5
(»)
14
36
127
195
75
26
2
3
8
27
41
16
5
(0
37
64
150
188
53
20
2
7
12
29
37
10
4
8
5
«
3
1 Less than 1 per cent.
^
In New York State, as a whole, according to figures published by
the State department of education, the greatest number of children
leave school immediately following the fourteenth and fifteenth
birthdays.11 The New York attendance law keeps children in school
longer than in States where the grade requirement is lower. For example, in New Jersey, in 1925, when the Children’s Bureau made a
study there, children of 14 could leave school if they had completed
the fifth grade; more than 80 per cent of the working children
included in that study left school at this age.12 In Milwaukee,13
however, where the educational requirement for employment was
the same for 14-year-old children as it was in New York State (com
pletion of the eighth grade), 43 per cent of the 4,461 boys and girls
under 17 included in that study had left school for work at 14. The
slightly smaller proportions leaving school at 14 in Rochester than
in Milwaukee suggest the importance of other factors, such as social
and economic status and opportunities for employment.
The same tendency for girls to leave school earlier than boys has
been shown in other Children’s Bureau studies of working children.14
Girls, as studies of the United States Office of Education show, are
somewhat more likely than boys to be in school grades that are
normal for their ages and so are more likely to complete the grade
requirements for work certificates by the time they are 14.15 The
principal reason for the earlier ages at which the girls in Rochester
u See V ocational and Educational Guidance, prepared by George E. Hutcherson, p. 15.
University o f the State o f New York Bulletin No. 963 (Jan. 1; 1931). Albany, N. Y.
12 Child Labor in New Jersey— pt. 3, The W orking Children of Newark and Paterson,
p. 9.
18
Unpublished figures, including only children fo r whom work records were obtained.
14 The W orking Children o f B o sto n ; a study o f child labor under a modern system of
legal regulation, by Helen Sumner W oodbury, p. 105 (U. S,. Children’s Bureau Publication
No. 89, W ashington, 1922) ; Child Labor in New Jersey— pt. 3, The W orking Children
o f Newark and Paterson, p. 8 ; Employed Boys and Girls in Milwaukee, p. 8.
16
An Age-Grade Study In 900 City School Systems, 1927, by Frank M. Phillips, pp.
2-4 . U. S. Office o f Education Statistical Circular No. 8. W ashington, May, 1927.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
8
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
and Utica left school as compared with the boys appears to be that
the boys were more likely than the girls to remain in school to con
tinue their education after they had completed the age and grade
requirements f o r ' employment certificates. Their continued at
tendance does not necessarily mean that the boys were more in
terested in education than the girls, but that the boys were usually
obliged to stay in school until they had the promise o f regular
employment, whereas the girls would more often obtain employment
certificates for work in their own homes. (See p. 6.)
School grade completed.
Children who leave school for work on employment certificates are
usually sixth, seventh, or eighth grade graduates.16 More than twothirds of the Rochester boys and girls had completed the seventh or
higher grades in academic subjects before they left school; many of
them had also completed one or more years o f vocational training
in industrial or commercial subjects or household arts. Work in com
mercial subjects in the public high schools had the same standing
as work in academic subjects, but work in industrial subjects and
household arts did not. On the completion o f a 2-year course in in
dustrial subjects or household arts the State department of educa
tion granted a special vocational diploma. But to transfer to the
college-preparatory course a graduate o f the ninth grade industrial
or household arts course in the junior high school lost a year and
was expected to begin the academic course in the ninth grade. Like
graduates of eight academic grades, however, children who had com
pleted the seventh grade and had satisfactorily finished one year in
nonacademic grades, or who had completed the sixth and two years
in nonacademic grades, were regarded as eligible for work certifi
cates. Fifty-two per cent of the Rochester boys and 62 per cent of
the girls had finished eight or more grades, either in academic sub
jects only or in academic and nonacademic subjects combined before
they left school.
Table 4 shows the last academic grade completed by the boys and
girls in the study. Many more o f the girls than of the boys (58
per cent and 43 per cent, respectively) had finished eight or more
academic grades, because so many girls had taken the commercial
course, which had academic standing, whereas the boys took the
industrial-arts course, which did not have the same standing. Four
girls and one boy were high-school graduates.
Only 36 per cent o f the Utica boys and 45 per cent of the girls
had graduated from the elementary grades, a lower proportion than
in Rochester even when the academic grade attainment in the latter
city only is considered. Only 5 per cent o f the Utica boys and 2
per cent of the girls, compared with 12 per cent of the Rochester
boys and 17 per cent of the Rochester girls, had finished one year
or more o f high-school work. The number o f Utica boys and girls
who had had industrial training after they finished the seventh
academic grade was negligible.
16 See Nineteenth Annual Report o f the Chief o f the Children’s Bureau, fiscal year
ended June 30. 1931, pp. 2 6 -27 (W ashington, 1931),
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
9
THE WORKING GROUP
T able 4.—Attendance at academic and nonacademic classes in regular school
and last academic grade completed by employed boys and girls
Rochester
Last academic frade completed, and
sex
Total
Complet Complet
Complet
ing aca
ing aca
ing aca
demic and demic and Type of
demic grade nonaca
short unit grade not
only7
demic
commercial reported
grades
course
Boys____ ____________
1,726
1,*252
454
Less than sixth_________
Sixth...........
Seventh_________
Eighth.................
Ninth or more___
Special or ungraded 3.... ........
Grade not reported...........
36
445
385
535
194
113
18
36
272
202
441
181
113
7
173
183
85
13
1,690
1,415
195
33
323
291
677
277
63
26
33
229
211
598
274
63
7
Girls____ _________
Less than sixth....... ......
Sixth________
Seventh________
Eighth........... ...........
Ninth or more__
Special or ungraded *________
Grade not reported.....................
Utica
9
Total
11
480
18
517
9
62
94
80
2
1
18
1 Includes commercial courses with equivalent standing.
* In Utica special classes only.
>
The grade attainment o f the continuation-school children in neither
city compares favorably with the grade attainment of these children in the State as a whole as reported in a study made by the
New York State Department of Education o f approximately 33,000
continuation-school pupils of 14,15,16, and 17 years o f age attending
part-time schools throughout the State in 1926. According to the
data gathered for this study, approximately two-thirds of the young
persons were graduates o f the eighth or a higher grade.17 The differ
ences, at least for the Rochester boys and girls, may be due to the
fact that in the present study all the information as to the last grade
completed was verified from the school records, whereas in the New
York State study the continuation-school pupils filled out question
naires themselves and may have filled in the grade they had last
attended instead of the grade in fact completed.
A larger proportion of the girls than o f the boys were eighthgrade graduates, although the girls left school at younger ages than
the boys. This has also been found to be true among 14 and 15 year
old working children in the country as a whole, according to reports
o f a large number of employment certificating offices; 62 per cent
of the girls as compared with 57 per cent of the boys receiving work
certificates for the first time in 1930 were eighth-grade graduates.18
Completion of legal requirements for leaving school.
The tendency for children who go to work under 16 to drop out of
school soon after they legally can has been brought out in several
17 Special R eport o f Grade Completed ip Full-Tim e School by Boys and Girls Attend
ing Part-Time Schools. U niversity o f the State o f New York, State Department o f
Education, Division o f Vocational and Extension Education. Mimeographed. Separate
reports fo r boys and girls.
18 Nineteenth Annual Report o f the C hief o f the Children’ s Bureau, fiscal year ended
June 30, 1931, p. 26.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
iO
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND TJTIOA
studies o f children attending part-time schools in different parts o f
the country.19 The present study showed that in Rochester 63 per
cent o f the boys and 54 per cent of the girls continued to attend
school after completion or the age and grade requirements. On the
other hand, in Utica, the tendency was somewhat in the other direc
tion, as 49 per cent o f the boys and 58 per cent of the girlstleft school
as soon as the law allowed. T o what extent the differences in the
proportions o f boys and girls continuing their education may have
been due to inability to obtain employment can not o f course be
determined.
Probably many o f the boys arid girls who did not leave school at
once on reaching the legal age continued to attend only until the
end o f a school year in order to graduate from the eighth grade or
to obtain a promotion in high school. The majority of the Rochester
boys and girls who stayed in school after completing the require
ments left when 15, and so had not stayed in school much more than
an additional year. The children who left school when 14 usually
had left as soon as they completed the requirements. (Table 5.)
Among the 119 Rochester boys and girls who left school before com
pleting the age-grade requirements were 45 who left before they
were 14. Possibly some o f these boys and girls had excuses for nonattendance on account of sickness, but probably most of them were
out of school illegally.
T able 5.—Age at leaving regular school, completion of age and grade require
ments, and attenda/nce at school after completing these requirements by
employed boys and girls
Rochester
Completion of age and
grade requirements
and attendance after
completion
Total
Total____________ 3,416
Utica
Age at leaving regular school
Age at leaving regular school
Under 14
Not Total Under
Not
15
16
14
15
16
14 years years
re
14
re
years
years
ported
years years years years ported
155 1,060 1,829
365
997
* 61
377
511
50
Requirements completed. 3,072
102
989 1,688
293
856
15
320
472
49
Attended after completion................ . 1,869
Not attending after
completion_______ 1,203
317 1,270
282
341
67
242
32
102
672
418
11
515
15
253
230
17
119
45
50
23
1
108
36
53
18
1
49
176
8
15
6
12
106
•6
12
21
1
3
4
17
7
Requirements not completed_______________
Not reported as to completion______________
Attended special classes..
g
64
7
8
1
The Utica boys and girls had left school at somewhat earlier ages
than those in Rochester, and smaller proportions remained in school
19
Pupil Personnel in Part-Tim e Schools, p. 13 (study made by part-time education
subcommittee o f vocational-education committee in the National Council o f Education
and presented July, 1926, at Philadelphia meeting o f the National E ducation A ssocia
tion) ; The Part-tim e School and the Problem Child, by Emily G. Palm er and Irvin S.
Noall, p. 17) (Division o f V ocational E ducation o f the University o f California and o f the
State board o f education, Part-Tim e Education Series, No. 4, Divisional Bulletin No. 18,
Berkeley, 1923) ; Child Labor in New Jersey— pt. 3, The W orking Children o f Newark
and Paterson, p. 8 ; Employed Boys and Girls in Milwaukee, p. 9.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
11
after they could legally leave. Forty-one per cent of the Utica boys
and 30 per cent o f the girls for whom the information was obtained
did not leave school at once, but they generally left at some time
during the year they were 15. Only 16 pet cent o f those who had
left school before they were 15, but 53 per cent o f the boys and 45
per cent of the girls who left school during the year they were 15,
had remained in school after completing the requirements. The per
centage (11) of Utica boys and girls who left school before complet
ing the educational requirements was larger than in Rochester.
Among them were 36 who had left school before they were 14.
Kind of school training.
During the last 10 or 15 years the Rochester public schools have
developed varied types of educational training suited to children o f
differing mental abilities and aptitudes, training that is being
adapted to the needs o f dull and over-age pupils as well as to the
needs o f pupils who are successful in tiie academic work of the
ordinary school grades. Training in industrial and commercial sub
jects and household arts as well as in academic and college prepara
tory work is given in the junior and senior high schools. A trade
or “ shop ” school gives intensive trade training for boys of 14 or
over who are elementary or junior high school graduates. Voca
tional and technical courses are offered in the senior high schools.
Since the first junior high school was opened, in 1915, these schools
have been greatly developed; at the time of this inquiry Rochester
had four junior high schools with an enrollment of 6,378 pupils for
the term ended June, 1927, which offered courses in academic, indus
trial home making, and commercial subjects in the seventh, eighth,
and ninth grades.20 On entering junior high school the pupils were
classified according to their relative abilities, which were partly de
termined by the group intelligence tests given the children before
they left the sixth grade by the child-study department o f the board
of education. Through a system o f school counseling the pupils were
directed toward the kind of school work suited to their abilities. In
the first year o f the junior high school, considered a try-out period,
all pupils usually followed the same general curriculum; in the sec
ond and third years they could specialize and elect academic, indus
trial, or commercial courses. Commercial courses in typing, stenography, bookkeeping, business arithmetic, office practice, and com
mercial art were open to both boys and girls. Boys could specialize
in industrial courses in auto-mechanics, cabinetmaking, drafting,
electrical construction, pattemmaking, printing, machine shop, and
sheet-metal work; girls in home-making courses, in cooking, sewing,
and millinery. Industrial courses for boys which met the require
ments o f the Smith-Hughes Act for Federal aid for vocational edu
cation were open to those of 14 years. H alf the school time was
devoted to practical work in well-equipped school “ shops ” ; the other
half was given to related academic work. For over-age and dull
children the public schools had organized special classes. Ungraded
classes had been established for those who demonstrated their in20
The Junior High Schools o f Rochester, N. Y., p. 20 (report of Rochester Boaj-d o f
Education, Rochester, 1923) ; The W ork o f the Public Schools, Rochester, N. Y., 1928.
p. 579.
*
161493°-—33
2
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
12
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
ability to succeed in regular grades. Some , of the older boys in
these classes were enrolled in the so-called prevocational classes,
in which they spent one-half o f each day in industrial work.21
Two-fifths o f the Rochester boys and girls included in the study
had last attended the regular elementary grades of public or diocesan
schools; about the same proportion had been enrolled in junior high
schools, in which they had the opportunity to elect some type o f vo
cational training ; 4 per cent had been enrolled in the trade school ;
and 15 per cent had last attended senior high schools.
More than one-third (37 per cent) of the boys had taken voca
tional-training courses. Most of these had enrolled in the industrialarts course in the junior high schools. (Table 6.) A small number
had taken commercial courses in junior or senior public high schools
or had enrolled in a commercial course given in one of the private
schools. The most popular industrial courses were those in machine
shop and sheet-metal work and in electrical construction. Forty
per cent of the girls had attended vocational-training courses, of
which business or commercial training was the most popular; 27
per cent had enrolled in commercial courses; and 12 per cent had
enrolled in household-arts courses, which primarily prepared for
home-making rather than for wage earning. Most of the girls who
specialized in commercial subjects had been enrolled in junior or
senior high school or in other public schools, but a small number
had taken the commercial course offered eighth-grade graduates in
one of the diocesan schools.
T able 6 .— Type of vocational training received "by employed boys and girls;
Rochester
Type of vocational training
Number
Girls
Boys
Total
Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
distri
distri Number
distri Number
bution
bution
bution
Total.......................................... ........
3,416
100
1,726
100
1,690
100
Receiving vocational training-----------------
1,314
38
633
37
681
40
Commercial________________________
15
16
6
1
67
553
4
36
452
27
More than one kind________________
519
653
207
35
»207
22
12
1
Not receiving vocational training------- ! —
2,102
62
1,093
1,009
60
13
(>)
63
* Includes 1 girl in commercial-art class.
<Less than 1 per cent.
The majority of both boys and girls who had taken vocational
work had spent at least one school year (10 months) in these
courses. The training of only 15 per cent of the boys in industrial
courses and of 34 per cent of the girls in commercial courses had
extended over a period of two or more school years.
Most of the Utica boys and girls before leaving school for work
had attended only the regular elementary grades in public or dioca For a description o f the vocational and special training that the Rochester public
schools offer see The W ork o f the Public Schools, Rochester, N. Y., pp. 286—290, 352—363,
886-395, 471-478. See also footnote 5, p. 2.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
13
esan schools; 13 per cent had attended high schools. The vocational
training o f the Utica working boys and girls was negligible. The
only training o f this kind that the Utica public schools offered was
in such subjects as bricklaying, carpentry, printing, and applied
electricity. These courses were given in the high-school building
and were open to sixth-grade graduates. Only 26 of the boys (5 per
cent) had taken advantage o f this training, and only 9 had remained
in the trade courses for as long as one school year. None of the
girls had had commercial or other vocational training in regular
school.
Training after leaving regular school.
Though the majority o f the Rochester and Utica boys and girls,
as was found to be true o f the continuation-school children in the
State as a whole,22 had received no other formal instruction after
leaving regular school, a considerable number (16 per cent in Roches
ter and 12 per cent in Utica) had taken advantage of educational
opportunities offered by the public and other night schools. In
Rochester most o f the 553 boys and girls receiving other instruction
either were eighth-grade graduates or had had industrial or com
mercial training. The majority of the 265 boys in this group had
enrolled in the public night schools, but some of them had attended
classes in drafting, mechanical drawing, sign painting, and other
subjects offered by the Mechanics Institutej a private technical
school. Some o f the 84 boys who had had industrial training in
regular school attended the public night schools. Sixty-five enrolled
in industrial courses, 40 of them in the same subjects that they had
taken in the junior high or in the “ shop ” school, and 8 in academic
or commercial classes. Attendance at night school usually extended
over a period of at least four months, rarely longer than eight
months.
The 288 girls who had had some training after leaving regular
school usually enrolled in night schools, public or private, but 53
c f them had taken a commercial course in day schools. About threefifths o f the girls in night schools and nine-tenths of the girls in
day commercial classes had attended for four months or more. Most
of the girls in night schools, as well as those in day schools, studied
commercial subjects—typing, shorthand, and bookkeeping. Many
o f them formerly had been enrolled in ordinary academic grades,
but 65 o f 87 girls who had taken commercial courses in regular
schools continued their education in the same subject; 8 of the
remainder attended sewing classes, and 4 attended classes in academic
subjects.
In Utica 122 o f those studied, including relatively more girls than
boys, had enrolled in some class after leaving school, most o f them
in the public night-school classes; few were in private schools in
either night or day classes. The Utica, like the Rochester, girls
were usually eighth-grade graduates and had enrolled in typing,
shorthand, and bookkeeping classes; the 36 boys who were enrolled
in night-school classes as a rule took courses in industrial subjects—
2 See Special R eport as to Other Forms o f Instruction Taken by Girls Attending PartTime School, and Special Report as to Other Form s o f Instruction Taken by Boys Attend
ing Part-Tim e School. University o f the State o f New York, State Department o f Educa
tion, Division o f V ocational and Extension Education. Mimeographed.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
14
E M P L O Y E D B O Y S A N D G IR L S I N
BO C H E S T E R A N D U T IC A
as carpentry, electricity, printing, painting, and decorating.
took courses in typing, shorthand, and bookkeeping.
A few
Vocational training in the part-tim e school.
All the boys and girls who attended continuation school had some
form o f instruction for at least four hours weekly. Two hours were
given to industrial, home-making, or commercial subjects and the
remaining two hours to academic work. The training in practical
work that the continuation schools offer is designed to give the young
workers an opportunity to obtain occupational skills which may
be useful to them later or helpful to them in the jobs they are
holding.
.
The Rochester continuation school, housed in a building formerly
used for a factory, has equipment for industrial work similar to that
in the junior high school “ shops.” Most of the boys included in
the study, both those who had previously taken vocational work in
regular school and those who had not, were enrolled in industrial
courses; that is, in machine shop, sheet-metal work, electrical work,
printing, or drafting. The remainder were taking commercial art
or retail selling, music, or bookkeeping, and other commercial sub
jects. The commercial classes usually accepted only pupils who
either had completed the eighth grade or had had training in com
mercial subjects. One-half the girls were in the home-making classes,
one-third were in the commercial classes, and most o f the remainder
had had both kinds of training. A few girls were enrolled in music
and commercial-art classes.
Practically all the boys in Utica part-time school were also
enrolled in industrial courses in subjects similar though not quite
as varied as those given in the larger Rochester school, namely, in
woodworking, machine shop, sheet metal, electricity, plumbing, and
printing. Most of the Utica girls were in home-making classes.
Only 10 boys and 5 girls, all but 1 of whom were eighth-grade
graduates, were studying typing, stenography, or other commercial
subjects.
School progress.
According to the conservative standards adopted by the United
States Office o f Education and used for purposes of this study, a
child is not considered as over age for his grade (that is, as retarded)
unless he fails to complete the seventh grade by the time he is 14
and the eighth grade by the time he is 15.23 As the school standing
of the Rochester boys and girls who had last attended industrial
and household-arts classes was not equivalent to that o f children
in the academic grades, the figures for their school progress were
based on the last grades thev had completed in academic subjects,
and their ages at the time of completion of these grades. Some of
the boys and girls who had taken vocational training had finished
their last academic grade at the age of 13 or 14, two or three years
before they had left school, hence the figures for the school progress
o f those with vocational training are based on younger ages than in
the case o f those without vocational training. Older boys and girls
are more likely to be retarded in school than younger, as figures
28 For computing school progress the age o f a child completing an academ ic grade in
June was taken as o f the follow ing Septem ber; fo r a child completing an academic grade
in January the age taken was as o f the preceding September.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
15
from the Office o f Education show, so that comparisons for those
with and without vocational training are valid only for the same
age groups. In considering the school progress o f these boys and
girls, it should also be remembered that those who took vocational
training were a selected group as far as their grade attainment was
concerned, only those who had finished at least the sixth grade
bemg eligible. The boys and girls without vocational training, on
the other hand, ranged from those who had had less than a sixthgrsxlc education to those who were accelerated and had completed
high school.
*
O f the 825 boys without vocational training whose progress in
regular school was based on their grades at 14 and 15 years of age
43 per cent were retarded. Ten per cent o f the boys o f 14 and 15
years o f age without vocational training had last been enrolled in
special or ungraded classes and were probably over age for their
grades. The 371 boys in the corresponding age group with voca
tional training were apparently but little more likely to be behind
m their ordinary school work at the ages of 14 or 15 than the boys
without vocational training; 46 per cent o f those with training had
been over age in their last academic grades. Evidently many o f the
boys who were unsuccessful in their school work remained in the
regular school grades either because they were unable to reach the
sixth grade or because they attended schools in districts in which no
vocational training was available.
The retardation among the Rochester girls can not be compared
readily with that among the boys because of the large number of
girls in the group of those with vocational training who had taken
the commercial course, a subject that apparently attracts girls who
are successful in their school work. The girls with commercial or
business training were seldom over age for their grades, not nearly
so frequently as girls who had been enrolled last in the grades in
ordinary academic subjects. The girls enrolled in the householdarts course were the most retarded. Eight per cent of the girls with
commercial training whose school progress was calculated at the age
o f 14 or 15 were retarded in school, as compared with 70 per cent of
those last enrolled in household-arts courses. Forty-one per cent
o f the girls with no vocational training were also over age for their
grades at 14 and 15 years. Six per cent o f the girls of these ages
with no vocational training were last enrolled in special or ungraded
classes and were also probablv over age for their grades.
The number o f Rochester boys and girls who had been advanced
for their grades was small, both among those who had had and
among those who had not had vocational training. Only 33 o f the
boys, and 70 o f the girls, in the 14 and 15 year group had been
advanced m their school work. The girls in this group had been
enrolled last in the commercial course or in the regular academic
grades; none in the household-arts course was accelerated in school
work.
