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Progress Toward Equal Pay
In
The Meat-Packing Industry
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Women’s Bureau Bulletin 251
^0.251
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Martin P. Durkin, Secretary
*
Washington : 1953
WOMEN’S BUREAU
Frieda S. Miller, Director
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office
Washington 25, D. C. - Price 10 cents
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
United States Department of Labor,
Women’s Bureau,
Washington, June 8,1953.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit a report on progress toward
equal pay in the meat-packing industry. In advocating good stand
ards of employment and promoting the welfare of working women,
the Women’s Bureau has had a continuing interest in equal pay and
has issued various reports on legislation, collective bargaining, prob
lems, and progress related to equal pay.
Lower earnings received by women in comparison with men are
in part attributable to a number of factors including the concentration
of women workers in low-paying jobs within an industry, differences
in hours of work, less seniority within a plant, more limited experience
and less opportunity for advancement. Another specific factor is the
existence of lower rates for women on the same or similar jobs as
men within a plant. Unfortunately, the incidence of such discrimina
tion in pay cannot be accurately determined from available statisti
cal data. In this circumstance the Women’s Bureau believes that one
constructive approach is to provide factual descriptions of unequal
rate situations in order that the problem can be viewed realistically
and its various aspects illustrated.
This report provides a description of this kind—and a particularly
significant one because of the considerable progress toward equal pay
that has been achieved. Dual rate structures with lower rates for
women’s jobs that are the same or similar to those held by men have
been traditional in some industries. Since there are many companies
with dual wage structures in the meat-packing industry, the experi
ence there is of especial interest.
The report describes the background and nature of differentials in
the wage rates for men and women in selected plants and indicates
the progress in reducing differentials in the industry and in removing
them altogether in some plants.
Management and union representatives made information available
for the report and were given an opportunity to review the manuscript.
The field visits were made and the report was written by Ethel
Erickson in the Bureau’s Division of Research, directed by Mary N.
Hilton.
Respectfully submitted.
Frieda S. Miller, Director.
Hon. Martin P. Duekin,
Secretary of Labor.
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CONTENTS
Introduction _
Employment and job opportunities for women______________________
Wage determination in the meat-packing industry___________________
Narrowing the differentials through collective bargaining_____________
Differences in job rates of men and women on the same and similar jobs___
Examples of equal pay
Dual seniority and women’s opportunities for advancement___________
Equal-pay clauses in union agreements
v
Page
j
3
5
6
7
13
13
Progress Toward Equal Pay in the
Meat-Packing Industry
Introduction
The meat-products industry is one of the three food industries
employing the largest numbers of women. About 65,000 women were
employed in meat products in the fall of 1952 and they comprised
about one-fifth of the employees in the industry.1
The industry is made up of three groups—the large national pack
ers with many plants, usually known as the “Big Four”; medium
sized companies with a smaller number of branches, usually consid
ered the “independents”; and the small local packers. Four com
panies produce more than one-half of all federally inspected meat
and employ about one-half of the workers. These firms set the pat
tern for collective bargaining and any changes in their master agree
ments and contractual provisions are reflected throughout the indus
try. Meat packing is a highly organized industry, with 90 percent of
the production workers under union contract.2
One of the characteristics of the industry that is of concern to the
Women’s Bureau with its interest in promoting the welfare of wage
earning women is the double wage schedule. Jobs performed by
women have been designated as “female” and rates for women have
been on a separate schedule, which is basically lower than that for men
in most meat-packing plants.
Some of the independent packers have a single wage structure cover
ing both men and women, but this does not affect the bulk of the
industry as most of the independents follow the policies of the large
companies. A report to the President of the United States on labor
disputes in the meat-packing industry shortly after the end of World
War II stated: “Practically all of the female employees, constituting
nearly 20 percent of the total employees, are paid less than the com
mon labor rate for male employees.”3
The Meat-Packing Commission appointed by the National War
Labor Board in 1945 to deal with wage stabilization problems in the
meat-packing industry made marked progress in developing a ration
1U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Payrolls.
January 1953.
a U.S, Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Collective Bargaining In tbe
Meat-Packing Industry. Bulletin No. 1063.
a Report to the President on Labor Disputes in the Meat-Packing Industry, by the
Board of Inquiry, April 8, 1948, p. 59.
