Full text of Facts on Women Workers : March 31, 1951

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FACTS

on Women Workers
U. S. Department of Labor

Maurice J. Tobin,

Secretary

Women's Bureau

Frieda S. Miller,

Director

WASHINGTON 25, D. C. .

March 31, 1951

EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN FEBRUARY 1251

The number of women in the labor force increased by over half a million from
February 1950 to February 1951, according to the Bureau of the Census. The
change was the net result of an increase of 1 million employed women and a
decrease of nearly half a million in the number unemployed. Practically all
of the increase was among women in nonagricultural employment.
From January to February 1951 there was little change in the number of women
in any group. Unemployment among women fell although there is usually a
seasonal increase, at this time of year.

Number of
women

Civilian population
(14 years and over)
Civilian labor force
Employed
In agriculture
In nonagricultural
industries
Unemployed
Nonworkers

February 1951
Percent women
Change since
of all persons January 1951

Change since
February 1950

56,793,000
18,419,000
17,605,000
610,000

52.1
30.0
29.9
10.3

♦ 42,000
- 2,000
♦ 23,000
- 46,000

♦
♦
♦
♦

665,000
551,000
995,000
32,000

16,996,000
813,000
38,374,000

32.1
33.S
30.6

♦ 75,000
- 31,000
♦ 43,000

♦
♦

964,000
445,000
114,000

(U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census )

COST OF LIVING

The New York State Department of Labor reported last month that according to
the fourteenth survey of living costs made by its Division of Research and
Statistics a working woman living with her family in New York State in
September 1950 needed $41*46 a week ($2,155*92 annually) to support herself
adequately, pay income tax and save for emergencies and old age. Of this
amount, $12.IS was for housing, food at home and other household expenses!
$3.20 for lunches! $6.53 for clothing! $0.47 for clothing upkeep! $1*04 for
personal care! $1.74 for medical care! $3.16 for leisure-time activities!
$2.SI for other living essentials (including transportation)! $1.35 for
insurance! $4.15 for 6avings! and $4.S3 for taxes. This represents an
increase of almost 6 percent over the amount which was found to be needed
! in January 1950.
^/, y




LIBRARY
A. & M. COLLEGE OF TEXAS

MINIMUM WAGE

♦

Colorado has revised its four prewar minimum-wage orders, effective as follows:
Laundry (Feb. 11)j retail trade (Feb. 18)} beauty service (Mar. 4) J and public
housekeeping (Mar. 10). All include provisions establishing working conditions
standards as well as wage rates. The laundry order, like the former order, sets
two zones, establishing minimums of 55 cents and 45 cents, respectively, for a
workweek up to 44 hours, with time and one-half employee's regular hourly rate
after 44 hours. The retail trade order divides the State into two zones, instead
of three as in the former order. Minimums, of 55 cents and 45 cents,respectively,
are set for experienced workers for a 48-hour workweek. The order for beauty
service occupations, like the superseded one, sets State-wide minimums. Senior
operators must be paid 65 cents an hour and junior operators, 50 cents an hour
for a basic workday of 8 hours or a basic workweek of 44 hours. Overtime after 44
hours must be paid at time and one-half the employee's regular rate. The public
housekeeping order retains the former two zones. It sets a 55-cent hourly mini­
mum for Zone A. and a 45-cent minimum for Zone B for hours worked up to jtauiay or
48 a week.

All of these industries are covered by the Woman's 8-Hour Law, and an amendment
to this law provides that only in emergencies or conditions demanding immediate
action may the workday of women and minor employees exceed 8 hours, and then
only if the employer has first secured an emergency relaxation permit from the
Industrial Commission.
New Hampshire's revised minimum-wage order for restaurants, effective October 1,1950,
establishes a minimum hourly rate of 50 cents for non-service and 40 cents for
service employees (former rates were 16 2/3 cents and 13 cents respectively).
Employer may deduct 40 cent6 for each meal furnished but not exceeding $4*80 a
week, while the old order required employer to add 25 cents to the wage for each
meal not furnished by him.
New York recently issued its first minimum-wage order for the amusement and
recreation industry, effective April 22, 1951* It sets rates on both an occupa­
tional and community-size basis. Rates range from 75 cents an hour for cashiers,
cleaners, porters and matrons in motion picture theaters In the larger communities
to 9 cents per line for pin setters in sections other than New York City and
Nassau and Westchester Counties.
2 MILLION ADDITIONAL WOMEN UNDER SOCIAL SECURITY

Over 2 million women are now, for the first time, eligible for old-age and
survivors insurance, by extension of the coverage of the Social Security Act
effective January 1, 1951* The Social Security Administration estimates that
women are 45 percent of the total workers benefited} numbers of women affected
in each type of employment are as follows: Domestic service, 750,000} employees
of non-profit organizations, 420,000} Federal civilian employees, 62,000 (not
covered by Civil Service or other governmental retirement plans)} workers in
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, 100,000} State and local government
employees, 350,000} agricultural labor, 13,000} agricultural processing,
100,000} self-employed persons, 550,000} and workers employed outside of the
United States, 15,000. In Puerto Rico coverage was contingent on legislative
action which took the form of a concurrent resolution by the legislature to
the Governor that it desired the extension of the Social Security Act to
Puerto Rico.




