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U3.3s/**'*l\^ 3 ; 2. GRINNELL COL' ubrary » OF LABOR UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary WOMEN’S BUREAU MARY ANDERSON, Director ■4 OFFICE WORK IN LOS ANGELES 1940 Bulletin of the Women’s Bureau, . UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1942 U>c3 HO- No. 188-2 5For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. Price 10 cents i - f A - ' ' ’ CONTENTS Page Oi hi 1 C O Introduction; Types of business that employ office workers. Demands for new office workers_______ Numbers hired in 1939___________ Character of office occupations_____________ Education and experience of office workers 17 Education._____________ Schooling and occupation 17 Location of school attended...: Amount of schooling 17 Time elapsing between finishing school and first office job______ Experience Over-all time in office work Time with present employer, by type of office_____________________ Earnings in 1940_____________________________ ______________________ Method of pay 23 Monthly salary rates by type of office 23 Monthly salary rates by occupation______________________ ________ Stenographic group 25 Accounting group 27 Calculating-machine operators;______________________________ Other clerical occupations 28 Administrative, supervisory, clerical-professional1 Weekly earnings compared with salary rates Hours of work Overtime.___________________________________________ Effect of experience and education on rates of pay_______________________ Over-all time in office work_____________________ ___________________ Time with present employer 38 Salary progression within the same firm 39 Experience, schooling, and salary 41 Rates paid beginners_____________________ ___________________ _____ Part-time and extra employees__________________________________ Education and salary Age of workers Age and salary..________________________________________ _________ Annual earnings Regularity of employment Ampunt.of earnings......._______ ___________________ _____________ Annual earnings by type of office 52 Annual earnings by occupation 53 Personnel policies '57 Restriction on account of marital status 57 Hiring practices and source of new employees 57 Salary increases and promotions 58 Other welfare_______________________________ 17 17 19 19 19 20 23 25' 27 28 34 35 37 37 41 42 42 45 45 49 49 49 rv CONTENTS Personal policies—Continued. Labor organizations_________________ Vacations._____________________________________ __________ Time allowance for illness 59 School facilities for training office workers________________________ ____ Page 58 59 61 TABLES I. Number of offices scheduled, number of men and women they employed, and number of records secured, 1940, by type of office—Los Angeles__ ______________ II. Distribution by occupation of all employees reported, and pre dominance of men or of women in each occupation—Los Angeles____________ III. Number of women and of men regular employees in the various types of office, by occupational group—Los Angeles__________ IV. Maximum education of employees by type of office—Los Angeles. V. Total office experience of employees, by occupational group—Los Angeles______________ _______ _____________________________ .' VI. Percent distribution of employees according to length of experi ence with present employer, by type of office—Los Angeles___ VII. Average monthly salary and percents of employees at certain salary levels, by type of office—Los Angeles____________:____ VIII. Percent that stenographic employees comprise of all women in specified types of office and their average salaries, by selected occupation—Los Angeles 26 IX. Average monthly salary rates of men and women regular employees in offices, 1940, by type of office—Los Angeles_______________ X. Percent distribution of men and women regular employees in ’ offices according to monthly salary rate, 1940, by type of office—Los Angeles 30 XI. Average monthly salary rates of men and women regular employees in offices, 1940, by occupation—Los Angeles_________________ XII. Percent distribution of men and women regular employees in offices according to monthly salary rate, 1940, by occupation—Los Angeles_ _ XIII. Average monthly salary according to length of service with present firm, by type of office—LosAngeles 40 XIV. Average monthly salary, by age and maximum education—Los Angeles____ XV. Percent distribution of employees according to age, by type of office—Los Angeles_____________ XVI. Average monthly salary of employees in the various age groups, by type of office—Los Angeles.____________________ XVII. Percent distribution of employees according to annual earnings for work in 48 weeks or more of 1939, by type of office—Los Angeles 50 XVIII. Percent distribution of employees according to annual earnings for work in 48 weeks or more of 1939, by occupation—Los Angeles 54 2 10 11 18 20 21 24 29 31 32 43 47 48 CHART Average monthly salary rate according to over-all time since first office job—Los Angeles*________________________________________________ 38 OFFICE WORK IN LOS ANGELES, 1940 INTRODUCTION Los Angeles, as the largest city in the Southwest, is a commercial, financial, and industrial center. In 1930 the census reported about 75,000 office workers within the corporate limits of the city. Census data for 1940 are not yet available for clerical workers but the popu lation of the city has increased by more than 20 percent, with a larger increase reported by most of the surrounding towns in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles. Many of the office workers live in these suburban towns. The local estimate of office workers in the Los Angeles metropolitan area is about 100,000, an estimate undoubtedly indica tive of the demand for office workers. Industries of first rank and local importance in the Los Angeles area are motion pictures, aircraft, citrus fruits, and oil. In addition, the city has much diversified manufacturing, financial agencies of all kinds, many retail and wholesale outlets, public utilities, and govern mental, educational, professional, real estate, and other offices that cater to the economic life and social needs of a large city. Office workers are employed today in every type of business. They are essential also in social and political activities, educational institu tions, churches, hospitals, social service, and municipal, county, State, and National Governments. The demand for office workers has swelled with the expansion of banking, financial services for security and bond transactions, credit, loans, risk bearing and insurance. Production control, cost accounting, planning, and record keeping are important in manufacturing and require an underpinning of clerical workers. Advertising, sales promotion, and the distribution of goods in a highly competitive business economy create clerical demand. The. spread and growth of governmental activity, of schools, recrea tion, personal, social service, and professional groups, also have required a marked increase in office workers. An office is primarily a facilitating service for coordinating activities such as production, selling, finance, accounting, administration, and public relations. The stenographic, bookkeeping or general accounting, credit, collec tion, order and billing, pay roll, mailing, filing, and general record keeping functions are definitely classed as office work, and usually in addition the services rendered by messengers, telephone operators, and receptionists. 1 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 2 The Women’s Bureau survey of office workers hi Los Angeles was made in the first half of 1940. Representative firms of all types were included. More than 26,000 office workers were employed in the 257 offices covered. Individual records as to monthly and annual salary, occupation, office experience, and personal data as to age, marital status, and schooling, and office policies and practices as to hours, vacations, and personnel management, were compiled for approxi mately 18,500 office workers. In the larger banks, oil companies, public utilities (other than railroads), aircraft companies, and govern mental and school offices individual records were not obtained for every worker, but a representative sample of all occupational groups of men and of women was selected. Women were 57 percent of the total. They outnumbered men as office workers in all but aircraft, banks, investment, oil, railroad, city, and title guarantee insurance. All sizes of offices were scheduled, from some with 1 employee to others that employed more than 1,000; four-fifths had less than 100 employees. Table I gives the scope of the survey as to the types of offices covered and the numbers employed. I.—Number of offices scheduled, number of men and women they employed, and number of records secured, 194-0, by type of office—LOS ANGELES Table Number of men and women employed Employee records secured Total Men 257 26,395 12,543 13,852 18,496 7,930 10,566 5 10 10 5 4 10 4,319 373 245 112 1,122 704 3,040 196 104 47 381 414 1,279 177 141 65 741 290 1,594 373 245 112 1,122 704 1,050 196 104 47 381 414 644 177 141 65 741 290 34.1 47.5 67.6 58.0 66.0 41.2 3 6 Type of office Num ber of offices sched uled 816 2,649 591 621 225 2,028 816 1,455 591 459 225 993 27.6 68.5 42.6 Women Oil producing, refining, and distrib- Women Total Men Num Percent of total ber o 8 1,685 946 739 1, 259 723 536 3 2,971 2, 290 681 912 606 306 38 1,912 908 1,004 1,912 908 1,004 52.5 13 926 107 819 926 107 819 88.4 7 1 4 2 672 1,562 1,148 1,192 209 1,008 257 260 463 554 891 932 672 1,049 639 1,192 209 614 145 260 463 435 494 932 68.9 41.5 77.3 78.2 3 3 1,825 1,256 160 862 166 19 963 1,090 141 1, 825 783 160 862 118 19 963 665 141 52.8 84.9 88.1 115 8 60 5 13 29 746 104 156 158 280 48 117 19 24 34 40 629 85 132 124 240 48 746 104 156 158 280 48 117 19 24 34 40 629 85 132 124 240 48 84.3 81.7 84.6 78.5 85.7 100.0 Other manufacturing and wholesale i Not obtainable; data for men not reported by one firm. (■) TYPES OF BUSINESS THAT EMPLOY OFFICE WORKERS Financial. Commercial branch banking, with a small number of large banks and many branches, is characteristic of Los Angeles. More than 200 branch banks are listed in the telephone directory; but actually there are only 7 major commercial banks that employ as many as 25 office employees. Two of the seven with their branch organizations employ three-fourths of all the bank clerks. An estimate of the total number of men and women employed as office workers in banks in 1940 is 7,000. Four commercial banks and the Federal Reserve Bank, whose combined clerical employees numbered 4,300, were scheduled. Men constitute about two-thirds, women one-third, of the clerical force. Security and bond dealers, firms engaged primarily in the flotation, purchase, sale, and brokerage of stocks and bonds, have been classed as Investment. There are about 130 stock and bond houses in Los Angeles and their employment of clerical workers is about 3,000. The majority of the offices are small, that is, less than 25 office employees. Ten, with 373 employees, were scheduled; 7 of them had less than 25 office workers. Men slightly outnumber women in this type of establishment. In addition to office workers the security and bond houses employ an appreciable group of “customers’ men,” who are more professional than clerical. Some of their duties are clerical but their job responsibility is chiefly giving advice, servicing customers’ accounts, and putting through orders for purchases and sales. These men are not included with the office workers. Los Angeles has a large number of Personal and chattel loan comallies such as installment, personal finance, and remedial loan rokers. These are characteristically small offices and together probably do not employ more than 500. Ten, with 245 office workers, are included in the survey and only 3 have 25 and more employees. Many of the credit and loan companies have only 1 or 2 office workers. Women outnumber men. Building and loan and Mortgage companies are fewer in number than the personal and chattel loan companies. Many had been closed during the current year and in the 25 or 30 companies of this kind in operation the total office employment was under 500. Five of the type were scheduled; these have 112 office employees, of whom 58 percent are women. In size these offices range from 4 to 34 employees. Office workers in Insurance companies may be employed in a home office, a regional departmental or branch office, or in an agency or in surance brokerage office. Home offices for insurance tend to con centrate in certain States, of which California is not one, but there are a number of large regional and branch offices. The agency offices tend to be small—one general office worker—and often are combined with some other selling service, as real estate. In this study small E 3 4 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 offices that also sell or service real estate are classed with real estate. No satisfactory estimate of the number of insurance offices is available, but the total number of clerical employees in such places is estimated as close to 5,000. In this survey 4 offices, with a total of about 1,100 employees, were scheduled; 2 had 500 and more and the other 2 less than 50 employees. Women comprise about two-thirds of the office workers. Young inexperienced workers are given preference by insurance companies. Title guaranty and insurance companies employ about 750 office workers in Los Angeles. All the large companies—10, with 704 such employees—were scheduled. Men comprise almost 60 percent of the force. Though classed as clerical workers by their employers, many of these men have a knowledge of real-estate titles secured by ex perience as real-estate salemen or as legal clerks, and they offer more than clerical techniques and abilities for their jobs. Public utilities. The data presented for the Railroad group include three transpor tation offices, employing 816 persons, whose promotional and retire ment policies are set by the policies and standards of the Railroad Retirement Act. Three-fourths to four-fifths of the office workers in railroads are covered by the survey. Offices of other interstate trans portation systems, such as bus companies, center in San Francisco and none were scheduled in Los Angeles. Men predominate as office workers in the railroads, being almost three-fourths of the total. The sample of Public utilities other than railroads, 6 offices, includes telephone, telegraph, radiogram, electric companies, and the city street-car system. Office workers in these types of business are esti mated at about 3,500. In the 6 firms, records for about 1,450 office workers of their total t>f approximately 2,650 were secured. Oil; Aircraft; Motion pictures. A basic industry in southern California is the Producting, refining, and distributing of oil.1 Thirty-two oil companies were canvassed to ascertain the number of office employees, which totaled about 3,300, ranging by office from 1 clerk to more than 600. Eight companies employing almost 1,700, or about one-half of the total, were sched uled. Four were large offices having more than 100 clerks; 2 had less than 25 clerks; one 25 and less than 50; and one 50 and less than 100. The booming industry of southern California at present is Aircraft. Expansion of this industry for the defense program was only in its primary stage in the spring of 1940. Four of the country’s largest plane producers have their home offices in the Los Angeles metro politan area. Office workers in these plants, who comprised more than 3,000 in 1940, by 1941 probably have passed 5,000. Due to the frenzied production tempo, it was difficult to get complete records for office workers in this industry. A sample in each of three firms, aggre gating 900 of their total employment of practically 3,000, was obtained. Women in 1940 were a comparatively small part of the office force, as aircraft has been a man’s industry. Further, it is a new industry, so most of the workers are young people and have short employment histories. 1 For a detailed description of the office organization in the oil industry see the Houston (Tex.) section of this study. TYPES OF BUSINESS----LOS ANGELES 5 Los Angeles County ranks first in the production of Motion pictures. The producing studios offer employment to 3,000 to 3,500 office workers, depending on the cyclical conditions of the industry. The major studios have a large force of office workers throughout the year, while the minor ones, which produce pictures intermittently, have marked fluctuations in their numbers and employ workers for short and irregular periods. The four largest studios employ at least onelialf of the clerks. Because of the importance of this industry in Los Angeles, it seemed worth while to give special emphasis to securing a well-rounded sample. A 1939 directory of Los Angeles industries listed 21 studios with more than 50 employees each. Seven studios with about 1,800 office workers were scheduled in their entirety. Three of the studios had 300 and more clerks, 2 had 100 and under 200, and 2 had 50 and under 100. Men and women are clerks in fairly equal numbers, with women slightly in the lead (53 percent women). Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors. Oil, aircraft, and motion pictures are the basic production industries of the Los Angeles area but in addition there is widely diversified Manufacturing. The 1937 Census of Manufactures reports 4,504 establishments in the Los Angeles industrial area. Almost 200 nationally known concerns have bona fide factories—not branch sales offices—within the city. There are many small factories in the needle trades, food, and novelty lines. These have small offices with one or two general office workers. Among the more significant types of manufacture, judged by size of establishment, are motor vehicles, tires, meat packing, publishing, foundry and metal products, and furniture. Many of the manufacturers have their sales organization and distributive organization in the same office, which makes it difficult to separate clerical personnel into the two activities. Whole sale [distributors in the sense of jobbers—other than manufacturers— in general have small offices. The 1935 Census of Business reports approximately 3,000 wholesalers in Los Angeles, with a total office force of approximately 6,700, an average of only just over 2 to an office. In the present study, offices of manufacturers and of wholesale distributors are tabulated together. Though the 2 . combined are estimated to employ in the neighborhood of 22,000 to 25,000 clerical workers, the 38 offices scheduled, employing 1,912 office workers, are considered representative. The proportion of women is 52}( percent. Retail trade. Department and apparel stores represent retail distribution in this survey. Unfortunately, a group of six of the largest stores refused to cooperate with the Women’s Bureau. The Census of Business for 1935 reports for Los Angeles 23,471 stores with approximately 80,000 employees. Nearby towns in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, such as Pasadena, Glendale, Beverly Hills, Alhambra, Huntington Park, Santa Monica, and others, have another 7,000 stores and 20,000 employees. Since clerical workers are reported by the same census as comprising just over 7 percent, there must be clerical jobs in connection with retail distribution totaling more than 7,000 in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles. Women 425710°—42------ 2 6 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 make up practically 90 percent of the office workers in the establish- * ments covered. Government offices. Governmental agencies, Federal, State, county, and city, have been expanding fields of clerical employment for both men and women. All departments of the Federal Government are represented in Los Angeles; these have clerical staffs estimated roughly as about 5,000 inside office workers. Estimates for State, city, and county workers are respectively 1,200, 3,100, and 3,600. Difficulty was met in getting accurate numbers as to office workers because white-collar workers were not separated into clerical and other groups. Fourteen govern mental agencies were scheduled, with a total of over 4,500 clerks. Except in the city offices, there are more women than men. Education; Membership organizations. School offices, tabulated as Education in the discussions that follow, include the office workers in the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, and a representa tion of one-half of the clerks in the city school system. These three cover most of the office employment if. the school field. Office clerks in business schools generally are pupils, and the number of clerks in the small private schools and colleges probably does not exceed 100. The total number of office workers in schools is about 1,500. Women predominate as clerks in school offices and constitute about 85 percent of those for whom data were collected. Trade associations and professional organizations as listed in the telephone directory of Los Angeles total several hundred, but many have small offices, with only a single worker, others with two or three, which are classed in the small-office group. Some of the trade asso ciations, such as fruit, nut, and avocado growers, are actually market ing and distributing organizations and have been classed with distrib utors. Trade associations and professional organizations in the city were estimated as employing not over 1,000 office workers. Three membership associations with a total of 160 office workers have been tabulated as such. Women make up 88 percent of these workers. Too few men clerks were reported for separate tabulation. Other types of office. Every city has a multitude of small offices that provide professional and other services to the community. Advertising, real estate, broadcasting, hospital and clinic, doctors’ and dentists’ offices are types scheduled in Los Angeles. A total of 115 offices with 746 em ployees are included. Almost 85 percent of the group are women; the small professional offices are exclusively women. Estimates of the total number of workers employed in the small miscellaneous offices exceed 10,000. _ _ . A large number of Advertising agencies—about 150—are listed in the Los Angeles directories. Most of these have no clerical em ployees, merely a representative in the main office. Seventeen offices were visited for the number of office workers, and their total office employment was 137. Eight of these, with 104 employees, 85 women and 19 men, were scheduled. The largest offices were covered and it is doubtful if all the advertising agencies in the city have as many as 200 office workers. TYPES OF BUSINESS----LOS ANGELES 7 Los Angeles abounds in Beal estate offices. The telephone book lists approximately 1,800. Real estate offices are predominantly small. In 150 offices visited in different sections throughout the city, the total number of employees is approximately 450. Of the 150 offices, 59 have no regular office employees, the owner and salesmen doing their own clerical work. Occasionally there is an office in which a public-stenographer notary is given desk space to carry on her com mercial work in exchange for some clerical service to a realtor. Fortyfour have 1 person employed in the office and only 15 have 6 and more. The larger offices often combine insurance, and sometimes trust, mort gage, and management functions, with those of real estate. While no authentic information is available on the number of employees in the real estate offices, if approximately 40 percent of the offices visited have no employees and the average for the others is a little less than 3, the total probably does not exceed 3,000. Wage and personnel data are presented for 60 real-estate firms, with 156 office employees; only 10 of these have so many as 5 employees. Office work in Broadcasting stations is one of the newer fields of clerical employment, but it is a relatively narrow one even in large cities. Inquiry was made as to the size of the office force in 9 broad casting stations, all the important commercial stations, and the total number of office jobs was 175. Five stations with 158 employees were scheduled. Hospitals, clinics, and medical associations employ about 500 office workers. Most of the large hospitals (10) were included in the survey, and in addition 2 clinics and a medical association. Of 280 clerical employees in these offices, seven-eighths are women. Office workers in hospitals, like those in doctors’ and dentists’ offices, may be divided into 2 groups, first the strictly clerical, and second the office nurse who has a combination of professional and clerical duties. Small professional offices represent doctors’ and dentists’ offices. Most of these have one or two office workers. All are women. Some of the clerks in doctors’ offices have had nurses’ training; and in dentists’ offices some have had training as dental hygienists. DEMAND FOR NEW OFFICE WORKERS Numbers hired in 1939. Some firms had neither records nor definite ideas of the number of workers added to the staff either for new jobs or as replacements in the calendar year 1939. Aircraft had taken on more employees than any other type of office but no information was available as to the number of new employees, experienced or inexperienced, taken on during the year. Statements as to numbers hired by 162 of the other firms, covering the majority of the employees in all types of office, indicate that the number hired in the year averaged about 12 percent of the present office force, 5 percent being inexperienced and 7 percent experienced. In the terms of job opportunities, insurance, financial offices other than banks, motion pictures, retail stores, manufacturing and distributing, Federal offices, and the small employers grouped as “other types of office” had taken on proportions above 12 percent. Banks, title guaranty and insurance, railroads, other public utilities, oil, education, and State, city, and county offices had hired relatively few. All but banks and title guaranty offices had hired more experi enced workers than beginners. CHARACTER OF OFFICE OCCUPATIONS The word clerical is a reminder that the first of this occupation were the clerics, the monks who copied manuscripts and kept the records of the church in the Middle Ages. Through most of the nine teenth century the clerical activities of an office were largely con cerned with hand bookkeeping and letter writing, but the large office of the present day is a complex and mechanized organization whose* functions are to make and keep the records and coordinate the ad ministration of the enterprise it serves. Office management and occupational terminology are not standardized and vary with size, policies, and type of business. In most business offices the steno graphic work, handling of correspondence, ordering and billing, financial recording and analysis, budgeting, and general record keep ing, with the services of messengers, telephone operators, and recep tionists, are considered office functions. Some office jobs, such as those that involve a knowledge of short hand, ability to operate typewriters, dictating machines, bookkeeping machines, calculators, and other mechanical devices, bookkeeping and other statistical recording, require special training for these skills. Many others, such as record clerks, order clerks, mail clerks, file clerks, duplicating-machine operators, telephone operators, reception ists, messengers, office boys and office girls, require little special training. In large numbers of offices, however, the type of business determines the work of the various employees, and transfer to another type of business involves retraining. (See p. 14.) Further, there are certain techniques, attributes of judgment and responsibility, acquired by experience on particular jobs that cannot be evaluated in any formal job terminology. The office workers in the stenographic group, the bookkeepers, cashiers (nonexecutive) and tellers, machine operators, messengers, telephone operators, receptionists, file clerks, carry on certain clerical duties that are comparable from offie to office. All other specialized and general clerks are combined in the present study as “clerks not elsewhere classified” and are shown by their respective types of office. The occupational distribution of total employees, and whether men or women predominate in the various occupations, may be seen in table II. 9 10 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 Table II.—Distribution by occupation of all employees reported, and predominance of men or of women in each occupation—LOS ANGELES Total Occupation Men W omen Percent of group total N umber Percent of grand total Number Percent of group total Number All occupations-................................... 18,387 100.0 10,545 57.4 ' 7,842 42.6 Administrative, executive, clericalprofessional------------------------------ -......... Extra and part-time workers........................ Regular office workers.............. -................. 1,615 374 16,398 8.8 2.0 89.2 270 294 9,981 16.7 78.6 60.9 1,345 80 6,417 83.3 21.4 39.1 Regular: Stenographic group.................................. 4,665 25.4 4,354 93.3 311 6.7 963 2, 215 1,227 200 60 5.2 12.0 6.7 1.1 .3 901 2, 085 1,108 200 60 93.6 94.1 90.3 100.0 100.0 62 130 119 6.4 5.9 9.7 Accounting group --................................ 986 5.4 393 39.9 593 60.1 Bookkeeper, hand.......................... Cashier, teller.-................................ 342 644 1.9 3.5 183 210 53.5 32.6 159 434 46.5 67.4 Machine operators.................................... 1,534 8.3 1,172 76.4 362 23.6 Bookkeeping---.................................. Calculating................... ...................... Duplicating and other..................... Key punch...... .................................. Tabulating.......................................... 115 295 556 168 198 202 .6 1.6 3.0 .9 1.1 1.1 105 187 544 84 190 62 91.3 63.4 97.8 50.0 96.0 30.7 10 108 12 84 8 140 8.7 36.6 2.2 50.5 4.0 69.3 Other clerks.............................................. 1,301 7.1 690 53.0 611 47.0 File....................................................... Messenger................................ ........... Telephone........................................... Timekeeper........................................ Receptionist ............. —.................... 252 381 408 181 79 1.4 2.1 2.2 1.1 .4 164 46 399 16 65 65.1 12.1 97.8 8.8 82.3 8.8 335 9 165 14 34.9 87.9 2.2 91.2 17.7 Clerks not elsewhere classified............. 7, 474 40.6 3,313 44.3 4,161 55.7 Finance and insurance......... _......... Education............... .................... Aircraft.._____ - -------------------Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors............................ Government: State, city, county.................. . Federal---------- -----------------Oil producing, refining, distributing-------------------------------------Railroads_____ . -----------------Other public utilities Department and apparel stores. _. Motion pictures......................... ....... Other types of office......................... 1,746 481 482 759 9.5 2.6 2.6 4.1 706 412 60 259 40.4 85.7 12.4 34.1 1,040 69 422 500 59.6 14.3 87.6 65.9 1,186 248 6.5 1.3 567 154 47.8 62.1 619 94 52.2 37.9 450 337 660 399 486 240 2.4 1.8 3.6 2.2 2.6 1.3 76 51 382 328 116 202 16.9 15.1 57.9 82.2 23.9 84.2 374 286 278 71 370 38 83.1 84.9 42.1 17.8 76.1 15.8 Special office workers...... ........................ 438 2.4 59 13.5 379 86.5 Secretary............................................ Stenographer.................................... Dictating-machine transcriber___ The occupational distribution of men and women regular office employees is shown by type of office in table III. Table III.—Number of women and of men regular employees in the various types of office, by occupational group—LOS ANGELES Number of regular employees Type of office Other clerks (see table II for specific occupations) Machine operators Accounting group Stenographic group Total 611 9.5 3,313 33.2 4,161 64.9 59 0.6 379 5.9 31 38 4 12 56 14 5 22 122 120 419 45 380 143 223 294 1 3 7 47 50 17 26 3 7 26 134 51 16 51 382 286 278 4 111 22 45 54 76 374 68 69 267 20 39 22 74 70 42 60 259 422 500 81 3 129 5 77 328 71 4 40 7 19 22 158 3 95 7 16 19 31 154 567 14 7 4 60 28 4 1 11 59 20 1 21 59 2 85 7 10 102 206 4 2 19 116 412 78 124 Men Women Men 257 9,981 100.0 6,417 100.0 4,354 43.6 311 4.8 393 3.9 593 9.2 1,172 11.7 362 5.6 690 6.9 535 367 696 278 924 246 283 347 335 152 221 198 3 2 8 30 11 8 358 33 16 5 38 24 34 15 80 6 20 3 6 208 950 462 344 86 201 65 7 70 7 10 45 159 8 Women 470 537 236 33 2 23 3 38 295 989 560 746 141 333 28 56 54 13 789 85 174 6 7 7 426 1,722 144 834 237 937 8 57 7 3 3 919 604 133 600 738 86 19 62 638 153 40 272 43 3 115 Men Men Men 5 25 4 10 Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors.— Special office workers Women Women Men Women All types: Clerks not else where classified (duties depend on type of office) Women 1 Men Women 50 26 31 3 2 20 41 94 619 2 4 13 13 370 69 15 23 7 5 32 4 1 8 21 CHARACTER OF OCCUPATIONS----LOS ANGELES Num ber of offices report ing 12 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 19 40 Stenographic group. About 2 in every 5 women office workers in the Los Angeles survey, but only about 1 in every 20 men, are in the stenographic group. Strict and uniform classification of the employees in this group involves difficulties. Some workers who are rated as stenographers do little shorthand transcription, but the ability to do it on occasion is required. In many offices, the border line between secretaries and stenographers is somewhat vague. For the purpose of the present study, to be classed as a secretary a worker has to have a wider range of duties and more responsibility than a stenographer. In addition to taking and transcribing dictation, a secretary meets callers, gives information by telephone, writes some original letters, reads and sorts mail, keeps personal and confidential records, makes appointments, does reference work, handles follow-up items, and generally relieves her employer of routine tasks. Usually she knows more than her employer does about the ordinary procedures, routine tasks, and general infor mation concerning his business. About 30 percent of the women in the Los Angeles survey are secretaries and stenographers. To be classed as a dictating-machine operator, at least one-half of the employee’s time is spent on machine transcription. Secretaries and stenographers frequently transcribe from a dictating machine but this work is only an incidental part of their job. Workers tabulated as typists spend at least 50 percent of their time typing; clerks who type only occasionally are not classed as typists. Correspondents who answer routine letters are a small group and are found almost entirely in retail distribution—stores and mail-order houses; they depend largely on form letters in composing replies. Of the women in the stenographic group about one-fifth are secre taries, a little less than one-half are stenographers, one-fourth are typists, and the small remaining fraction are operators of transcrib ing machines and correspondents; there are only 60 of the last named and they are chiefly in the mercantile field. Women in the stenographic group comprise 14 times the number of men in such work, men making up less than 7 percent of the total. Of the 311 men in this group 62 are secretaries, 130 stenographers, and 119 typists. The highest proportion are in the railroad offices, where more than two-fifths of the stenographic employees are men. Accounting group. Men comprise three-fifths of the employees in the accounting group, most of them being in the financial offices. Bookkeeping in the sense of hand bookkeepers who keep systematic records of business transactions, take trial balances, and draw up periodic bookkeeping reports gives employment to only a small proportion of office workers. Much of the work in the bookkeeping or accounting departments of largo firms is specialized or mechanical, and all-round bookkeepers are not so much in demand as good calculat ing-machine operators. The accounting function requires many clerical employees, but when the accounting activities are minutely divided and subdivided, with installations of a variety of accounting machines and special ledger systems, the differentiation between accounting clerks and other record clerks seems of little value. There are many jobs connected with bookkeeping, such as work on accounts receivable and accounts payable, cash vouchers and cash books, CHARACTER OF OCCUPATIONS—LOS ANGELES 13 sales ledgers and records, check registers, discounts, budget work, and so forth, where a knowledge of bookkeeping principles is a desir able background but not a requisite. The accountant who compiles the final control accounts, the cost sheets, and the statements is a trained professional employee; but the underpinning is the work of clerks who do not need to be bookkeepers, and these clerks in the Los Angeles tables are included with clerks not elsewhere classified. Some of the clerical jobs in connection with factory cost accounting and factory record keeping require a knowledge of production methods and practices as much as of accounting, and since men are more familiar with productive processes they usually are given preference for clerical work in cost-accounting divisions. Of all the clerical workers included, 2% percent of the men and just under 2 percent of the women are hand bookkeepers, and less than 2 percent of either sex are machine bookkeepers. Cashiers and tellers, office jobs that involve the receiving or paying of money to customers (7 percent of the men and 2 percent of the women), are important only in banks, other financial, public