In Rochester retardation among the working children when 14 and
15 years of age, either with or without vocational training, did not
appear to be unusual. This finding does not correspond with that
o f the Children’s Bureau study in New Jersey, which indicated that
working children, at least in Newark, were more retarded than
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
16
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
school children in general.*4 In Milwaukee the information ob
tained with regard to school progress was inconclusive. According
to figures from the United States Office of Education 40 per cent o f
the 14 and 15 year old boys and 32 per cent o f the girls of these ages
in 900 city school systems throughout the country were retarded.25
This proportion for the boys is little smaller than the proportion of
Rochester working boys who were retarded (44 per cent) at the same
ages (combining the boys with and without vocational training),
and for the girls also it is slightly smaller than for all the Rochester
girls combined (34 per cent).
The Utica boys and girls, however, were considerably more re
tarded than regular school children in the country as a whole. The
progress in school of most o f the Utica boys and girls was based on
their grades at 14 or 15 years of age; 60 per cent o f the boys in this
age group and 50 per cent o f the girls were over age for their grades.
More of the boys and girls whose school progress was computed when
they were 15 were retarded than those in the younger age group.
The number of boys and girls in special classes in Utica was small,
only 2 per cent; apparently most o f those who were over age were
enrolled in the regular grades. Only 5 Utica children were ad
vanced in their school work when 14 or 15. Thirty-nine o f the 74
children whose progress in school was calculated before they were
14 were, in advanced grades for their ages.
Intelligence levels.
As a result of studies o f the intelligence o f working children that
boards o f education and other organizations have made, it is gener
ally agreed that on the whole the intelligence of children who leave
school for work does not compare favorably with that of children
who continue in school. The range of intelligence among children
of both groups is wide, however, and a considerable number o f
children o f superior mentality are found among the working as well
as among the school groups.28
The results o f the group tests 27 given the working boys and girls
attending the Rochester continuation school, as compared with the
results of those given children attending the sixth grade of the reg
ular schools o f the city, also indicate, so far as mental ability can be
measured by such methods, that the mental ability of working boys
and girls as a group does not compare favorably with the mental
ability of the public-school population. Although the findings o f
group tests do not serve as a wholly reliable measure of the intelli
gence of the individual, they can be used to show the relative intel
ligence of groups o f children. They are also closely correlated with
24 Child Labor in New Jersey— pt. 3, The W orking Children o f Newark and Paterson,
pp. 11 and 51.
* Calculated from An Age-Grade Study in 900 City School Systems, p. 2.
26 W oolley, Helen Thompson : An Experimental Study o f Children at W ork and in
School Between the Ages o f 14 and 18 Years, p. 328 (M acmillan Co., New York, 1926) ;
Hopkins, L. Thomgs : The Intelligence o f Continuation-School Children in Massachusetts,
pp. 117—119 (H arvard University Press, Cambridge, 1924) ; Stine, J. Ray : A Comparative
Study o f Part-Tim e and Full-Time Students in the Public Schools o f Toledo, Lima, and
Fremont, Ohio, pp. 44 -45 (Ohio State Board o f V ocational Education, Columbus, 1927) ;
Palmer, Em ily G. : Pupils W ho Leave School, pp. 42-45, 68 (Division of V ocational Education o f the University o f California and o f the State Department o f Education, Berkeley,
1930) : Plenzke, O. H . : A Study o f the Abilities o f Vocational School Pupils (Journal o f
Educational Research, vol. 10, No. 1 /J u n e , 1924), pp. 4 2 -4 8 ) ; Sudweeks, Joseph ; In
telligence o f Continuation-School Pupils o f W isconsin (Journal o f Educational Psychology,
vol. 18, No. 9 (December, 1927), pp. 601-611) ; Beeley, Arthur L . : Boys and Girls in Salt
Lake City, pp. 55—56 (U niversity o f Utah. Salt Lake City, 1929).
21 The Terman group te sts 'o f mental ability.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
17
THE WORKING GROUP
the child’s capacity to do school work and with his progress in school,
and are used by the schools as a basis for classification o f children o f
different mental abilities.
4Test results were available for 2,800 of the 3,362 working boys and
girls enrolled in the Rochester continuation school the weelc the tests
were given, and were representative o f the whole working group in
cluded in the study, so far as ages at leaving school, school grades,
and progress in school are concerned. The results o f similar group
tests, which were given to 1,488 children in grade 6A of the regular
public schools in June, 1927, were also available for comparisons.28
These sixth-grade children comprised a group of children too young
to leave school and not a selected group, such as would be found in
a senior high-school class or in the continuation school. Except
for children o f decidedly inferior mentality who can not do the regu
lar school work, all the children of the community are required %y
law to complete the work o f the sixth grade.
The intelligence quotients 29 o f the working boys and girls as well
as those of the sixth-grade children varied greatly, ranging from
less than 75 to 130 and more.30 On the whole, however, the intelli
gence quotients o f the working boys and girls were considerably
below those of the regular school children, 66 per cent o f the former
and 51 per cent of the latter having intelligence quotients o f less
than 100. Five per cent of the working boys and girls and 10 per
cent of the school children had intelligence quotients o f 120 or more.
Only 15 working boys and girls (less than 1 per cent) and 60 school
children (4 per cent) had intelligence quotients of 130 or more.
(Table 7.)
Intelligence quotient, based on H years as an adult age, of employed
boy8 and girls a and of boys and girls enrolled in Grade-A ; 6 Rochester
T ables 7.
Employed boys
and girls
Intelligence quotient based on 14 years as an adult age
Total
_______________
Intelligence quotient reported____
Less than 80____ ______
80, less than 90_________ _
90, less than 100____________
100, less than 110................
110, less than 120....................
120, less than 130....... .........
130 and more________
Intelligence quotient not reported___ . . . .
Boys and girls in
Grade 6-A
Per cent
Per cent
Number distribu Number distribu
tion
tion
3,416
1,438
2,800
100
268
756
823
503
312
123
15
27
29
18
11
87
616
• Given Terman group test in continuation school.
hGiven Terman group test in public school.
28 Unpublished material.
^ • in ^ r d e r to facilitate comparisons with other data compiled by the Rochester childstudy department, intelligence quotients (that is, the ratio between mental and chronologi
cal ages) were calculated by using the age o f 14 as the adult age level fo r children who
were beyond this age, in accordance with the practice o f this department. In a study
o f the intelligence o f continuation-school children in Massachusetts D octor Hopkins used
14% years as the adult age fo r calculating intelligence quotients. (See Intelligence o f
Continuation-School Children in Massachusetts, pp. 19-20.)
Because the age at which
m ental growth ceases is unknown, psychologists differ as to the adult age level to be used
a .oasis fo r calculating intelligence quotients fo r individuals beyond the age o f 14.
(See Mental Tests, by Frank Freeman, p. 358 (H oughton Mifflin Co., Cambridge, 1926),
b r i d g i m f f T 6 TeStS’ by W alter I)earborn> PP- 290-306 (H oughton Mifflin Co.. Cam»« The children whose intelligence quotients were less than 75 on the basis o f a 14-year
adult age level are regarded as too low grade m entally to test by the Terman group test.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
18
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND IJTICA
The reliability of these test results for the Rochester part-time
school pupils is supported by a comparison with the results of similar
tests given to such pupils by the Rochester child-study department
three years earlier. The intelligence quotients of the pupils enrolled
in continuation school in 1924 and 1927 were very similar, although
in 1927 a slightly larger proportion had intelligence quotients of
less than 80 than in 1924, 11 per cent in 1927 and 7 per cent in 1924.
This slight difference was, in the opinion of the Rochester Board
of Education, probably due to the more strict enforcement of the
compulsory school attendance law in 1927 as compared with 1924.81
The working children who had attended the Rochester vocational
training classes, as their grade attainment and the amount o f re
tardation among them indicate, were not dull. Boys and girls of
the higher intelligence levels—those with intelligence quotients o f 110
or more—were just as likely to be found among the boys and girls
who had taken vocational training as among those without such
training, with the exception of the girls in the home-making classes
who were, on the whole, on the lower intelligence level. On the
other hand, practically all those whose intelligence quotients were
less than 80 had last attended either the regular academic grades or
special ungraded classes.
Reasons for leaving school.
How far lack o f mental ability, retardation, and maladjustment
in school and how far economic pressure cause early school leaving
are questions that have been discussed widely in studies of children
who leave school for work. Some studies have emphasized the child’s
dislike o f school and the close relationship of mental ability and
school progress with the age of leaving school, and other studies
have brought out the influence of economic need. On the basis o f the
experience of earlier investigations, the boys and girls in this series
of .studies were not asked why they had left school, because the
reasons for leaving school have been found to be so complex that the
child himself can not be expected to analyze them and give the true
causes.82 Indirectly, however, the information obtained as to the
intelligence levels of the boys and girls and the ages and grades
at which they left school throw some light on this question.
The effect o f the provisions o f the New York State education law
on the ages at which children leave school somewhat obscures the
relation between the age o f leaving school and the child’s mental
ability. The law holds dull and over-age pupils in school until they
are 15 and very dull children who have not completed the sixth
grade in school until they are 16, but allows children o f normal or
superior mentality who have completed the eighth grade to leave
school at 14. Consequently a larger proportion o f the Rochester
children who left school at 14 had relatively higher intelligence quo
tients than those who left school at 15. A greater tendency on the
part of brighter children to remain in school after they could legally
leave is indicated, however, by a comparison of the proportion of
the children with the higher intelligence quotients who left school at
15 with the proportion leaving at 16; 28 per cent of those leaving
« The Work o f the Public Schools, Rochester, N. Y., pp. 460-461. *
, „
« Child Labor in New Jersey— pt. 3, The W orking Children o f Newark and Paterson,
p. 12,
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
19
school at 15 and 42 per cent o f those leaving at 16 had intelligence
quotients of 100 or more.
A correlation of the working boys’ and girls’ school progress and
attendance after completing the age and grade requirements reveals
that a slightly larger proportion of those in normal or advanced
grades for their ages than o f those who were retarded remained in
school after they could legally leave. For example, o f the Rochester
boys and girls who had completed the educational requirements and
had some form o f vocational training, 79 per cent (about equal pro
portions o f each sex) in normal or advanced grades for their ages,
and 66 per cent in over-age grades, continued to attend school after
they had fulfilled the educational requirements.
In Utica, where children on the whole did not remain in school so
long as in Rochester, 48 per cent of the boys and girls in normal or
advanced grades for their ages, compared with 33 per cent o f the
retarded boys and girls, remained in school after completing the
requirements.
Financial pressure is an important cause o f early school leaving.
Although no specific information was obtained as to the economic
status o f the families o f the boys and girls included in the present
study, this may be indicated indirectly by information obtained
regarding the occupations of the fathers or other male heads of
families.
In Rochester information was obtained for the heads of households
o f 2,780 employed minors. Sixty-seven per cent were employed in
manufacturing and mechanical occupations, as compared with a
considerably smaller proportion— 58 per cent in 1920 and 50 per cent
in 1930— of the employed adult male population of the city as a
whole.83 Thirty-seven per cent of these were classified as semi
skilled workers or as unskilled laborers in manufacturing and
mechanical industries; 28 per cent were regarded as “ skilled ”
workers. The latter were carpenters, plumbers, painters, or other
skilled workers, and a few (2 per cent) were proprietors or officials.
Ten per cent o f all the fathers were engaged in the occupations classi
fied as trade and 10 per cent in transportation, and 3 per cent, com
pared with 12 per cent o f the adult males employed in the city, were
in clerical or professional occupations.
In Utica information was obtained for the fathers or other male
heads of household of 801 employed minors. Sixty-two per cent
were engaged in manufacturing and mechanical occupations, includ
ing 40 per cent who were semiskilled workers or laborers, 20 per
cent who were skilled industrial workers, and 2 per cent who were
proprietors or officials. In the city as a whole 54 per cent o f the
employed males were engaged in manufacturing and mechanical
occupations.34 The remaining fathers of the employed minors were
distributed in other occupations in trade or transportation and in
domestic and personal service. Two per cent, compared with 11
per cent of all the employed men in the city, were clerical or pro
fessional workers.
** Fourteenth Census o f the United States, vol. 4, Population, Occupations, pp. 1212—
1214 (W ashington, 1923) ; Fifteenth Census o f the United States, Occupations, New York,
p. 71 (W ashington, 1932).
** Fourteenth Census o f the United States, vol. 4, Population, Occupations, pp. 325-329.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
20
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
Economic necessity due to the loss of the f ather by death or other
cause did not appear to be an important factor in the early with
drawals from school o f the young workers in the two blew York
cities. Four-fifths of the Rochester boys and girls lived in families
in which their own father was present, most of these with both their
own parents. Five per cent lived in families in which the father’s
place had been taken by a stepfather or some other male bread
winner, and 14 per cent lived in families in which there was no
father and no one taking the father’s place. The latter boys and
girls had not gone to work at appreciably younger ages than those
living with their own fathers.
The same proportion (about four-fifths) of the Utica as o f the
Rochester boys and girls lived in families in which their own father
was present; 14 per cent also were living in families in which no
father or other male breadwinner was present, and 4 per cent were
living with stepfather or other male breadwinner. The great ma
jority were with both their own parents. Twenty-seven per cent of
the boys and girls living with their own fathers or with step or
foster fathers, and only 21 per cent o f the children from families
in which there was no father and no one taking his place, began
work when they were 14 years or before, the reverse o f what might
be expected.
Differences in social customs and educational standards among
families of different economic groups and o f different nationalities
are other factors believed likely to influence the age o f leaving school.
For example, among certain groups of the wage-earning population
graduation from elementary schools is still, though decreasingly, re
garded as an adequate education. Early withdrawals from school
are also sometimes influenced by the nationalities o f the children’s
families. Almost nine-tenths o f the boys and girls in Rochester
were native born, but the fathers of 64 per cent were foreign born.
Thirty-two per cent of the fathers were born in Italy; the others
who were foreign born came from many different countries, includ
ing Germany, Poland, Russia, Great Britain, and Canada. The
children whose fathers were Italian were little more likely than the
children of the native born to leave school during the year they
were 14, but many more of the children whose fathers were German
or Polish left school earlier than children of the native bom. The
number in each other nationality group was small.
Ninety-four per cent of the Utica boys and girls were native bom;
but 78 per cent had foreign-born fathers, including nearly one-half
whose fathers were from Italy. Most of the remaining foreignborn fathers were born in Poland. As in Rochester, the boys and
girls whose fathers were born in Italy showed no more tendency to
leave school at 14 than the boys and girls whose fathers were native
born. Both boys and girls in Polish families, however, were some
what more likely to leave school earlier than children whose fathers
were Italian.
The nationality of the father appeared to have a direct bearing on
the children’s school attainment and so indirectly influenced the age
at which they left school. In each city the group whose fathers
were foreign born, particularly those whose fathers were born in
Italy, showed a much lower proportion of eighth-grade graduates
than the group whose fathers were native born. The reason, there
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE
W O R K IN G G R O U P
21
fore, that children from Italian families did not leave school earlier
than children o f the native born was doubtless in many instances
because they were obliged to remain in school at least until they were
15 years of age in order to fulfill the legal grade requirements.
Difficulty in getting work is another important factor in keeping
children in school after the completion of the educational require
ments o f the law. But differences in the employment situation in
Rochester and Utica during the 2-year period in which the children
included in the study were leaving school and going to work do not
explain the relatively early withdrawals from the Utica schools.
The Utica textile industry, as has been said, had been undergoing a
period of depression, and probably for this reason the Utica boys
and girls had more unemployment, both at the date of the study and
during their working lives, than the Rochester boys and girls. This
situation should have tended to keep them in school longer than in
Rochester rather than the reverse.
The school training in vocational subjects available fo r Rochester
boys and girls was no doubt one reason why the continuation-school
pupils who had left school early for work did not leave immediately
after they had fulfilled the educational requirements of the com
pulsory school law. It should be noted, however, that in Rochester,
as elsewhere, a very large part of the child population between 14
and 17 does not leave school for work, but continues in school; the
number o f children o f these ages enrolled in secondary and higher
schools in 1928 was larger than the number enrolled in continuation
school.86 The facts obtained for the group of Rochester boys and
girls who left school before they were 17 show that more of those
enrolled in vocational courses (75 per cent) than o f those in aca
demic courses (58 per cent) stayed in school after completing the
legal requirements.
BEGINNING OF WAGE EARNING
Vacation employment.
Considerable numbers o f the boys and girls had been employed
in school vacations before leaving school for regular employment.
Six hundred and eighty-three (40 per cent) of the Rochester boys
and 216 (13 per cent) of the girls had been so employed. One-half
of the boys reporting vacation work had begun before they were
14 years of age, including more than one-fourth who had begun
work at 12 or earlier. A great many of the boys and some of the
girls had worked on farms in summer vacations harvesting vegeta
bles and fruits, especially picking cherries, strawberries, beans, and
peas. Others, both boys and girls, had done errand or messenger
work. Some of the boys had been caddies on golf courses, and some
of the girls had been domestic workers in private families or in res
taurants. Employment in factories was not usual, chiefly no doubt
because the child labor law forbade employment of children under
14 in manufacturing establishments.
In Utica 35 per cent of the boys and 17 per cent of the girls in
cluded in the study also had been employed in school vacations before
leaving full-time school. They started vacation work at younger
® The W ork o f the Public Schools, Rochester, N. T.
Education, pp. 569-580.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Report o f Rochester Board o f
22
E M P L O Y E D B O Y S A N D G IR L S I N
R O C H E S T E R A N D U T IC A
ages than the Rochester boys and girls; more than two-thirds o f each
sex reporting vacation work had first been employed before they were
14 years, including about two-fifths who had been employed at the
age o f 12 or earlier. A considerable proportion had worked in vaca
tions for two years or more. They reported much the same kind of
work as the Rochester children. More than half, a larger propor
tion of the girls than of the boys, who had worked during vacations
had been employed on farms in their last vacation job.
A g e at beginning regular work.
More than four-fifths of the Rochester group had left school and
begun regular work before they were 16. Although the girls left
school at slightly younger ages than the boys, they lost more time
between school and work than the boys and so entered regular em
ployment when not much younger. Twenty-four per cent of the
boys and 28 per cent o f the girls started work either during or before
the year they were 14.
About nine-tenths of the Utica group began work before they
were 16. On leaving school the Utica boys and girls were slightly
younger than those m Rochester, but they lost more time between
school and work. For this reason they were not much younger than
the Rochester boys and girls when they went to work. Twenty-three
per cent of the hoys and 30 per cent of the girls started work when
under 15 years.
Interval between leaving regular school and beginning w ork and entering
part-tim e school.
The Rochester boys and girls, especially the boys, went to work
almost as soon as they left school, in compliance with the legal
requirement that while school is in session children under 16 should
be either in school or legally employed. In New York State school
authorities issue the employment certificates, and in Rochester the
regular school principals, the employment-certificate office, and the
continuation-school officials all cooperate closely, so that at least the
children who leave school during the school term obtain their
employment certificates and enroll at the continuation school with
little delay. Delays between the time o f leaving school and the time
o f beginning work occur more frequently, therefore, when a child
goes to work during the school vacation or when he comes from an
out-of-town school. Delays occur also when a child from the Roches
ter schools has left school for work but has been temporarily refused
a certificate because of his physical condition.
Two-thirds of the Rochester boys and girls entered regular employ
ment during the school year and the remaining third during the
summer vacation. Very likely many children who leave school in
June can not find or do not wish to find work in the summer, but get
it in September after school opens. According to the records of the
Rochester employment-certificate office for several years preceding
the date of the study more first regular certificates are issued in
September and in October than in any other month.36
More of the Rochester boys than of the girls went to work immedi
ately on leaving school. Eighty-one per cent of the boys who first
entered regular employment during the school year and 55 per cent
“ Unpublished figures.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE
23
W O R K IN G G R O U P
o f the girls began work within two school weeks o f the date when
they left school (not counting vacation periods). (See table 8.) The
practice o f temporarily refusing children an employment certificate
until they had their tonsils or adenoids removed or necessary dental
work done but o f allowing them to register at part-time school during
the period in which these physical defects were being corrected,
accounts for the time that some of these children lost between school
and work.
T able 8.—Interval during school period "between leaving regular school and
beginning first regular job by employed boys and girls
Rochester
Utica
Total
Interval during school period
between leaving regular
school and beginning first
regular job, and sex
Be
Be
Total
Be
Be
gin
gin
gin
gin
ning ning
ning ning
. first
first Period
first
first Period
Per regular regular not
Per regular regular not
job
cent
job
re
job
cent
re
job
Num dis
dur ported Num dis
dur ported
ber tribu dur
ber tribu dur
ing
ing
ing
ing
tion school vaca
tion school vaca
period tion
period tion
Boys_________________ 1,726
1
1,118
607
312
158
1,723
100
1,116
607
467
100
309
158
No interval_____________ 1,026
Less than 2 weeks.............
465
2 weeks, less than 1month.
114
1 month, less than 2_____
66
2 months, less than 4. . . .
27
4 months, less than 6____
12
6 months or more_______
13
60
27
7
4
2
1
1
511
393
107
61
27
9
8
515
72
7
5
216
115
34
46
25
15
16
46
25
7
10
5
3
3
77
113
30
42
22
12
13
139
2
4
4
3
3
3
Interval reported___________
Interval not reported............
3
2
Girls.............................. 1,690
1,138
Interval reported
....
3
5
551
480
1
13
3
1
517
355
10
153
1,685
100
1,134
551
507
100
354
153
No interval_____________
Less than 2 weeks_______
2 weeks, less than 1 month.
1 month, less than 2_____
2 months, less than 4 .___
4 months, less than 6 ___
6 months or more_______
694
428
143
147
125
69
79
41
25
8
9
7
4
5
275
349
135
140
117
61
57
419
79
8
7
8
8
22
179
81
65
52
55
34
41
35
16
13
10
11
7
8
49
81
60
50
53
26
35
130
Interval not reported________
5
4
1
10
1
10
5
2
2
g
6
9
Two-thirds o f the Utica boys and girls, the same proportion as in
Rochester, went to work during the school year, and the remaining
third went to work in the summer vacation. The proportions of
children going to work during the school year who entered employ
ment within two weeks after leaving full-time school (62 per cent
o f . the boys and 3T per cent o f the girls) was smaller than in
Rochester.
Enrollment at the Rochester part-time school is a matter of routine
for young persons obtaining employment certificates. A large num
ber o f both the boys and the girls from the city schools, both public
and diocesan, had enrolled at the part-time school within two school
weeks (not counting vacation periods) after leaving full-time regular
school.87 Fifty-seven (2 per cent) o f the part-time school pupils
*7 The sessions o f the part-tim e school and regular school correspond ; in calculating
the time elapsing between leaving regular school and enrolling at part-time school, vaca
tion periods have been omitted.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
24
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
(exclusive o f children who last attended regular school out o f the
city) had not enrolled at this school for six or more school months
after leaving the full-time schools. In addition, 54 (2 per cent) had
not enrolled up to the date o f the study. Most of the latter group
had obtained work within a few weeks after leaving school or m the
summer vacation, but some o f them (24 of the 54) had begun work
at least six months before the date o f the study and at the end of that
time had not complied with the part-time school law.