1
2
PROGRESS TOWARD EQUAL PAY
alized wage structure for the industry, but the dual rates for men
and women remained. The termination report of the NWLB stated
that intra-plant inequities in the industry constituted one of the
unresolved problems and the commission was continued beyond the
life of the parent organization.4
The labor organizations, both CIO and AFL, during and since
World War II, have endorsed the elimination of male-female rate
differentials and there has been a material narrowing of the gap in
job rates. A number of independent companies have adopted a single
rate structure and, during 1952, the differential between men’s and
women’s rates was reduced substantially in all the large companies.
In negotiations for wage increases early in 1952, union representa
tives reached an agreement with two of the national packers that
the differential in rates for men and women workers be reduced to 9
cents an hour wherever there was a larger differential. In the im
portant Metropolitan area,6 for example, the differential was 10
cents an hour. The reduction in differential was approved by the
Wage Stabilization Board for these two companies in February
1952. Whenever a pattern is set through collective bargaining with
one or more of the big packers, it tends to become the pattern for
the industry, and a month later, in March, the Board amended Reso
lution 80—the order covering general wage increases in the meat
packing industry—to allow all meat-packing companies to reduce sex
wage differentials to 9 cents without prior approval by the Board.
This amendment to Resolution 80 did not deny the packers the
privilege of giving rate increases to women to equalize their rates
with men’s for equal work, but such action required a direct petition
to the Board for consideration under the Board’s Resolution 69, which
authorized increases for equal pay for equal work as a part of its
policy of fostering defense production and promoting sound working
relations.
In the fall of 1952, the negotiations for contract renewals of master
agreements to cover the period up to September 1954 resulted in a
reduction of the basic male-female differential from 9 to a maximum
of 5 cents an hour. During 1951 and 1952, collective bargaining had
brought about more than a 50-percent reduction of the differential—
that is from 10V£ cents to 5 cents an hour—in most of the large meat
packing centers.
At a national equal-pay conference sponsored by the Women’s
Bureau in the spring of 1952, the order of the Wage Stabilization
Board covering the 9-cent differential and its “unequal” pay implica
tions were discussed, and members of the conference requested the
* Termination Report of the National War Labor Board, vol. 1, part II, ch. 19.
5 See p. 6 for discussion on geographic areas usually considered in collective bargaining.
MEAT-PACKING INDUSTRY
3
Women’s Bureau to explore and report on inequities in women’s
rates in the meat-packing industry. Since no current information
was available in the Labor Department, a field representative of the
Women’s Bureau obtained information from the 2 major labor
organizations for packinghouse workers and from 9 meat-packing
companies. Representative plants of the “Big Four” and independ
ents were included. The information obtained in the field explora
tions by the Women’s Bureau was related to employment opportunities
for women, basic wage schedules, job rates for men and women on
the same and similar job titles, and projects of labor unions to promote
equal pay or to reduce inequities in women’s rates.
Employment and Job Opportunities for Women
In 1910 only about 1 out of every 16 operatives and laborers in the
meat-products industry was a woman while at present the comparable
ratio is about 1 of every 5. Women’s opportunities for employment
have grown with the development of new processed products, canned
meats, new specialties, and marketing of products in small-sized pack
ages for consumer use. Most of the jobs open to women are in the
casing, canning, pork trimming, sliced bacon, sausage, and selected
meats departments. The slaughtering, primary dressing, and cutting
up of cattle, hogs, and sheep employ relatively few women, and
departments such as hides, maintenance, shipping, and stockyards
rarely have any women workers.
In the kill departments, a few women work with the men on jobs
such as stamping carcasses, exposing kidneys, tying guts, cutting out
eyelids, trimming ears and cheeks, and other work on the head bench.
In the offal sections, located close to the killing operations, women
are saving and trimming all kinds of glands, bladders, tongues, viscera,
and weasands. Inspecting and spotting livers, clipping and scraping
fat from casings, and washing ruffle fat are other jobs that employ
women as well as men. The number of women, however, tends to be
small, and some companies employ no women in the killing and offal
departments. Women are more likely to be working in hog-killing
and hog-offal departments than in those processing cattle and sheep.
The casing departments often employ men and women on the same
or similar work. Flushing, trimming, inspecting, grading, measuring,
salting, and packing casings are jobs on which both men and women
are employed.
Pork trimming is one of the principal job openings for women.