utilities, manufacturing, and retail distribution. More than one-third, 36 percent, of the men included in banks are tellers or assistant tellers. Machine operators. The machine-operator group as a whole comprises 12 percent of the women employees and 6 percent of the men. Numerous machines and appliances are operated in the course of duty that require too little skill, or the number affected is too small, to consider separately. Some of these machines are the various duplicating devices, such as mimeographs and multigraphs, check writers and protectors, mailing and stamping machines. Other clerks. Quite often clerks, stenographers, typists, and others do filing as a minor part of their routine duties. It is only in the fairly large offices that a centralized filing division exists or that there are specially designated file clerks. Filing is often a beginning job and only occa sionally are trained expert filing clerks reported. Altogether, in all types of offices covered, less than 2 percent of the women, and an even smaller proportion of the men, are file clerks. Messenger service usually is a beginning job for boys anxious to become familiar from the ground up with the general business organi zation of their employer by sorting and delivering mail, carrying messages and packages to outside organizations, helping with simple records, mimeographing, and being generally useful until the em ployer decides that they have served their apprenticeship and are ready for a more responsible assignment. About 5 percent of the men are messengers. _ _ Receptionists who direct and give information to callers are found in most of the large offices. The group is a small one;—less than 1 percent of the women. In many offices the receptionist is a PBX operator in addition to her other functions. The job, to be efficiently done, requires a resourceful person and one with knowledge of the company’s personnel and activities. Almost all telephone operators in offices are women, and about 400 women in this study, or 4 percent of the total, are so classed. Security and bond houses, railroads, other 425716°—42------3 14 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 utilities, motion pictures, hospitals, advertising, broadcasting, and real-estate offices have higher than average proportions of telephone operators. Clerks not elsewhere classified. The largest group among the men (almost two-thirds) and the second largest among the women (one-third, outranked only by the steno graphic group) is the one designated as “clerks not elsewhere classified.” This includes a multitude of job designations, and the terminology depends not alone on type of office but is affected by the size, manage ment, and organization of each particular office surveyed. Designa tions of junior and senior clerk mean little and are related largely to salary structure, which varies materially from firm to firm as well as from one type of office to another. The specious job designations covered in this group are legion. A few of the special clerical designations by type of office will suggest the coverage of this group. In financial institutions some of the job designations are collateral, collection, exchange, safe-deposit, vault, trust, margin, discount, draft, transit, and brokerage clerks, loan reviewers, board boys, and analysts. In insurance there are special ized actuarial, underwriting, policy, and map clerks. In public utilities, rate clerks, estimators, checkers, and service clerks of all kinds. In the retail and wholesale trade offices there are large num bers of credit, collection, adjustment, stock, price, returned-goods, collection, and statistical clerks, and sales analysts. In manufac turing there are order, production, planning, time-study, drafting, and engineering clerks. Government and school offices have another set of clerical jobs, as tax, information, health, departmental, and attendance clerks. Mail, stock, shipping, pay-roll, cost, audit, budget clerks, and so forth are found in many offices but their duties are not standardized. Since the group of unclassified workers is large in all types of office, varying for the women from 16 percent in oil and title guaranty and insurance to 68 percent in education, and for the men from 41 percent in banks to 85 percent in title guaranty, the averages and distribu tion are given by type of office in tables XI and XII. Special office workers. Office workers in the tabulation comprise workers whose duties and services rendered are somewhat out of the ordinary field of office work, such as library clerks, personnel clerks, appraisers and inside agents, traffic clerks, publicity assistants, and technical clerks in professional offices. They comprise about 6 percent of the men and less than 1 percent of the women. In financial offices about 20 per cent, in railroads about 11 percent, and in other places about 13 per cent of the men fall in the “special office workers” category. Executive, administrative, clerical-professional, and supervisory. Employees with executive, administrative, professional, and super visory duties are not tabulated as clerical workers. The officials interviewed were asked to define executive and administrative workers in their organization. Very few make a clear distinction between the terms administrative and executive; department heads, superin tendents, auditors, controllers, are considered either or both. Super visors usually are considered to be those iesponsible for an office CHARACTER OF OCCUPATIONS----LOS ANGELES 15 division and there was less difficulty in segregating these. Profes sional office workers usually are considered to be the accountants, actuaries, counselors and attorneys, writers, statisticians, planning engineers, and architects. . Some information for 1,615 executive, administrative, professional, and supervisory workers was obtained, and about one-sixth of these are women. Of the 1,615 jobs, 711 are supervisory. Though women comprise more than half of the total office employees, they constitute only about one-fourth of the supervisory force. EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE OF OFFICE WORKERS EDUCATION The possibilities of securing an office job in Los Angeles without a high-school education are slight. Though not much over one-fourth (69 of 252) of the offices reported that high-school training is a mini mum requirement, high-school graduation is taken for granted as a prerequisite to employment in most offices. All the banks require high-school graduation or its equivalent in formal schooling; several review the list of high-school graduates each year for likely applicants. Only three offices mentioned college training as a requirement, and in two of these it is for only a part of the office force. Seventeen stated that they require business-school training for their employees. Em ployment policies are flexible in most offices and the selection of applicants depends largely on the supply of candidates available when the vacancy occurs. The greater the supply, the more the requirements and care expressed in the hiring process. Schooling and occupation. Of the women secretaries a little more than one-third (36% percent) have attended college. In aircraft, an industry with an expanding force and many young people, almost 40 percent of the women clerks have been to college. Almost half of the women clerks in the offices of schools have college training. Of the women employed as special office workers, 56 percent have attended college and 21 percent are graduates. The largest proportions attending business school are among the calculating-machine operators and in the stenographic group. Location of school attended. Where was high school attended by the Los Angeles office worker? The majority both of men and of women—about 60 percent—attended high school elsewhere than within the metropolitan area of Los Angeles. Since this area is a tourist goal, a large proportion of “outsiders” is to be expected. Amount of schooling. How much of a background of formal schooling was offered as train ing by the Los Angeles office worker? What is the bearing of schooling on salaries? High-school graduation is the education norm. High school has been completed by at least four of every five workers. For only about 3 percent both of women and of men was grammar school reported as maximum schooling, and only 16 percent of the women and 15 percent of the men have attended high school but not been graduated. In railroads and other public utilities approximately one-third, in con trast to less than one-tenth in insurance and aircraft, have not com pleted high school. The types of office last mentioned have large proportions of young workers. 17 18 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 About 40 percent of the men have attended college and a little more than one-fourth of these were graduated. About 28 percent of the women have attended college, and about one-fourth of these completed the course. Among the women the highest proportions of college ■graduates are in education, insurance, and the miscellaneous small offices; among men, the offices of educational, insurance, oil, title guaranty and insurance, and aircraft companies have more than aver age numbers of college graduates. Table IV.—Maximum education of employees by type of office—LOS ANGELES Num ber of em ploy ees re ported Type of office Percent1 whose maximum education was— Atten dance at busi High school College ness Gram school report mar school Incom Com Incom Com ed (perplete plete plete plete cent) WOMEN All types...................................................... 8,370 2.7 15.9 53.5 21.1 6.8 48.9 Bants............ .............. ........................................ . Other finance.......................................................... Insurance. _________ __ ............. ................. Title guaranty and insurance_____ _________ 526 255 676 135 1.3 2.7 2.2 2.2 15.2 13.3 6.2 20.0 53.2 56.9 57.1 53.3 26.8 20.0 20.4 21.5 3.4 7.1 14.1 3.0 35.0 52.9 37.4 49.6 Railroads... _____________________ _ Other public utilities....................................... . . 172 919 7.0 5.7 27.3 26.2 48.8 49.7 14.5 14.5 2.3 3.9 54.1 31.7 55.0 Oil producing, refining, and distributing____ 431 2.6 18.8 53.8 20.2 4.6 Aircraft_____ Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors..................................................................... 284 .4 3.2 58.8 31.0 6.7 56.7 800 2.5 17.4 60.3 15.8 4.1 59.4 Department and apparel stores 690 3.5 15.8 61.4 17.7 1.6 43.9 416 1,367 3.1 2.6 20.0 18.9 50.7 53.2 22.4 20.0 3.8 5.3 60.8 57.3 565 555 91 488 1.1 .7 3.3 2.3 11.7 10.6 14. 3 7.8 48.8 42.5 59. 3 51.0 29.2 25.0 23.1 28.1 9.2 21.1 45.5 52.3 10.9 53.5 Federal Government___ _ __ ...................... State, city, and county governments........ ....... Motion pictures.......................... . Education____ ................. . Other types" of office......................................... . MEN All types.................... ............. ................. . 5,143 3.3 15.1 42.0 28.8 10.7 22.9 Banks............................................... ............... . . Other finance__ ______ _______ ____ _ Insurance___ ____ ________ ____ _____ ___ Title guaranty and insurance............................. 896 180 278 173 1.5 1.7 3.2 4.6 17.2 11.1 7.2 16.8 47.9 33.9 43.5 39.9 27.3 42.2 28.8 24.9 6.1 11.1 17.3 13.9 10.2 21.7 12.6 19.1 Railroads................... ............................................ . Other public utilities______ ______ ______ _ 392 326 7.9 8.9 26.5 21.8 43.6 38.3 19.1 19.3 2.8 11.7 36.5 21.2 Oil producing, refining, and distributing___ 506 2.0 12. 5 43.5 25.7 16.4 35.2 Aircraft Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors__________________ _______ _______ 547 2.0 8.6 34.4 41.7 13.3 17.9 614 2.1 13.8 46.7 27.5 9.8 33.2 20.0 49.1 23. 6 7 3 29.1 Federal Government________ _____________ State, city, and county governments............ . 140 531 7.1 2.4 15.7 17.3 37.9 40.5 30.0 29.2 9.3 10.5 31.4 26.4 Motion pictures............. .................. ...................... Education.............................................................. 385 73 5 42 3.1 9.6 13.2 11.0 40.5 35.6 32.7 21.9 10.4 21.9 13.0 32.9 55 * Percents not computed where base less than 50. EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE----LOS ANGELES 19 Attendance at business school was reported by a much larger proportion of women than of men—49 percent of the women and 23 percent of the men. The term “business school” signifies attendance at a commercial school, private or public. It does not include commercial courses in regular high school curricula, because in many firms personnel records do not provide definite information on such training. Maximum schooling, by type of office in which the workers are employed, is given in table IV. Time elapsing between finishing school and first office job. Work-history records for 913 women and 927 men who had begun office work in the period from 1935 on showed the date of leaving school, the grade completed, and the period that elapsed before the first office job was secured. Eighty-two percent of the girls and 75 percent of the boys had found office work within a year of leaving school and only 4 to 6 percent had waited 2 years and more. A slightly higher percent of both the men and the women who had attended business school found work within a year of leaving school. Men college graduates and women who had attended but not com pleted college found office jobs with little delay in slightly larger pro portions than those -with less formal schooling. Many of such jobs, however, were not permanent. EXPERIENCE Over-all time in office work. Employment records showing work experience before employment with the present office often were incomplete and unreliable, so the determining of actual time in office work was not possible. In most cases, however, the date of beginning office work was available, and this gives indication of the spread of time in which office work had been carried on either continuously or intermittently. Of about 7,000 women reported, 80 percent had work histories spread over 5 years and more, and for slightly over 60 percent the spread was 10 years and more. Table V shows the surprisingly large proportions of women who began work as much as 10 years ago, more than 3 in every 5 of the 6,900 women reported having such a record. The receptionists and file clerks have the largest proportion among beginners, their 16 per cent being followed by the 4 percent of machine operators and of “other clerks,” With the exception of the bookkeeping group and special office workers, men have had somewhat shorter experience than women have had, in some cases due to their youth, for example, messengers. 20 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 Table V. Total office experience of employees, by occupational oroup—■ LOS ANGELES Occupational group Number of em ployees reported Percent with total experience of— Under 1 year 1, under 3 years 3, under 5 years 5, under 10 years 10 years and over WOMEN Total.............................. 6,924 3.6 6.5 10.1 18.2 61.5 Stenographic group............. Accounting group.................. Machine operators________ Receptionists and file clerks. Telephone operators.......... . Other........................................ 3,030 242 827 202 271 2,352 2.6 1.7 3.9 16.3 1.5 4.2 6.5 3.3 5.9 13.4 5.2 6.6 10.6 7.0 12.5 10.4 8.1 9.2 19.7 12.4 19.7 16.8 15.5 16.8 60.5 75. 6 58.0 43.1 63.2 MEN Total................. Stenographic group.. Accounting group_ _ Machine operators... Messengers________ File clerks............. Timekeepers________ Special office workers. Other........................... . 4, 561 9.6 9.7 13.3 15.9 51.6 220 487 266 214 66 106 247 2,955 5.0 .6 7.5 39.3 19.7 17.9 2.8 9.4 15.9 2.7 15.8 31.3 19.7 11.3 3.6 8.5 18.2 6.4 22.2 18.7 13.6 15.1 7.3 13.3 17.7 14.4 21.8 6.1 18.2 24.5 12.6 16.1 43.2 76.0 32 7 4 7 28 8 31.1 73 7 52.7 Time with present employer, by type of office. There are extremely wide differences in the proportion of experienced workers in the different types of office. Railroads and other public utility offices generally have seniority and promotional policies which offer strong inducement to employees to remain with the firm and as a result the vast majority of workers in these firms have long service records. About 70 percent of the women in each of these two types of office and 71 percent of the men in railroads and 58 percent of the men in other public utility offices have been employed by the firm 10 years or longer. More than half of the men in banks and over three-fifths of those in title guaranty and insurance offices also have been with their present employer 10 or more years. More than half of the women in the various governmental offices, banks and title guaranty and insurance offices, and well over half of both women and men in education and in oil company offices have employment records in the same firm of 5 or more years. A striking contrast in the employment experience of workers is given by the employees of aircraft companies. This industry has increased production of airplanes and parts tremendously in recent months in order to meet the demands of the national defense program of the Federal Government and many new firms have been established in and near Los Angeles. Approximately nine-tenths of the workers in these aircraft company offices have been employed for less than 3 years; in fact, 72 percent of the men and 64 percent of the women are in their first year of employment. The groups “other types of office,” retail stores, other finance offices, and membership organizations were generally small firms and offered very small chance for advancement to higher paid jobs, so it is natural to expect a relatively large turn-over of workers. 21 EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE----LOS ANGELES In each of these classifications more than half of both the women and the men had been working for less than 3 years; in some instances about one-third were employed for less than 1 year. Table VI.—Percent distribution of employees according to length of experience with present employer, by type of office—LOS ANGELES Type of office Number of em ployees reported Percent employed by present firm— Under 1 year 1, under 3 years 3, under 5 years 5, under 10 years 10 years and over WOMEN All types...............................................- 8,963 15.0 19.8 18.8 19.6 26.8 Banks.. ....................................................... Other finance.................................................... Insurance___ _ .......... .............................. Title guaranty and insurance................ . 534 321 695 136 10.1 30.5 18.1 15.4 13.1 20.6 18.8 11.0 23.2 16.8 18.1 16.2 14.8 15.6 11.8 16.2 38.8 16.5 33.1 41.2 Railroads___ _. ........................ ............. . Other public utilities..................................... 203 442 2.5 3.4 8.4 9.5 11.3 8.4 7.4 9.7 70.4 69.0 Oil producing, refining, and distributing.. 