Only 28 per cent o f the 884 Utica part-time school pupils last at
tending regular school for whom the information was reported had
enrolled in part-time school within two weeks after leaving full-time
school; the majority, however, were in school before two months of
the school session had elapsed. Some Utica boys and girls (5 per
cent) delayed for six months or more before entering the part-time
school. In addition, 72 who had left full-time school and gone to
work had not registered at part-time school up to the date of the
study and were apparently violating the school attendance law.
Among the group who had not registered were 29 who had begun
work at least six months before the date o f the inquiry.
Certification for employment.
A system of employment certification, such as the New York labor
and education laws provide (see p. 6), is essential if the require
ments that a child must meet as a prerequisite to going to work and
the legal regulations that affect him while at work are to be properly
enforced. Such a system is also an aid to inspection for viola
tions. The extent to which the young workers in this study ob
tained employment certificates for work, therefore, is significant. A
search of the Rochester employment-certificate files showed that among
the 1,118 boys who went to work during the school year, 145 (18
per cent) had no employment certificates for their first regular jobs.
(Table 9.) Similarly, 278 (24 per cent) of the 1,138 girls going to
work during the school year had no employment certificates for their
first regular jobs, although 167 o f these had previously received cer
tificates allowing them to work at home. Under the child labor
law in effect from 1925 to 1927, when the children included in this
study first went to work, minors between 14 (the minimum age for
work) and 17 years of age were required to have regular employment
certificates for employment during the school session and to obtain
new certificates for each job,88 so that all those without certificates
were employed in violation of the law.
88 New York Labor Law, 1921, ch. 50, art. 4, pars. 130, 1 3 1 ; also Compulsory Education
Law, art. 23, par. 626, as amended by Laws o f 1921, cb. 386. In 1928 the workcertificate regulations exempted m inors o f 16 years o f age in farm service and limited
the exemptions allowed during vacation to farm and certain other outdoor work performed
by children o f 12 or over for their own parents (Law s o f 1928, ch. 6 4 6 ).
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE
25
W O R K IN G G R O U P
T able 9.—Period of beginning and issuance of certificates for first regular job /
employed boys and girls of Rochester
Employed boys and girls
Period of beginning first regular job, and sex
Total
Certificate issued
for first regular
job
Certificate not is
sued for first reg
ular job
Number Per cent Number Per cent
Boys__________ ________
During school year...... ..................................
During summer vacation....... ..........
Not reported__________ _______
Girls__________________
During school year......................................
During summer vacation________________
Not reported.....................................
1,726
1,340
78
386
22
1,118
607
1
973
367
87
60
146
240
1
13
40
1,690
1,263
76
427
26
1,138
661
1
860
403
76
73
278
148
1
24
27
While school is not in session boys and girls under IT in factories
are required to have regular employment certificates, and those em
ployed in connection with mercantile establishments, business offices,
and many other specified establishments39 are required to have vaca
tion certificates. Boys and girls in domestic service in private fami
lies arid in agricultural work were exempted from the vacation work
certificate requirements at the time the study was made. O f the 60T
boys and 551 girls who went to work in the summer vacation 240
boys (40 per cent) and 148 girls (27 per cent) had no employment
certificates. More than half of the boys starting regular work with
out certificates in the summer vacation (that is, those who were em
ployed as factory operatives, laborers, or errand boys in factories or
in other manufacturing and mechanical occupations; as sales, stock,
or errand boys in stores; as telegraph messengers or other messengers;
as drivers or helpers to drivers ; as clerical workers ; or as hotel or in
stitution employees) were also doubtless employed in violation of the
employment certificate law. About one-third o f the boys without
certificates entering regular employment in summer vacation were
employed in outdoor work, chiefly on farms but a few as caddy
boys; these were legally employed, as the minimum age for such
employment was 12 years of age40 and certificates were not required.41
O f the 148 girls who went to work during summer vacation without
certificates only 19 were employed in domestic service in private
families and 4 in agricultural work (that is, in occupations for which
certificates were not required) ; the majority, who were in factories,
laundries, stores, hotels, or restaurants, had not complied with the
employment certificate law.
* iSi1! establishments specified in the labor law are as fo llo w s : Factories, m ercantile
establishments, business offices, telegraph offices, restaurants, hotel or apartment houses,
theaters or other places o f amusement, bowling alleys, barber shops, shoe-polishing
establishments, or the distribution or transmission o f merchandise, articles, or messages
or the sale o f articles. .
’
6
40 All these boys were over 12 years o f age.
" A l l outdoor work not connected with the establishments specified in the labor law
P* 2^) was exempted from the certificate requirement at the time the
children included in this study went to w o r k ; by an amendment passed in 1928 (N Y
Laws o f 1928, ch. 6<6) this exemption was limited to work fo r parents.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
26
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
Most of the boys and girls who had no employment certificates for
their first jobs had in fact reached the legal age and fulfilled the
grade requirements for such certificates, but a small number were
under age or had not finished the required grades. O f the 54 not
registered at continuation school, 29 had no certificates for their first
jobs.
The files of the Utica employment-certificating office were also
searched. Information was obtained as to whether or not the child
had an employment certificate for some job during his work history,
but it did not always prove possible to find out whether the child had
been issued a certificate for his first regular job. About four-fifths
o f the Utica boys and girls who had been employed had been issued
at least one certificate; this number included girls to whom certificates
for work at home had been issued. But 100 boys (21 per cent) and
83 girls (16 per cent) who had been employed, a much larger pro
portion than in Rochester, had not had an employment certificate for
any job nor a certificate allowing the child to leave school for work
at home. Only 9 boys and 15 girls who had been employed without
certificates had left school before completing the educational require
ments. Fifty-five of the boys and girls without certificates had not
registered at part-time school and possibly for that reason had not
come to the attention of the employment-certificate officials.
Method of obtaining employment.
All but a small number o f the Rochester boys and girls stated
that they had obtained their first jobs through their own efforts or
the efforts o f their friends or relatives without the assistance of an
organized employment service, in spite of the fact that a juvenileplacement branch o f the State public employment office in Rochester
had been organized some years before the children included in the
study left school. At the time of the study the worker in charge of
juvenile placement had office hours at the continuation school and
advised and helped pupils who wanted work. The State employ
ment office, however, had placed relatively few in their first jobs.
Ninety-three boys and girls (3 per cent) said that they had obtained
their first jobs through this office; a few others stated that other
employment offices had placed them. The number o f boys and girls
whom the State employment office had placed in the jobs held at the
time of the study was about as small as the number placed in their
first jobs.
Utica had no special juvenile-placement office, and only one child
in that city, a girl, had been placed in her first job through an em
ployment office. According to figures from the New Jersey Council
of Education for cities in that State, young workers generally state
that they have found their first jobs without the advice or aid of
placement offices.42
OCCUPATIONS
The Rochester boys and girls under 1Y years o f age, like the boys
and girls o f the same ages in other cities in which the Children’s
Bureau and other organizations have made similar studies, were
employed chiefly in errand work, simple clerical work, or unskilled
u Child Labor in New Jersey— pt. 3, The W orking Children in Newark and Paterson,
pp. 17 and 94.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
27
work in factories and stores. Studies of working children have re
peatedly shown that as a rule children are employed in a great
variety o f jobs that have no educational value and require little skill
or training.48
First jobs.
The occupational distribution o f boys and girls in any city is, of
course, chiefly dependent on the kinds of manufacturing industries
and other business establishments that are located in the cities in
which they live. When they began work, 30 per cent o f the Roch
ester boys of 14 and under, 36 per cent of the boys of 15, and 44 per
cent of the boys of 16 were employed in various occupations (includ
ing those classed by the census as operatives—both machine and
hand work— and laborers and helpers) in manufacturing and
mechanical industries; most of them were factory operatives.
(Table 10.) Only 5 per cent o f the boys under 16 and 9 per cent of
the older boys entered occupations that seemed to offer the oppor
tunity of learning a skilled trade (see p. 30). The boys were chiefly
employed in shoe, metal-products, and furniture factories; the boys
of 15 and 16, but rarely those o f 14, were also employed in the manu
facture of optical goods and electrical supplies. For the boys em
ployed in nonmanufacturing occupations, errand and messenger
work, including delivering telegrams, was most important, espe
cially for boys who began work before they were 16. The remaining
boys in nonmanufacturing occupations, including both those who
went to work before they were 16 and those who went to work at 16,
were chiefly stock and salesboys in stores, helpers to deliverymen and
to truck drivers, helpers to peddlers and hucksters, or helpers in
restaurants, hotels, barber shops, and shoe-shine stands. Some of the
boys who began work at 14 and a few of the older boys started
employment in farm work.
For the Rochester girls between 14 and 17 the factories also offered
opportunities for employment. On beginning work more than onethird o f the girls, about the same proportion in each age group, were
employed in manufacturing industries, chiefly in shoe, clothing,
paper-box, and button factories. Fourteen per cent o f the girls under
16 and 6 per cent of those of 16 started work as messenger and errand
girls, usually bundle and cash girls in department stores. The re
mainder in each age group were sales or stock girls or clerical work
ers in stores, factories, or other places, domestic workers in private
families, or waitresses in restaurants. Forty-one (2 per cent) were
telephone operators; most of these did not start work until they
were 16.
ia For a review o f such studies see Child L a b o r ; Report o f the Subcommittee on Child
Labor o f the W hite House Conference on Child Health and Protection, pp. 34—36 (Century
Co., New York, 1932) ; Type o f Jobs Held by a Group o f Continuation-School Children
(Industrial Bulletin, issued by the Industrial Commission o f New York State, voL 11
No. 3 (December, 1931), p. 7 0 ). See also L ist o f References, p. 73.
161498°— 83------- 8
,
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
28
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND IJTIOA
T a r t in
10.— Industry and occupation of first regular job and age at beginning
this job of employed boys and girls; Rochester
Girls
Boys
Age at beginning first
regular job
Age at beginning first
regular job
Industry and occupation
Total
Total.
Agriculture__________________
Manufacturing and mechan! cal Learners_________________________
Helpers and laborers________ _____
Operatives (except floor boys and
girls)............... ..............................
Floor boys and girls______________
Other occupation_________________
Professional service.. ....................
Domestic and personal service—
Other industries and occupations.
Sales and stock boys and girls-------Teamsters, drivers, and helpers-----Telegraph messengers-------------------Telephone operators______________
Messenger and errand boys and
girls................................................
Typists, stenographers, cashiers, and
bookkeepers_____ ______________
Other clerical workers_____________
Others__________________________
1,726
115
622
14
14
Not
Not Total years
years 15
re
16
15
16
and years
and years years
port
years
port
un
un
ed
ed
der
der
403 1,018
303
1,690
469
950
52
369
12
4
624
172
3
356
572
28
154
13
328
14
13
236
809
3
63
229
7
147
437
5Q
121
26
17
109
103
358
51
206
27
80
15
56
522
3
13
141
1
21
84
873
157
88
140
132
270
8
1
3
26
142
38
21
10
1
43
41
211
113
118
15
Industry and occupation not reported *_
1 Includes 3 boys and 2 girls whose first job was out of the country.
The opportunity for young workers in Utica, especially for chil
dren starting work at 14, appeared more limited than in Rochester.
More than one-fourth of the Utica boys under 16 (23 per cent of the
boys of 14 and under and 32 per cent of the boys of 15) worked in
the manufacturing and mechanical industries. (Table 11.) Only
11 per cent of the 14-year-old boys and 20 per cent o f the 15-year-old
boys in these industries were factory operatives; the remainder were
helpers and laborers or were learners in the building and other
skilled trades. The number o f Utica boys who started work at 16
( 43 ) was too small to indicate the kind of work open to boys starting
work at this age. The knitting mills did not employ many boys, but
some were employed in cutlery, automobile-cushion, and trunk and
bag factories. The boys in nonmanufacturing occupations did a
variety of kinds of work. Some were employed in stores and restau
rants; others were errand boys, delivery boys, pin boys in bowling
alleys, or bootblacks. A small proportion of the 14-year-old boys
started in farm work as their first regular employment.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
29
THE WORKING GROUP
T able 11.— Industry and occupation o f first regular job and age at beginning
this job of employed boys and girls; TJtica
Boys
Girls
Age at beginning first
regular job
Age at beginning first
regular job
Industry and occupation
Total
14
Not Total 14
Not
years 15
years 15
16
re
re
and years years
and years 16
port
years
port
•un
un
ed
ed
der
der
Total__________________________
480
106
321
43
10
517
151
308
51
7
Agriculture ________________________
Manufacturing and mechanical________
37
151
17
24
14
10?
3
22
3
3
19
292
14
67
5
191
33
1
Learners___________ _____________
Operatives_______________________
Others___________________________
26
80
36
4
12
8
19
61
22
3
14
5
2
1
278
U)
58
7
187
32
1
I
Professional service___________________
Domestic and personal service_________
Other industries and occupations______
3
60
225
2
10
53
1
43
158
4
14
3
3
74
128
1
27
42
2
38
71
4
14
5
1
Sales and stock boys and girls in
stores__________________________
Teamsters, drivers, and helpers____
Telegraph messengers.......................
Messenger and errand boys and girls.
Other clerical workers_____________
Others___________________________
48
24
21
80
10
42
7
8
5
19
3
11
38
16
16
56
6
26
3
92
27
54
11
5
1
5
25
7
4
9
4
13
2
1
Industry and occupation not reported...
4
3
1
1
1
1
The Utica girls, much more frequently than the boys, entered
manufacturing industries, especially the knitting mills. About half
the girls beginning work at less than 16 years of age (38 per cent of
the girls beginning work at 14 or under and 61 per cent beginning at
15) were factory operatives. The remainder were employed chiefly
in nonmanufacturing industries, in stores, errand work, or in do
mestic service in private families, in restaurants, or in laundries.
Only 2 per cent, as compared with 13 per cent of the girls under 16
in Rochester, did clerical work.
All jobs .44
The Rochester boys and girls usually had been employed in more
than one occupation in the part o f their working lives covered by
the study, a period that for most o f them was at least six months and
for one-third was at least one year. Those who had changed their
occupations had been employed on an average o f three different jobs
during their work history. About one-third (31 per cent o f the boys
and 39 per cent o f the girls), however, had had only one job.
The Utica boys and girls also had usually been employed in more
than one occupation during their work histories, only about onethird (31 per cent of the boys and 38 per cent of the girls) having
been in but one. The average number of jobs o f those who had
changed their occupations during their work histories was three,
the same as in Rochester. The length o f their work histories was
also about the same as that of the Rochester boys and girls.
44 A “ jo b ” in th is r e p o rt is defined as co n tin u ou s em p loy m e n t a t on e o ccu p a tio n w ith
A ch ild m ay th u s h a ve severa l jo b s in su ccession w ith a sin gle em p loy er.
one e m p loy er.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
30
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND T7TIOA
In Rochester about two-fifths of all the jobs that the boys and the
girls had begun before they were 16 years o f age, and one-half of all
the jobs o f the older boys and girls, were in manufacturing and me
chanical occupations. Most of the boys’ jobs and practically all the
girls’ jobs in this occupational group were as factory operatives. A
small proportion of the boys’ jobs, however, were as laborers or
helpers. Almost three-fifth o f the jobs o f the children under 16, and
one-half of those o f the boys and girls of 16, were in nonmanufactur
ing occupations, such as sales and stock clerks in stores, messenger
and errand work, clerical work, and domestic and personal service,
and other miscellaneous work. (Table I, p. 69.)
In Utica a smaller proportion of the boys’ jobs, both first and sub
sequent jobs, than of the girls’ were in manufacturing and mechan
ical occupations. Thirty-seven per cent of the jobs in which the boys
reported employment before they were 16, but 65 per cent o f the jobs
o f girls in this age group, were in manufacturing and mechanical
occupations. A t 16 years of age 48 per cent o f the boys’ jobs, com
pared with 73 per cent of the girls’ jobs, were in this occupational
group. The remaining girls’ jobs were chiefly in messenger and er
rand, store, and domestic and personal service occupations. (See
Table II, p. 71.)
Learning a trade.
Opportunities for boys and girls under 18 to enter occupations in
which they may learn a trade and acquire valuable skill1are greatly
restricted, on the one hand by present-day industrial methods and on
the other hand by trade customs and rules. In Rochester, in the
printing and sheet-metal trades, boys of 16 were accepted as ap
prentices, but the usual minimum age in trades having apprentice
ship regulations was 17 or 18.
Few Rochester boys, either in their first or later jobs, claimed that
they were regular apprentices; others, however, who were working
for skilled mechanics and were performing several processes peculiar
to the trade, have been classified as learners to distinguish them from
boys who merely acted as helpers or laborers. The chance to find a
learner’s job seemed to be little greater for boys of 16 than for the
younger ooys; 5 per cent of the jobs that the boys entered at 14
years, 6 per cent of those begun at 15 years, and 8 per cent of those
begun at 16 years were classified as learners’ jobs in the manufactur
ing and mecnanical group. More than half of these were in connec
tion with the building trades, helping carpenters, bricklayers,
painters, plumbers, and electricians; the remainder were in miscel
laneous trades, including sheet-metal and tinsmith work, tool mak
ing, auto repairing, shoe repairing, printing, baking, engraving, and
upholstering. The number of girls’ jobs as learners in the manufac
turing and mercantile industries was very small. The chief open
ings were in the dressmaking and millinery trades. (See Table I,
p. 69.)
A few additional boys’ occupations, classified as learners’ jobs,
were in barber, florist, and butcher shops or in connection with win
dow trimming or cooking (in restaurants). A few girls were learn
ing floral decorating, cooking, and hairdressing. Still other children
were working in drafting rooms, detailing or tracing, or in photog-
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
31
raphers’ establishments, developing and printing. One boy played
a saxaphone in a band; a few girls reported work as teachers’ helpers,
and one girl said she was an exhibition dancer and also a dancing
teacher. All these jobs classified as learners in nonmechanical occu
pations combined, however, did not amount to more than 1 per cent
of the total number of the boys’ jobs, and even less o f the girls’ jobs.
The proportion of Rochester boys, 10 per cent, who might be re
garded as learning a trade in their last job was smaller than that
reported in a study of continuation-school boys in the State as a
whole, made by the State department of education in 1926. No
definition of what constituted an “ apprentice ” is given in the report,
however, and a difference in definition may be the reason for the
higher proportion of apprentices in the state-wide study than in the
Rochester study. In spite o f the waning of the apprenticeship sys
tem due to changing methods, the report states, more than one-filth
of the 18,335 part-time school boys were apprenticed in more than
50 trades, including barbers, butchers, and florists as well as building
and other mechanical trades.
The proportion of jobs held by the Utica boys as learners or
apprentices was about as small as in Rochester. Some of the Utica
local unions had agreements with the employers relating to appren
tices. In the carpenters’, plumbers’, and printing trades, boys as
young as 16 could become apprentices. The opportunities, however,
for learning these trades were limited. According to statements of
union officials there were but five union apprentice carpenters under
IT in the city at the time of the study, and one apprentice plumber.
No printer’s apprentice was as young as IT; one mason’s apprentice
was not yet 18. However, several boys under IT included in this
study had at some time had jobs in connection with these trades
and were classified as learners. Others were employed in connec
tion with the electrician, painter, toolmaker, auto mechanic, and
other trades. In addition to the trades classified as mechanical and
manufacturing, a few boys were learning the barbers’ trade. The
number of girls who were learning any kind o f a trade was negli
gible. (Table II, p. Tl.)
Factory employment.
One-third of all the boys’ and two-fifths o f the girls’ jobs in
Rochester were as factory operatives. The children under 16 were
generally employed in simple hand occupations and infrequently
on power machines, except in the shoe and clothing factories; the
boys of 16 more commonly than the younger boys were engaged in
machine operations. Twenty-seven per cent o f the jobs as factory
operatives that the boys began before they were 16 and 38 per cent
of those that they began at 16 years were in connection witn power
machines; the corresponding percentages for the girls were 16 and
18. The provisions of the New York child labor law, which prohibit
the employment o f minors under 16 on many types o f power
machines,45 no doubt lessened the number of children o f these ages
employed in connection with such machines, not only on those in
which their employment is specifically prohibited but on other
power machines as well.
48 N. Y., Labor Law, art. 4, par. 146, amended to Aug. 1, 1927.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
32
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
In Utica the proportion of girls who were factory operatives was
larger than that of the boys, (66 per cent as compared with 39 per
cent), chiefly because of the opportunity offered girls for work in
the knitting mills. As in Rochester, the young workers were em
ployed in both hand and machine work. About 20 per cent of the
jobs the boys reported before they were 16 and also at 16, were on
power machines; 20 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively, of the
jobs in which girls of corresponding ages were employed were
machine operations.
S h o e fa c to r ie s
( R o c h e s t e r ).— The highly subdivided processes of
work in the Rochester shoe factories offered numerous j'obs for chil
dren of 14 and 15 as well as for those of 16. About one-fourth of
the jobs that the boys and girls had as factory operatives were in
shoe factories, although this industry was not so important from the
point of view o f the total number ox wage earners in the city as the
men’s clothing industry or as the foundry, machine shop, and other
metal industries.46 So varied was the children’s work in shoe fac
tories that it is not possible to describe in detail all the operations
in which they were engaged, but as a rule they performed simple
repetitive operations which required little training.
The majority o f the boys’ jobs in shoe factories were hand opera
tions. The cementing, pasting, and the parts of the lasting and
finishing processes which they did were usually simple, though some
o f the assembling, sorting, and stamping processes in which they
were engaged required care. A few of the boys’ jobs were to cut
linings or small leather parts, work that might lead to learning
something o f the shoe-cutters’ trade; but these were not classified as
apprenticeships or learning jobs, as they consisted of but one small
operation. More than one-third of the jobs that boys reported be
ginning before they were 16 in shoe factories and more than twofifths o f the jobs they began at 16 were power-machine operations.
Some boys were employed in machine-lasting processes, such as pull
ing tacks from the soles and trimming linings, in machine-finishing
processes, brushing, dusting, or smoothing soles or heels, stamping
by machine, and in other machine processes, including feeding nails
to the heeling machine, cementing, or operating channeling machines.
Some of the machine operations enumerated, such as tack pulling
and feeding the heeler, according to the factory officials who were
interviewed, were beginners’ jobs and required practically no time
to learn; others required more care and training.
More than four-fifths of the shoe-factory occupations that the girls
reported during their work histories were hand operations. Usu
ally both the girls under 16 and over this age did various kinds o f
“ table work,” cementing and reinforcing (that is, pasting together
parts of leather or linings), trimming threads after the shoe was
stitched, fancy marking (that is, tracing patterns on the leather for
perforating or stitching), and various finishing processes, such as
inking soles and heels, buttoning and lacing shoes, and sewing on
bows and buckles. Some were employed to sort and assemble parts
o f the shoes for the stitchers or to stamp sizes on the soles and linings.
