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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR W. B. WILSON, Secretary WOMEN'S BUREAU MARY ANDERSON" Director NIGHT-WORK LAWS IN THE UNITED- STA TES Summary of State Legislation Regulating Night Work for Women BULLETIN No. 7 October 15, 1919 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 1920 'fHE CONTROL OF NIGHT WORK FOR WOMEN IN UNITED STATES THROUGH STATE LEGISLATION. LAWS LIMITING THE NUMBER OF HOURS THAT WOMEN MAY WORK AT NIGHT IN CERTAIN OCCUPATIONS.1 Six tates-Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, ebraska, New Hampshire, Wisconsin-have passed laws limiting the number of hours which women may work at night: Eight hours per night, 48 hours per week. Three States-Kansas, Tew Hampshire, Wisconsin-limit the hours that may be worked during any one night to 8 and th weekly hours of night work to 4 . Wiscon sin i · the only one that sp eifies that thi work time must fall within certain hour -8 p. m. to 6 a. m.- in order to be considered night worl-:. The Kansa ruling applies only to public housekeeping. New Hampshire covers all manual or mechanical employment, but excepts household labor, nur ·e ; dome tic, hotel, and boarding-house labor; operators in telephone and telegraph offices; farm labor; manufacture of munitions or supplies for the nitecl tate or State during war time; mercantile establi hments on the 7 day pr c cling Christma . Wi consin includ e· me hanical or mercantile establi hment, re taunmt, confectionery store. tel0phone and telegraph, express, or trnm:porta tion·. Eight hours' labor within certain fixed hours. Two tates-Delaware and Maryland-limit the number of hours that a woman may work at night to 8, ancl further provide that some part of thiS work time must fall between certain definitely specified hours in order to be consiclered night work. Delaware places th se limits at 11 p. m. to 7 a. m.; Maryland, as 10 p. rn. to 6 a. m. Both States cover mercantile establishments. Delaware includes telephone and telegraph office or exchange. The Maryland law also applie to manufacturing, mechanical, printing, baking, laundering e tablishments, but excepts canning. Eight hours per night. •.rwo States--Wisconsin and Nebraska-have limited night work to 8 consecutive hours. The cope of these laws varies greatly, as Nebraska only cover. public- enic corporations and ,vi consin specifie "any occupation." Twelve hours overall per night. Th Kansas Indu trial Welfare Commis ion bas ruled that if telephone operator are regularly employed after 10.30 p. m., they may not be on duty more than 12 hour per nio-bt, this time to include rest time and sleep time as w 11 as work time. 1 For references and brief statement of laws see Appendix I. 100846-20 2 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (Atta ched chart.) i NIGHT-WORK LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES. 3 Value of Jaws. These laws recognize the evils of night work and seek to lessen the bad results of such work by limiting the hours of labor. It is probable that by restricting the conditions of employment, night work by women is prevented to a degree. In many occupations, however, especially in telephone and telegraph establishments, it has not been possible so far to prohibit night work. Only two States-Maryland and New Hampshire-have failed to follow up these laws limiting the hours of labor at night by enacting laws prohibiting night work in some occupations. This would seem to be evidence of the fact that these laws are a definite recognition of the bad effects of night work, and that in all probability they are first steps toward its prohibition. LAWS PROHIBITING WOMEN FROM WORKING AT NIGHT IN CERTAIN OCCUPATIONS. Twelve States, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas Massaelm etts, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah,2 Wisconsin, and one Territory, Porto Rico, have prohibited women from workino· at night in certain occupations. Within specified hours. Nine States, Connecticut, Delav;are, Indiana, Kan ·as, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania. ,visconsin, and one Territory, Porto Rico, have set certain definite hours between which women are prohibited from workino- in a number of occupations. 5 p. m. to 8 a. m. The longe. t period of time during which women are prohibited from doing night work is from 5 p. m. to 8 a. m. in Wisconsin. This act regulates the employment of conductors, motormen, flagmen on sfreet car lines in first-class cities. 5 p. m. to 6 a. m. Wisconsin has also prohibited the work of women as conductors, motormen, flagmen on treet car lines outside first-class cities between the hours of 5 p. m. and 6 a. m. 6 p. m. to 6 a. m. Two tates, Massachusetts and Wisconsin, prohibit night work between 6 p. m. and 6 a. m. Massachusetts applies only to the manufacture of textile o-ood ; Wi, consin covers manufacturing and laundries, but excepts canneries. 9 p. m. to 6 a. m. Kansas prohibits night work in factories between 9 p. m. and 6 a. m. 10 p. m. to 7 a. m. New York prohibits night work in mercantile establishments for messengers or telegraph or messenger companies and on any type of street car between 10 p. m. and 7 a. m., but excepts mercantile establishments from December 18 to 24 and two clays annually for stock taking. 2 The Utah law has been declared uncon ·tituUonal by a State cou rt, l>ut ba:; not l>een passed on by the u nited States Supr .me Court. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 4 NIGHT-WORK LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES. 10 p. m. to 6 a. m. even 'tates, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, and one Territory, Porto Rico, prohibit women from working in certain occupations between 10 p. m. and 6 a. m. Six States, Delaware, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, l'eunsylvania, cover manufacturing, but Delaware excepts canning and Pennsylvania excepts the clerical force of factories. Two States, Connecticut and Nebraska, include mercantile establishments. Nebraska and Delaware include mechanical establishments ar.id laundries. New York and Nebraska cover restaurants, although New York limits this to cities of the first and ·econd class, and excepts performers of any kind, cloak-room attendants, dinin.g rooms and kitchens of hotels, and employees' lunch rooms. In addition, rebruska covers hotels, and Delaware bakery, office, printing, dressmaking establishments. Porto Rico covers all lucrative employment, but excepts stenographe r , typewriters, office assistants, telephone and telegraph operators, nurses, dorue~tics. After a specified hour. Five States, Connecticut, Kansas, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, prohibit women from working after a fixed hour. After 6 p. m. Two States, Oregon and Utah, prohibit the employment of women in mercantile establishments after 6 p. m. In Oregon the law covers Portland and excepts cigar stand s in hotels and confectionery stores. The Utah law applies to all workers in cities of 10,000 population or over, excepting on the sis business days before Christmas. After 8.30 p. m. Oregon prohibits the employment of women in mercantile stores outside of Portland and in manufacturing and laundry after 8.30 p. m., but again excepts cigar stands in hotels and confectionery stores. 9 p. m. Kansas prohibits women from working in mercantile establishments :.1.fter 9 p. m. 10 p. m. Two States, Connecticut and South Carolina, prohibit night work for women after 10 p. rn. The Connecticut law applies to restaurants and cafe. , dining rooms, barber shops, hairdressing, manicuring establishment ·, photograph gallery. South Carolina covers mercantile es tablishments. Value of laws. These laws constitute the legal expression in the United State of the belief that night work is injurious to workers. In preventing night work we are far behind mo t European countries, where the prohibition is country wide. Not only are our night-work laws limited to a few of our State , but even those laws that do exist include a very small number of occupations. Indiana and Pennsylvania cover manufacturing alone. South Carolina and Utah only include mercantile establishments. Many of the other laws have exceptions that riously limit their effectiveness. The prohibition of night work in the Uni!etl S tat e:-; really nff cts only u srnnll part of one cl:p,;::; of \YOrl, pr:-,. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 0