468 6.8 17.5 20.9 19.7 35.0 291 63.9 24.4 10.0 1.7 Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors____ _______________ ______ 861 19.2 21.7 18.7 19.7 Department and apparel stores........ .......... 753 28.0 23.9 22.6 10.4 15.1 420 1,699 6.2 5.8 21.9 17.3 19.5 18.6 23.6 35.0 28.8 23.3 885 566 104 585 11.5 4.4 20.2 27.5 28.9 13.8 30.8 28.4 27.8 13.4 15.4 17.4 23.4 22.8 15.4 12.3 8.4 45.6 18.3 14.4 Federal Government State, city, and county governments Motion pictures........... ................. ........... Education........... ................ ............................. Membership organizations. ___________ Other types of office...................................... 20.7 MEN All types....................... ........................ 5,848 18.4 18.0 18.9 14.6 30.0 Banks___________ _________ __________ Other finance......................... ................... . Insurance.-. . . .. ................................ Title guaranty and insurance....................... 920 211 280 177 7.1 33.2 19.3 6.8 11.0 19.4 20.7 15.3 15.4 24.6 22.9 9.6 14.6 13.3 15.0 7.3 52.0 9.5 22.1 61.0 Railroads......................................................... . Other public utilities................................. . 454 250 5.3 10.4 8.4 13.6 11.2 12.4 4.4 5.6 70.7 58.0 32.9 Oil produeing, refining, and distributing.. Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors......................................... .............. 529 9.6 19.1 16.4 21.9 542 72.0 17.5 9.0 1.5 607 20.9 20.6 20.3 17.6 Department and apparel stores................... 81 34.6 22.2 22.2 13.6 7.4 Federal Government______________ ____ State, city, and county governments 141 802 14.9 11.1 23.4 16.7 29.8 25.4 15.6 20.6 16.3 26.2 Motion pictures................................ .............. Education........... ....................................... . Membership organizations.................. ......... Other types of office_______ ____ __ 718 76 8 52 13.6 5.3 o) 26.9 31.1 10.5 p) 32.7 28.1 18.4 p) 21.2 21.0 23.7 p) 7.7 i Not computed; base too small. 425716“—42- 4 20.6 p) 6.1 42.1 11.5 EARNINGS IN 1940 METHOD OF PAY Salaries of office workers usually are in terms of monthly or annual rates. More than three-fourths, 76% percent, of the- office workers’ salaries reported in Los Angeles are in terms either of yearly or of monthly rates, about 13 percent weekly, and just over 10 percent hourly. Ninety percent and more of the employees in banks, insur ance, title guaranty and insurance, other financial offices, public utilities, railroads, governmental, educational, oil, and membership organizations are on a monthly basis. Motion-picture employees are paid largely by hourly rates with a weekly guaranty. Office workers in stores generally are paid weekly. In aircraft, rates of pay tend to be hourly, and in other manufacturing and distributing and in small offices about three-fourths of the rates are monthly and most of the rest weekly. Monthly salaries are almost always paid semimonthly. All detailed discussions of office workers’ earnings are on the basis of monthly rates, since this is the most usual basis and since rates and earnings for office workers tend to be about the same. MONTHLY SALARY RATES BY TYPE OF OFFICE Tabulations of salaries in this survey indicate that though there is a certain correlation between occupation and education or length of service, the most marked differences in salaries paid are related to 'the type of office, and, further, that the differences in salary structure from firm to firm are marked. What type of office pays the highest salaries to women? What type the lowest? The highest average monthly salary for women—$14! — is that of the motion-picture-studio offices, andthe next four in de scending scale are railroads $133, oil $132, Federal Government $129, and city government $127. In the motion-picture offices, half the women clerical workers earn more than $131 a month and one-fourth earn more than $162. About 35 percent earn $150 and more. The motion-picture office is the only type in which more than 5 percent of the women receive salaries of $200 and more. Railroads, oil, the Federal Government, and Los Angeles city offices also have from half to two-thirds of their women office workers on salaries of $125 and more a month, and one-fourth and more of the salaries are $140 and above. Retail trade (department and apparel stores) and membership organizations pay the least, an average monthly salary of $86 for women. Only about 1 woman in every 8 in retail stores earns $100 and more a month, and about 19 percent receive less than $75. The next four in an ascending scale of low monthly average salaries are hospitals and clinics $91, personal and chattel loan companies $98, insurance $101, and small professional offices $102. The average 23 24 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 monthly salary is $55 less in department and apparel stores than in motion pictures. Aircraft—the most rapidly expanding industry of Los Angeles—averages only $103 a month in the pay of its women; this is due in part at least to its high percentage of new employees with short service records. Table VII.-—Average monthly salary and percents of employees at certain salary levels, by type of office—LOS ANGELES Type of office Average monthly salary (mean) Percent of employees receiving— $100 and over $125 and over $150 and over WOMEN Motion pictures____ _____________________________ Railroads__________________ ____________________ Oil producing, refining, and distributing........................ Federal Government—............................. ......................... City government........... ........................................................ Education____________________ _______ _____ _ Building and loan............... ................................................... Advertising..................................................... .............. ......... Banks________________ ____________ ______ ________ County government....................... ...................................... Public utilities other than railroads.......... ....................... Title guaranty and insurance............. .............................. Real estate____________________ ________ __________ Broadcasting Investment...._____________________________ _____ Manufacturing other than aircraft and wholesale dis tributors.................... ........................................................ State government................................................................... Aircraft__________________________ Small professional offices1.—............................................... Insurance........................................................................... . Persona] and chattel___________________ ______ ____ Hospitals.__________________ ____ _____ __________ Department and apparel stores__________ Membership organizations.................................................. $141 133 132 129 127 124 113 113 112 112 111 109 108 108 107 93.8 93.8 97.4 98.4 05.0 90.1 71.0 68.3 73.8 96.5 68.3 73.4 53.2 58.8 63.4 57.9 66.3 65.1 52.3 56.4 53.5 32.3 31.7 25.6 17.3 30.6 23.4 29.4 14.3 22.7 34.9 22.6 20.0 18.1 21.7 11.8 8.1 11.0 7.1 5.2 4.5 2.2 15.1 6.7 6.4 107 105 103 102 101 98 91 86 86 63.6 65.6 57.3 19.8 15.0 10.1 4.3 4.8 1.3 47.6 48.1 30.3 12.0 18.1 13.8 13.5 7.8 2.5 3.8 3.5 2.3 1.3 .3 .8 * MEN Railroads_________ _______________________________ Title guaranty and insurance__________________ _____ Oil producing, refining, and distributing......................... Building and loan1....... ......................................................... Public utilities other than railroads_____________ ____ State government_______________ _______ __________ Personal and chattel.......... ................................. ............... Banks_____________ ______________________________ Education................................................................................. . Federal Government_________________________ Motion pictures........... .............. ............................................. City government....................................................... .............. Manufacturing other than aircraft and wholesale dis tributors _____________________ ______ _ Department and apparel stores________________ _____ Insurance...................................................................... ........... Investment.____ _______________ ____ ______ ______ Aircraft_____________ ______________ ______________ County government............................................................... Other types of office*.............................................................. $162 161 160 158 150 145 142 140 140 139 138 138 92.2 91.6 90.1 84.4 82.1 78.2 70.3 62.0 62.9 84.9 78.5 86.2 82.1 93.0 97.2 76.3 87.9 74.4 58.7 66.2 65.3 68.6 54.9 56.9 76.8 53.8 57.0 43.1 42.3 36.0 29.9 38.2 39.5 132 127 119 115 114 113 102 81.9 81.2 62.9 61.0 73.6 89.6 53. 2 56.0 51.8 36.7 37.7 25.2 25.0 22.6 33.5 22.4 20.5 24.0 7.0 8.9 6.5 1 Percents not computed: base less than 50. 3 Too few men for separate tabulation in advertising, real estate, broadcasting, and hospitals. Men office workers are paid on a salary level higher than that of women. Only in motion pictures have women a higher average than men. The highest average of men—$162—is that of railroads and the lowest—$102—is that of the residual group, “other types of office.” The proportion of men with salaries of $150 and more is about four EARNINGS IN 1940----LOS ANGELES 25 times the proportion of women so paid, and about 8 percent of the men compared to 1 percent of the women receive $200 and more a month. Besides railroads, the first five types of office for men, ranked by salary, include title guaranty and insurance, oil, other public utilities, and the State government—all of which pay one-fourtli and more of their office men at least $180 a month. Table VII lists the various types of office, in descending order according to average monthly salary rate, for men and women sepa rately, and shows the proportions of employees with salaries of $100. and over, $125 and over, and $150 and over. MONTHLY SALARY RATES BY OCCUPATION Stenographic group. Banks, title guaranty, motion pictures, government offices, and the oil companies reported 50 percent and more of their women office workers in the stenographic group. The average monthly salary for all the women in stenographic work is $118, but the averages by jobs range from $88 for correspondents to $148 for secretaries, and the variations by type of office are as marked as the occupational differ ences. The highest salaries are paid to secretaries; motion pictures, with a large proportion of secretaries (38K percent), has the highest average, $164 a month; retail distribution, with a small proportion (about 3 percent), has the lowest, $110. It is of interest to note that typists in motion pictures have an average salary higher than that of secretaries in retail establishments, the latter industry being consistently low-salaried for all groups and the only one in which stenographers average less than $100, namely $87. The stenog raphers’ average salary in railroads is the highest, $148, which is due in large part to automatic salary increases based on seniority. The range for typists in average monthly salaries is from $76 in depart ment stores to $119 in the Federal Government. The average salary for dictating-machine operators is below that of stenographers but considerably above that of typists; they are found most frequently in the city, State, and county offices, where they have an average of $115. It is an interesting fact that the average salary of stenographers in the railroad offices is the same for men and women, $148. This is the highest average for women stenographers in any type of office. The demand for men stenographers was reported as in excess of the supply by several firms scheduled. Railroads, government offices, motion pictures, manufacturers and manufacturers’ distributors, and the oil companies are the types of office in which men stenographers are found most frequently. The average month’s salary for men in the stenographic group is $133, for women $118. Men’s salaries are the higher, except that in motion pictures the average salary of women secretaries is $6 above men’s average. Examples of the dif ferences in monthly salary structure for men and women are these: For stenographers in manufacturing, men $123, women $109, and in oil companies, men $150, women $134; for typists in city, State, and county governments, men $105, women $102, and in manufac turing, men $104, women $96. 26 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 19 40 VIII.—Percent that stenographic employees comprise of all women in specified types of office and their average salaries,1 by selected occupation—LOS ANGELES Table Percent of total women and average salary 1 Type of office Total steno graphic group Secretary Stenographer • Dictatingmachine transcriber Typist Per cent Aver age salary Per cent Aver age salary Per cent Aver age salary Per cent Aver age salary Per cent Aver age salary Total............................... 43.6 $118 9.0 $148 20.9 $116 11.1 $100 2.0 $112 114 105 105 108 5.6 7.6 1.6 11.5 159 131 Title guaranty and insurance. 62. 6 41. 4 31.8 71.2 51.6 26.4 16.4 42.8 110 103 115 119 5.2 6. 8 9. 6 16.5 88 .4 Railroads_________ ________ Other public utilities 41.3 21.2 145 119 5.8 2.0 26.0 12.1 148 119 7.2 6.8 109 2. 4 .2 127 Oil producing, refining, and 50.2 Aircraft Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors.. .. Department and apparel stores...______________ _. 138 10.6 47.8 102 4.7 33.7 112 5.8 159 134 4.7 18.0 143 32. 8 107 25.1 95 21.2 109 6.3 96 2.1 22.1 86 2.9 8.1 87 4.1 76 Federal Government___ _. State, city, and county governments............................... 55.6 126 3.5 30.0 125 20.9 119 54.4 •110 1.9 128 15.4 122 28.6 102 Motion pictures............ ........... Education... . Membership organizations... Other types of office 69.4 25.3 30.1 45.3 145 134 86 106 38.5 18.2 .8 18.7 164 141 28.4 6.1 4.5 22.0 121 116 2.5 1.0 24.8 4.7 .4 114 118 100 80 91 8.5 115 « * Not computed for groups of less than 25. The salaries of men and women in the stenographic group shown in terms of quartiles indicate that 25 percent of the women are paid less than $100 a month, 50 percent less than $115, and 75 percent less than $131. A comparison of the means and quartiles of monthlysalaries for men and women in the stenographic group and its three major jobs, secretary, stenographer, and typist, follows: Average Mean: Men____________ ______________ Women_______________________ First quartile: Men________ ______________________ Women Median: Men,________ _______________ Women Third quartile: Men_________________ _______ _ Women________ ______ ______ _____ _____ Stenographic group 1 Secretary Stenographer Typist $133 118 $171 148 $137 116 $108 100 101 100 149 120 116 101 91 86 126 115 170 146 136 115 101 100 160 131 200 171 159 128 120 111 1 Includes in addition to the 3 specified groups 200 women dictating-machine transcribers and 60 women form-letter correspondents, employment with no men on comparable jobs. Almost one-half of the women secretaries have salaries of $150 and more, and almost tliree-fourths have salaries of $125 and more, a month. Practically three-fourths of the men secretaries receive $150 and more. About one-third of the women stenographers and two- 27 EARNINGS IN 1940—LOS ANGELES thirds of the men stenographers receive at least $125. About 40 per cent of the women typists and 34 percent of the men typists earn less than $100. The large proportion of correspondents who earn less than $100 is due chiefly to their being in the department and apparel stores group. Most of them use form letters in their work and are actually little more than typists. Accounting group. The average salary of hand bookkeepers is $156 for men and $121 for women; for machine bookkeepers the figures are $111 and $113, respectively. In banks the average for men hand bookkeepers is $139, and in manufacturing it is $165. Men operators of bookkeeping machines in banks—often a beginning job—average $99. Women’s averages in hand bookkeeping are $119 in “other public utilities” $121 in manufacturing, and $113 in “other types of office;” in machine bookkeeping, $104 in banks and $113 in manufacturing. A compari son of the means and quartiles for the bookkeepers reported follows: Hand. Mean: bookkeeper Men....... ............................................. $156 Women_ _. _ 121 First quartile: Men__________________________ Women 101 Median: Men................................................ Women*__________________________________ 120 Third quartile: Men............................................... Women...» 