Fifteen per cent of the girls’ jobs, about the same proportion that
49 Biennial Census o f Manufactures, 1927, p. 1480.
Census. W ashington, 1930.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
United
States Bureau o f the
THE WORKING GROUP
33
they entered before they were 16 and while 16, were machine opera
tions, such as stitching linings, sewing the tongues onto the shoes,
folding bindings, rubbing and flattening seams, and numerous other
simple machine processes, which, however, possibly offered chances
for promotion to more skilled stitching and other machine operations»
M e ta l-m a n u fa c tu r in g in d u s tr y
( R o c h e s t e r ).—The Rochester iron,
steel, and other metal industries, making such widely different ar
ticles as locks and keys, ash cans, tools, machinery, and jewelry, and
the foundries, together employed more boys than any other group
o f manufacturing industries except the shoe industry. Although
much of the work in metal manufacturing is suited only to adults
and employment o f children under 16 on some types of metal-work
ing machines is prohibited by law, boys under 16 as. well as older
boys were employed. More than one-tenth o f all the factory occu
pations that the boys under 16 entered, and about the same propor
tion that the boys began at 16, were in some type of metal manu
facturing. The boys reported a great variety of hand operations,
the most common of which were assembling, soldering, riveting,
packing, wrapping, and labeling, core pasting, and core making.
One-fourth o f the jobs of boys under 16 in this industry, and onehalf of those of the 16-year-old boys, were on machines. Six of the
jobs that boys began under 16 were on punch and drill presses and
six others on polishing and buffing machines, the latter usually the
polishing of small pieces o f metal in iewlery, auto accessories, and
other metal products, work that may nave been in violation of the
labor law. Girls were not often employed in these industries, and
none reported machine work.
C lo th in g fa c to r ie s
( R o c h e s t e r ).—The highly specialized and mi
nute subdivisions of work in the Rochester men’s clothing factories
offered employment to many of the girls of 14 and 15 as well as to
the older girls. Jobs in clothing factories comprised 25 per cent
o f the factory occupations that girls began under 16 and 17 per
cent o f those that they began at 16. A small additional number
o f jobs in clothing factories were in the manufacture of cotton
dresses and other women’s wear. The majority o f the occupations
that the girls reported were hand processes. Numerically the most
important operations were hand sewing, pulling bastings and trim
ming threads, and matching and marking parts of garments— opera
tions that generally required little time to learn.
According to statements o f some factory officials, 16 years was
the usual age for beginning work on power sewing machines in the
clothing industry. However, about one-fourth o f the jobs in this
industry that the girls reported beginning before they were 16 and
about the same proportion o f the jobs reported at 16 were on ma
chines. Many of the machine operations, such as tacking belt loops,
sewing tickets, serging (that is overcasting), sewing linings, and
sewing on buttons, were said to require several weeks or a month to
learn, and to offer opportunity to progress to more skilled power
sewing.
.
.
.
The boys did not work to any extent as clothing operatives, al
though a few reported jobs at pressing, both by hand and by ma
chine, and others reported matching and marking and miscellaneous
jobs. Seven boys at the time of the study were employed in minor
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
34
EMPLOYED BOYS AND OlBLS IN ROCHESTER AND TJTIOA
cutting operations and although not said to be learning the cutter’s
trade, probably had some chance to advance to more skilled cutting
operations.
O th e r m a n u fa c tu r in g
in d u s tr ie s
( R o c h e s t e r ) . —Electrical-supply
manufacture, one of the most important industries in Rochester,
employed relatively few junior workers. The boys and girls were
seldom employed in this industry before they were 15, and infre
quently on machines before they were 16. Usually they did hand
work; that is, assembling parts or insulating, soldering, and wedg
ing—operations connected with coil and armature winding. More
than one-fourth of the girls’ jobs were machine operations, including
coil winding. About two-fifths o f the boys’ occupations were also
machine jobs, on drill presses, kick presses, and other machines.
Six boys reported burring, or polishing metal parts by machine.
The manufacture of cameras, eyeglasses, and other optical goods
employed a small number o f young workers of 15 and 16, but few
children of 14. Both boys and girls did assembly work; they also
cleaned and inspected lenses. Only 3 of the girls but 18 boys of
15 and 16 did machine work, such as pressing, grinding, and polish
ing lenses on machines, the latter operation one that requires con
siderable training.
The paper-box industry employed more girls of part-time school
age than any other manufacturing industry except clothing and
shoe manufacturing. About one-tenth o f the factory jobs that girls
began both before and while they were 16 were in this industry.
Usually the girls did the simple hand processes of bending in or
turning the edges o f pasteboard boxes after men had cut and scored
them; “ closing ” (putting on covers), tying boxes in bundles, past
ing labels, and packing were other common operations. Few of the
girls had machine jobs. One paper-box factory superintendent said
that 18 was the minimum age for machine operating in that
establishment.
Button manufacturing likewise employed a number of girls, both
16 years of age and under, but practically no boys. Most o f the girls
in this industry carded buttons (sewed them on cards) or shaded them
(matched buttons of varying shades), easy work to learn, or laid
buttons on boards ready to be sprayed, another hand operation for
which, however, experience was required to acquire speed.
Chair and other furniture manufacturing employed boys of each
age group but few girls. The boys were chiefly working in finishing
processes, sandpapering, staining or varnishing, assembling, and
glueing, or in simple upholstery processes, such as placing springs
m the webbing o f chair seats. Only four boys under 16 were em
ployed on any kind o f woodworking machines. (The labor law
prohibits employment of children under 16 on many types of wood
working machinery.)
Bakeries, canneries, candy, printing, trunk and bag, thermometer,
textile, mattress, art-glass, belt and buckle, cigar, and bottling estab
lishments all employed some children.
The principal manufacturing industries usually employed some
junior workers between 14 and 17 in “ floor ” w ork; that is, in carry
ing supplies to and from the operatives. In the shoe factories “ back
shoe boys ” carried defective shoes to the operators for repairs; in
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
«
35
the clothing factories girls and in the optical-goods factories boys
were employed to distribute work to the operatives. Work of this
kind, it was said, frequently led to transfers or promotions to betterpaid factory occupations.
T e x t i l e m il l s { U t i c a ).—The Utica knitting mills that manufacture
cotton and rayon underwear furnished employment for girls, but
less commonly for boys. The other textile mills of this city, which
manufacture cotton, woolen, and silk goods, offered little employment
for junior workers. Less than one-fourth of the jobs as factory
operatives that the boys reported during their work histories, but
three-fourths o f the girls’ jobs, were in the knitting mills. Boys
seldom started work in the knitting mills or in other factories until
they were at least 15, but the girls frequently began at 14 in the
knitting mills.
The most common occupation open to the girls in the knitting
mills, to those o f 14 as well as to the older ones, was inspecting fin
ished garments for imperfections, buttoning and folding them and
cutting threads, work that one o f the factory officials said could
be learned in a day. The girls also performed other simple hand
processes, such as cutting labels, stringing elastic in the tops and
bottoms of garments, laying them out for marking pockets, “ paper
ing ” them (that is, folding the garments over heavy cardboards for
packing), and marking and stamping sizes. The girls o f 14 seldom
operated power machines; about one-fourth of the jobs that the
girls began at 15 and almost one-half of the jobs that the 16-year-old
girls began were in machine processes. They varied from rela
tively simple operations like stitching on tape, to which buttons
are sewed later, to the more difficult work o f seaming together parts
of the garments. Occasionally, also, the girls were cone and bobbin
winders and operators of the cuff and collarette cutting machines.
Boys in the knitting mills were employed, as a rule, at simple hand
jobs. Some of them were “ turners ” (that is, they turned knitted
tubing right side out), packers, labelers, or stampers, or needle boys
(that is, they put broken needles in molds and poured hot lead over
them to repair them), a job that required but a few days to learn.
A few were engaged in simple machine operations on box tieing,
eyeleting, and other machines; two operated knitting machines, a
skilled operation.
In addition to jobs as operatives, both boys and girls were em
ployed in so-called “ floor work,” carrying supplies to and from the
operatives. The “ mending carriers,” usually girls, did lighter work,
taking imperfect garments from the inspectors to the menders.
Sometimes the same girl inspected and carried mending alternately.
O th e r m a n u fa c tu r in g in d u s tr ie s
{ U t i c a ).—The other factory in
dustries of Utica— cutlery, automobile seats and cushions, men’s
clothing, trunks and bags, and other products— furnished employ
ment to workers of 15 and 16, seldom to those of 14. The boys did
various kinds of work in connection with cutlery manufacturing,
such as assembling parts o f knives and stringing knife blades on wire
ready for heating and polishing. They were also employed in auto
mobile-seat manufacturing and in trunk and bag manufacturing in
various hand and machine operations. Four boys of 15 operated
punch and drill presses. The girls of 15 and 16 inspected, packed,
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
36
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
and wrapped knives and worked in other occupations in the cutlery
industry. They also assembled and sewed springs for automobile
seats and were employed in the boys’ clothing industry in occupa
tions similar to those that the Rochester girls reported in clothing
factories. Girls of 15 and 16 occasionally reported machine work in
the cutlery and automobile-seat factories. One girl o f 15 operated
a drill press and another a buffing machine.
Nonfactory employment.
In Rochester the most numerous jobs for the boys in the nonmanu
facturing group o f occupations were jobs in errand and messenger
service, which were chiefly available for the younger boys. Running
errands for factories, both inside and outside the plants, bundle and
wrapping work for stores, outside errands, and delivering telegrams
were the most common kinds o f errand jobs. A relatively small
number of the jobs were as office or mail boys in factories, occupa
tions that involved some clerical work and possibly offered a chance
for promotion. Twenty-seven per cent o f the jobs that boys began
before they were 16 years and 14 per cent of those that they entered
at 16 years were in some kind of errand or messenger work (includ
ing delivering telegrams). Another important kind of work, both
for the younger and older boys, was sales and stock work in stores.
Jobs as drivers’ helpers on delivery trucks or wagons were also com
mon ; they were supposed to lead to jobs as truck drivers and team
sters. A number of boys, including some under 16, said that they
themselves did the driving, although such work has not been legal
for boys under 18, under the motor vehicle licensing law of New
York, since 1925. Clerical occupations, including shipping-room
work, filing, answering the telephone, and general office work were
not numerically important for boys, constituting only 5 per cent o f
all the jobs that boys had before they were 16, and 6 per cent of their
jobs at 16. Most of the boys in clerical work were employed in fac
tory offices. About 5 per cent of all the jobs the boys reported were
classified as domestic and personal occupations, and included work
in hotels and restaurants.
The Rochester girls not in factories reported chiefly sales or stock
work in stores, domestic and personal service, errand work, and
clerical work. A small percentage were telephone operators. Tele
phone workers were generally 16 years of age. Jobs as salesgirls
were about as likely to be held at the ages of 14 and 15 as at the
age of 16. O f all the jobs that the girls had held, 15 per cent
of those that they had begun before they were 16 years and 14
per cent of those they began at 16 years were as sales or stock
persons. Bundle and cash and check work in stores, in which some
o f the girls under 16, but not many of the older girls, were employed,
was said to lead to promotions to stock and sales work. O f the
jobs in which the girls were employed before they were 16, 15 per
cent, and of the jobs in which they were employed at 16 years, 18 per
cent, were in some kind of clerical work, such as typing, stenography,
billing, filing, operating office machines, and other miscellaneous
work. Employment in clerical or sales work does not, of course,
necessarily mean that the girl had obtained a type of work in which
there were opportunities for advancement. In a study of working
children in Philadelphia, it was shown that 80 per cent o f the chil
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
37
dren in commercial occupations included in that study had oppor
tunities for training but no more than half of these had opportunities
for advancement.47
About one-tenth of all the jobs the Kochester girls had held (13
per cent of the jobs that they began under 16 and 10 per cent of
those they began at 16 years) were in domestic and personal service,
either in private families or in restaurants, hotels, or hospitals. A
small number of the girls’ jobs were in power laundries. The jobs
in the so-called professional group, other than as learners (see
p. 30), were chiefly as attendants in doctors and dentists’ offices or
as theater ushers.
Most of the Utica boys in nonmanufacturing occupations did the
same kinds of work as the Rochester boys—errand work, sales work,
and helping drivers and hucksters. Perhaps because of the lack
of openings in factories, domestic and personal service furnished
employment to relatively more of the Utica than of the Rochester
boys, comprising 14 per cent of the jobs the Utica boys reported
during their work histories. These jobs—bus boys, dishwashing,
and other restaurant and hotel work, pin boys in bowling alleys,
and shoe shining—afforded no opportunity for learning a skilled
occupation and were frequently undesirable for other reasons.
In Utica, the girls’ jobs outside of factories were principally mer
cantile, errand, and domestic occupations. No girl had been a tele
phone operator. Only 2 per cent of the jobs that the Utica girls had
at 16 were clerical as compared with 17 per cent of those in Rochester.
The lack of employment in clerical work in Utica is not in agree
ment with the findings of studies of working girls in other cities.
On the other hand, the proportion of Rochester girls o f 16 years
o f age who were clerical workers in their last jobs (25 per cent)
was higher than that in Milwaukee (14 per cent) .48
Occupational change.
As boys and girls grow older and have a longer work experience
they tend to drift out of errand and messenger work and into factory
work. The second and third and later jobs that the Rochester boys
and girls reported were more likely to be in factory and less likely
to be in errand work than their first jobs. When the boys and girls
changed jobs the new occupation wras generally somewhat different
from the previous, both when they were transferred or promoted to
another job in the same establishment and when they changed from
one employer to another.
A comparison of the boys’ and girls’ occupational distribution on
beginning work and on the date of the study reveals some changes.
More pronounced changes would be evident no doubt had their
work experience been longer. On beginning work 36 per cent of the
Rochester boys, most of whom were under 16, compared with 52
per cent of those employed at the time o f the study, the majority
of whom were 16, were in factories or in other work classified as
manufacturing or mechanical. (Table 12.) Twenty-eight per cent
were errand boys and telegraph messengers on beginning work, but
only 17 per cent were so employed at the date of the study. The
47 Griscom, Anna B a ss e tt: The W orking Children o f Philadelphia, p. 11. The W hiteW illiams Foundation and the Junior Employment Service o f the Board o f Education,
Philadelphia, Bulletin Series No. 3 (September, 1924).
48 Unpublished material.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
38
E M P L O Y E D B O Y S A N D G IR L S I N
R O C H E S T E R A N D U T IC A
proportion who were sales or stock boys in stores in their first jobs
and at the date of the study was about the same. Five per cent in
their first jobs and 8 per cent in their last jobs did some kind of
clerical work, including shipping room occupations.
T able 12.—Industry and occupation of first and last regular jobs of boys and
girls employed on date of study
Rochester
Industry and occupation and sex
First regular
job
Utica
Last regular
job
First regular
job
Last regular
job
Per
Per
Per
Per
Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent
ber distri ber distri ber distri ber distri
bution
bution
bution
bution
1,525
Industry and occupation reported_________
1,525
356
356
1,516
100
1,521
100-
354
100
354
100
Agriculture.__________________________
Manufacturing and mechanical________
95
544
6
36
13
786
1
52
27
114
8
32
13
164
4
46
Learners............................... .............
Helpers and laborers_______________
Operatives (except floor boys)______
Floor boys____________ ______ _____
Others___________________________
103
86
305
49
1
7
6
20
3
(l)
155
80
489
59
3
10
5
32
4
(!)
25
23
64
2
7
6
18
1
34
28
99
3
10
8
28
1
18
76
783
1
5
52
20
52
650
1
3
43
3
39
171
1
11
48
1
39
137
153
75
118
310
67
60
10
5
8
20
4
4
153
61
41
215
120
60
10
4
3
14
8
4
37
20
16
61
7
30
10
6
5
17
2
8
29
13
12
42
18
23
Professional service___________________
Domestic and personal service_________
Other industries and occupations______
Sales and stock boys_______________
Teamsters, drivers, and helpers____
Telegraph messengers........................
Messenger and errand boys____ ____
Other clerical workers_______ ______
Others___________________________
Industry and occupation not reported______
29
4
2
2
Girls___ ___________________________
1,365
1,365
409
409
Industry and occupation reported_________
1,362
100
Agriculture._______ __________________
Manufacturing and mechanical________
2
507
(i)
37
Learners.............................................
Operatives (except floor girls)............
Helpers and laborers and floor girls..
Others.................................................
14
461
30
2
1
34
2
(l)
Professional service................. ..................
Domestic and personal service_________
Other industries and occupations....... .
9
177
667
Sales and stock girls....... ...................
Messenger and errand girls_____ . . .
Typists, stenographers, cashiers, and
bookkeepers__________________ _
Telephone operators_______________
Other clerical workers_____________
Others_____ ______________________
Industry and occupation not reported...........
23
1,365
(i)
11
39
8
4
3
12
6
6
100
409
100
409
581
43
13
240
3
59
304
9
545
27
1
40
2
4
227
9
1
56
2
1
283
20
1
13
49
17
139
628
1
10
46
3
61
92
1
15
22
3
46
56
1
11
14
247
181
18
13
207
85
15
6
62
19
15
' 5
36
12
9
3
100
36
88
15
7
3
6
1
134
67
118
17
10
5
9
1
3
6
2
(!)
1
1
1
3
4
100
74
(i)
69
5
(>)
i
1
1Less than 1per cent.
* Includes 2 boys and 2 girls whose first job was out of the country.
The difference in the occupational distribution o f the Rochester
girls on beginning work and on the date of the study was not so great
as in the case of the boys. Although more girls, as well as more
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE
W O R K IN G G R O U P
39
boys, were employed as factory operatives in their last jobs than in
their first, the percentage difference was less than that o f the boys.
Sixteen per cent in their first jobs and 23 per cent in their last jobs
were clerical or telephone workers.
Except that a smaller proportion of the Utica boys were employed
as clerical workers in both their first and their last jobs, and a larger
proportion were employed in domestic and personal service, the d if
ferences in their first and last jobs were similar to those noted for
the Rochester boys. The proportion of the Utica girls employed in
factories was considerably smaller on beginning work than on the
date of the study, 59 per cent and 74 per cent, respectively, and the
proportion o f girls in store, errand, and domestic work was corre
spondingly larger on beginning work than on the date of the study.
Special training and occupations.
The value o f industrial training for the school child who does not
become adjusted to the work o f the ordinary academic grades is gen
erally recognized. How far it is possible for the pupil to make direct
use of such training after he goes to work is difficult to determine.
The more training he has in the use of machines and in the handling
of tools, however, the better fitted he should be to meet the require
ments of any mechanical jobs in which he may afterwards find em
ployment even if he does not take up the kind of work for which he
received specific training. On the other hand, the industrial training
that the schools offered boys (p. 11 ) was principally for the various
building trades or for skilled occupations in the metal-manufacturing
industries, such as tool making, pattern making, and drafting, in
which workers under 17 were seldom employed. No doubt chiefly
for this reason, only a small number of the Rochester boys and girls
who had taken industrial courses actually found employment, during
that brief part o f their working lives that is covered in the present
study, in the kind o f work for which they had been trained, in any
o f the jobs in which they were employed.
O f the 471 boys employed at the date of the study who had taken
industrial training in regular school, only 10 per cent were learners
in some skilled trade in manufacturing and mechanical industries,
88 per cent were factory operatives, 5 per cent were laborers, and
the remainder were employed in errand work and other nonmanu
facturing and nonmechanical occupations. Approximately the same
proportions o f boys without industrial training were learners in
skilled trades in manufacturing and mechanical industries, were fac
tory operatives, or were in nonmanufacturing occupations. Few
had found, while still under 17, jobs in occupations in which they
had had instruction. For example, o f 117 boys employed on the
date o f interview who had some training in machine-shop and pat
tern-making courses, 2 were learning the toolmaker’s trade at the
time of the study and 5 others who were operatives in metal-manu
facturing establishments may have found their training useful; of
56 boys who had taken the sheet-metal work course, 4 were reported
to be learning the trade and 5 others were employed in other kinds
o f metal-manufacturing operations ; and o f 32 boys who had studied
printing, 5 were apprenticed in the trade and 4 others were press
feeders or other operatives in printing establishments.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
40
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN' ROCHESTER AND UTIOA
Included in the group o f boys with industrial training were 71
boys who had attended the Rochester Shop School (the boys’ trade
school conducted by the board of education), 67 o f whom were em
ployed at the time the study was made. Although some o f the boys
had previously had industrial training in other schools, none of them
had completed the three years’ training in the shop school and only
19 had finished as much as one year’s work .49 Only 4 boys among
those with this trade training had held any job in a skilled occupa
tion similar to that for which they had taken some training. Six
others had occupations in which their training might have been
useful.
On the other hand, the commercial training that the Rochester
girls had had in regular school often prepared them directly for the
work which they undertook later, although by no means had all the
girls who took commercial courses been able to make use of their
school training. Forty-one per cent of them entered clerical occu
pations when they first went to work; the same percentage of the
girls with this type of training had clerical jobs at the time o f the
study. The demand for girls under 17 for typing, stenographic, and
bookkeeping work is doubtless insufficient to absorb all the girls who
take courses in these subjects and who regard clerical as preferable
to factory work in social standing and working conditions. About
one-fourth of the girls with commercial training, however, obtained
sales, stock, or errand work in stores, and in telephone exchanges;
approximately one-fourth of them were factory operatives, and the
remainder were employed in a variety of miscellaneous jobs.
A considerable number of the girls who did clerical work had not
taken a commercial course in regular school. About one-third of the
134 girls employed as bookkeepers, stenographers, typists, or cash
iers at th^ time o f the study and about three-fifths of the girls in
miscellaneous clerical work had had no commercial training before
they left regular school.
Training in household arts had no especial relation to the work
the Rochester girls did afterwards. About one-seventh o f the do
mestic workers and about the same proportion of the factory workers,
but smaller proportions o f the store and clerical workers, had been
enrolled in household-arts courses in school. Two of 10 girls who
were learning the dressmaking or millinery trade had taken the
household-arts course, which offers some practice in home dress
making and millinery.
Few o f the Utica boys and girls included in the study had had
vocational training in regular school (p. 13). The negligible num
ber o f Utica girls in clerical occupations is doubtless partly due to
the lack o f facilities for commercial training in the schools as well
as to the relatively low grade accomplishment of the Utica children,
but it may be partly due to lack of opportunity in the city for office
work for such young persons.
49
Doubtless the boys who do not go to work until they are 17 or 18 and who stay In
this school long enough to complete the 3-year course are able to make more use o f their
training. According to a report o f the New York State Education Department nearly
three-fourths o f the 2,360 graduates in 1929 from day trade schools in the State as a
whole entered the trades fo r which they had received instruction. Trade School Students
Cling Closely to Trades Studied in School. New York State E ducation Department.