The pork trimmer trims lean from fat and separates fat and lean
according to specifications for use in sausage, canning, and other
processed meat products. The women usually work on the smaller
pieces of meat. Retrimming trimmings is almost always a woman’s
259700—53----- 2
4
PROGRESS TOWARD EQUAL PAY
job. Women, however, in some plants trim loins, shoulder hams, and
steaks and trim and roll small roasts. Men almost exclusively are
employed to trim the heavier cuts. In some plants, all the trimming
jobs are men’s. Women on trimming must be skilled in handling
knives and keeping them honed. Knives are usually sharpened for
the women but men often prefer to sharpen their own knives and are
allowed to do this during working hours.
Women outnumber men in the sausage departments. Many of the
jobs are almost exclusively women’s. Women link sausage by hand
and by machine, tie and rope dry sausage, stuff meat loaves and bone
less hams into artificial casings, weigh and mix spices according to
formulas, prepare casings for stuffing, wash pans, and serve as general
helpers in sausage manufacture. Men usually operate the air-pressure
stuffing machines. Filling the hopper requires considerable lifting
of sausage ingredients and this, along with the control of air valves,
keeps the job from being considered as suitable for women. Women,
however, often assist in the machine stuffing and during emergency
periods have replaced men on this job—sometimes with help in lifting.
Canning, like the sausage department, has a high proportion of
women, and the jobs of men and women for the most part are different.
Since much of the work in canning is described as “kitchen-type,” it
is considered especially suitable for women. Women prepare products
for canning, fill or stuff cans by hand where the appearance of the
pack is important or where the product does not lend itself to
machine stuffing, seal and label cans and jars. Men in canning, and
also in sausage departments, operate the chopping, grinding, and
mixing equipment and do the trucking and heavy packing.
Sliced bacon is another department where many women work. Men
operate slicing machines, truck supplies and the packed bacon, do
clean-up work, and serve as foremen. Occasionally, women may
operate the slicers and work as gang leaders. Women scoop the sliced
bacon, weigh and check-weigh, wrap and pack. Men are rarely
assigned the packing and wrapping jobs.
In ham departments of the smoked meats division, the job oppor
tunities for women are not as many as in bacon departments, but
women are employed along with men wrapping and packaging hams
and other smoked products. Pumping curing solution into arteries
of hams is a job on which women occasionally work together with or
replace men.
The lard refinery is a mechanized unit and does not require much
manual work. Jobs for men and women are different. A relatively
small number of women are employed in setting up boxes and cartons,
lining them, and operating filling equipment for the small 1- to
4-pound packages.
MEAT-PACKING INDUSTRY
5
Although the meat-packing industry is characterized by a high de
gree of specialization and job dilution, it is not a highly mechanized
industry compared with most durable goods industries. The hand
knife and cleaver are still basic tools. Although conveyor lines and
belts are used extensively, hand trucking to and from storerooms and
coolers to workrooms goes on continuously, and many jobs are a com
bination of the primary skills and duties required for production with
the secondary duties of trucking and movement of goods in process.
Women are rarely employed on heavy jobs which involve marked
physical strain. For the most part, women’s jobs are the lighter,
cleaner ones that require finger dexterity and continued application
and patience on repetitive work.
The proportion of semiskilled and unskilled work in meat packing
has been estimated as high as YO percent and in rate determination,
working conditions and strains are given marked consideration.
Actual skill on production is not the determining factor in the ranking
of many jobs.6
Wage Determination in the Meat-Packing Industry
1 he processing of a great variety of meat products and by-products
with varying work specifications under different working conditions
is accompanied by a high degree of job specialization and that, in
turn, has created thousands of job titles and rates in the meat-packing
industry. Ranking of jobs for rates did not follow any orderly over
all plan in most of the large companies for many years. Geographic
differentials were marked. Personal rates through wage adjustments
on an individual basis were common. Rates for men and for women
were basically distinct.
When collective bargaining in the meat-packing industry became
an important consideration in rate determination during World War
II and when wage increases and adjustments had to be approved by
the National War Labor Board, a great many problems arose in try
ing to make adjustments under the existing wage plans. Piece-meal
adjustments tended to create new inequities. The National War La
bor Board found the complexities baffling in handling wage adjust
ments under its regular procedures and in 1945 the Meat-Packing
Commission was established to specialize on the problems of rate ad
justments for the industry and to work out a rational plan of han
dling them.
The Meat-Packing Commission, a tripartite group representing em
ployers, unions, and the public, worked for about 2 years reviewing
the wage rates of the large companies and directing the development
8 Corey, Lewis.
Meat and Man.