136 Machine bookkeeper $111 113 12691 99 151101 113 180121 126 Twenty percent of the women hand bookkeepers earn less than $100 a month and 13 percent earn $150 and more. Slightly more than onehalf of the men hand bookkeepers earn $150 and more. Women machine bookkeepers are paid slightly more than men. Some of the women are operators of combination bookkeeping-billing machines and must have skill in typing as well as in handling the bookkeeping mechanism. The work of women on bookkeeping machines is more varied, on the whole, than that of men. Accountants for whom records were obtained are tabulated with the professional group. Tellers or assistant tellers in banks have an average monthly salary of $154. One-fourth of all the men tellers earn less than $136 and one-fourth earn more than $173. Less than 2 percent of the men tellers have salaries below $100 and a little over 9 percent earn $200 and more. Women tellers comprise less than 1 percent of the women in the banks covered but 7 percent of those in other financial offices. About 4 percent of the women office workers in “other public utilities” and 8 percent of those in stores are cashiers; in latter monthly salaries of women cashiers average $84; in the former $122. For the entire group of women reported as cashiers and tellers, the arith metic average (the mean) is $107; half the salaries are spread from $82 to $126, and $105 is the midpoint in the distribution. Calculating-machine operators. More women are operating calculating machines than any other office machine except the typewriter, and efficient machine calcu lators seem a conscious need of a number of the employers inter- 28 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 viewed. Running a calculator as a major duty was reported for almost 18 percent of the women in railroads, 20 percent of those in manufacturing and distributing, 14% percent in oil, and 11 percent in aircraft. The average of the monthly salaries of all women calculatingmachine operators is $109, wdth 50 percent of the salaries spread from $91 to $125; 37 percent are below $100 and 27 percent are above $125 The averages for women calculating-machine operators by type of office follow: City, State, and county governments $129 oil $128 railroads $126, other utilities $113, aircraft $101, manufacturing $99’ and retail stores at the foot, $85. The number of men reported as calculating-machine operators in this study is too small for separate tabulation. Men operators of tabulating machines have an average salary of $138 and 30 percent have salaries of $150 and more. The only two groups of men with numbers large enough for averages are in motion pictures ($152) and the city, State, and county governments ($136) Women key punchers in the same types of offices have averages of $125 and $114, respectively. Other clerical occupations. Women file clerks have an average monthly salary of $100, and men average $107. Fifty-eight percent of the women have salaries under $100, with 45 percent receiving $75 and under $100. Messengers and office boys have average earnings of $81 The range is relatively narrow, with half the salaries spread between the first quartile of $71 and the third of $87. Almost 11 percent are paid $ 100 and more. The averages by type of office having appreciable numbers of men messengers follow: Banks, $75; city, State, and county governments, $77; manufacturing, $78; motion pictures, $82; and oil $90 furls as messengers are a much smaller proportion of the office workers than boys. The few girl messengers have an average of $73 with half earning between $70 and $76. ^Theaverage salaries of women telephone operators and receptionists Mean _ ______ First quartile_ _ Median _ _ Third quartile. _____ Woman telephone operator Woman receptionist cn 120 Among the workers grouped as clerks the highest averages for women are in motion pictures ($133), Federal Government ($136) and oil companies ($128); the low points are in insurance ($97) and stores ($86). _ The averages for men are above $125 in all types of offices but aircraft and the miscellaneous small offices, the three highest being title guaranty and insurance ($162), railroads ($162) and oil ($160). For both men and women the average for special clerks is the highest of all groups, being $153 for women and $202 for men. Administrative, supervisory, clerical-professional. Average salaries for supervisors are $170 for women and $210 for men. Of 904 administrative, executive, and professional office employees (not shown on tables), only about 9 percent are women ihe average monthly salary of women in this group is $211, that of men is ipj 1 /. 29 HOURS OF WORK----LOS ANGELES The accompanying tables IX to XII show, first by type of office and then by occupation, the averages and the distribution of the , salaries paid to Los Angeles office workers. Table IX.—Average monthly salary rales of men and women regular employees in offices, 194-0, by type of office—LOS ANGELES Men Women Average salary rates 1 Average salary rates 1 Type of office Total num ber of women Mean All types..................................... 9,981 $113 Quartiles Me First dian Third $95 $110 $126 Total num ber of men Mean Quartiles Me First dian Third 6,417 $139 $105 $135 $166 110 90 85 109 140 124 106 141 166 151 141 152 90 126 110 160 141 191 181 181 Banks.......................... —...................... Other finance_____________ ______ Investment----------------- --------Personal and chattel--------------Building and loan........—........... Insurance.-.......................................... Title guaranty and insurance.......... 535 367 172 133 62 696 278 112 105 107 98 113 101 109 96 90 90 85 96 86 96 111 101 101 96 111 101 110 125 116 121 105 126 111 121 924 246 146 65 35 283 347 140 128 115 142 158 119 161 Railroads---------- ------ ----------------Other public utilities......................... 208 950 133 111 121 95 132 111 146 128 462 344 162 150 141 121 163 155 Oil producing, refining, and dis tributing.-................. ----------------- 470 132 120 125 141 537 160 126 165 181 Aircraft------ ---------- -------------------Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors____________ _______ 295 103 91 100 111 560 114 100 109 125 989 107 91 104 120 746 132 101 126 155 Department and apparel stores------ 789 86 78 83 91 85 127 105 126 147 Federal Government State government-------------------City government .............................. County government.......................... 426 394 420 908 129 105 127 112 120 86 110 101 125 103 126 115 140 120 145 116 144 121 521 192 139 145 138 113 120 110 125 100 126 161 136 101 153 181 160 123 Motion pictures-------------------------Education____________________ Membership organizations............... 919 604 133 141 124 118 110 76 131 125 81 162 133 90 738 86 19 138 140 102 115 131 140 164 157 Other types of office Advertising Real estate..................................... Broadcasting Hospitals_______________ ___ Small professional offices--------- 600 82 126 119 231 42 102 113 108 108 91 102 86 91 85 91 79 98 108 100 101 88 115 130 125 111 101 62 12 9 21 20 102 79 101 120 191 $170 $141 $161 $200 520 $210 $176 $201 $237 Supervisory (not included above): All types.................................... 1 Mean—arithmetic average. First quartile—one-fourth of the rates are below and three-fourths above the figure given; median—one-half are below and one-half above; third quartile—three-fourths are below and one-fourth above. Averages not computed on very small bases. 425716°—42—5 CO Table X.—Percent distribution of men and women regular employees in offices occording to monthly salary rate, 1960, by type of office— LOS ANGELES W omen Total number of women Men Percent1 of women with monthly salary rate of— $75, under $100, $125, under $150 $150 and over Total number of men 535 367 696 278 Railroad*................ ............................. ....................... Other public utilities_______________8_________ 208 950 under $125 $75, under 924 246 283 347 3.6 5.3 4.5 1.7 2.5 1.6 2.2 24.5 38.4 50.9 24.5 4.5 27.2 6.2 48.2 3a 1 18.5 15.8 10.3 33.8 50.0 21. 2 27.4 37.7 43.7 26. 1 Oil producing, refining, and distributing_______ 15.7 21 7 20.7 14.3 23.6 35.3 21. 1 16.9 1.8 .3 8.1 26. 1 9.5 22.9 17.1 16.3 34.1 24.4 15.9 40.6 8.5 4.6 21.3 462 344 1.1 1. 7 6. 7 13.4 7.8 10.5 14. 1 20.6 57.4 41.0 13.0 537 1.3 8.6 11.9 1.3 4.3 560 746 26. 4 15.8 48.4 25.9 18. 2 22. 5 6.4 27.7 .5 5.8 29.4 20.0 2.4 25.0 27.2 19.4 32. 1 10.4 2.9 18. 7 32.6 29.0 29.1 9.2 7.0 22.6 42.7 34.8 18.9 69.1 9.6 2.2 1.6 46.0 60.5 34.3 17. 2 18.1 9. 1 144 834 1.4 1.3 11.8 42.4 24.7 35.9 36.6 14.3 29.2 23.0 41. 7 3.0 34.9 738 3.3 20.5 7. 0 19.4 24.4 10.8 7.2 6.8 24.6 68.6 789 426 1,722 Motion pictures_____________________________ Education____ ____ _____ __________________ _ Membership organizations____________________ Other types of office-................................................. 919 604 133 600 Supervisory (not included above): All types. ........................................ .................. 191 8.8 2.2 1.6 Department and apparel stores_______________ 13.2 6. 1 4.5 7.2 9.9 77.4 45. 7 47. 1 43.8 7.1 5.2 3.5 $100 295 989 Federal Government___________ _____ _______ State, city, and county governments__________ 1 Percents not computed on very small bases. $100, $125, under $a50 9,981 Baokt........................................................................... . Other finance_____________________________ _ X&suruice _________________________________ Title Guaranty and insurance. --------------------- $100 Under $75 2. 1 Under $75 under $125 20.0 All types______________________________ Aircraft-___________________________________ Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors Percent1 of men with monthly salary rate of— 15.5 18.8 11.8 .8 86 19 62 1.4 20.2 6.7 $150, under $200 $200 and over 8.2 12.8 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 Type of office o 31 EARNINGS IN 1940----LOS ANGELES Table XI.—Average monthly salary rates of men and women regular employees in offices, 1940, by occupation—LOS ANGELES Men Women Average salary rates 1 Average salary rates 1 2 Occupation Total num ber of Quartiles Me First dian Third Total num ber of men Mean Quartiles Me First dian Third 9, 981 Machine operators: Other clerks: File ...................................... $110 $126 6,417 $139 $105 $135 $166 901 2,085 1. 108 200 60 148 116 100 112 88 120 101 86 115 77 146 115 100 115 83 171 128 111 116 88 62 130 119 171 137 108 149 116 91 170 136 100 200 169 120 183 210 121 107 101 82 120 105 136 126 159 434 156 157 126 136 151 151 180 173 105 187 544 96 113 109 85 99 91 92 113 108 110 126 125 118 111 91 101 121 62 110 87 109 130 111 118 111 100 91 96 110 121 115 121 136 121 148 34 138 121 1.25 135 151 164 46 399 100 73 105 80 91 121 88 335 107 81 81 71 91 105 78 126 87 105 118 ioi 134 104 131 161 89 120 165 107 706 412 62 101 120 101 86 112 91 100 125 100 111 126 109 1,040 69 424 135 136 113 100 119 100 130 140 109 165 157 125 259 Accounting group: $95 65 Dicta ting-machine transcriber. $113 190 62 84 Stenographic group: 104 90 101 118 501 129 103 126 152 567 155 116 136 100 121 no 135 135 150 621 94 136 135 101 120 135 131 165 150 378 286 279 71 380 41 160 162 147 129 143 99 135 145 112 108 119 165 165 150 127 143 180 176 180 148 164 Clerks not elsewhere classified in— Other manufacturing and wholeGovernment: Oil producing, refining, and 76 Special office workers------------------- 111 125 136 112 133 96 86 95 78 108 80 116 83 121 91 129 91 156 59 153 121 145 175 379 202 168 196 235 191 Department and apparel stores. 128 385 334 117 256 $170 $141 $161 $200 520 $210 $176 $201 $237 m 1 Mean—arithmetic average. First quartile—one-fourth of the rates are below and three-fourths above the figure given; median—one-half are below and one-half above; third quartile—three-fourths are below and one-fourth above. Averages not computed on very small bases. 2 Not included in total. Table oo to XII —Percent distribution of men and women regular employees in offices according to monthly salary rate, 1940, by occupation— LOS ANGELES Men Women Total number of men $75, under $100 $100, under $125 9,981 2.9 27.3 39.8 20. 1 9.9 6,417 901 2,085 1, 108 200 60 .1 1.0 2. 7 1. 5 25.0 7.4 18.7 36. 4 11.5 65.0 19.6 46. 4 50. 5 78.5 1.7 25. 0 25. 9 9. 5 8.0 3.3 47.8 8.0 9 .5 5.0 62 130 119 183 210 1. 1 2.9 19. 1 40.5 37.2 23. 1 29.5 19.5 13. 1 9.0 159 434 105 187 544 84 190 62 10. 5 2. 1 1. 8 2.4 .5 3.2 51. 4 23.5 34. 9 25.0 16. 3 29.0 29.5 44.9 35.8 48.8 66.3 27.4 8.6 21.4 24.3 20.2 14.7 22.6 8.0 3. 1 3.6 2. 1 17.7 118 164 46 399 12. 8 45.1 22.0 14.6 5.5 88 335 3.3 33. 3 49.6 11.3 2.5 65 4.6 35. 4 36.9 15. 4 7. 7 706 412 62 259 1.6 47.5 6.8 46.8 40.5 37. 4 43.0 43.5 36.3 11.0 47.8 9.7 17.0 2.5 2.4 — number of women Under $75 Stenographic group: Accounting group: Machine operators: Other clerks: Clerks not elsewhere classified in— Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors............ ....... 2.7 ^5 U ruler $75 $75, under $100 $100, under $125 $125, under $150 $150, under $200 2. 1 15.7 21.7 20.7 31.4 8.4 3.2 9.2 33. 6 9.7 25. 4 44.5 12.9 26.9 15.1 46.8 35.4 5.9 27.4 3.1 5.0 1.6 15. 7 8.5 23. 9 31. 1 39.6 49.3 15.7 9.4 $200 and over | i All occupations...................................... —--------- --------------- $150 and over 3.5 __ .8 32 2 43. 2 11.0 11.0 .8 96 28. 1 41.7 25.0 4.2 1.0 148 1. 4 18.9 49.3 29.1 1.4 36. 4 63.3 28. 4 9.6 12.5 .9 14.8 .3 20.6 24. 2 15.2 35.8 4.2 20.6 1. 4 22.2 15.4 19.9 26. 1 52. 6 28.1 20.4 37. 7 21.7 24.0 28.2 33.3 l3 28.1 9.0 1.4 .2 3.0 1. 7 8. 0 25.0 165 1.040 69 424 501 1.9 1.4 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 Percent1 of men with monthly salary rate of— Percent1 of women with monthly salary rate of— Occupation Government: State, city, county--------------- __-----Federal__________________________ Oil producing, refining, and distributing. Railroads____________________________ Other public utilities_________________ Department and apparel stores________ Motion pictures______________________ Other types of office__________ ___ ____ 16.2 .6 1.3 567 155 76 47.6 35.5 50.0 22.2 35.5 30.3 13.9 28.4 18.4 38.2 9.0 36.8 27.3 27.0 3.3 19.7 4.9 4.9 18.0 8.6 24.9 69.8 15.4 51.2 Special office workers____________________ 59 1.7 5.1 Supervisors *.......... ............................ ................ 191 1 Percents not computed on very small bases, 1 Not included in total. 22.0 47.5 379 24.6 68.6 520 .5 26.2 42.6 11.9 6.6 11.1 28.2 22.6 24.3 29.8 16.1 16. 1 21.9 31.0 24.7 37.0 24.5 53.7 62.9 39.8 21.1 35.0 2.3 2.1 12.4 P-4 11.1 2.8 6.0 .3 4.2 6.3 41.2 48.0 .4 6.7 37.9 55.0 1940— LOS ANGELES 28.2 .4 1.1 10.1 1.1 5.8 4.5 15.1 16.9 10.5 EARNINGS IN 385 334 117 256 621 94 378 286 279 71 380 41 Oo w 34 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 WEEKLY EARNINGS COMPARED WITH SALARY RATES To determine the extent to which salary rate and actual earnings are the same, actual earnings are presented* for a single representative pay-roll period, usually a half-month for those on a monthly basis and a week for the others. Actual earnings are tabulated in terms of week's earnings, semimonthly earnings being reduced to their week’s equiv alent. In a few types of office overtime payments increase earnings somewhat, the greatest amounts of increase being in motion picture's, aircraft, and “other public utilities.” Time lost for personal reasons’ and less than a full scheduled week for hourly workers in some types of employment, reduce average earnings slightly. For all the men included in the survey, the average of the actual earnings is 55 cents greater than the average of the weekly salary rates. For all the women, the average of actual earnings is 65 cents less than the average of regular weekly rates. . Rates in terms of weekly equivalents are compared to actual earnmgs for a week in the spring of 1940, by type of office, in the following: Averages of week’s rates and of week’s earnings Women Type of office Average rate All types_______________ _______ Average earnings Men Earnings exceed rate (+) Average or fall rate below (-) by- Average earnings Earnings exceed rate (+) or fall below (-) by— $26.00 $25.35 -$0.65 $31.95 $32.50 +$0.55 Banks___ ____ Other finance...............................1111111111 Insurance____________________________ _ Title guaranty and insurance....................... 25.75 24.15 23.35 25.05 25.75 24.20 23. 25 24.95 +.05 -.10 -.10 32.20 29.60 27. 45 37.15 32.20 29.80 27.45 37.15 +.20 Bailroads__________ ______ ____________ Other public utilities..................................... 30.55 25.65 30.50 26.10 -.05 +.45 37.35 34. 55 37.45 36.60 +.10 +2.06 37.00 Oil producing, refining, and distributing._ 30.50 30.40 -.10 37.00 Aircraft_____ ________ _______ __________ Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors................................................. . 23.70 26.15 +2.45 26.35 28.80 +2.45 24.80 24.95 +.15 30.45 30.60 +. 15 Department and apparel stores.................... 19. 75 19.65 -.10 29.20 29.20 Federal Government__________________ State, city, and county governments 29.70 26.30 29.70 26. 30 32.10 30; 75 32.10 30.75 Motion pictures............................................. Education_______________ __________ Membership organizations Other types of office.......... ............................. 1 32.50 28.70 19.80 23.45 34. 76 28.55 19.15 23.45 31.65 32.35 <■) 23; 45 33. 65 32. 35 0) 23.45 +2.25 -.15 -.65 +2.00 1 Not computed; base too small. This tabulation indicates that differences between earnings and rates, due chiefly to overtime or undertime, are slight in most cases, and the data given as salary rates may be accepted as typical of pre vailing salary conditions for full-time work. Overtime and undertime affect relatively few workers. HOURS OF WORK Scheduled weekly hours. The workweek pattern for office workers, like that of industrial workers, tends to be about 40 hours. Almost three-fourths of the office employees had a scheduled week of 40 hours or below and less than 3% percent had hours above 44. The basic, workweek set by the Fair Labor Standards Act at the time of the survey was 42 hours. Well over one-half of the workers—57 percent—were scheduled to work 39 hours, 39 and a fraction, or 40 hours. Three-fourths of the bank employees in early 1940 were scheduled to work more than 40 hours but not so long as 42. Railroad office workers were all scheduled to work from 44 to 48 hours. Hospital and clinic office hours tended to be longer than the usual 40; all but one small clinic had weekly hours of more than 40, and 39 percent of the hour schedules were in excess of 44. Hours in small offices and in real estate varied more, and undoubtedly there was a great deal of irregularity in the actual hours worked. Daily hours. Seven hours a day with a workweek of 5% days is the most usual arrangement of hours, but the proportions of offices with a 7%- or an 8-hour day are fairly large. A summary of the scheduled daily hours and the days per week follows: Daily hours: Under 7 7______ 7 yt. 7H7J4- 8______ Over 8___ Irregular___ Days per week: 5-. 5 %. 6-. Irregular Percent oj offices . . . . . . 3. 1 37.0 6.3 22. 8 4. 7 24. 0 .8 1. 2 . . . . 20. 1 74. 8 3. 9 1. 2 . . The 8-hour day was most common in manufacturing, motion pic tures, aircraft, and hospitals. In the case of the first three the 8-hour day usually was tied up with a 5-day week. In addition, one-third and more of the offices serving public utilities, education, member ship organizations, oil companies, advertising, and local govern ments had a 5-day week. Six days for office work was unusual and 1 title guaranty and insurance office, 3 stores, and 4 hospitals were the only offices with a workweek of 6 regular days. A few of the small offices had irregular hours, working short time on 6 days. 35 36 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 OVERTIME Overtime policies and practices. Paid overtime for salaried workers is not a general employment practice. A few hours of extra work to finish a special task from time to time generally is disregarded by both worker and employer. Office employers are not overtime conscious. The most usual reply in an swer to questions regarding the extent and payment of overtime was that there was no overtime for office workers. This was especially true of the small offices, and more than half of all the offices reported no overtime for their workers. In many of the larger offices, peak loads of work are handled by employing temporaries or extras Of 106 offices admitting overtime, 16 said there was no extra payment for additional hours, 7 paid the regular rate, 50 paid time and a half, 9 gave supper money, and 24 gave compensatory leave. Payment of time and a half and compensatory time were the most common prac tices. Supper money was common in financial offices. Government offices and schools, if overtime was admitted at all, canceled overtime with compensatory leave. The only offices in which overtime affected the earnings of any appreciable group of workers were “other public utilities,” motion pic tures, and aircraft. “Other finance,” railroads, and manufacturing and distributing had overtime payments for a very limited number of workers. All told, in the pay period for which earnings were tabu lated, 12 percent of the men and 11 percent of the women had over time reported in their work hours and much smaller proportions received cash payments for overtime. EFFECT OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION ON RATES OF PAY Over-all time in office work. As has been stated, complete records of employees' earlier work experience were not available, and for the period from the first to the present employment only the over-all can be correlated with earnings. Average monthly salary, by time over which office work was spread, is shown for all women reported and for the stenographic group, ma chine operators, and “other” (three largest occupational groups) in the summary following: All women reported Over-all time in office work 6,924 Total................ Stenographic group $112 3,030 $117 OtI erl Machine operators 827 $109 $108 2,352 Percent distributon of women and average monthly salary 3.6 3.0 3.5 6.4 4.7 18.2 61.5 5, under 10*years----10 years and over---- $77 85 90 94 99 105 122 2.6 2.9 3.6 5.1 5.5 19.7 60.5 $79 87 93 96 102 109 128 3.9 2.8 3.1 7.9 4.6 19.7 58.0 $78 4.2 2.9 3.7 5.1 4.0 16.8 63.2 (2) 94 95 103 104 117 $77 82 85 93 94 101 117 i Exclusive of the accounting group, receptionists and file clerks, and telephone operators. i Not computed; number too small. In all groups almost 80 percent of the women had over-all experience in clerical employment of at least 5 years. The smallest proportion in the table is that of the stenographic group with less than 1 year’s experience—just over 2% percent. ... , A similar summary for all men reported and for their three largest occupational groups follows: Over-all time in office work All men reported 4,561 $137 Machine* operators 266 $121 Other1 Aceomrting rgroup 487 $155 2,955 $135 Percent distribution of men and average monthly salary 1, under 2 years......... 2, under 3 years-----3, under 4 years-----o' under 10 years----10 years and over---- 9.6 3.9 5.8 7.6 5.7 15.9 51.6 $95 96 104 114 115 130 160 7.5 5.3 10.5 15.0 7.1 21.8 32.7 (2) (2) $104 108 (2) 130 137 0.6 .6 2.1 3.1 3.3 14.4 76.0 («) <!) t!) m m $134 164 9.4 3.6 4.9 7.1 6.1 16.1 52.7 $99 99 107 113 113 128 154 1 Exclusive of stenographic group, messengers, file clerks, timekeepers, and special office workers. 2 Not computed; number too small. Men clerical workers in Los Angeles had shorter over-all work histories than women. Many men undoubtedly regard office work 37 38 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 as a, transitory step or training period for promotion to the selling, buying, professional, and other nonclerical activities of business, and the turn-over of men on clerical jobs is higher than that of women. As would be expected by the nature of the jobs, relatively few men classed as bookkeepers, cashiers, and tellers had had less than 5 years m office work, but the proportion of machine operators with such short experience was not far from one-half. < • • . AVERAGE MONTHLY SALARY RATE ACCORDING TO OVER-ALL TIME SINCE FIRST OFFICE JOB—LOS ANGELES Woaen Overall time In office work lion 1120 0 Under 1 year 1, under 2 years 2, under 3 years 3, under 4 years 4, under 5 years 5, under 10 years 10 years and over Correlation of over-all time in office work with the number of offices worked in shows that in general remaining with one firm leads to slightly higher salaries than does shifting around from one company to another. Average monthly salaries were lowest for those with the largest number of jobs in a given period. Average monthly salary Women with over-all of— Number of jobs held Under 1 year 5, undcr lO years Men wijth over-all of— 10 years Under 1 5, under 10 10 years and over _ 1 (present firm only)______ 2______ 3 and more____ ______ _ (0 $78 76 $112 109 104 $122 124 121 $96 (') « $146 127 119 $166 159 155 1 Not computed; number too small. With the single exception of women with experience of 10 years and more and two jobs, both men and women with but one employer have the highest group averages. Time with present employer. The length of experience with the present employer is indicative of extent of turn-over, and when cross tabulated with salary implies the probable worth-whileness of staying on with the same firm. EFFECTS OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION----LOS ANGELES 39 For all workers with period of employment with the present firm reported, the average monthly salaries are shown here: Men Women Length of service with the firm Percent 15.0 9.3 10.5 10.8 7.9 19.6 26.8 10 years and over__________________________- Average salary $90 99 105 110 114 120 130 Percent 18.4 7.8 10.2 12. 1 6.9 14.6 30.0 Average salary $102 108 121 129' 136 150 169 Over two-fifths of the workers have been with their present employ ers 5 years and more. As the years of service progress after the second year, the average salaries of men take greater strides than those, of women. For employees with service records of 10 years and more with the present firm, the average salaries of men are, 66 percent greater, and those of women are 44 percent greater, than for employees with less than a year’s service. Aircraft as a new and expanding industry has the largest proportion with less than one year’s service, 64 percent of the women and 72 percent of the men. For both sexes, railroads have the smallest pro portion with short service histories, and the largest proportion (slightly over 70 percent) with service records of 10 years and more. The effect of their seniority system is seen here. The similarity in the proportions of men and women with various service records is interesting: About 45 percent of both sexes have been 5 years and more with the same office, and 30 percent of the men and 27 percent of the women have remained 10 years and over. Salary progression within the same firm. A group of men and women whose experience in office work has been wholly with their first employers have been tabulated to indicate the trend of salary progression within offices. The average salary reported under “first job” is the average at beginning—inexperienced entrants—for 5 classes of employees, ranging from those taken on during the year July 1, 1939, to June 30, 1940 to those who entered employment 10 or more years ago. The present-job salary, of course, is based on current rates. Average monthly salary First job 1, under 3 years______ ____ _ 5, under 10 years., 10 years and over Men Women Employment with present firm $75 75 74 81 75 Present job $78 88 100 112 121 Percent of increase First job 4.0 17.3 35.1 38.3 61.3 $86 81 78 83 81 Present job $93 101 118 147 168 Percent of increase 8.1 24.7 51. 3 / /. 1 107.4 Men’s beginning salaries tended to be in the eighties, women’s in the seventies. There is less difference between their first than between their current salaries, men’s progress being much more marked than women’s. For the group of men employed 10 years and more the 40 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 present average salary is more than double the rate paid them when they began, but salaries for women have increased by only about 60 percent. Considering individual cases, about one-fourth of the women, in contrast to more than half of the men, have doubled their salaries after 10 or more years in the firm’s employ. From the first year onward, the disparity in men’s and women’s salaries increases. The figures by type of office follow: Table XIII.—Average monthly salary 1 according to length of service with present firm, by type of office—LOS ANGELES All employees reported . Type of office Number and average salary 1 of employees who had been with present firm— Under 3 years 3, under 5 years Num- Aver- Num- Aver- Num- Average ber salary ber salary ber salary 5, under 10 years 10 years and over ber Average salary ber 2,402 $130 Average salary WOMEN 8,963 $113 3,125 Title guaranty and insurance. 534 321 695 136 112 103 101 104 124 164 257 36 Railroads__________ _____ Other public utilities______ 203 442 133 111 22 57 468 132 291 102 257 861 108 352 753 86 420 129 1, 699 114 885 566 104 585 141 Banks $97 1,682 $112 1, 754 $120 91 86 85 124 54 126 22 104 107 99 79 50 82 22 116 117 100 97 23 37 102 15 43 125 99 29 122 95 161 105 391 80 170 90 78 118 114 82 123 56 129 121 117 114 106 143 305 136 115 92 131 164 149 170 116 178 130 99 125 121 150 Oil producing, refining, and Aircraft____________ _______ Other manufacturing and Department and 115 apparel Federal Government State, city, and county Membership organizations__ 84 102 94 100 358 103 53 327 316 110 595 111 396 135 120 246 76 16 102 140 113 111 74 258 19 84 176 138 107 207 129 16 72 856 $150 1, 754 28 42 13 148 478 20 62 108 153 161 81 91 129 MEN All types.......................... 5, 848 $137 2,130 $109 1,108 $132 140 122 166 Title guaranty and insurance. 920 211 280 177 144 112 39 87 106 91 108 142 52 64 17 114 124 122 Railroads_____ _____ ______ Other public utilities.............. 454 250 162 145 62 60 115 118 51 31 139 120 20 14 321 145 175 163 171 199 149 125 161 131 210 161 44 32 176 154 Banks.......... ...................... Oil producing, refining, and distributing.................... . Aircraft... ... Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors ... Department and stores_______ 529 160 152 118 87 148 116 542 113 485 110 49 135 8 607 132 252 110 123 131 107 165 apparel 81 126 46 117 18 Federal Government ._ State, city, and county governments __ 141 139 54 113 42 141 22 802 133 223 112 204 129 165 Motion pictures......... Education___ _ Membership organizations... Other types of office . 718 76 8 52 142 321 12 4 31 112 202 14 1 11 142 *18 1 105 1 Not computed for croups of less than 25. 91 11 3 23 6 EFFECTS OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION----LOS ANGELES 41 Experience, schooling, and salary. Are high-school graduates and college-trained people paid more than those with less formal schooling but with the same years of experience in office work? The following summary presents the findings for Los Angeles: Average monthly salary Men Women Maximum schooling Under 1 year at work High school, incomplete........... High school, complete.............. College, incomplete.................. College complete......................- Under 1 year at work 5 and under 10 years and 10 years more at work at work $75 78 83 (i) $106 104 107 109 $119 120 121 124 130 (i) $103 92 94 104 (9 $134 126 130 142 $163 163 155 158 165 78 77 106 105 123 120 95 95 126 132 162 158 (9 Business school— Attendance reported.. ._ Attendance not reported.. 5 and under 10 years and more at 10 years at work work 1 Not computed; number too small. The man who completes college seems to have possibilities of a better salary break than the one who docs not complete college or who ends his formal schooling with high-school graduation. The men high-school graduates, however, for some reason average less than those who did not complete high school, but the latter group is rela tively small and therefore more liable to bias. Women’s salaries show a continuous slight upward trend with experience and with schooling except for the group with high school incomplete, which is small. The women college graduates with 10 years and more of experience have an average salary of $130, which is $11 above the average for the grammar-school graduates and $9 more than the high-school graduates, but the men with the same experience but only a grammar-school background have average earnings $33 higher than those of the college women. Rates paid beginners. In the questions on office personnel policies inquiry was made as to the minimum beginning rates for inexperienced workers. The statements of managements as to their lowest rates for new employees show the following: Percent Beginning rate: distribution Under $65 4. 8 $65, under $70 16. 9 $70, under $75________________________________ 18. 0 $75, under $80____________________ _______- - -............ 20. 6 $80, under $90 24. 3 $90, under $100_________________ __________ —............ 6. 9 $100 and over:--------------------------------------------------------8.5 Messengers usually were reported as beginning at $65 to $70, stenographers and typists at $65 to $90, and other clerks at $70 to $90. 42 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 Supplementing the foregoing summary is actual pay-roll information for 392 men and 218 women who had been employed in 1939 and 1940 and for whom beginning jobs and the rates paid were shown. All types of firms are represented. The average entrance salary was $85 for men and $74 for women. Messengers and general clerks were the two beginning jobs reported most frequently for men. The average beginning rate for messengers was $71 and about one-third had started at less than $/0. Men as general clerks usually were taken on at from $85 to $95. All beginning jobs for women except messengers averaged in the seventies; the stenographic group and general clerks both averaged $75. About one-third of the beginning rates for women, but only about one-seventh of such rates for men, were below $70. There is less discrepancy in the beginning rates •of men and women than in their rates as their work experience accumulates. Part-time and extra employees. Data on current salaries included earnings for 214 women extras and 80 women part-time workers, and for 54 men extras and 22 men part-time workers. Since extras and part-time workers usually are paid either hourly or weekly rates, their average earnings are given on a week’s basis. Hours worked were not reported for a sufficient number to correlate with earnings. The week’s average earnings for this group were— Women Part-time workers$12.12 Extra workers 19.73 Men $12.06 24.44 The largest numbers of extras and part-time workers on pay rolls transcribed were in local government offices, the oil companies, schools, and stores. Inquiry was made as to the total number of extras employed by the firm in 1939 and estimates were made by the majority of the large offices. The indications are that extra and part-time work does not offer extensive employment. Education and salary. Schooling appears to have a more direct bearing on women’s than on men’s salary progression. Each schooling group for women shows higher earnings as age increases. Such small proportions of women under 30 have less than high-school education that few averages have been computed for the grammar-school and high-school-incom plete groups. Women under 30 who are college graduates have a lower average than those with less schooling, due to later entrance into industry and shorter work histories. Considering the groups of women of 30 and over, the grammar-school and high-schoolincomplete groups have the lowest average monthly salaries and the college graduate has a slight margin over those with less schooling. 43 EFFECTS OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION--- LOS ANGELES Table XIV.—Average monthly salary, by age and maximum education—LOS ANGELES Total reporting Average salary of workers whose maximum education was— College High school Age (in years) Number A verage Grammar school salary Incom plete Com plete Incom plete Com plete WOMEN All ages_._............... .......... 8,310 $112 25, under 30...... ......................... . 3!), under 35-------------------------3‘i, under 40.................................... 41 and over 212 1,513 1.668 1,640 1,320 1,957 ”7 92 107 115 121 127 $119 $117 (0 90 105 112 118 125 (') 117 124 $114 $110 $m 77 93 106 114 122 128 78 94 109 118 123 128 $133 $130 $138 81 103 125 145 162 165 81 97 123 145 163 171 100 128 145 166 166 (0 87 103 123 124 133 MEN All ages---------- ------------- 5,106 20, under 25- _______ _________ 25, under 30______________ - 30, under 35--------------------------35, under 40................................... 40 and over_______ ______ ____ 168 1.062 1,117 990 674 1,085 $136 81 $159 $153 (0 300 125 o> 0) 145 163 168 0) b) 167 102 125 145 164 169 1 Not computed; number too small As far as men are concerned, age and schooling seem to have little relation to salary. Men’s average salaries increase with experience and age, but the men over 40 with grammar school only have an aver age $1 higher than that of the college graduates and $2 higher than that of the high-school graduates. For the men of 30 and under 35, the average month’s salary is the same for the high-school and college groups. AGE OF WORKERS A little more than one-half of the men and women in Los Angeles offices are 30 years and over. In a survey of women office workers in 7 cities (New York, Philadelphia, Hartford, Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, and Des Moines) in 1931 and 1932, about two-thirds were between 20 and 30. More women than men in the Los Angeles survey are 35 and over. Only 21 percent of the women and 24 percent of the men are under 25. The small proportions under 20— less than 2 A percent of the women and less than 3 A percent of the men—suggest the difficulty found by the young high-school graduate in securing a clerical job. Stores, with their low wage structure, have 9 percent of their women clerks under 20, and aircraft, a rela tively new industry with short employee work histories, has 7 percent under 20. The largest proportions of men under 20 are 6 percent in banks, where young men are employed extensively as messengers and in the transit department, and 7 percent in “other types of office,” chiefly small establishments. The largest proportions of women of 40 and over are in the Federal offices, 49H percent; railroad offices, 45 percent; and city, State, and county governments, 37 percent. Large proportions of men of 40 and over were reported as follows: 49 percent in the Federal Government; 41 percent in education and in railroads; 37 percent in title guaranty and insurance: and 36 percent in public utilities other than railroads. Age and salary. Age reflects experience and higher salaries are to be expected for the older groups. The difference between men’s and women’s salaries in the young beginning group is small, but the more rapid advance ment of men compared with women is marked, as is clear from the following comparison of average monthly salaries by sex and age. It should bo remembered that at 40 years and over a goodly number of the men undoubtedly have been promoted into the administrative and professional group, with still higher salaries, but only a small proportion of the women have achieved such status. Average monthly salary Age Women $78 93 107 115 122 128 Men $81 100 126 146 164 169 Amount and propor tion by which men’s exceeds women’s $3 7 19 31 42 41 Percent 3.8 7.5 17.8 27.0 34.4 32.0 45 46 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 The details of age distribution and of average monthly salaries by type of office show the usual trends. Motion pictures, railroads, oil, and the Federal Government have the highest averages for the women from 20 to 25 years, and these four and education have the highest for those of 40 and over. Stores and membership associations have the lowest for women of all age groups. Oil offices and railroads have the highest averages for the men of 40 and over. Unpublished figures for the various occupational groups show that women’s average salaries increase with age. Men’s average salaries progress in all groups except that men of 40 and more classed as ma chine operators, as file clerks, and as messengers have lower averages than in the age group immediately preceding. The employees age distribution and the average salaries of the various age groups according to type of office are given in tables XV and XVI. 47 AGE OF WORKERS----LOS ANGELES Table XV.