(M im eographed.)
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
41
The officials o f the continuation schools in both cities try as far
as possible to make the special training offered in the school fit the
needs of the individual child, either by giving him trade preparatory
work that may be useful to him later or by coordinating the practi
cal work in the school with the actual work the child is doing. O f
course, intensive trade training in the two hours a week available
for vocational work is not possible.
The Eochester continuation school offers industrial courses in
much the same subjects as the regular schools, and coordination be
tween the boys’ work and these industrial training courses is difficult
because so much o f the work available for junior workers is o f a
kind for which little training is needed.
In 1928 it was reported that considerable proportions o f the boys
enrolled in the continuation school in the retail selling, commercial,
sheet-metal, machine-shop, and cabinet-making courses, smaller
proportions enrolled in masonry, printing, electrical, and commercialart courses, and a very small proportion enrolled in drafting were
actually employed in related occupations.50 Most o f the boys in
cluded in this study were enrolled m the industrial courses, but 121
were enrolled in commercial courses at the time they were inter
viewed ; nearly half of these were employed in related occupations—
31 in some kind of clerical work, 24 in sales and stock work, and the
remainder chiefly in errand or messenger work or in factories.
Coordination between the training in the part-time school and the
actual job is easier to work out for girls who do clerical or store
work. Nearly three-fifths of the Eochester girls who were employed
in some kind o f clerical work at the time o f the study and more than
two-fifths o f the sales and stock girls were enrolled in commercial
courses, including the retail-selling course. One-fifth o f the factory
workers were also enrolled in these courses. For the large number
o f girls who were operatives in men’s clothing, shoe, paper-box, but
ton, electrical-supply, and other factories, the vocational classes,
most o f which train for homemaking only, offered little related train
ing, except possibly for girls in the clothing factories.
The industrial training for boys in the Utica part-time school is
chiefly for trades in which, as in Eochester, few o f the boys included
in the study were employed as learners. For girls the only vocational
classes are those in homemaking subjects, so that for the great ma
jority of girls who are operatives in textile mills and other factories,
the part-time school classes are not closely related to the work in
which they are employed. Only a dozen pupils o f either sex in the
Utica continuation school were studying or had studied commercial
subjects in continuation school; three of these, all boys, were em
ployed in clerical work.
Grade attainment and occupations.
There appeared to be no minimum educational standard, other
than that set by the labor law, in either city for the occupations en
tered by children under 16, except for clerical work for which an
eighth-grade education at least was usual and for telephone work
for which completion o f the eighth grade was usually required. In
••The W ork o f th e P u b lic S ch ools, R och ester, N . Y ., 1928, p. 422.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
42
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND TJTIOA
only one o f the manufacturing establishments visited (in the camera
manufacturing industry) was an eighth-grade education said to be
regarded as desirable for work in the production department. Boys
or girls who had no more than a sixth-grade education or who had
come from special or ungraded classes reported employment in each
o f the principal manufacturing industries. Similarly, children
under 16 with no more than a sixth-grade education were employed
in sales and stock work, errand and messenger work for factories,
stores, and telegraph companies, and other miscellaneous work.
On beginning work the relationship between the school attainment
o f the Rochester boys and girls and the type of occupation, especially
for the boys, was not as marked as it was in connection with later
jobs. The effect of school attainment on occupation was most evi
dent in the last jobs held by young workers who had reached 16 years,
no doubt because some occupations are open to the older boys and
girls that are not available for the younger children. The boys of 16
who were employed on the date of the inquiry and had had one,
two, or more years’ work in academic high schools were more likely
than the boys from the elementary grades to be clerical workers,
salespersons, or errand or office boys in factories, and not so likely to
be factory operatives or laborers. The proportion of boys of 16
years with high-school training who were learning a trade (9 per
cent) was nearly as large as that o f the boys (11 per cent) from the
elementary-school grades.
The Rochester girls from grades lower than the eighth more com
monly entered factories and domestic and personal service than girls
from the upper grades, especially those who had completed one or
more years o f high-school work. Contrasted with 54 per cent o f the
girls o f 16 years from grades lower than the eighth and 57 per cent
from nonacademic grades, only 19 per cent o f the girls from the
ninth and higher grades were in manufacturing and mechanical in
dustries at the time of the inquiry. The girls from the high-school
grades were clerical workers, telephone operators, salesgirls, and
errand girls. Considerable numbers of eighth-grade graduates of 16
also were clerical workers and telephone operators although not as
frequently as girls from the ninth and higher grades. The girls
from the seventh and lower grades seldom did any kind of clerical
w ork; only two were typists at the time the study was made. Those
not in factories were usually employed in domestic service or in
errand and sales work.
In Utica, where but few boys and girls had finished as much as a
year of high-school work and where the opportunities in offices and
stores appeared limited, factory, mechanical, and domestic and per
sonal occupations absorbed the majority of the eighth-grade grad
uates as well as the boys and girls from the lower grades. Little
association was found between school accomplishment and type o f
work undertaken.
According to the findings of other studies of working children, the
kind of employment that young workers get is at least partly de
pendent on their school attainment. The study of New York work
ing boys made in 1919 showed that the boys with high-school training
were more likely than boys with an elementary-school education to
be employed in office and commercial occupations as distinguished
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
43
from manual occupations.61 Similarly, the Cincinnati study of works,c^?°l children,62 as well as the several former studies of the
Children s Bureau,68 have shown that, as in Rochester, children from
higher school grades tend to go into office work and children from
the lower grades into factories.
Mental ability and occupations.
A definite relationship was found between the mental ability of
the Rochester boys and girls and the type o f work they did, a rela
tionship that was more marked for the girls than for the boys. The
girls in clerical work, especially those who did stenography, typing,
or bookkeeping, were much more likely to be o f higher intelligence
than those in factories, sales, and domestic work. In their last jobs
68 per cent o f the bookkeepers, cashiers, typists, and stenographers,
48 per cent o f the miscellaneous clerical workers, 27 per cent o f the
salesgirls, 23 per cent o f the factory operatives, and 22 per cent o f the
domestic workers had intelligence quotients o f 100 or more. The
simple repetitive work that young girls do in factories does not require a high level o f intelligence, and probably for this reason little
difference was noted in the intelligence levels of the girls employed in
the different kinds o f manufacturing establishments.
The boys in factory occupations were o f somewhat lower intelli
gence than the boys in clerical and errand jobs. The Rochester boys
who were classified as learners were not much above the factory oper
atives in mental ability 5 40 per cent of the boys employed as learners
in skilled trades in their last jobs and 31 per cent o f the factory oper
atives, but 45 per cent of the errand workers and 69 per cent of the
clerical workers, had intelligence quotients o f 100 or more.
The relation o f mental ability and the occupations o f the Rochester
boys and girls corresponds on the whole to the findings o f the inten
sive study o f Cincinnati school and working children previously
mentioned. Approximately 750 working children, whose employ
ment histories covered a 4-year period and who were given a series
of mental tests, were included in that study. The mentally superior
girls were employed far more frequently than the inferior in clerical
positions, and the mentally inferior predominated in factory work.
The boys of good mental status tended to get employment in the
superior trades and in the better types o f factory work and also in •
office work .54
In Utica, where comparable information was not available as to
the mental ability o f the boys and girls studied, some idea o f the
relation between this factor and the kind of work they did may be
obtained from a study o f their school progress in relation to occupa
tion. Contrary to the findings o f the studies in Newark and Pater
son and in Boston ,55 school progress did not appear to be related to
any extent to the kind o f work the Utica children did. This lack o f
association between their school progress and occupations supports
o f * N ew ” Y o r t f * & o | id y ° f ^
2 4 5,00 0 16, 1 7 ’ an d 18 y ear « id em ployed boy s o f th e S ta te
“ A n E x p erim en ta l S tu d y o f C h ild ren , p. 733.
m C hild L a b or in N ew J ersey— p t. 3, T h e W o rk in g C h ild ren o f N ew ark and P a te rso n ,
P; th e W ork in g C h ild ren o f B o sto n , p. 2 4 6 ; E m p loy ed B o y s and G irls in M ilw aukee,
“ A n E x p erim en ta l S tu d y o f C h ild ren , pp. 645, 658.
“ C h i’ d L a b or in N ew Jersey — pt. 3, T h e W o rk in g C h ild ren in N ew ark a n d P a te rso n ,
p. 7 1 ; T h e W ork in g C h ild ren o f B o s to n , p. 24 5.
^
161493°— 83------ 4
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
44
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND T7TIOA
the conclusion that their grade accomplishment made little difference
in their occupations.
WAGES
Beginners’ wages.
The young persons for whom information was obtained in this
study first went to work in 1923 and 1924. On beginning work the
earnings o f the Rochester boys under 16 varied widely; wages re
ported 66 varying from less than $5 a week to $32 a week. O f those
receiving cash wages only, the median wage was $10.29 weekly for
boys o f 14 years and under, $10.92 for boys of 15, and $12.26 for boys
of 16. The girls’ wages also covered a wide range, from less than $5
a week to $20.77. Their median wage was $9.59 for the i4 and under
group, $10.12 for the 15-year-old group, and $11.65 for the 16-yearold group.
In addition to the boys and girls who earned cash wages, 5 per
cent o f the boys and 11 per cent o f the girls also received some form
o f maintenance. Most o f these children worked in restaurants,
hotels, or private families. An additional 4 per cent o f the boys
and 3 per cent of the girls received no wage. Most o f these helped
their parents in work other than housework, and are not included
among those for whom median cash wages are given.
The beginning wages o f the Utica children under 16 years, espe
cially those o f the girls, were somewhat lower than those o f the
Rochester children. For the boys o f 14 and under the median weekly
wage was $10 and for boys o f 15 even less, $9. The median wage
for the girls of 14 and 15 years was the same, about $7. Nine per
cent of the boys under 16 and 18 per cent of the girls who reported
cash wages only earned less than $5 a week as compared with only
about 2 per cent o f the Rochester workers of each sex. Many o f the
Utica girls who earned less than $5 a week were knitting-mill workers
who were paid on a piece basis. The number of boys and girls who
began work at 16 years in Utica was too small to serve as a satisfactory
basis for comparisons of their wages with those o f the younger
children.
Wages at date of inquiry.
Both the ages of the boys and girls and the length o f time since
they had started work were important factors in determining the
amount of wages that they were receiving at the time of the study.
For the Rochester boys of 15 years who had begun work less than a
year before the date o f the study the median wage was $ 12, as com
pared with $13 for the boys o f 16 whose work experience was o f the
same length. The median wage of the girls of 15 whose work history
was less than a year was $11, about $1 less than that o f girls a year
older whose work histories were o f corresponding length.
The importance of work experience as a factor in wages may be
shown by comparing the wages o f the Rochester boys and girls o f
16 whose employment histories were less than one year with the
wages o f those whose employment histories were longer. The median
wage of the boys of 16 years with an employment history of less than
66 The inform ation concerning wages was based on the boys’ and girls’ statement.
M ost o f the Rochester boys and girls were paid on a time basis and reported their weekly
wage rate ; those children who were paid on a piece basis estimated their usual weekly
earnings.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE
45
W O R K IN G G R O U P
one year was $2 below that of boys of the same age with a longer
work experience. Wages of at least $16 weekly were reported for 23
per cent of the boys o f 16 with the shorter work histories and for 38
per cent o f the boys with the longer work histories. (Table 13.)
The length of the girls’ work experience also influenced their wages,
but the effect was not as marked as for the boys.
T able 13.— W eekly wage of last regular job and length of work history of boys
and girls 16 years of age who icere employed on date of study
Rochester
Utica
Length of work history
Less than
1 year
Weekly wage of last regu
lar Job and sex
Total
Length of work history
1 year or
more
Less than
lyear
Not
Per
re
Per
cent
ported
cent
Num distri Num
distri
ber bu ber bu
tion
tion
Total
1 year or
more
Not
Per
Per
re
cent
cent
ported
Num
Num distri
ber distri
ber
bu
bu
tion
tion
Boys____ __________
986
557
427
2
216
100
114
Cash wage only__________
929
527
400
2
182
85
96
Amount reported_____
914
516
100
396
100
2
181
84
100
96
loo
i
Less than $8______
$8, less than $10___
$10, less than $12...
$12, less than $14...
$14, less than $16...
$16, less than $18...
$18, less than $20—.
$20 or more....... .
17
40
173
218
197
101
64
104
12
35
123
132
96
46
25
47
2
7
24
26
19
9
5
9
5
5
50
85
101
55
39
56
1
1
13
21
26
14
10
14
11
11
22
18
12
6
1
8
13
13
26
21
14
7
1
4
2
u
ii
31
17
6
10
8
2
ii
u
32
18
6
10
8
1
1
14
22
33
49
29
12
11
11
Amount not reported..
15
11
4
1
1
Cash plus other or other
only___________________
No wage____ . . . , ________
Wage not reported_______
28
29
12
18
16
11
22
11
1
7
8
15
3
Girls____ __________
885
444
441
249
85
161
1
2
i
1
3
1
805
400
224
73
Amount reported.........
798
398
100
400
100
216
71
100
144
100
i
Less than $8______
$8, less than $10___
$10, less than $12__
$12, less than $14...
$14, less than $16. .
$16, less than $18...
$18, less than $20...
30
83
219
211
173
43
21
18
23
48
112
108
78
20
4
5
6
12
28
27
20
5
1
2
7
35
107
103
95
23
17
13
2
9
27
26
24
6
4
4
31
51
54
45
22
9
3
1
16
22
12
13
5
1
1
1
22
31
17
18
7
1
1
1
15
29
42
31
17
8
2
10
20
29
22
12
6
1
i
Amount not reported..
7
2
5
8
2
6
62
16
2
31
12
1
31
4
1
19
6
9
3
9
2
Cash plus other or other
405
150
i
i
For the great majority of the Rochester boys and girls employed
at the time of the study, the earnings reported were for a full work
ing week; that is, for 40 hours or more, not counting the 4 hours
spent at continuation school. A minority of the children, 215 boys
(15 per cent) and 209 girls (IT per cent) receiving cash wages,
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
46
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND TJTIOA
however, had been employed less than 40 hours in the week for
which wages were reported. Short hours partly accounted for the
unusually low wages o f some children; 16 of 85 girls and 14 o f 41
boys who had wages o f less than $8 a week had been employed foi
less than 40 hours.
* ,” •!
l
The wages of 85 per cent of the boys and 80 per cent of the girls
in Rochester receiving cash wages only who were 16 years of age at
the date of the inquiry and had had at least one year s employment
history had been increased since they began work. O f the ¿ 5 2
Rochester boys of this age reporting cash wage increases, more than
one-half were earning at least $5 a week more at the time of the
study than they had earned on beginning work a year or more
earlier. The wage increases since beginning work of two-hfths of
the 332 girls in this group also amounted to at least $5 a week.
The wages of the Utica ooys and girls also depended both on their
age and on their work experience. The boys and girls of 15 years
earned considerably less than those of 16 years who had employment
histories o f corresponding length, as the median wages for each
group shows. The median wage of the boys o f 16 who had begun
work less than one year prior to the date of the studv was $11.65,
compared with $13.35 for the boys with longer work experience.
The girls, whose wages were unusually low on beginning work, were
still low at the time of the study; the median wage for the girls
o f 16 whose employment history was less than one year was' only
$9.80. For the girls o f the same age, however, who had been em
ployed longer, wages were considerably higher. The median wage
was $11, about $2 less than that of the Rochester girls with the
same length of work experience. Wages of $14 or more a week were
reported by 16 per cent of the Utica girls o f 16 and by 32 per cent
of the Rochester girls of the same age.
' .
For all but 45 (15 per cent) of the Utica boys the cash earnings
reported were for a working week of 40 hours or more. On the
other hand, the Utica girls, many of whom were in the knitting
mills on less than full time, had been employed shorter hours ;^129
(36 per cent) had worked less than 40 hours in the week for which
they reported earnings. Low earnings on the part of the Utica boys
can not be accounted for to any extent by short hours of work. But
one-half of the Utica girls whose wages were less than $10 had
worked less than a 40-hour week, as compared with 22 per cent of
the girls whose wages were more than this.
The Utica boys and girls o f 16 who had started work at least one
year prior to the date of the study, like the Rochester boys and girls,
frequently had had substantial wage increases since beginning work.
The wages of 84 per cent o f the boys and of 78 per cent of the girls
receiving cash wages only had been increased. Nearly two-thirds
of the 86 boys who reported increases in cash wage and almost onehalf of the 115 girls were earning at least $5 a week more at the
date of the inquiry than they had received on beginning work.
The wages of the Rochester boys and girls in their last .regular
jobs corresponded fairly closely to those of young persons of the
same ages in other localities. The median wage of the Rochester
boys of 15 years o f age was approximately the same ($ 12 ) as that
o f the Newark boys who were of the same age, according to
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
47
the study made in that city two years before; for the girls the
median was slightly higher in Rochester ($11) than in Newark
($10.50).67 In Milwaukee the median wages o f the boys and girls
o f 15 included in that study in 1925 were lower than in Newark
and in Rochester. The median wages o f the 16-year-olds included in
the Milwaukee study were also slightly lower than the wages o f the
Rochester minors o f this age— for the Milwaukee boys of 16 at work
less than one year it was $12, compared with $14 for the Rochester
boys; for the Milwaukee girls o f 16 the median wage was $11, com
pared with $12.50 for the Rochester girls .68
In Rochester the boys employed in manufacturing and mechanical
occupations tended to get higher wages than those employed in other
occupations, both when they began work and at the time of the study.
In the jobs held at the time of the study the median weekly wages of
the boys o f 16 who. were factory operatives and learners in skilled
trades was about the same, $14.80 and $14.90, respectively; for clerical
workers the median was $14.20; for salesboys, $13.60; for errand
boys, $11.75. The boys of 16 years employed as operatives in the
manufacture of optical goods, electrical supplies, and metal products
reported especially high wages; 44 per cent of the boys in these three
industries, 27 per cent of the boys in shoe factories, and 28 per cent
of the clerical workers (including shipping clerks), but practically
none o f the errand boys, were earning $16 or more a week.
The girls who were factory operatives and office workers had
better wages than girls in other occupations, in both first and last
jobs. Among girls of 16 the median wage for telephone operators
was $15.20; for bookkeepers, cashiers, typists, and stenographers,
$13.60; for miscellaneous clerical workers, $12.30; for factory work
ers, $12.70; and for sales and stock workers in stores only $11.25; few
girls o f this age were bundle and cash workers. Wages in the shoe
factories were lower than in the clothing factories; only 16 per cent
of the shoe-factory operatives, compared with 43 per cent of the
clothing-factory operatives, were earning $14 or more a week.
Similarly, in Utica the boys and girls in factories received higher
wages than the children in errand and store work. The wage level of
the Utica girls who began work when less than 16 was low both in
the textile mills and in the stores, which together employed the great
majority of the girls in this city who reported cash wages. Wages
were especially low in the knitting mills. O f 66 Utica girls whose
weekly earnings were less than $5 on beginning work, 47 were em
ployed in these mills, generally as inspectors paid on a piece basis.
Many of them reported weekly earnings o f $3 or less. No informa
tion was obtained as to the amount of part-time employment. A t
the time of the study the wages of the girls of 16 in the textile mills
had increased considerably; only a small proportion were earning
less than $8 ; 60 per cent were earning $10 or more weekly.
Education and mental ability and w ages.
To what extent the wages of young workers are influenced by the
amount and kind o f education that they have received is a question
on which the evidence obtained in this and other studies is incon
clusive. According to the Cincinnati study o f working children, a
57 C h ild L a b o r in N ew J ersey — P a r t 3, T h e W o rk in g C h ild ren o f N ew ark a n d P a terson ,
p. 80.
** E m p loyed B o y s a n d G irls In M ilw au kee, p. 31.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
48
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIBLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTIOA
difference in educational attainment of three school grades made no
difference in earning capacity during the first four years of their
working lives.59 On the other hand, the Children’s Bureau study of
working children in Newark indicated that to some extent at least
the children’s wages did depend on the amount of education which
they, had had. In Milwaukee the girls with the higher educational
attainment received the higher wages, but education apparently had
no influence on the boys’ wages.60 Similarly, in Rochester the girls
from the eighth or high-school grades who were employed on the
date of the study reported higher wages than girls who had not
completed the elementary grades and girls from the nonacademic or
vocational grades. The boys, however, from the eighth and highschool grades earned no more than the boys from the lower grades.
In Utica little relationship was found between education and wages
for either sex.
One reason for the lack o f a definite and consistent relationship be
tween the education and the wages of young workers is o f course the
fact that differences are slight in the educational attainments of
boys and girls who go to work between the ages o f 14 and 17. Few
in Rochester and still fewer in Utica had completed more than one
year of high school. Practically all the rest had at least finished the
sixth grade. No doubt if the wages of children who had gone no
further than the eighth grade could be compared with the wages of
high-school graduates of the same ages after both groups had been
at work for several years, the advantage o f additional schooling
would be more evident. Another reason that studies of working
children in different cities do not show a consistent relationship ben.
tween education and wages is because of the varying wages paid
workers for work in factories, offices, and stores. In some cities
children’s wages are higher in factories than in offices and stores; in
other cities the reverse has been found to be true.
The special training o f the Rochester boys in industrial and other
vocational subjects in school had apparently not affected their wages
up to the time of the study. (Seep. 11.) Very low wages—less than
$10 a week— and relatively high wages—$16 or more a week—were
about as usual for boys of 16 years with industrial training as for
boys o f the same age with no industrial or other vocational training.
The girls in Rochester, however, who had commercial training did
receive slightly higher wages than the girls with hofne-making train
ing or with only academic training. The reason that special training
influenced the girls’ wages was no doubt because the girls with com
mercial training were much more likely than the other girls to be
employed as clerical workers and telephone operators, occupations in
which the compensation for girls was relatively high. The relation
of commercial training to wages was evident in the initial wages of
the girls who began work before they were 16 and somewhat more
evident in the wages o f the girls o f 16 who were employed at the
time o f the inquiry. Wages o f $14 or more were reported by 39 per
cent o f the girls o f 16 with commercial training, by 29 per cent of
the girls with academic training only, and by 30 per cent o f the girls
with training in household arts.
p.
“ A n E x p erim en ta l S tu d y o f C hild ren, p. 735.
60 C hild L a b o r in N ew J ersey— P a r t 3, T h e W o rk in g -C hildren o f N ew ark and P a te rso n ,
7 2 ; E m p loy ed B o y s a n d G irls in M ilw au k ee, p. 4 2 .