A

WOMEN IN BUSINESS AND INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONS
Over 1 million women in the United States were working in their own businesses,
professions, or trades, for profit or fees, in February 1951, according to
data from the U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. In addition,
215,000 women were self-employed in agriculture—operating farms of their own.
The entire group of self-employed women were less than 10 percent of all
employed women.
Though self-employed women workers were significant in numbers, women were
relatively less important in this type of employment than among certain other
groups of workers. Women were about 1 out of every 3 wage or salary workers,
for example, but only about 1 out of every 7 persons in self employment.

EARNINGS OF SOCIAL WORKERS, 1950
.^Salaries of the estimated 75,000 social workers in the country averaged $2,960
annually, according to a survey conducted early in 1950 by the U. S. Department
of Labor’s Bvreau of Labor Statistics in cooperation with other Government and
private agencies. Case or group workers, who represent over 60 percent of all
of the social workers in the country, earned an average of $2,730 a year. The
highest paid single group of social workers were teachers of social work, and
lowest paid were social workers in institutions for the aged.
m

Women case or group workers, who make up about three-quarters of all persons
doing case work, averaged $2,660 a year contrasted with $2,860 for men in
similar jobs. Executives in social work averaged $3,700 annually? men receiv­
ing an average of $4,430 and women, $3,180.

AVERAGE TEACHER WORKS 48-HOUR WEEK
Teachers spend an average of 47.9 hours each week in school service, according
to a survey made recently by the National Education Association. They are
required to spend 32.3 hours, on the average, *on duty,* but additional hours
are necessary for correcting papers, class preparation, making out records and
sponsoring extra-curricular activities. The 48 hours a teacher averages in
working time does not include time spent participating in non-school
organisations such as parent-teacher associations and voluntary community
services? the average teacher reported nearly 4 hours each week in this type
of work.

Summer School Expenses May be Deductible from Income Tax — The U. S. Depart­
ment of the Treasury, Bureau of Internal Revenue has announced a new rule
which permits teachers to deduct summer-school costs as a necessary business
expense for Federal income-tax purposes, if the summer-school expenses are
incurred in order to maintain their positions. Expenses incurred for the
purpose of obtaining a teaching position, qualifying for permanent status, a
higher position, or advance in the salary schedule, are not deductible.

NEGRO WOMEN IN POLITICS
Two Negro women are serving in State legislatures this year. In West Virginia,
a Negro school teacher won a seat in the State house of delegates, after almost
30 years of aotive participation in local and State politics. In Michigan,
an Atlanta-born, 29-year old woman with no previous political experience was

elected to the legislature.


VOMEN IN FORESTRY

Wien the Society of American Foresters met in Washington, D. C., recently to
celebrate its 50th anniversary, the membership rolls shoved 16 women among the
4
6,800 professional foresters. According to a summary published in American Forests,
during 50 years of professional forestry, 28 women have received forestry degrees.
While at the present time no school bars girls outright, many attempt to discourage
girls from enrolling, pointing out various complications and disadvantages.

The first woman to receive a degree in forestry, so far as is known, was
Mabel Beckley, vho was graduated from Cornell University in 1915. She never worked
in forestry, but married a classmate a year after graduation. The second woman
forester was graduated in 1922 from the University of Washington, received a master’s
degree in 1924, and immediately married. Not until 1930 did a woman graduate in
forestry actually work in her professional field, Marge ret St ought en, an Iowa State
College graduate, took a Civil Service examination, passed and was hired by the
U. S. Forest Service in its South East Experiment Station. She continued to work
for 5 years. During the 1930’s, 9 other women foresters were graduated, 7 of idiom
did forestry work of some type, usually desk jobs related to forestry. Of all the
women who were ever graduated in forestry, over half have worked in the forestry
field, averaging about 3 years of work each. Ten were in Government service, the
other 5 in private industry.
LEISURE TIME OF THE AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE
Most housewives have only 1 or 2 hours of leisure time each day, according to a
study made recently by Purdue University of 1,250 housewives in urban and rural
communities in five Midwestern States. Rural housewives had larger families and
less leisure time than the urban housewives in this study. The city housewives
were found to have more •modern conveniences* than rural housewives, and for this
reason also had greater amounts of leisure time. Almost all the housewives
reported that they read or listen to the radio in their leisure time, and next
to these activities club attendance ranked highest. About half of the urban and
over 90 percent of the rural housewives spend part of their leisure time in home
economics clubs. The League of Women Voters ranked high with urban housewives as
a leisure-time activity.

£

WOMAN TRADE UNIONIST TO AID JAPANESE UNIONS
The first woman trade unionist from the United States to go to the Orient on an
official labor mission left Washington early in March, to fly to Tokyo.
Miss Gladys Dickason, a vice-president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, CIO,
at General MacArthur’s invitation will advise members of his staff on ways of
encouraging activities of Japanese women in the trade union movement and
promoting the growth of democracy there. While in Tokyo Miss Dickason will also
serve as fraternal delegate from the CIO to the convention of the General Council
of Trade Unions of Japan, she plans to deliver greetings to the convention in a
brief speech in Japanese learned for the occasion.

Women in the Professions, by Marguerite V. Zapoleon. Reprinted from the JOURNAL
OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Vol. 6, No. 3. 1950. (Available at the Women’s Bureau.)
<
Statement of Frieda S. Miller, Director, Women’s Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor,
I0U
before the Subcommittee on Immigration of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary
at Joint Hearings on S. 716 and H.R. 2379, the "Immigration and Nationality Act.*
EEAD
March 20, 1951. 4 pp. Mimeo.

HAVE




(The printing of this publication has been approved by
the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, March 9, 1950.)