—Percent distribution of employees according to age, by type of office— LOS ANGELES - ■ ■ :V ■ ■ • ' Type of office Num ber of employees vath Under 20 age years re ported Percent distribution by age 20, under 25 years 25, under 30 years 30, under 35 years 35, under 40 year# 40 years and over WOMEN 9, 490 2.4 18.3 20.2 ■ 19r 8 ■ 16.0 23.4 Title guaranty and insurance..........................- 533 364 693 136 4.5 2.2 5.1 2.9 27.4 20.3 26.8 18.4 16.3 26.4 18.8 17.6 12.8 22.8 17.2 16.2 14.8 14.8 12.1 23.5 24.2 13.5 20.021.3 Other public utilities............................................. 208 948 3.0 11.5 18.7 8. 2 • 15.1 16.3 18.0 18.7 18.7 45.2 26.6 Oil producing, refining, and distributing-------- 470 8.3 17.9 26.2 21.5 26.2 289 6.9 40.8 32.9 14.2 3.8 1. 4 971 1.0 16.5 22.2 24.5 18.8 16.9 776 All types........................................................ Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors..................................................................... Motion pictures---------------------------------------Membership organizations------- ----------------Other types of office........................ -.................... 9.0 33.1 22.6 18.0 8.5 8.8 422 1,531 Department and apparel stores........................ . .4 5.2 9.7 11.1 16.9 14.9 17.5 19.2 18.1 49.5 37.4 892 567 103 587 1.6 .2 1.0 1.4 17.8 9.5 28.2 19.8 26.2 22.6 20.4 27.1 25.8 20.5 32.0 21.5 17.0 17.5 11.7 11.4 11.5 29.8 6.8 18.9 MEN All types....................................................... 5,966 3.3 20.6 22.1 18.4 12.9 22.7 Other finance........................................ .................. Insurance ________________ ____ _Title guaranty and insurance.............................. 923 245 283 177 6.0 2.0 4.2 .6 21.7 21.6 35.7 14.1 16.3 28.6 25.1 11.9 20.3 19.2 15.5 16.4 17.2 13.5 11.3 19.8 18.6 15.1 8.1 37.3 Other public utilities............................................ 462 342 1.1 2.9 10.2 12.0 11.7 16.4 21.2 19.3 15.2 13.2 40.7 36.3 Oil producing, refining, and distributing-------- 537 3.0 19.0 19.4 16.4 16:2 26.1 Aircraft __________________________ ____ Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors-------------------------------- ----------------- -- 550 3.3 37.3 35.1 12.5 4.4 7.5 737 3.9 23.2 23.7 19.9 14.0 15.2 83 3.6 12.0 30.1 25.3 12.0 16.9 Federal Government State, city, and county governments.............. 141 616 1.4 .5 5.0 11.2 17.7 19.8 12.8 18.8 14.2 12.2 48.9 37.5 4.7 23.5 10.5 29.7 14.5 19.0 28.9 9.6 5.3 13.5 40.8 Other types* of office__________________ ____ 727 76 18 59 6.8 25.4 40.7 10.2 6.8 10. 2- Department and apparel stores i Distribution not computed; base too small. 48 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 Table XVI. Average monthly salary i of employees in the various age groups by type of office—LOS ANGELES W V V Employees with age reported Average salary i of employees whose age was— Type of office Num ber Aver age salary Under 20 years 20, under 25 years 25, under 30 years 30, under 35 years 35, under 40 years 40 years and over WOMEN All types.. $113 Banks........................................... Other finance...................... Insurance______ ___________ ' Title guaranty and insurance" - 136 Railroads______ ____ _ Other public utilities. 112 105 101 104 133 111 Oil producing, refining, and distrib uting.................................... $78 $93 $107 $115 $122 $128 77 93 89 85 88 108 97 96 117 108 104 123 124 114 132 122 120 78 91 105 128 114 118 139 126 137 148 126 132 110 122 127 102 97 106 109 Aircraft____________ ______ ___ Other manufacturing and whole distributors_________________ - 971 108 Department and apparel stores.. - 776 86 Federal Government.. _______ - 422 1,531 892 567 103 Motion pictures................... Education______ ____ ____ Membership organizations Other types of office............. 91 103 107 113 81 87 90 93 96 129 113 96 116 107 121 113 125 116 137 118 141 125 83 102 119 102 80 88 135 115 147 152 129 165 136 96 87 105 111 118 71 MEN All types. 5,966 $137 $81 $100 $126 $146 $164 Banks______________________ Other finance___ _______ ”” Insurance_____ ___________ Title guaranty and insurance"" $169 923 245 283 177 140 128 119 144 76 97 85 90 97 128 116 123 148 137 137 133 170 163 146 154 181 179 Railroads___________ Other public utilities.. 169 462 342 162 150 107 102 139 129 156 169 173 185 176 Oil producing, refining, and distrib uting........................... Aircraft____ ____ _____ _____ Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors......... ................ 537 160 108 143 550 114 105 117 120 127 146 737 132 S3 126 141 616 ; Motion pictures....................... Education____________ Membership organizations Other types of office.............. 140 131 120 727 76 8 59 138 142 1 Not computed for group of less than 25. 199 126 115 Department and apparel stores.. Federal Government_________ ____ State, city, and county governments. 185 80 79 101 105 132 155 162 152 141 159 172 174 ANNUAL EARNINGS Regularity of employment. One of the primary advantages of a white-collar job is that usually it affords regular employment through the year. Further, absences due to illness or emergencies usually are paid for, and temporary lay-offs are much rarer for office workers than for workers in the industrial occupations. A tabulation was made of office workers for whom records of time worked were available, provided they were employed as regular workers at the beginning of 1939 and were still employed, and 90 percent of the women and 96 percent of the men had received their salaries for the full year. In banking, insurance, other financial offices, city, State, and county governments, Federal Government, oil, and membership associations, 95 percent or more of both the men and the women had full year’s earnings. Motion pictures and aircraft are the only offices where more than 10 percent of the men regularlyemployed, and the title guaranty group, “other public utilities,” motion pictures, education, stores, and aircraft the only offices where more than 10 percent of the women regularly employed, had received less than a full year’s earnings. In the school offices about 30 percent of the women did not work the full calendar year, usually having a working year of 9 or 10 months. In stores and in “other public utilities” about one-fourth of the women, though classed as regular employees, were reported as not having a full year of work. Amount of earnings. Annual earnings have been compiled for all who worked for 48 weeks and more in 1939; this includes 7,769 women and 4,875 men. The average was $1,395 for women and $1,765 for men. The distri bution of Los Angeles office workers in all types of offices according to annual earnings is as follows: 'D/ivstsi/ni Annual earnings: Under $800-----------$800, under $900---$900, under $1,000.. $1,000, under $1,200 $1,200, under $1,400. $1,400, under $1,600 $1,600, under $1,800 $1,800, under $2,000 $2,000, under $2,200 $2,200, under $2,400 $2,400 and over----- j'if— Women Men . 0. 7 0. 4 . 2. 1 1. 0 . 21. 1 10. 6 . . 6. 3 2. 7 . 1. 1 3. 8. 11. 14. 14. 16. 13. 6. . 1. 6 10. 1 . 6. 5 . 22.3 . 24. 9 . 1 6 5 6 7 0 2 9 Almost 70 percent of the women are concentrated in the three earn ings groups of $1,000 and under $1,600, and not much more than a fifth earned $1,600 and more. Among the men only 35 percent had earnings of $1,000 and under $1,600, and three-fifths earned at least $1,600. About 5 percent of the women and 30 percent of the men had earnings of $2,000 and more. Nine percent of the women, in contrast to 4% percent of the men, earned less than $1,000. 49 Table XVII. -Percent distribution1 of employees according to annual earnings for work in 18 weeks or more of 1989 by tvve of ofTirp__ tn LOS ANGELES All employees reported O Employees in the various types of office specified who earned— Type of office Average salary Under $800 $800, under $900 $900, under $1,000 $1,000, under $1, 200 $1,200, under $1,400 $1,400, under $1,600 $1,600, under $1,800 $1,800, under $2,000 $2,000, under $2,200 $2,200, under $2,400 $2,400 and over WOMEN All types—Number..................... Percent............................. 7,769 100.0 $1,395 58 0.7 161 2.1 505 6.5 1,730 22.3 1,931 24.9 1,641 21.1 827 10.6 490 6.3 209 2. 7 89 1.1 128 1.6 7.7 14.9 4.7 7.3 3.5 4.0 2.7 1. 2 .2 1.0 .8 .2 0.6 .4 .7 6.7 1.0 1.6 .4 .2 Percent distribution 1 of women Banks_________ Other finance............... Insurance___ ____ Title guaranty and insurance 249 Railroads_____________ Other public utilities___ 193 Oil producing, refining, and distributing_______ 110 $1,390 1,350 1, 260 1, 325 0.2 .9 .9 1, 575 1, 340 1.4 429 1,605 1,410 4.1 7.6 24.1 28.9 2.7 46.4 1.6 6.0 6.2 23.2 17.6 20.9 31.6 26.2 2.6 16.3 40.3 ' ___ 26.2 29.4 2.4 22.7 16.8 17. 3 .2 84 1.6 1.6 4.6 1.8 11.7 14.5 4.3 3.7 3.0 1.9 35.7 10.7 1.2 2.4 1.2 1.2 18.9 7.0 3.2 1.3 .4 .8 748 1,315- .3 Department and apparel stores_______ 616 1,060 1.9 8.3 26.7 48.8 382 1,478 1, 555 1, 365 5.9 3.9 22.7 18.3 38.8 15.1 9.1 6.5 3.7 1.2 1.3 .3 617 97 403 1,835 1,410 1, 060 1,280 1.0 6.2 3.0 •* .3 .8 11.3 5.0 21.8 25.0 6. 2 12.4 18.9 26.8 29.5 11.1 18.8 15.5 25.3 13.1 7.2 12.7 2.9 5.8 1.3 6.0 6.0 1.5 .2 Federal Government___ Motion pictures.............. Education *____________ Membership organizations.............. .1 33.0 9.2 4.5 .2 12.5 .8 1.0 2.0 194 0 Aircraft_____________ Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors____________ OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN Number MEN 4,875 100.0 $1, 765 18 0.4 49 1.0 149 3.1 420 8.6 563 11.5 710 14.6 715 14.7 779 16.0 644 13.2 334 6.9 494 10.1 Percent distr ibution 1 * men of 0.7 .6 .4 0.9 1.8 2.2 1.2 3.7 9.8 6.2 4.9 9.8 14.0 21.1 4.9 11.8 10.4 18.5 7.4 14.3 13.4 15.4 19.8 12.8 14.6 8.4 11.7 17.1 15.2 12.3 12.4 11.5 9.1 8.4 15.4 8.2 .6 1.8 8.6 9.2 10.4 5. 3 13.6 426 301 Oil producing, refining, and distributing.. $1,750 1,635 1,525 1,825 1,980 1,915 .7 .3 1.9 1.0 3,1 6.7 3.5 7.6 6.8 8.6 12.7 13.6 22.8 18.6 23.2 10.0 12.0 18.9 13.4 .3 471 1, 975 .8 1.1 5.5 7.9 8.1 13.0 16.1 23.1 6.6 17.8 4.2 3.5 7.0 3.0 8.3 142 1,670 Other manufacturing and wholesale dis568 52 1,665 .9 119 659 1, 720 1,670 3.0 5.8 1,625 601 75 State, city, and county governments......... 1,820 1,675 (3) .5 35.2 25.4 9.7 15.3 18.7 17.1 13.0 10.6 5.8 1L5 38.4 13.5 13.5 5.8 13.4 17.4 5.9 15.5 4.2 5.2 9.2 2.9 14.3 25.3 10.5 8.0 7.3 1.3 14.3 5. 3 4.2 .7 .5 10.6 9.2 .5 1.8 .8 9.4 14.3 17.6 30.3 14.3 21.8 15.0 .7 4.3 9.7 9.3 8.8 14.7 12.6 18.7 17.5 17.3 I i Percents not computed where base less than 50. * Includes employees whose full year was the school year, 10 months. 8 Not computed; base too small. .. 5.8 AGE OF W ORKERS ----LOS ANGELES 849 164 227 162 Cn 52 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 Annual earnings by type of office. ^'or men an^ women, average annual earnings had a range by type of office of more than $700. Arranged in descending order the averages for men and for women, from table XVII, are as follow’s: Type of office All types........................ Motion pictures_ _ Oil producing, refining, and distrib uting. Railroads........... Federal Government... Aircraft................ State, city, and county governments Finance other than banks.. Public utilities other than railroads.. Title guaranty and insurance_ _ Manufacturing other than aircraft and wholesale distributors. Other types of office___ Insurance_ _ Department and apparel stores Membership organizations.. Average an nual earnings of women $1,395 1,835 1,605 ly 555 1,410 1,410 1,390 1,365 1,350 1,340 1,325 1,315 1, 280 1,260 1,060 1,060 Type of office All types................... Oil producing, refining, and distrib uting. Public utilities ulher than railroads. _ Title guaranty and insurance Motion pictures____ Banks_________ Federal Government. . Education_____ State, city, and county governments Manufacturing other than aircraft and wholesale distributors. Finance other than banks Department and apparel stores Insurance.......... Other types of office... Average an nual earnings of men $1, 765 1, 975 1,915 1,825 1,820 1, 750 1,720 1,675 1, 670 1,670 1,665 1,635 1,625 1,525 1,295 In bank offices 31 percent, in title guaranty and insurance 46 per cent, in other finance 29 percent, and in city, State, and county gov ernments 39 percent of the women have annual earnings of from $1 200 to $1,400 For 32 percent of those in railroads, 26 percent in other public utilities, 37 percent in Federal Government, 40 percent in oil, and 36 percent in aircraft, annual earnings range from $1,400 to $1,600. Motion-picture offices, with 18% percent, are the only ones in which 10 percent and more of the women have annual earnings of as much as $2,000, and the only type where women’s earnings in office work have a higher average than men’s. Women in depart ment and apparel stores, with 37 percent earning below $1,000, and those in membership organizations with 50% percent so reported make the poorest showing. The $1,000 to $1,200 earnings group shows a concentration of 3percent of the women in insurance, 26 percent in education, 49 percent in department and apparel stores and 29 percent in other offices. Annual earnings by type of office show the same general trends and differences as do monthlv salarv rates. J J Men’s annual earnings have less concentration than women’s and are more evenly spread in the groups above $1,600. One-fourth and more of the men in banking, title guaranty and insurance, “other public utilities,” railroads, motion pictures, and oil have annual earnings of $2,000 and more. The only offices with year’s earnings under $1,200 for as many as one-fourth of the men are insurance, other finance, and the small groups of men in membership associations and m other types of office.” 53 ANNUAL EARNINGS----LOS ANGELES Annual earnings by occupation. For all men and women who worked 48 weeks and more in 1939 the average total earnings by occupation are as follows: Average earnings of— Occupation W omen Stenographic group: $1,845 1,430 1,240 1,310 1,330 1,455 1,310 0) 1,345 Men $2, 225 1,755 1,365 1, 430 1,955 1, 925 1,815 1,505 1,055 1, 270 1,370 Clerks not elsewhere classified in— 1,275 (0 1,340 1,730 1,385 1,630 1,315 1,065 1, 580 1,280 1,195 1,815 1,625 1,950 1,885 1,870 1,680 1,640 1,645 1, 635 1,920 1,610 1,620 1,195 2, 430 i Not computed; number too small. Women’s annual earnings are less than men’s in every group but clerks in other types of office, a low-paying group with relatively few men. The most usual range of earnings for women secretaries is $1,600 to $2,000; for stenographers $1,200 to $1,600 and typists $1,000 to $1,400. There is a rather even distribution of three-fourths of the women machine operators and of two-thirds of the hand book keepers from $1,000 to $1,600, and of two-thirds of the telephone operators from $1,000 to $1,400. The annual earnings of other women workers show much the same picture as the data on earnings by typo of office. More than one-third of the men and women in the Federal offices are in the $1,400-$ 1,600 group. As already stated, men’s earnings generally are spread more evenly, and show less concentra tion, in the groups of $1,600 and above. Data on annual earnings, averages and percent distribution, are given by occupation in table XVIII. Table XVIII.—Percent distribution1 of employees according to annual earnings for work in A8 weeks or more of 1939 bv occuvationLOS ANGELES All em ployees repo rted Cn Employees in the various occupations specified who earned— Occupation Average salary Under $800 $800, under $900 $900, under $1,000 $1,000, under $1,200 $1,200, under $1,400 $1,400, under $1,600 $1,600, under $1,800 $1,800, under $2,000 $2,000, under $2,200 $2,200, under $2,400 $2,400 and over WOMEN All occupations—Number Percent 7,769 100.0 $1, 395 58 0.7 161 2.1 505 6.5 1. 730 22.3 1,931 24.9 1, 641 21.1 827 10.6 490 6.3 209 2.7 89 1.1 128 1.6 Percent distribution 1 of women Stenographic group: Secretary_ _ Stenographer............. . Typist....................................................... Other..................... ............................. Bookkeeper, hand____________ _____ Cashier, teller................. Machine operator_________ File clerk____________ Messenger . . Telephone operator______ Receptionist......... .............. Oil producing, refining, and distributing--------------------- ----------------------Aircraft____ ___________ Other manufacturing and wholesale distributors_______________ Other types of office ........... Special office workers__________ ______ $1, 845 1, 430 1, 240 1,310 165 178 871 108 20 284 45 1,455 1,310 1,345 1, 330 (2) 1, 270 1, 370 539 346 88 148 521 348 229 1,275 1, 340 1, 730 1, 630 1, 385 i; sis 1,065 69 16 1,580 m 208 185 1, 280 1. 195 55 1, 815 0. 1 .5 .5 0.1 .9 2.2 1.4 0.8 3.4 10.4 6.5 6.1 15.8 32. 1 16.3 11.4 26.9 34.8 63.3 13.9 28.1 14.8 7.9 16.3 14.4 4.0 2.8 19.4 6.8 1.2 1.4 13.2 2.0 .1 .5 6.4 .6 12.3 .5 2.2 .8 1.9 6.7 2.3 9.3 3.2 16.3 5.6 12.0 20.6 14.6 24.7 19.4 23.2 21.9 23.8 15.7 21.3 18.5 28.1 24.1 15.5 9.6 9.0 9.3 8.4 5.6 4.2 7.4 3.2 3.4 1.1 1.9 .6 1.1 .2 .9 1.9 1.8 2.5 6.0 26.8 38.7 16.9 4.9 2.1 .4 .6 .9 1.5 4.0 1.1 8.0 6.6 1.1 32.8 22.3 8.0 29. 7 19.1 17.0 17. 6 31.8 19.3 6. 7 11.0 15.9 3 2 10.2 10.2 .9 7.0 7.7 4.6 25.8 1.4 1.7 8.1 1.8 26.7 5.7 10. 3 1.4 .9 24.6 33.3 14.5 8.7 5.8 7.3 7.3 16.4 20.0 14.5 10.9 10.2 6.'8 .6 ----------- ... 5.8 17.3 1.8 21.3 8.7 7.2 4.3 32. 5 51.1 .1 7.3 12.7 1940 Clerks not elsewhere classified in— Finance and insurance______ Public utilities______________ Motion pictures________ _ _ Federal Government_______ State, city, and county governments. _ Education____________ ___ 783 1, 679 779 215 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN Number MUN All occupations—Number................ 4,875 100.0 $1, 765 18 0.4 49 1.0 149 3.1 420 8.6 563 11.5 710 14.6 715 14.7 779 16.0 644 13.2 334 6.9 494 10.1 Percent distribution 1 of men Stenographic group: Clerks not elsewhere classified in— Finance and insurance.......................... Other public utilities........ .................... . State, city, and county governments. . Oil producing, refining, and distributOther manufacturing and wholesale 139 424 288 51 106 135 1, 955 1,925 1,505 1,430 1^ 815 1,055 762 273 242 323 82 513 61 43 1,625 1, 950 1,885 1,870 1. 