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
49
In Utica the differences in the wages of retarded and nonretarded
boys and girls were slight and were not consistently maintained
throughout the period of the child’s employment. That school re
tardation appeared not to have an unfavorable effect on wages o f em
ployed children under 16 was the conclusion reached also in the study
o f Newark and Paterson children.61
Mental ability, as measured by the group intelligence tests given
the Rochester boys and girls, apparently made little difference in the
wages received by the boys on the date o f the inquiry, but did affect
the wages received by the girls. As has been shown, the girls whose
intelligence quotients were relatively high, who were at least eighthgrade graduates, and who had had some kind of special training for
the job entered clerical occupations, which in Rochester were rela
tively well paid.
Part-time school attendance and wages.
One o f the drawbacks to part-time school attendance for the
young worker is the loss in wages due to the loss in working time.
The New York part-time school law requires employers in cities in
which part-time schools have been established to permit their em
ployees under 17 to attend school four hours a week between 8 a. m.
and 5 p. m. on school days or between 8 a. m. and 12 noon on Satur
days.62 The girls in the Rochester telephone exchanges and the boys
and girls who had part-time jobs were able to attend continuation
school outside their working hours. A small proportion o f the young
workers also were paid on a piecework basis, so o f course received no
compensation for the time they spent in school. The great majority,
however, were paid on a time basis, by the hour, day, or week, and
were attending school during the hours they would otherwise have
been at work. These boys and girls were asked if the employers
deducted from their wages payment for the four hours they spent
in continuation school. H alf of the 1,085 boys and of the 804 girls
so employed in Rochester at the time of the interview, and half of
the 192 boys and about one-third of the 128 girls in Utica reported
that they received compensation for the time they attended school;
HOURS OF WORK
According to the law in effect in New York State in 1927 the
hours o f work of children under 16 were restricted to 44 a week 68
in a comprehensive list o f establishments,64 including factories, stores,
and restaurants. No legal limitation, however, was placed on hours
of work in domestic service in private families or in farm work.
41 Child Labor in New Jersey— P art 3, The W orking Children o f Newark and Paterson,
p. 72.
82 N. Y., Education Law, sec. 622, pars. D and E.
68 According to an opinion o f the attorney general o f New York State given in 1929
(after this study was made) part-time instruction hours do not count as a part o f the
legal 44-hour work week fo r children under 1 6 ; in other words the 4 hours’ attendance may
be additional to the 44 hours o f actual employment. This differs from the provisions
o f the continuation school laws in many States where the hours o f attendance must be
included in the legal working hours. I f the hours at continuation school are added to
the hours at work, weekly hours fo r children in excess o f 48 would be illegal in the
occupation specified in the law.
I f the hour law for minors between 16 and 18 is
interpreted in the same way, total weekly hours in excess o f 58 would have been illegal
for them at the time the inquiry was made.
(Annual Report o f the Industrial Commis
sion for 1930. New York State Department o f Labor, p. 142, Albany, 1931.)
64 In or in connection with factories, mercantile establishments, business offices, tele
graph offices, restaurants, hotels, apartment houses, theaters or other places o f amuse
ment, bowling alleys, barber shops, shoe-polishing establishments, or in the distribution
o f merchandise, articles, or messages, or in the sale o f articles.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
50
EM PLOYED
BOYS
AND
G IR L S
IN
ROCHESTER
AND
U T IC A
Boys between 16 and 18 were limited to 54 hours’ work a week in
factories and stores and in the distribution o f merchandise or
articles; girls between 16 and 18, to 54 hours a week in factories,
stores, and restaurants.65
The boys and girls who were employed at the time of the study
were questioned concerning the number of hours they had worked
the preceding week. In Rochester regular weekly hours of boys
and girls employed in factories not operating full time were re
ported; in Utica, however, where some of the textile mills had been
operating on short time for a considerable period, the usual weekly
hours the boys and girls worked were given.
One-half of the Rochester boys and girls under 16 reported hours
of 44 or less a week, including both the hours at regular work and
at continuation school; nearly three-fourths had total hours of 48
or less. (Table 14.) The remainder (28 per cent) had a working
week in excess o f 48 hours. Thirty-one boys (6 per cent) and 29
girls (5 per cent) had worked 54 hours a week or more.
T able 14.— W eekly hours of last regular job (including
hours in part-time
school) of boys and girls employed on date of study
Utica
Rochester
Age at date of study
Age at date of study
Weekly hours of last regular
job
Under 16
years
Under 16
years
16 years
16 years
Total
Total
Per
Per
Num cent Num cent
distri
ber distri ber
bution
bution
Per
Per
Num cent Num cent
ber distri ber distil
bution
bution
465
300
2,890
1,019
Hours reported------- ------------ 2,832
998
100
1,834
1,871
100
730
282
100
448
Less than 44____________
44 even............... ............
More than 44, less than 48.
48 even................. - ...........
More than 48, less than 50.
50, less than 54.................
54, less than 58.................
58, less than 62__________
62 or more..... ...................
470
587
767
160
473
190
92
29
64
218
283
169
49
164
55
29
10
21
22
28
17
5
16
6
3
1
2
252
304
598
111
309
135
63
19
43
14
17
33
6
17
7
3
1
2
188
94
136
58
77
76
46
23
32
115
44
34
41
16
73
50
12
102
Irregular hours--------------------
39
19
16
6
2
23
14
1
25
10
12
14
20
21
4
5
7
7
3
5
46
63
56
25
15
18
100
16
11
23
10
14
13
6
3
4
12
5
In many of the Rochester factories at the time of the inquiry,
continuation-school hours were regarded as part of the 44-hour week
for children under 16. Seventy-one per cent o f the children under
16 reporting regular hours who were employed as factory operatives
had a work week of 44 hours or less, including continuation-school
hours; 16 (10 per cent) of the boys and 9 (5 per cent) o f the girls
employed as factory operatives, however, had a work week of more
than 48 hours, including 1 girl and 1 boy o f this age who had worked
58 hours or more a week. Store hours were much longer than factory
hours for children under 16, the 4 hours’ attendance at continuation
school not being regarded as a part of the work week in the mer
cantile establishments in which the children were employed. Only
« N. Y., Labor Law, arts. 171, 172, 180, amended by ch. 622, Session Laws 1925, arts.
180a, 1 8 i, 182. A law reducing hours fo r females over 16 to 4 8 and 4 9 % a week was
passed in 1927 but did not take effect until January, 1928. (Session Laws 1927, ch. 453.)
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
51
THE WORKING GROUP
a small number of the children in this age group employed as sales,
stock, or errand workers in stores had had a 44-hour week or less;
69 per cent reported total weekly hours of more than 48. In the large
department stores of the city the actual hours of employment were
usually between 45 and 46 and the total hours (including continua
tion-school hours) between 49 and 50. Sixteen (9 per cent) of the
children in stores had worked 58 hours or more a week. Boys em
ployed in miscellaneous kinds of errand work (other than in factories
and stores and in delivering telegrams) also frequently worked more
than 48 hours. (Table 15.)
T able 15.—Industry and occupation and weekly hours of last regular jo t ( in
cluding 4 hours in part-time school) of toys and girls under 16 years of age
on date of study who were employed on that date
Rochester
Weekly hours of last job
Industry and occupation, and sex
Total
539
Manufacturing and mechanical indus-
Utica
Weekly hours of last job
Ir Not re Total 48 or More Ir
48 or More regu
regu Not re
less than
less than
lar ported
48
48
lar ported
398
3
132
7
140
77
57
2
1
2
6
2
3
3
3
1
244
216
24
4
59
43
13
1
2
168
76
152
64
10
8
4
38
21
27
16
9
4
1
1
1
Professional service..............................
Domestic and personal service______
10
16
8
6
2
9
1
1
18
4
i
14
Other industries and occupations____
263
165
95
1
55
27
26
Sales and stock boys in stores.......
Messenger and errand boys in
stores...................................... .
Messenger, errand, and stock
boys in factories______________
Telegraph messengers____ ______
Other messenger and errand boys.
Teamsters, drivers, and helpers...
Typists, stenographers, cashiers,
and bookkeepers______________
Others_________________________
46
15
31
11
2
9
15
4
11
2
2
60
29
37
16
54
18
20
10
6
11
17
5
1
9
4
10
4
5
2
2
3
4
2
7
1
3
57
2
42
14
1
1
14
11
1
2
1
Not reported................. ......................
3
3
1
.1
321
147
160
128
20
10
2
2
I
1
3
Girls........... ............ ...................
480
Manufacturing and mechanical in
dustries___ _____ ________________
205
191
13
1
107
106
1
Operatives......................................
Others___ ____________________
199
6
189
2
9
4
1
107
106
1
9
2
1
•
Professional service.......................... .
7
6
1
3
3
Domestio and personal service______
60
25
28
5
2
21
8
7
4
2
Private families___________ _____
Other............. ......... .................... .
40
20
14
11
19
9
5
2
13
8
4
4
6
1
2
2
1
1
Other industries and occupations.......
208
99
105
3
1
29
11
12
6
Sales and stock girls in stores____
Messenger and errand girls in
82
32
47
2
1
18
5
7
6
38
4
34
7
3
4
1
3
1
2
1
Messenger, errand, and stock
girls in factories____ __________
Typists, stenographers, cashiers,
and bookkeepers.... . . . .
Others...........I_________________
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
11
9
2
35
42
31
23
3
19
1
52
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTIOA
Most o f the Rochester children under 16 whose total hours ex
ceeded 48 a week were employed in violation o f the State law in
occupations to which the hours law applied, that is, in stores, fac
tories, business offices, restaurants, hotels, institutions, and in mes
senger and delivery service. O f the 147 girls under 16 who reported
hours exceeding 48, only 19 were domestic workers in private fami
lies, an occupation not covered by the law relating to hours of labor.
About two-thirds o f the Rochester boys and girls of 16 years had
a work week o f 48 hours or less. The proportion who had been em
ployed for more than 48 hours was but little greater than that of
the younger children; 29 per cent of the boys and 34 per cent of the
girls reporting worked more than 48 hours. Forty-one (4 per cent)
of the boys and 21 (2 per cent) of the girls of this age had been
employed for a 58-hour week or longer; that is, for as much as the
54-hour legal maximum plus 4 hours at part-time school. For the
boys and girls o f 16, as well as for the younger children, store hours
were much longer than factory hours, 77 per cent of those employed
as sales, stock, and errand workers in stores having a work week in
excess of 48 hours as compared with only 17 per cent of those em
ployed as factory operatives. Among the 26 boys o f 16 years who
had worked 58 hours or more the week before the study were 7 salesboys and 6 hotel or restaurant workers, the remainder being in
scattered occupations. O f the 11 girls who had worked 58 hours or
more 8 were domestic workers in private families and 3 were store
or restaurant workers.
The hours of the Utica girls under 16, but not o f the boys in this
age group, were considerably shorter than the hours of the Rochester,
children under 16. Forty-one per cent o f the boys under 16 and 70
per cent o f the girls had a work week o f 44 hours or less; 42 per
cent of the boys and 14 per cent of the girls had worked more than
48 hours in the week before they were interviewed, including 12 boys
(9 per cent) and 10 girls (7 per cent) who had been employed for
58 hours or more.
The reason fo r the shorter hours o f Utica girls as compared with
boys was due to the fact that relatively more o f the girls were em
ployed in factories in which hours were generally shorter than in
other occupations. For children under 16 in factories the work
week was usually 44 hours, including the 4 hours spent in continua
tion school. O f the 143 boys and girls who were factory operatives
and reported their hours, 82 per cent had a work week of 44
hours or less; 7 per cent, however, had been employed in excess of
48 hours. The hours in nonfactory occupations were likely to be
much longer. O f 119 boys and girls reporting hours who were store
or errand workers or employed in other nonmanufacturing and non
mechanical occupations, only 27 per cent had a work week of 44
hours or less; 55 per cent worked at least 48 hours, and 53 per cent
worked more than 48 hours.
Most of the Utica boys and girls whose weekly hours exceeded 48
were employed in violation of the hour law. Among 57 boys under
16 who had worked more than 48 hours, 13 were in manufacturing
and mechanical occupations; 14 were employed in various kinds of
personal service, in hotels, in bowling alleys, and at shoe-shine stands
(occupations specifically mentioned in the la w ); the others were
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
53
store workers, telegraph messenger and errand boys, a driver’s helper,
and a clerical worker. Three were farm workers to whom the law
did not apply. Among the 20 girls under 16 who had worked more
than 48 hours, 6 were in domestic service in private families so that
the law did not apply to them, 11 were sales and errand girls in
stores, 1 was a factory worker, 1 a waitress in a restaurant, and 1 a
learner in a store, all occupations covered by the hours of labor law.
The Utica boys and girls of 16 reported considerably longer hours
than the younger children; 51 per cent o f the boys and 30 per cent
o f the girls had worked more than 48 hours, but only 24 boys and 9
girls of this age had been employed for 58 hours or more.
The great majority of the boys and girls of 16 in Utica factories,
as in other occupations, were employed for more than 44 hours a
week. The factory workers frequently reported between 44 and 48
hours. Twenty-nine per cent of the 259 employed as factory oper
atives for whom hours were reported and 62 per cent of the 146 in
nonmanufacturing and nonmechanical occupations had a working
week of more than 48 hours the week preceding the date they were
interviewed. Fourteen of the 24 boys of 16 years who had worked
for 58 hours or more were either employed in stores or in hotels or
restaurants; 6 of the 9 girls were domestic workers in private fam
ilies and were, therefore, not covered by the hour law.
REGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT
To find out to what extent the boys and girls included in this study
were stable workers, an attempt was made to measure stability by the
amount of time the children had been unemployed, by the duration of
the positions they had held, and by the number of times they had
changed positions after they left school for work.
Only the first year or two of the industrial lives o f most o f these
young workers, as has been explained, was covered by the present
study. About one-fourth o f the Rochester boys and girls had
worked less than six months, and about one-third had worked one
year or longer. Only 3 per cent of the boys and 5 per cent o f the
girls had worked two years. The median length of their work his
tories was 9y 2 months for the boys and about 9 months for the girls.
The children who had begun work at 14, of course, had had an op
portunity to work longer than those who bad begun work at 15 or 16.
The work histories o f the Utica boys and girls were little longer
than those o f the Rochester boys and girls, although the latter had
started work at slightly earlier ages. The median length of their
work histories was 10 months for both boys and girls. About onehalf of the Utica children of each sex who had started work at 14
and about two-fifths who had started at 15 had work histories of at
least a year.
Amount of unemployment.
According to the findings o f the Children’s Bureau in Newark and
Paterson, N. J., and in Milwaukee, as well as in the earlier studies
in Boston and Connecticut, young city workers have fairly steady
employment during periods o f ordinary business activity .66 The
88 Child Labor in New Jersey— P art 3, The W orking Children o f Newark and Paterson,
p. 3 7 ; Employed Boys and Girls in Milwaukee, p. 45 ; The W orking Children o f Boston,
p. 4 2 ; Industrial Instability o f Child W orkers in Connecticut, p. 84.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
54
EMPLOYED BOYS AND OIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND tTTlCA
contrary idea sometimes expressed that beginners have long periods
o f idleness has not been confirmed either by these studies or by sim
ilar studies made by other agencies. Little unemployment was found
among working children eitner in the Cincinnati study made during
the four years following 191167 or in a more recent study (1927)
made by the National Child Labor Committee of working children
in two Connecticut cities.68 The findings of the Rochester and Utica
studies present additional evidence that children who enter industry
before they are 16 work most o f the time, though not necessarily in
the same jobs, at least during the early part o f their working lives.
The boys and girls included in the present study had been em
ployed in the year or two prior to the spring of 1927, when the in
quiry was made, before the period of general business depression.
In Rochester the total number o f factory employees in April, 1927,
was greater than in the same month of the preceding year; in Utica
at this time, however, the textile mills, the principal manufacturing
industry of the city, had not been running to full capacity for some
months.69
Eighty-five per cent o f the Rochester boys and girls were em
ployed- on the date the inquiry was made. Most of the unemploy
ment of the young workers included in this study was no doubt
temporary; nearly three-fourths o f the Rochester boys and nearly
three-fiftns of the girls who were not working at the time o f the
study had been unemployed less than three months. No doubt be
cause o f the situation in the Utica textile industry a larger propor
tion o f the boys and girls in that city than of those in Rochester (26
per cent of the boys and 21 per cent of the girls) were temporarily^
out of work at the date o f the inquiry.
The proportion o f boys and girls in Rochester and even in Utica
who were out o f work when the study was made was not dissimilar
to that reported in other cities. In Milwaukee, about four-fifths of
the young workers between 14 and 18 were employed in January,
1925.70 In three Ohio cities about three-fourths of 3,710 minors
between 14 and 18 years o f age who had left school for work were
employed in 1929 before the present industrial depression became
marked.71
In order to measure the length o f time that the boys and girls had
been out of work, the percentage of unemployed time was calculated
for those whose employment history was a year or more in length, all
o f whom were under 16 when they began work. Figures for the un
employment o f boys and girls whose work histories were less than a
year would have been of less significance as they had had so short a
time to work and to change their jobs.
The Rochester boys and girls, whether or not they were working
on the exact date tne inquiry was made, had been employed most
of the time covered by the inquiry. (Table 16.) Twenty-nine per
cent of the boys and 32 per cent o f the girls had had no unemployn An Experim ental Study o f Children, p. 562.
68 Robinson, Claude E . : Child W orkers in Tw o Connecticut Towns, New Britain and
Norwich, p. 33. National Child Labor Committee. New York, 1929.
68 Industrial Bulletin, vol. 6, no. 5 (February, 1927), pp. 134 and 136, and vol. 6, no. 8
(May, 1927), pp. 222-224.
70 Employed Boys and Girls in Milwaukee, p. 45.
u Gibbons, Charles E., and Chester T. Stansbury: A dm inistration o f the Child Labor
Law in O h io ; a study o f children employed in M iddletown, Toledo, and Youngstown, p. 18.
National Child Labor Committee. New York, 1931.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
i
55
THE WORKING GROUP
ment since beginning work. Many of these workers had held the
same positions throughout their work histories, but some o f them
had changed one or more times and had lost no time between
ending one job and beginning the next. The boys who had been
out o f work for one or more weeks of their work histories had been
unemployed for 11 per cent, and the girls for 14 per cent, of their em
ployment histories. This percentage of unemployment is like that
reported for the working children o f Boston in the earlier study
made by the Children’s Bureau in that city.Ta
T able 16.— Percentage of time unemployed during work history of boys and
girls who began work under 16 years of age and who were employed one
year or more
Rochester
Boys
Percentage of time unemployed during work
history and sex
Utica
Girls
Boys
Per
Per
Num cent
Num cent
dis
dis
ber tribu ber
tribu
tion
tion
Girls
Per
Per
Num cent
Num cent
dis
dis
ber tribu ber
tribu
tion
tion
T o ta l..._________________ __________
640
Unemployment reported__________________
641
100
599
100
150
100
207
100
None_____________ ___________________
Less than 5 per cent___________________
5. per cent, less than 10_________________
10"per cent, less than 20............................
20 per cent, less than 30________________
30 per cent, less than 40________________
40 per cent, less than 50________________
60 per cent or more____________________
160
127
07
78
50
23
11
20
20
23
12
14
0
4
2
5
103
113
03
85
47
20
21
51
32
10
11
14
8
4
4
0
25
27
10
23
20
17
11
17
10
17
10
15
13
11
7
11
05
29
21
25
10
13
13
25
31
14
10
12
8
6
0
12
Unemployment not reported______________
5
590
104
8
211
4
About one-fourth o f the Utica workers (16 per cent of the boys
and 31 per cent of the girls) whose work histories were at least one
year in length had been employed for the whole of the period
covered by the study. Most o f those who had had no unemployment
had had but one position. For the boys reporting at least one week
of unemployment, the percentage o f unemployed time during their
work histories was 19, and for the girls it was 17. How much of
the young workers’ unemployment in this or indeed in any city is
due to 4he difficulty of getting work and how much to personal
causes, such as their family situation or to their own personalities,
can not be estimated. Doubtless, however, the depression in the tex
tile industry and the apparently limited opportunities for work for
boys contributed to the relatively greater amount o f unemployment
in Utica as compared with Rochester.
The continuity o f the work o f most o f these Rochester boys and
girls is also clearly shown by the fact that nearly two-thirds o f the
Rochester boys and nearly as large a proportion of the girls had
been out o f work either not at all or less than 10 per cent of their
work histories; only slightly more than one-tenth o f the boys and
about one-sixth of the girls had been out of work 30 per cent or
72 The W orking Children o f Boston, p. 191.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
56
EMPLOYED BOYS. AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTIOA
more, and few had been out of work as much as 50 per cent o f the
time.
In Utica, however, less than half the boys and more than half
the girls either had had no unemployment or had been out of work
less than 10 per cent of the time since they first started work.
Twenty-nine per cent of the boys and 24 per cent of the girls had
been out of work for at least 30 per cent and about one-tenth of each
sex for 50 per cent or more o f the time.
Data are available for Newark and Milwaukee children who began
work before they were 16 and whose employment histories were some
what shorter; that is, between one and two years as compared to
between one and three years for the New York children.73 Seventy
per cent o f the Newark boys, 62 per cent of the Milwaukee boys, 64
per cent of the Rochester boys, but only 43 per cent of the Utica
boys, had been out of work less than one-tenth of their work histories.
Corresponding figures for the girls were 67 per cent in Newark, 58
per cent in Milwaukee, 62 per cent in Rochester, and 55 per cent in
Utica.
In other cities in which studies have been made girls were unem
ployed either more than the boys or for about the same amount of
time. In New York State, as a whole, according to the study of the
continuation-school pupils made by the State department or educa
tion in 1926, the girls were employed much more irregularly than
the boys.74 It would be expected in New York that girls would
not be employed outside the home so steadily as boys and that a
larger amount of their unemployment would be voluntary, as work
permits are issued to them for work in their own homes. Thus a
much larger proportion of girls than of boys in both cities who had
left regular school and registered at continuation school had never
been employed except in their own homes. (See p. 64.) - No doubt
other girls who had given up or lost their first or other positions also
remained at home for a while to help with the housework or for
other reasons and did not try to get work outside.
Age and unemployment.
.
No evidence was obtained in this study that the boy or girl who
begins work at 14 has more unemployment than the boy or girl who
begins at 15 or 16. Sixty-nine per cent of the Rochester boys em
ployed one year or more who started work at 14 or under and 62
per cent who started work at 15 were unemployed less than onetenth o f their working periods, not an appreciable difference where
relatively small numbers are concerned. Similarly about the same
proportions o f boys o f 14 as o f 15 had been out o f work the longer
periods. The girls starting in industry at 14 likewise were out o f
work about the same percentage o f the time since beginning work
as girls starting work at 15, except that the latter were more likely
than the younger girls to report the longer periods o f unemploy
ment; 18 per cent o f the girls beginning work at 14 and 29 per cent
of those beginning at 15 had been out o f work one-fifth or more
of the time, the reverse o f what might be expected.
T* Child Labor in New Jersey— Part 3, The W orking Children o f Newark and Paterson
p. 8 3 ; Employed Boys and Girls in Milwaukee, p. 47.
74 Special Report on Unemployment Among Boys A ttending Part-Tim e School, p 2
and Special Report as to Number o f Weeks Girls Attending Part-Tim e School Have Been
W ithout Employment, p. 2.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
57
No significant differences in the amount of unemployment o f Utica
children beginning work at 14 and at 15 were apparent, but the
number of children starting work at the age of 14 was too small to
be a basis for definite conclusions.
Education and unemployment.
It might be expected that boys and girls from the upper grades
would be more successful in the work they undertake than those
whose school accomplishment is low, and that, therefore, they would
have less unemployment. Some evidence has been presented in other
Children’s Bureau studies of this series and in the Cincinnati study
o f working children indicating that children who have completed
the eighth or higher grades have somewhat less unemployment than
children from the lower grades.76 In none o f these studies, however,
was the difference in the amount o f unemployment appreciable.
In Rochester 75 per cent o f the boys beginning work under 16
from the eighth and higher academic grades employed 1 year or
more compared with 60 per cent of those from the lower academic
grades had been out of work less than one-tenth o f the time. Cor
respondingly smaller percentages of boys from the eighth and higher
grades than from the lower grades had been out of work the longer
periods. The boys from the nonacademic grades reported propor
tions o f unemployment similar to those of the boys from academic
grades below the eighth. The grade completed, however, did not
appear to affect the percentage of time the Rochester girls had been
out o f work, those from the eighth and higher academic grades
having had about the same amount o f unemployment as those from
the lower and from the nonacademic grades. The lack of associa
tion between school grade and unemployment for the girls may
be due to the difference in the kind o f work that the girls from the
upper and lower grades enter. The girls from the eighth and highschool grades preferred clerical to factory work, and apparently the
demand for clerical workers was less than for factory workers, so
that they had more difficulty in getting clerical work and, therefore,
had more unemployment.
In Utica the number of boys and girls with employment histories
o f at least a year was too small to permit of detailed analysis with
reference to the influence o f educational attainment on unemploy
ment for each sex. Considering the young workers of both sexes to
gether, it appeared that those who had completed the eighth and
higher school grades tended to have less unemployment than the
young workers from the lower grades, 59 per cent of the former
as compared with 46 per cent of the latter having been out of work
less than one-tenth of the time or not at all ; and 23 per cent of
the former and 30 per cent of the latter had been out o f work threetenths or more of tneir time.
The Utica boys and girls who were retarded in school had a little
more unemployment than children who had made average or better
school progress, a tendency that supports the conclusion reached with
reference to the Rochester boys and girls that school grade was asso
ciated with unemployment. Forty-three per cent of the Utica boys
75 ChiM Labor in New Jersey— P art 3, The W orking Children of Newark and Paterson,
p. 7 3 ; Employed Boys and Girls in Milwaukee, p. 4 7 ; An Experim ental Study o f Children,
p. 60 2.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
58
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
and girls with work histories of at least a year who were retarded
in school compared with 59 per cent who were not retarded had been
out of work either not at all or less than one-tenth of the time;
correspondingly larger percentages of the retarded than of the nonretarded boys and girls had been out of work larger proportions of
the time.
Mental ability and unemployment.
Mental ability as measured by the group intelligence tests given
the Rochester boys and girls was found to be related to the percentage
o f time the boys had been out of work, but apparently it was not
related to the girls’ unemployment. Although the boys employed for
one year or more whose intelligence quotients were less than 100 had
been employed for a large part of their employment histories, they
had been out of work to a somewhat greater extent than the boys
whose intelligence quotients were higher. Thirteen per cent o f the
boys with intelligence quotients o f less than 100 and only 4 per cent
o f those with intelligence quotients of 100 or more had been out of
work 30 per cent or more of the time; on the other hand, 63 per cent
of the boys with intelligence quotients of less than 100 and 73 per
cent of those with intelligence quotients of at least 100 had been out
o f work either not at all or less than one-tenth of their work histories.
Little association was found between the mental ability of the girls
and their unemployment.
The findings of the Cincinnati study of working children whose
mental ability was intensively studied were similar to those of the
Rochester study; the mentally superior boys of Cincinnati were em
ployed a somewhat greater proportion of the year than the mentally
inferior, a fact not true o f the girls.” The results o f a Children’s
Bureau study of the employment histories of young workers o f sub
normal mentality are also o f interest in this connection. The boys
included in that study, although employed a large part of their work
ing lives and considerably more than the girls, experienced relatively
more unemployment than the boys included in the Rochester and
Utica studies or than boys of unselected mentality included in the
Milwaukee study.”
Duration of positions.
The children included in the present study kept their first posi
tions ” but a short time, frequently less than one month. Two-thirds
o f the Rochester boys and girls beginning work under 16 had ended
their first positions before the date of the present inquiry. (Table
17.) Thirty per cent of these had held them less than one month and
65 per cent less than three months. The length of the position o f
boys and girls was about the same. The boys and girls m this age
roup who were still in their first positions at the date o f the study,
owever, had been holding them for considerable periods o f time, 66
g
79 An Experimental Study o f Children, p. 659.
77 Employment o f M entally Deficient Boys and Girls, p. 1 8 ; Employed Boys and Girls
in Milwaukee, p. 46.
78 F or convenience in this discussion the term “ position ” has been used to indicate
the period the child worked continuously with one- employer as distinguished from the
term “ job,” the period in which he was employed in one occupation with the same
employer. A very small percentage o f the hoys and girls whose first positions were ended
had been employed in more than one occupation or kind o f work for their first employer,
so that the length o f their first jobs was almost always the same as that o f their first
positions.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
59
THE WORKING GROUP
per cent of them for six months or more. Because of the unequal
lengths o f the employment histories of the workers of different ages
included in this study it was impossible to determine whether boys
and girls who begin work at 16 hold their positions longer than those
who start work younger.
T a b l e 17.—Duration
of first terminated position held "by employed boys and
ffirls beginning work under 16 years of age
Rochester
• Duration of first terminated position
Number
Utica
Per cent
distri
bution
Number
Per cent
distri
bution
Total....... ....................................................... .....................
2,840
Position terminated___ ______ _______________ _____ ___ ____
1,886
Duration reported.............. ......... ..........................................
1,881
100
638
100
Less than 1 month____________________ ____ ________
1 month, less than 2 .______ __________________ _____ _
2 months, less than 3.......................... .............................
8 months, less than 6 ............ ..........................................
6 months, less than 12.....................................................
12 months or more_________________________________
571
370
281
357
217
85
30
20
15
19
12
5
224
132
96
101
66
19
35
21
15
16
10
3
Duration not reported_____________ ____ _______________
Position not terminated....... _ __ ........................
886
651
5
13
954
235
In Utica almost three-fourths o f the boys and girls beginning work
under 16 had ended their first positions at the time o f the inquiry.
O f these, 35 per cent had held them less than one month and 71 per
cent less than three months. The proportion of boys holding their
positions for six months or longer (14 per cent) was about the same
as in Rochester, but the proportion of Utica girls (12 per cent)
with positions lasting six months or longer was smaller than in
Rochester. As in Rochester, the boys and girls who were still em
ployed in their first position at the time o f the study had held them
for considerable lengths o f time.
The length of time that the Rochester and Utica children under
16 whose first positions were ended at the time o f the study had held
them corresponds on the whole with the findings o f other studies of
young workers. The Children’s Bureau studies in Newark and Pat
erson and in Milwaukee and the earlier studies made in Boston and
Connecticut have also shown that beginners in industry do not hold
their first positions for more than a few months.70 A recent study
made by the division of women in industry of the New York Depart
ment o f Labor included a selected group o f 100 children under 16
who had had at least two jobs and had received work certificates in
1928 and 1929 before the general business depression. More than
one-third of these children had received second work certificates in
less than one month after the issuance of the first work certificates,
and less than 10 per cent received second certificates six months or
79
C hild L a b or in N ew Jersey — P a rt 3, T h e W o rk in g C h ild ren o f N ew ark and P a te rso n ,
p. 3 9 ; E m p loy ed B oy s and G irls in M ilw aukee, p. 4 9 ; T h e W o rk in g C hild ren o f B o sto n ,
p. 2 6 3 ; In d u s tria l I n s ta b ility o f C hild W ork ers, p. 18.
1 6 1 4 9 3 °— 83------- 5
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
60
EM PLOYED
BOYS
AND
G IR L S
IN
ROCHESTER
AND
U T IO A
more after the first one.80 The duration of the first positions of
about the same proportion o f these New York City children as of
the Rochester and Utica children had been less than one month.
The positions in which the young workers in both cities were
employed on the date of the inquiry had lasted much longer than
the terminated first positions. The comparatively long duration of
the positions that the boys and girls were holding when the study
was made indicates that when children have had sbme time to make
adjustments to working life they tend to remain steadily in one
position. Fifty-seven per cent of the Rochester boys and 62 per
cent o f the girls who had begun work in these positions before they
were 16 had held them for six months or more at the time o f the
study. The boys and girls who started work in their positions at
the age of 16 had not held them as long as the younger children be
cause their employment histories had been comparatively short.
Relation of occupation to duration of position.
The duration o f the child’s position depended somewhat on the kind
o f work he did. In the group that at the time o f the study had ter
minated their first jobs, which in general had lasted less than three
months, the Rochester boys who were telegraph messengers and those
who were employed in restaurants and in other forms o f domestic and
personal service had stayed in their first occupations an even shorter
time than bo vs employed in miscellaneous kinds of errand work or in
factories. Similarly, a duration of six months in the first occupation,
although unusual for any o f this group, was least common for tele
graph messengers and domestic workers. Girls employed in sales,
domestic, and clerical work kept their first occupations a somewhat
shorter time than girls employed as bundle and cash workers in stores
or as factory operatives. Apparently a great many of the jobs offered
young girls in sales work are very temporary (that is, for some special
sale or for the Christmas or other busy seasons), whereas the jobs
of bundle and cash girls in department stores are more permanent.
Changes in position.
It is often said that the turnover o f positions among young workers
is high. It should be remembered, however, that some positions o f
fered young workers, such as certain kinds of sales and office work,
are known in advance to be only temporary. Short-time positions
and changes in position do not necessarily mean that the child is an
unstable worker. Long periods of work in one position and infre
quent or no changing may mean merely lack of initiative or oppor
tunity, whereas changing may mean getting a better-paid posi
tion or one in which the chances of advancement are better or one bet
ter suited to the special abilities or tastes o f the individual. Only
when shifting from position to position is repeated and involves ex
cessive unemployment should it be assumed that the young worker is
unstable.
The number o f positions that the Rochester boys reported ranged
from 1 to 14; no girls reported more than 9 positions. Only 8 per
cent of the boys and 4 per cent of the girls held as many as 5 posi
tions. The number o f positions held depended largely on the length
o f the period in which employment was possible.
“ In d u s tria l B u lletin , v o l. 11 , n o. 3 (D ecem ber, 1 9 3 1 ), p. 71.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
61
THE WORKING GROUP
The employment histories of boys and girls who had begun work
less than one year before the date o f the study were too short to
permit many changes in position, and the changes that they did
make within such a short period would not necessarily indicate their
steadiness as workers, so that the following analysis o f stability of
employment has been based on the children who began work under 16
whose work histories were one or more years in length; most of
these children had worked between one and two years, as few children
with employment histories o f more than two years were included in
the study. Because o f the variations in the length of time worked
by individual children selected, a classification was made for the
purpose of relating the number o f positions to the number of months
of possible employment since beginning work. The children were
grouped, therefore, according to the average number o f positions they
held in 12 months of their employment histories, a classification also
used in the other studies in this series.81
Fifty-nine per cent of the boys were in Classes A or B, 35 per cent
were in Class C, and 6 per cent were in Class D. (Table 18.) The
girls had made fewer changes than the boys. 76 per cent of them
having made no change or only one change within 12 months. Few
girls had changed as frequently as four times in a year.
T
18.— Average number of positions per year during work history for boys
and girls who began work under 16 years of age and who were employed
one year or more
able
Boys and girls who began work under 16 years of age em
ployed 1 year or more
Rochester
Average number of positions per year
Boys
Utica
Girls
Boys
Girls
Per
Per
Per
Per
Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent
ber distri ber distri
ber distri ber distri
bution
bution
bution
bution
Total____________ ________ _____ ____
Class A,
Class B,
Class C,
Class D,
less than 1 position per year_______
1, less than 2 per year........ ........... .
2, less than 4 per year_____________
4 or more per year________________
546
100
599
100
164
100
211
100
115
208
190
33
21
38
35
6
208
245
132
14
35
41
22
2
28
59
66
11
17
36
40
7
66
85
59
1
31
40
28
(>)
i Less than 1 per cent.
The Utica children had shifted positions but little more than the
Rochester children of corresponding sex, 53 per cent of the boys and
72 per cent of the girls having made no change or only one change
within a 12-month period; only 7 per cent ox the boys and only 1
girl had averaged four or more changes within 12 months.
The children who changed positions infrequently also had little
unemployment. Infrequent changes in position do not necessarily
mean that the child has worked steadily, however, for he may have
®- E m p loy ed B o y s an d G irls in M ilw aukee, p. 5 4 ; C h ild L a b o r in N ew J e rse y — P a r t 3,
T h e W o rk in g C h ild ren o f N ew ark an d P a terson , p. 4 0 ; W o rk in g C h ild ren o f B oston ,, p p .
1 8 6 - 1 8 7 ; In d u s tria l In s ta b ility o f C hild W ork ers I n C on n ecticu t, p. 25.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
62
EM PLOYED
BOYS
AND
G IR L S
IN
ROCH ESTER
AND
U T IO A
held but one position for a few days or weeks only and have been
unemployed the rest o f the time. The Rochester boys in Class A
had been out o f work only 2 per cent and the girls in Class A only 7
per cent of the time.82 The boys in Class B can also be regarded as
fairly steady workers, for they had been out of work only 8 per cent
of their work histories. The boys in this group evidently had lost
little time between ending one position and beginning the next. The
girls in Class B had not worked as steadily as the boys; they had
been unemployed for IT per cent of their work histories, about as
much as the girls and boys who had made more frequent changes in
position.
The Utica boys in Class A had been unemployed 8 per cent and
the girls 11 per cent of their time. The majority of the Utica chil
dren, however, had made some change in position within a 12-month
period, and these children, both boys and girls, whether their changes
had been frequent or infrequent, had experienced more unemploy
ment than the Rochester children. Apparently once they lost or
gave up their first or succeeding positions they were idle for con
siderably longer periods than the Rochester children before obtain
ing new positions. (See p. 55.) For example, the Utica boys in
Class B had been out of work 17 per cent of the time as compared
with 24 and 25 per cent of the time out of work reported by the boys
in Classes C and D.
The children included in the Children’s Bureau study in Newark
who had employment histories of at least a year and the children
included in the earlier Connecticut study, all of whom had work*
histories of between 21 and 24 months (that is, working periods com-f
parable to those of children in the present study), had changed
positions a little less frequently than either the Rochester or the
Utica children.83 The shifting in positions among the boys included
in the Milwaukee study whose work histories were between one and
two years in length, was about the same as among the Rochester
boys and a little less than among the Utica boys.84
In each o f these cities (Milwaukee, Rochester, and Utica) the girls
had shifted positions somewhat less than the boys. That girls
change positions less than boys has also been shown in other studies
o f young workers, including the Children’s Bureau studies in Newark
and Paterson, N. J., the earlier study made in Connecticut, and in
several other studies o f young workers made by other agencies.85
A tendency for children to become steadier workers the longer
they remain in industry was noted in the Milwaukee study, which
included a group of boys and girls with work histories o f as long
as two and three years; the same tendency was revealed in the study
o f working children made in Cincinnati, all of whom had work his
tories of exactly four years.86 The work histories of the Rochester
and Utica children were too short to be significant in this connection.
82 Children who were out o f work less than a week in all during their work histories
were not counted as unemployed fo r this computation.
83 Child Labor in New Jersey— Part 3, The W orking Children o f Newark and Paterson,
p. 4 2 ; Industrial Instability o f Child W orkers, p. 25.
84 Employed Boys and Girls in Milwaukee, p. 53.
“ Child Labor in New Jersey— P art 3, The W orking Children o f Newark and Paterson,
p 4 1 : Industrial Instability o f Child W orkers, n. 2 5 ; An Experim ental Study o f Children,
p. 603 ; The Product o f the M inneapolis Public Schools, Report of Superintendent o f
Schools to the Board o f Education, January, 1931, p. 25.
" A n Experimental Study o f Children, pp. 565 and 568.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE WORKING GROUP
63
The findings o f the Cincinnati study, and also of the Children’s
Bureau study in Milwaukee,87 revealed that the boys and girls from
the upper scnool grades had a somewhat better record for steadiness
o f employment than the children from the lower grades. Similarly,
in Rochester the boys and girls from the eighth and higher aca
demic grades had made somewhat fewer changes in position than
those from the lower academic grades and nonacademic grades and
vocational classes. Twenty-nine per cent of the boys from the
eighth and higher grades, compared with 18 per cent of the boys
from grades lower than the eighth and 16 per cent from nonacademic grades, had changed positions less than once within a
12-month period. On the other hand, 27 per cent of the boys from
the upper grades, compared with 49 per cent from the lower aca
demic grades and 50 per cent of those from nonacademic grades,
had changed positions two or more times a year. The girls also
from the higher grades changed positions less often than those
from the lower grades, showing a relationship between grade attain
ment and stability that might not be expected in view of the fact
that the grade accomplishment o f the girls and the amount o f time
they had been out of work were not related.
The group of Utica boys and girls with work histories of one
or more years was too small to make a satisfactory analysis of the
relation of their grade accomplishment to the average number of
changes in their positions. The figures available show the same
tendency as in Rochester; that is, that children who were eighthgrade graduates averaged fewer changes in position than children
who had not completed the elementary school grades.
87 An Experimental Study o f Children, pp. 602, 6 0 3 ; Employed Boys and Girls in
Milwaukee, p. 56.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE NONWORKING GROUP
Among the boys and girls between 14 and IT years o f age who
had left regular school, and so were included in the study, were a
small number, principally girls, who had not been employed out
side their own homes—in Rochester 311 (8 per cent) and in Utica
128 (11 per cent). Included in this nonworking group in Rochester
were 283 girls and 28 boys. The predominance o f girls was due
no doubt to the fact that girls who desired to leave school were able
to get employment certificates for domestic work at home, whereas
only in exceptional cases were certificates for such work issued to
boys. Most of these young persons, both boys and girls, had com
pleted the legal age and grade requirements for leaving school for
work; more than four-fifths o f the girls but only 6 of the 28 boys
had received employment certificates. In general, this group of
young persons, both boys and girls, had been out of school a suf
ficiently long time prior to the date of the study to have had an
opportunity to find regular employment if they had made an effort
to do so ; about one-half of them had left school at least six months
before the date of the study. They differed little from the working
boys and girls in the ages at which they had left school, in their
school training, and in their grade attainment.
The Utica boys and girls who had not been employed included
9T girls and 31 boys. Most o f them had completed the required
age and grade before leaving school and so were eligible for workcertificates when they obtained the promise of a job. But nearly
three-fourths (69 of the 97 girls and 25 o f the 31 boys) were with
out employment certificates or permits for work at home. Like the
Rochester boys and girls, they had been out of school a considerable
period, nearly one-half at least six months, so that they had had
time to look for work. Like the nonworking group in Rochester,
they were not appreciably different from the working boys and girls
in the ages at which they had left school, in grade attainment, and
in school progress.
A
64
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The 3,416 employed boys and girls in Rochester, N. Y., and the
997 in Utica, between the ages of 14 and 17, included in the study are
believed to constitute most of the minors of these ages in each city
in the spring o f 1927 who had been employed since leaving the regu
lar day schools. This number includes all the boys and girls who
were enrolled in the part-time schools of the two cities on the date
the study was made and also a small number who had left full-time
day schools but had not enrolled in the part-time schools in com
pliance with the school attendance laws. In addition to the em
ployed boys and girls, the study included 311 Rochester and 128
Utica young persons, chiefly girls, who had left the regular full-time
schools but had not been employed outside their own homes.
About two-thirds o f the employed boys and girls in Rochester and
three-fifths in Utica were 16 years of age on the date the study was
made; m ost-of the remainder were 15 years; only 3 per cent in
Rochester and 4 per cent in Utica were 14 years o f age.
The legal regulations o f New York State were one of the princi
pal factors in the school-leaving age of the working boys and girls
o f Rochester and Utica, but they were by no means the only factors,
as the differences in the ages at leaving school o f the boys and girls
in the two cities indicate. Differences in the nationalities of the
families, in the opportunities for employment, and in the educa
tional facilities for vocational training available were among the
other factors involved. More than one-third of the Rochester boys
and girls and more than two-fifths o f those in Utica had left school
at the age of 14 or earlier, and most of the remainder in each city
had left at 15. (See footnote 10, p. 6.) Among the working boys
and girls in both cities were many, especially in Rochester, who had
continued to attend school after they had completed the age and
grade requirements for work certificates.
The grade attainment of the Rochester boys and girls can not be
readily compared with that of the Utica boys and girls, as about twofifths of the former had had vocational work in industrial and com
mercial subjects in addition to work in academic subjects. In Utica
very few had been enrolled in vocational training classes. Fiftytwo per cent of the Rochester boys and 62 per cent o f the girls had
completed eight grades either in academic work only or in academic
and vocational work. Thirty-six per cent o f the Utica boys and 45
per cent o f the girls had finished eight grades in academic subjects.
The amount o f school retardation found among the working boys
and girls o f Rochester at the ages of 14 and 15 did not appear to be
unusual, either among children with or without vocational training,
compared with that among children of the same ages throughout the
country as a whole.
A relatively large proportion o f the Utica working children, 60
pep cent o f the boys and 50 per cent o f the,girls o f 14 and 15, were re65
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
66
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIRLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTIOA
tarded as compared with 40 per cent of the boys and 32 per cent o f
the girls o f the same ages attending schools in the country. This
retardation may be due in part to the large proportion o f Utica
boys and girls who came from families in which the father at least
was foreign born.
The group intelligence tests given the employed boys and girls in
Rochester showed that their mental ability did not equal that of the
children of the sixth grade of the public schools o f the city. These
findings concerning the relative mental ability o f working and of
school boys and girls correspond with those o f other studies. Such
studies have also shown, as does this one, that mentally superior
children are to be found among the working children as among the
general school population, although they are fewer in proportion to
the total number concerned.
The length of time that the boys and girls had had an opportunity
to work (that is,.the length of time between beginning work and the
date o f the study) varied from a few days to nearly three years;
the average period was about 10 months in each city.