640 1, 680 1, 645 348 113 1, 920 1,610 395 Special office workers________ _____ ____ 1,620 312 2,430 i Percent not computed where base less than 50. J Not computed; base too small. 1.0 11.5 6.0 9.0 14.0 38.5 11.5 9.0 23.1 7.7 25.0 9.0 15.4 18.0 6.4 17.3 14.0 1.3 11.5 6.0 36.5 7.0 1.3 .4 2.0 1.0 2.0 .7 .7 4.5 7.8 13.7 19.8 15.6 9.8 26.4 1.5 15.8 15.1 5.2 9.8 13.2 .7 20.1 10.6 3.1 27.4 13.7 11.8 22.2 17.6 13.2 4.4 7.9 8.3 1.7 2.0 11.3 8.1 6.5 6.4 21.5 23.5 6.6 8.9 15.1 26.2 10.4 9.8 20.8 5.9 6.5 1.2 14.2 15.7 4.7 43.0 .4 .4 1.6 .4 .4 .3 6.3 1.5 1.2 1.2 14.3 3.3 7.0 3.7 .2 .2 1.4 10.3 4.9 14 3 2.9 8.3 9.0 8.5 16.8 14.8 17.-6 7.7 8.3 13.3 39.0 13.8 23.0 10.5 12.8 15.3 20.4 26.8 13.1 18.0 12.6 23.8 18.2 19.2 14.6 18.1 27.9 9.6 26.4 9.5 12.1 7.3 18.1 9.8 5.9 12.5 18.6 7.1 1.2 5.5 7.0 8.8 12.8 13. 6 2.4 2.5 .9 4.9 5.3 7.2 9.7 9.2 39.8 13.2 26.5 18.4 8.8 26.1 2.7 6. 3 2.7 3.5 $2, 225 ' 1, 755 1, 365 * .9 .3 ................- 1.1 1.0 — 1.8 3.8 11.4 17.5 18.5 18.5 12.7 10.9 3.0 4.6 .6 1.3 2.9 6.4 12.8 15.1 14.4 46.5 ANNUAL EARNINGS— LOS ANGELES Machine operator.____ _______________ _ 52 100 78 - PERSONNEL POLICIES Restriction on account of marital status. A prejudice against the employment of married women still is found in office work, and women who are single, widowed, separated, or divorced predominate. Of 252 offices reporting a policy in regard to the initial employment of married women, 42 had taken a stand against it; and of 251 reporting on the requirement of resignation by women who marry while in their service, 16 make such requirement. The proportion of married women in office work, however, may be increasing slightly, as the census of 1930 reported 27.8 percent of such women for Los Angeles, while in the present study 30 percent were married, 55 percent single, and 15 percent widowTed, separated, or divorced. All the banks scheduled have definite policies restricting the employment of married women, and only 1 of the 5 banks allows women to remain in service after marriage. The types of office that reported no restrictions, either on the first employment of married women or on [retention after marriage, are “other public utilities,” motion pictures, local and Federal governments, aircraft, membership organizations, and broadcasting. Tne types of office with the largest proportions of married women are the governmental, education, and membership organizations. Some women may fail to notify employers of a change in marital status but probably this is not general. The proportion of married men is almost twice that of women. Railroads, other public utilities, title guaranty and insurance, oil com panies, and Federal offices all showed 65 percent and more of their office men married. Hiring practices and source of new employees. Centralized employment, where a department or individual inter views all applicants and makes anfimpersonal selection for the job to be filled, generally is desirable. Most of the large offices have such a system, but a considerable number of the Los Angeles offices allowT executives, administrators, and supervisors to hire and discharge on a hit-and-miss basis. When vacancies occur the most usual practice is to call on an employment agency. Files of applicants who have made direct application are kept in many of the offices and selections are made from these. Business schools and high schools are called upon when inexperienced employees are desired. In most cases the govern ment offices and city schools obtain their employees from civil service registers. Most offices employ several means of recruiting new em ployees and there is no prevailing practice. Specific education, training, and experience requirements as pre requisites for employment are surprisingly lacking. The majority of the offices have no formulated policy along these lines. The most common requirement is high-school graduation; less than 10 percent make business school a requirement; three prefer to hire office workers with college training. Selecting the individual of those applying w'ho 57 58 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 194 0 apparently is best suited for the job probably is the most practicable basis and the one to which most employers subscribe. High-school graduates and college graduates have been available in such large numbers that, many employers accept such training as a routine require ment, taken for granted except for workers who must have special machine skills. Operators of machines such as calculator, tabulating, and bookkeeping machines frequently are secured through a school or a machine agency that gives training for the operation of its own machines. Most offices prefer women for stenographic work, for PBX operators, receptionists, and routine clerks. Men seem to be given preference for bookkeeping and accounting. Boys are preferred as messengers. Window jobs in banks, such as tellers, are open to women to only a slight degree. The railroad offices prefer men in all departments. Clerical jobs from which outside men such as salesmen, investigators, and adjusters may be recruited later tend to be filled by men. Most offices have no definite plan as to their policy in case dis missals are necessary for a reduction of force or other discharge. The practice—where there is any—is to give 2 weeks’ notice or to make a cash payment of 2 weeks’ wage on separation of an employee. Retirement plans other than the compulsory social security deduc tions are not common. Government offices, schools, railroads, air craft, and oil companies are the only types with special retirement plans in onc-half or more of the offices surveyed. Salary increases and promotions. Many of the larger offices have definite job grading, with minimums and maximums and promotional steps within. The larger banks, insurance companies, railroads, Government offices, large motionpicture studios, aircraft plants, and a few of the factories have welldefined promotional or salary-increase plans. In these cases pay rolls are reviewed periodically by department heads and a reviewing com mittee which makes recommendations for increases. The majority of the small and medium-sized offices have no system of regular salary review or plan of promotion, and changes in rates and jobs are almost entirely a matter of chance. Other welfare. Group insurance is available to employees in most of the larger offices. In some the firm contributes varying amounts in the pay ment of premiums, but most of the plans are financed almost entirely by the contributions of the employees. Several group hospitalization and medical care plans are available to office groups, but in the majority of offices these are not contributed to by the firm except that it sponsors the plan and allows collections to be made through salary deductions. Labor organizations. The motion-picture studios, railroads, one other public utility, one aircraft plant, and one factory were the only offices that reported collective bargaining. Many of the Government employees belong to one of the various Government labor organizations. Financial offices, retail distribution, oil companies, and the large group of small offices reported no organization of a collective bargaining type. PERSONNEL POLICIES----LOS ANGELES 59 Vacations. All but four of 251 firms reporting, three real-estate offices and one hospital, have a paid-vacation plan of some sort for their em ployees. The basis on which vacations are granted usually is the length of employment and there are numerous arrangements. For example, 1 day may be allowed for each month worked in the preceding year; 6 days for 1 year’s service, 9 days for 2 years’, and 12 days for 3 years’; 1 year’s service 1 week, more than 1 year’s service 2 weeks; and so forth. Vacations vary from 3 days for 6 months’ service to 4 weeks after 10 years’ service (in one office) and 26 days a year in the Federal offices. Two weeks after a year’s service is the most usual plan. Time allowance for illness. Most offices are generous in their allowance of time and payment for absence due to illness. A few have a specified time allowance, but in most cases no deductions are made for illness of short duration and in many offices regular employees with several years of service are paid through relatively long periods of illness. Where group sickness-insurance plans are sponsored by the office, the waiting p eriod usually is paid by the firm and sometimes other cash allowances are made. The Government offices allowed two weeks, or 15 days a year. Only 17 firms reported that no payments were made for time lost in illness and these were chiefly in the group of small establish ments classified as “other types of office.” SCHOOL FACILITIES FOR TRAINING OFFICE WORKERS School training for office workers probably is the most widespread and most developed—if not overdeveloped—field of vocational educa tion. Public and private schools from junior high school rank through college have commercial or business curricula of many varie ties. Private business schools, office-appliance distributors, special public business schools, and public evening schools for adults recruit trainees for office work. To learn something of the supply of trained office workers fed into the labor market each year and the kinds of training given for office work, the public and private commercial training agencies in Los Angeles were consulted. Data on numbers trained and courses offered were secured through interviews with public-school officials and with owners or managers of private schools. In some instances, undoubtedly, private schools tended to overstate the number of trainees and their training facilities, and in general the school survey can hardly be considered more than a cursory one, but its findings are indicative of the extent of vocational training for office workers. The public high-school system of Los Angeles, the public Metropoli tan School of Business, the Los Angeles City College, and the adult education evening courses in 34 schools all offer courses in office work. High schools. In the high schools about 33,000 pupils are enrolled in some com mercial course. This number includes not only those majoring in office courses but those whose major is in other fields but who take one or more commercial courses because of a desire to learn stenography, typewriting, and bookkeeping for other than strictly vocational purposes. The Los Angeles Public High School commercial courses are part of a 3-year senior high school program. Some business courses such as typing are begun in the last year of junior high. Girls predominate in numbers. The courses offered fall into four main classifications: (1) General office and clerical work, which covers office practice and methods, training in the use of office appliances and equipment, busi ness English and arithmetic, and usually typing; (2) stenography and typing; (3) bookkeeping; and (4) salesmanship and retailing. Gradu ates from the salesmanship courses are not expected to go into office work, but the courses are included in the commercial curricula and the data on numbers include this course. Stenography and typing is the most popular course with those beginning their work in the first year of senior high; about 70 percent of the commercial students register for stenography and typing, but when graduation time arrives only about 25 percent of the commercial graduates are from this course. On the other hand, only about 10 percent register for general clerical training but 60 percent finish in that course. Graduates of 61 62 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 1940 the commercial high school courses in 1939 were reported as approxi mately 2,400. Metropolitan School of Business. The Metropolitan School of Business is primarily for high-school graduates who decide to take a business course after completing high school or who wish to supplement their commercial training with additional study. Many who have had commercial training in earlier schooling enroll for brush-up courses. Its courses and organi zation are similar to the better commercial business schools. Numer ous courses of study and electives are offered, including accounting, hand and machine bookkeeping, clerical machines, comptometrv! duplicating machines, stenography, stenotypy, typing, and clericalstenographic work. Individual attention is given to students, and the length of the course and the training given depend on the needs, aptitude, and previous training of the student. For those with no previous training the courses require from 6 months to 10 months, and for brush-up or special students 2 or 3 months according to their electives. Attendance at the Metropolitan School of Business was estimated as about 3,000 for the school year preceding the survey with about 1,000 to 1,100 in attendance at one time. About 80 per cent of the students are women. Los Angeles City College. The Los Angeles City College offers a business course in its 2-year junior college program. It had about 1,000 enrolled, two-thirds of them girls, at time of survey. Graduates from the business school in the preceding year were about 200, almost three-fourths of them girls. Many leave before graduation. General clerical work, stenography, typing, bookkeeping, and accounting are the vocational or essentially business courses. The junior college includes more in the way of general background courses in the elements of finance, management and economics. Evening courses in business subjects. The adult education evening classes offer business courses in 34 schools spread over the city. About 5,200 evening-school students a year complete one or more commercial courses, and the number enrolled at the beginning of the school year is many times greater. The adult evening courses are not primarily for beginners in the office field but are for those who want to make up for a lack in earlier training or to gain skills or information that may be helpful in getting better jobs and promotions. Placement records and follow-up of students who had taken com mercial training were not complete enough for any approximation of the number of those who, having taken or completed a commercial course, had succeeded in finding employment in office work. Los Angeles private business schools. Twenty-four business schools were visited in Los Angeles in the effort to learn the types of training offered, how many persons had been trained, and how many had been placed in office work. Enrollment in the private schools ranged from 3—a new school— to 1,400. Twelve of the schools had fewer than 65 pupils; five had I SCHOOL FACILITIES----LOS ANGELES 63 100 and more, and these five had about three-fourths of all who were being trained for office work in private schools. For 21 schools that reported a break-down by sex for time of enroll ment, over 80 percent of the students were women; of those that reported the sex of their graduates for the preceding year, 90 percent were women. The current enrollment at time of visit totaled about 3,600, but at least twice that number had been graduated or had attended the schools. The courses listed in the advertising literature of the schools are many, the more common being secretarial, stenographic, stenotype, bookkeeping, computing machines, and a “business course” that varies from school to school. Stenography, typing, bookkeeping, office methods and machine appliances, business English, and appli cations of arithmetic to the ordinary business needs cover most of the work offered. Practically all the courses include typewriting. The duration of courses varies from 1 or 2 months for shorthand and typing to a year and more. For most schools, however, the maximum training period is one year. The available data on placements by the private schools were incomplete and in many cases unreliable. All schools but one had a placement service, but for more than a third of them there were no placement records. Placements reported were high proportionately; estimates ranged from 50 to 100 percent of those completing courses and another large proportion of those who take short periods of training. The private schools exert considerable effort to obtain positions for their students through personal contacts with employers, newspaper advertising, and following job clues of all kinds. Other business training. Business-machine companies offer short courses for operating their special machines and equipment. These courses are taken primarily by people who already have business experience and want to add another skill to their office training or by those whom the company expects to place with the sale or rental of their machines. The courses usually are short and only vague estimates of those trained and placed were available in the schools visited. Several employers spoke of a need for well-trained machine operators. Colleges and universities in Los Angeles have business curricula as art of their regular 4-year courses. The training in these schools, owever, is more concerned with, problems of management and organi zation than business operative skills and is for those who hope to hold positions of a professional nature or responsibility in the business world. Some skills such as stenography and bookeeping are offered to enable the graduate to get a start in the business world, but the emphasis is not on turning out stenographers, bookkeepers, and clerks. The. numbers are relatively small and do not materially affect the supply of trainees seeking employment as office workers. E Conclusion. It would be impossible in a city so large as Los Angeles to give a complete picture of the numbers trained and the kinds of training of prospective office workers without spending much more time than was available for this survey, but it is evident that many more are being I 64 OFFICE WORK AND OFFICE WORKERS IN 19 40 . \ . ' trained than can find employment in office work. Considerably more than 10,000 a year complete business courses and several times that number take commercial training of a limited nature. Offices re porting on numbers employed indicated that about 5 percent of the present force were hired as beginners and about 7 percent as experi enced workers. If there are in the neighborhood of 100,000 office workers in Los Angeles, it would appear that there cannot be many more than 5,000 openings a year for inexperienced workers. Many more than this number are trained. Large numbers who secure office work are poorly trained and there is need of closer cooperation of schools and employers in training programs and placements. Needless to say, business education has everyday value apart from its strictly vocational application and can hardly be restricted to those who are definitely headed for office work. It would seem, how ever, that in vocational guidance other industrial and service fields of employment should be stressed and more general business training given, with less emphasis vocationally on stenography and book keeping. o