The occupations o f the boys and girls in these two cities when
all jobs are considered were chiefly factory, store, and errand occu
pations, for which little skill or special training is generally required,
as in other cities where studies of working children havfe been made.
About two-fifths of the jobs that the Rochester boys and girls
entered before they were 16 and about one-half of the jobs entered
by those o f 16 were in manufacturing and mechanical industries,
chiefly as factory operatives. Only a small percentage of the boys,
jobs were as learners or apprentices in a skilled trade. The boys
in nonmanufacturing industries were chiefly errand workers or salesboys and helpers in restaurants; the girls were bundle and cash
workers in stores, salesgirls, telephone, clerical, or domestic workers.
The kinds o f work the Utica boys and girls did was much the same
as in Rochester, except that many more o f the girls were factory
operatives and very few were clerical workers.
On the whole, as would be expected, the boys and girls o f 16 in
each city had a wider and better choice of work than the younger
children. Factory occupations, which were more common for the
boys and girls of 16 years in each city, frequently offer an oppor
tunity for advancement to better-paid work. Errand work, on the
other hand, in which relatively fewer of the older than o f the
younger children were employed, offers little opportunity.
The school work in industrial subjects that the Rochester boys
had in regular school apparently did not influence the kind of work
in which they actually found employment, doubtless chiefly because
they had too short a period o f training or because they had gone
to work too young to enter the occupations to which their courses
were related. The girls who had had commercial training, on the
other hand, often succeeded in getting clerical work.
The young persons’ wages depended partly on their ages and on
the length o f time they had been at work and were slightly higher
in Rochester than in Utica. The wages varied in each city with
•the kind of work the children did, especially in the case o f boys and
girls o f 16 years. In Rochester the wages of the boys o f 16 em
ployed as factory operatives and clerical workers at the time o f
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
SU M M ARY
AND
C O N C L U S IO N S
67
the study were higher than in other occupations; the wages o f the
girls who were telephone operators and clerical workers were
highest, the wages of factory workers somewhat lower, and the wages
o f sales and errand girls lowest o f all. In Utica factory operatives
o f both sexes received better wages than store and errand workers.
In Rochester the wages that the boys received were about the same
for those with or without vocational training; the girls, however,
with commercial training received, on the whole, somewhat higher
wages than the girls without such training.
That boys and girls who begin work under 16 have little unem
ployment was found to be true o f the working children included
m the Children’s Bureau studies in Newark, Paterson, and Mil
waukee as well as in other studies o f young workers. The boys and
girls of both New York cities also had been employed for the
greater part of the time since they first began work, the Rochester
workers somewhat more continuously than those in Utica. A de
pression in the Utica textile industry no doubt accounted for part
of the unemployment of boys and girls in that city. The Rochester
boys with work histories o f at least a year had been unemployed
for 11 per cent and the girls for 14 per cent o f the time since
beginning work. The Utica boys had been unemployed for 19 per
cent and the girls for IT per cent o f the time.
The number o f different positions that the children had held
ranged from 1 to 14, depending on the length o f their work histories.
About two-thirds of the children in each city had been employed in
two or more positions. The majority o f those who began work
under 16 and had worked 1 year or more had made few changes
in position within a 12-month period; 59 per cent of the Rochester
boys and 76 per cent of the girls had made no change or only one
change in position in the year. Most of the Rochester boys and
irls who had seldom changed positions had also been unemployed
ut little, so they may be considered stable workers. A small group
in each city had changed positions repeatedly and had also expe
rienced a great deal of unemployment.
School attainment was associated to some extent with the amount
of unemployment the young workers reported. The Rochester boys
and the Utica boys and girls who had completed eight grades or
more tended to have a little less unemployment than those from the
lower grades. Grade attainment and superior mental ability was
definitely related to the kind o f work of the Rochester boys and
girls. Those from high-school grades and with relatively good
mental ability (intelligence quotients o f 100 or more) were likely
to be employed in clerical work rather than in factory and store
work. In Utica, where the young workers were seldom from grades
higher than the eighth and had not had commercial training, school
progress and grade attainment did not appear to influence the chil
dren’s occupations. In neither city was there a clear relationship
between school progress and grade attainment and wages.
One o f the recommendations o f the recent White House Confer
ence on Child Health and Protection, held in Washington in No
vember, 1930, as o f the Child Welfare Conference o f 1919, was an
age minimum o f 16 years for regular employment. In connection
with this recommendation and with the proposals that have been
f
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
6 8
EM PLOYED
BOYS
AND
G IR L S
IN
ROCHESTER
AND
U T IC A
made to raise the age minimum for employment in New York State,
certain facts brought out in this study of the working boys and girls
o f Rochester and Utica should again be noted; such as the small
proportion o f the employed children who were 14 years o f age and
the tendency, at least in Rochester, for even those children who
utlimately go to work before they are 17 to remain in school longer
than is required under the law. The lack o f educational content
in much o f the work in which the children under 16 years o f age
were employed indicates that employment before that age is o f little
value to the children industrially. Furthermore, the lack of rela
tionship between the vocational training received while in regular
school by the Rochester boys and girls and the kinds o f work avail
able to them when they entered industry suggests the need for a
resurvey o f the vocational courses offered, in the light of the oppor
tunities for future employment for boys and girls. A recognition
of this need by the Rochester school authorities is indicated by
changes that have been made in vocational training since the time
o f this study. The intensive vocational courses are now limited to
the senior high schools and the work in the junior high schools has
been placed upon an industrial and practical arts basis, giving the
younger student work with a variety o f materials and a broader
experience in different individual processes.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Appendix A.— TABLES SHOWING ALL OCCUPATIONS
T a b l e I .—
Industry and occupation of each regular job and age at beginning
each jo b ; Rochester
Regular jobs
Total
Age at beginning each job
Industry and occupation of each regular job
Per
14
Num cent
years
15
dis
ber tribu and years
under
tion
16 Not re
years ported
645. 2,523
1,182
15
Industry and occupation reported........................................... 4,346
100
640
2,512
1,179
15
194
1,980
4
46
•57
214
96
1,102
40
655
1
9
271
Learners......... .............. ...............................................
274
Helpers and laborers................. - ................... .............
Operatives (except floor boys)_____________ ____ —. 1,279
6
6
29
29
29
129
147
166
703
92
78
442
3
1
10
3
22
9
5
1
54
25
6
31
60
94
63
28
14
232
175
1
22
83
50
37
41
5
101
102
1
1
3
26
1
84
2
40
3
1
6
24
6
1
3
3
1
4,365
Agriculture......................................................................
Manufacturing and mechanical______________________
Other factories______________________ ________
7
63
146
167
110
74
20
387
305
Iron, steel, and metal factories________________
Furniture and woodworking factories__________
Other occupations________________________- ........_.
150
6
Professional service__________________________________
37
Learners___________________________ _____________
Other occupations_______________________________
7
30
(1)
(i)
1
3
4
3
2
9
7
C1)
(l)
1
6
4
20
198
5
26
129
43
Waiters and servants in restaurants and hotels_____
Other occupations___ ___________________________
33
89
76
1
2
2
2
15
9
26
58
45
5
16
22
Other industries or occupations.........................................
1,937
45
337
1,161
435
Learners__ "________________________ ____ ________
Sales and stock boys in stores.................... ...............
Stock boys in factories..._____ __________________ _
Teamsters, drivers, and helpers_________________
Telegraph messengers....... _______________________
Messenger and errand boys_____ ______________ __
11
302
32
173
268
744
7
1
4
6
17
2
44
5
15
54
168
5
174
20
100
175
447
4
83
7
58
38
129
Office and mail boys in factories_______________
Other_______________________________________
61
683
1
16
11
157
33
414
17
112
Shipping clerks______ ____ _______________________
Typists, stenographers, cashiers, and bookkeepers__
Other clerical workers____________________________
Others_________________________________________
67
16
159
165
2
10
1
17
21
40
9
92
99
16
6
49
45
5
11
3
In d u stry and occupation n o t reported ._
__ _
*
19
(l)
<*)
4
4
1Less than 1 per cent.
6d
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
5
3
4
1
1
l
1
70
T
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIELS IN ROCHESTER AND UTICA
able
I .—Industry and occupation of each regular job and age at beginning
each jo b ; Rochester — Continued
Regular jobs
Total#
Age at beginning each job
Industry and occupation of each regular Job
N um
ber
Per
14
cent
years
dis
and
tribu
tion under
Girls................................................................................. 3,591
15
years
16 N ot re
years ported
706
1,957
924
Industry and occupation reported________________________ 3,586
100
704
1,956
922
Agriculture_________________________________________
8
Manufacturing and mechanical......................................... 1,502
<>)
42
3
266
4
836
1
400
1
4
2
243
15
8
777
4
4
384
Learners..................................... .......... ......... ............
23
Helpers and laborers____________________________
14
Operatives (except floor girls)..................................... 1,404
Button factories...........................—......................
Clothing factories, men’s_____________________
Electrical-supply factories____. _______________
Iron, steel, and metal factories________________
Furniture and woodworking factories_________
Optical-supply factories_________ ____ ________
Paper-box factories___________________________
Shoe factories______ _________________________
Other factories______________________________
103
327
91
34
19
37
140
340
313
Floor girls............... ............................................. ........
Other occupations_______________________________
55
36
Professional service__________________________________
37
Learners________________________________________
Other occupations_______________________________
4
33
Domestic and personal service_______________________
434
f 1)
39
3
9
3
1
1
1
4
9
9
31
60
9
9
7
55
200
21
12
22
66
39
16
75
197
192
17
67
61
13
3
21
43
77
82
2
17
32
4
6
2
1
11
18
8
1
11
4
14
8
12
101
240
90
3
8
2
2
1
74
17
9
7
149
45
39
2
49
26
13
3
1
(i)
9
(‘)
•Learners in skilled occupations_________________
Servants in private families______ ____ ___________
Waiters and servants in restaurants and hotels_____
Other occupations_______________________________
10
275
88
61
Other industries or occupations___________ _____ _____
1,605
45
323
858
423
Learners________________________________________
Sales and stock girls in stores_____________________
Stock girls in factories______. _______ _____________
Telephone operators— ___________________________
Messenger and errand girls..........................................
4
539
25
99
341
(«)
15
1
3
10
103
4
1
113
2
309
12
23
189
2
126
9
75
39
Office and mail girls in factories..........................
Other_______________________________________
24
317
1
9
6
107
9
180
9
30
Shipping clerks.............................................................
Typists, stenographers, cashiers, and bookkeepers...
Other clerical workers____________________________
Others...__________________ ____________________
2
262
309
24
7
9
1
47
53
2
1
135
174
13
1
80
82
9
Industry and occupation not reported___ _________________
5
2
1
2
i Less than 1 per cent.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
4
(*)
(»)
•
1
71
A P P E N D IX E S
T able I I .—Industry and occupation of each regular job and age at beginning
each jo b ; Utica
Regular jobs
Total
Age at beginning each job
Industry and occupation of each regular job
Per
14
15
Num cent
years
dis
ber tribu and years
tion under
16 Not re
years ported
148
749
244
33
Industry and occupation reported---------- --------------------------- 1,166
100
148
744
244
30
83
453
7
39
18
43
44
283
14
118
7
9
Alley boys............ - .....................................................
Operatives (except floor boys)____________________
65
43
46
291
6
4
4
25
6
4
6
27
43
26
29
179
16
13
10
78
1
7
77
9
15
66
45
89
7
1
1
5
4
8
6
Clothing factories, men’s................. . ...................
Iron, steel, and metal factories. . ....................... . .
Furniture and woodworking factories........ ........
Other factories.......................................................
48
6
10
35
24
56
23
3
1
16
13
22
3
1
2
1
1
1,174
Agriculture........................ - .............. ................................
8
1
6
1
3
3
i
(‘)
(1)
1
4
6
10
6
1
2
2
2
2
1
1
2
169
14
16
104
38
11
Waiters and servants in*restaurants and hotels_____
Other occupations.......................................................
13
83
73
1
7
6
1
6
9
7
51
46
5
19
14
7
4
Other industries or occupations----------------------------------
455
39
69
311
72
3
3
58
3
35
35
97
7
3
24
1
1
3
94
24
1
Domestic and personal service...................................... .
(>)
Telegraph ’messengers____.*........................................
Messenger and errand boys----------------------------------
4
83
4
52
46
145
4
4
12
1
9
1
10
7
23
Other........................... ..........................................
3
142
(0
12.
23
7
1
21
92
1
2
2
8
2
14
Sales and stock boys in stores____ ____ ___________
Typists, stenographers, cashiers, and bookkeepers-----
Industry and occupation not reported____________________
i Less than 1 per cent.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
8
(i)
(»)
7
4
1
13
62
5
15
1
1
6
16
3
72
EMPLOYED BOYS AND GIBLS IN ROCHESTER AND UTlOA
T a b l e I I .—Industry
and occupation of each regular job and age at beginning
each jo b ; Utica— Continued
Regular jobs
Total
Age at beginning each job
Industry and occupation of each regular job
Num
ber
Per
14
cent
15
dis years
and
tribu under years
tion
16 Not re
years ported
Girls............................................................................. .
1,148
220
698
212
18
Industry and occupation reported................... . ........... .......
1,147
100
220
697
212
18
Agriculture_________ ______________________________
Manufacturing and mechanical____________________
26
764
2
66
15
117
11
476
155
6
Learners______________________________________
Alley girls..................................................................
Operatives (except floor girls)..................................
5
2
706
(»)
(1)
62
3
1
102
2
1
452
146
6
Knitting mills_____________________________
Other textile mills_________________________
Clothing factories, men’s__________ ____ ____
Iron, steel, and metal factories....... ..................
Furniture and woodworking factories________
Other factories.............. .....................................
537
19
61
40
23
26
47
2
5
3
2
2
86
3
5
3
2
3
343
7
46
23
15
18
103
9
10
13
6
5
5
4
9
1
Floor girls___________________ _________________
41
11
21
Professional service___________ ____________________
4
(>j
1
3
Learners______________ ;_______________________
Other occupations_____________________________
1
3
(»)
(»)
1
1
2
32
83
21
!°j
9
2
1
28
2
2
2
53
18
10
1
15
2
3
6
2
2
124
36
2
86
28
1
2
3
4
2
23
5
1
1
3
1
Domestic and personal service___________________ _
146
13
Learners in skilled occupations_________________
Servants in private families.._____________ _____
Waiters and servants in restaurants and hotels___
Other occupations_______ ; ___ _________________
3
102
24
17
Other industries or occupations_____________________
217
19
55
Learners_____________________ ________________
Sales and stock girls in stores_____________ ■._____
Messenger and errand girls_____________________
Shipping clerks_____________ ........... ................... .
Typists, stenographers, cashiers, and bookkeepers.
Other clerical workers__________________________
Others__________________________________ _____
3
145
46
2
4
9
8
(1)
13
4
(1)
(•)
1
1
1
35
12
Industry and occupation not reported___________ ____ _
1 Less than 1 per cent.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1
(I)
1
3
3
1
1
1
1
Appendix B.— LIST OF REFERENCES
The follow ing is a list, arranged chronologically, o f studies and articles that
take up the industrial histories o f boys and girls o f continuation-school age.
Our B o y s ; A S tu d y o f 24 5 ,0 0 0 Sixteen, Seventeen* and E igh teen Y e a r Old
E m ployed B oys o f the State o f N ew Y o r k , by H ow ard C. Burdge. State
o f New York M ilitary Training Commission, Bureau o f Vocational Training.
Albany, 1921. 345 pp.
O ccupations o f Ju n ior W ork ers in D etroit. Vocational Education Department,
School o f Education, University o f Michigan, Special Studies No. 1. Ann
Arbor, 1923. 76 pp.
The H ealth o f the W o r k in g Child. New York State Department o f Labor
Special Bulletin No. 134, prepared by Bureau o f Women in Industry. Albany,
1924. 91 pp.
H opkin s, L. T h om as: The In telligen ce o f C ontinuation-School Children in
M assachusetts. H arvard University Press, Cambridge, 1924. 132 pp.
The W o r k in g Children o f P h ila delph ia; a survey o f the work and working
conditions o f 3,300 continuation-school children, by Anna Bassett Griscom,
W hite-W illiams Foundation and the Junior Employment Service o f the
Board, o f Public Education, Philadelphia, Bulletin Series, No. 3, September,
1924. 45 pp.
A S tud y o f F iv e H u ndred E m ployed P u pils, by Helen M. McClure and Mar
garet G. W oodside. Pittsburgh Public Schools, Department o f Vocational
Guidance. Pittsburgh, 1925. 12 pp.
C hildren A tte n d in g P art-T im e S ch ool in th e State o f N ew Y o r k , 1926.
University o f the State o f New York, State Department o f Education, D ivi
sion o f Vocational Extension Education. (M imeographed.)
The P art-T im e S ch ool and th e P roblem Child, by Emily G. Palm er and Irvin
S. Noall. Division o f Vocational Education o f the University o f California
and o f the State B oard o f Education, Part-Time Education Series, No. 14,
Division Bulletin No. 18. Berkeley, 1926. 72 pp.
P u p il Personnel in P art-T im e Sch ools; a study o f the social composition, educa
tional status, and current working conditions o f part-time school pupils.
Made by the part-time education subcommittee o f vocational-education com
mittee in the National Council o f Education. Presented July, 1926, at
Philadelphia meeting o f the National Education Association. 48 pp.
R eport on an E n qu iry in to the P erson al Circum stances and In d u stria l H is
to r y o f 3,331 B oys and 2,701 G irls R egistered fo r E m ploym en t at
E m p loy m en t E x ch a n g es and J u v en ile-E m p loym en t B ureaux. Ministry o f
Labour Report, Great Britain. London, 1926. 80 pp.
Special In v e s tig a tio n o f C hildren in In d u s tr y A tte n d in g P art-T im e S ch ool,
by Ellen M. Rourke, Bureau o f Labor, State o f Iowa, Bulletin No. 17. Des
Moines, 1926. 77 pp.
W oolley, H elen T h om pson: A n E xperim en tal Study o f Children at W o r k and
in School Between the A g es o f Fourteen and E ighteen Y ears. Macmillan
Co., New York, 1926. 762 pp.
A Com parative Study o f P art-T im e and F u ll-T im e Students in the P u blic
S ch ools o f T oledo, Lim a, and F rem on t, Ohio, by J. Ray Stine. Ohio State
Board fo r Vocational Education. Columbus, 1927. 84 pp.
Fourteen and F ifteen Y e a r Old Children in In du stry. Pennsylvania State
Department o f Labor and Industry Special Bulletin No. 21. Harrisburg, 1927.
29 pp.
M ecredy, M a ry : C alifornia P art-T im e Y ou th . Part I o f Continuation Educa
tion for Employed M inors in California. Los Angeles, 1927.
N a tion al Child L abor C om m ittee: School or W o r k in Indiana, by Charles E.
Gibbons, assisted by Harvey N. Tuttle. New York, 1927. 30 pp.
O pportunities and C on dition s o f W ork- fo r M inors u nder 18 in th e G lass
w are In d u stry. Pennsylvania State Department o f Labor and Industry
Special Bulletin No. 18. Harrisburg, 1927. 43 pp.
73
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
74
EM PLOYED
BOYS
AND
G IR L S
IN
ROCHESTER AND
U T IC A
Ormsbee, H azel G rant: The Y o u n g E m ployed Girl. W om an’s Press, New
York, 1927. 124 pp.
Survey o f the B oys o f N ew ark, N . J., conducted by the boys’ work committee
o f the Newark R otary Club, Newark. [Survey made in 1927.] 89 pp.
Beeley, A rth u r L .: B oys and G irls in Salt Lake City. University o f Utah,
Department o f Sociology and Social Technology. Salt Lake City, July, 1929.
220 pp.
N a tion al Child L abor Com m ittee:
C h ild W ork ers in O klahom a, by Charles E. Gibbons, assisted by Chester T.
Stansbury. New York, 1929. 35 pp.
Child W ork ers in Tulsa, by Charles E. Gibbons, assisted by Chester T.
Stansbury. New York, 1929. 36 pp.
C h ild W ork ers in T w o C on n ecticu t T ow n s, N ew B rita in and N orw ich ,
by Claude E. Robinson. New York, 1929. 44 pp.
R eport o f C ontinuation-S chool P u p ils in N ew Y o r k State; a study in selected
schools in New Y ork City and upstate with particular reference to observance
o f child labor laws. Investigation conducted by New Y ork Child Labor Com
mittee, June, 1928-October, 1929. (M imeographed.)
Special In v estig a tion o f the P art-T im e School and Ju n ior W ork er in the
C ity o f Seattle, by Calvin F. Schmid. W ashington State Board fo r Vocational
Education Bulletin 4, Trade and Industrial Series No. 2. Olympia, 1929.
50 pp.
A Study o f W o r k Experiences o f B oys and the E ffect o f E m ploym en t E x
periences on Present Job Status. Akron Continuation School, Akron, 1929.
14 pp. (M imeographed.)
1,358 Child L aborers in F ou r M an u fa ctu rin g Cities; a survey made by the
Consumers’ League o f Connecticut in 1927. Pamphlet No. 17. H artford,
January, 1929. 49 pp.
T ru m bu ll, F rederick M .: Guidance and E ducation o f P rospective Ju n ior
W a g e Earners. John W iley & Sons (In c .), New York, 1929. 298 pp.
L ondon A d v is o ry C ouncil fo r Ju venile E m ploym en t: The W o r k o f Juvenile
A d v is o ry Com m ittees in Lon don. Sixth Annual Report, 1929, pp. 10-23
(London, 1930) ; Seventh Annual Report, 1930, pp. 14r-31 (London, 1931) ; and
Eighth Annual Report, 1931, pp. 6-9 (London, 1932).
P u p ils W h o L eave S ch ool, by Em ily G. Palmer. Division o f Vocational Educa
tion o f the University o f California and o f the State Department o f Educa
tion, Part-Time Education Series No. 17, Division Bulletin No. 24. Berkeley,
January, 1930. 142 pp.
C hild L ab or in N ew Jersey— Part 3, The W orking Children o f Newark and
Paterson. U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 199. Washington, 1931.
94 pp.
Earle, F. M .: M ethods o f Choosing a Career. G. G. Harrap & Co., London,
1931. 333 pp.
N a tion al Child L abor C om m ittee: A dm in istra tion o f the Child L abor Law
in Ohio, by Charles E. Gibbons, assisted by Chester T. Stansbury. New York,
1931. 66 pp.
The P rodu ct o f the M inneapolis P u blic Schools. Report o f the Superintendent
o f Schools to the Board o f Education, Minneapolis, January, 1931. 49 pp.
T ype o f Jobs H eld b y a Group o f C ontinuation-School Children. Industrial
Bulletin (Industrial Commission o f New Y ork State, A lban y), December,
1931, p. 70.
E m ployed B oys and G irls in M ilw aukee. U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication
No. 213. Washington, 1932. 71 pp.
o
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
@FedFRASER