New York, N. Y., Viking Press, 1950.
37T pp.
6
PROGRESS TOWARD EQUAL PAY
of a simplified structure. This plan—the work of management and
union representatives with appeal to the Commission in case of dis
agreement—slotted or classified jobs into about 25 wage brackets at
2^-cent intervals. Many jobs that had been at the lowest or common
labor rate were slotted into brackets above the bottom rate, benefiting
both men and women. The new plan was the first overall rationaliza
tion of the meat-packing industry’s basic wage structure and was a
marked improvement over former wage plans, but it did not eliminate
the separate schedules for men and women.
The framework established under the direction of the Meat-Packing
Commission is still the basic plan for the national packers, and it is
followed by many of the independent packers. The bracket interval
has been increased from 2-1/2 cents to 3y2 cents. Geographic areas
have been consolidated and differences in rates between areas reduced.
The geographic areas usually considered in collective bargaining are
the Metropolitan, the Southeastern, Southwestern, Southern Cali
fornia, and the Western. The Metropolitan area covers all the mid
west and eastern cities. It includes such important meat-packing
centers as Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, and St. Paul. It is esti
mated that about 80 percent of the meat-packing employees are in the
Metropolitan area.
Narrowing the Differentials Through Collective Bargaining
The common labor rate for men and the common labor rate for
women are the bases from which rates progress in 3i/2-cent steps or
brackets to the maximum. The rates for women traditionally have
been lower than men’s before and since the advent of collective bar
gaining. Until the new master agreements were signed in the fall
of 1952, the differential in union agreements varied by geographic
areas. In the Los Angeles or Southern California area, the differential
has been 5 cents for a number of years. In the Southeastern area, it
was 7 cents in urban and 6y2 cents in rural plants. The Metropolitan
area, in which approximately 80 percent of the employees work, had
a differential of 10y2 cents for many years until the reduction to 9
cents was approved in March 1952. The Northwestern and South
western areas, also, followed the differential pattern of the Metro
politan area. In the fall of 1952, contract negotiations established the
pattern of a 5-cent differential in all areas.
During the year 1952, two changes in the differential through col
lective bargaining, in the areas in which most of the industry is located,
led to a reduction of more than 50 percent in the gap between the com
mon labor rate for men and women. The following summary shows
the changes in actual rates and differential in the Metropolitan area.
7
MEAT-PACKING INDUSTRY
October 1951
March 1952
Wage bracket1---------------------- ------------------------Men
Women
Men
Women
0 (common labor)..
1 --------------------2 --------------------3 --------------------4 -------------------5 -------------------6 ---------------------
$1.35
$1. 24)4
1- 38)4
1.28
1.42
1.31)4
1. 45%
1. 35
1.49
1. 38)4
1. 52)4
1. 42
1. 56
1.45)4
Differential----------
10)40
$1.41
1.44)4
1.48
1. 51)4
1. 55
1. 58)4
1. 62
$1.32
1. 35)4
1.39
1. 42)4
1. 46
1. 49)4
1. 53
90
October 1952
----------------------Men
Women
$1.45
$1.40
1.48)4
1.43)4
1.52
1.47
1. 55)4
1. 50)4
1. 59
1. 54
1. 62)4
1. 57)4
1. 66
1. 61
50
1 Brackets continue in 3)4-cent steps up to 30.
Only 6 wage brackets are shown because very few women hold jobs
that are rated higher than bracket 6. Women’s opportunities are
limited largely to jobs rated in the three lowest brackets, and only a
small proportion of the women advance to jobs in bracket 3 or above.
General increases in the hourly wage have been the same amount
for men and women and percentage-wise this, too, has narrowed the
differential appreciably. In 1932, when the common labor rate in a
Big Four plant was 35 cents an hour for men and 25 cents for women,
the women’s rate was approximately 30 percent less than the men’s,
while at present, in the same plant, the common labor rate is $1.45
for men and $1.40 for women, a difference of about 3% percent,
making the women’s rates about 96 percent of the men’s.
Women’s rates of pay in the meat-packing industry compare favor
ably with women’s rates in industry generally and with additional
earnings when employed on incentive plans, the average hourly earn
ings of both men and women are higher than those indicated by the
rate schedules. However, in most plants women are still in a separate
wage category, 5 cents below that of the men in each wage bracket.
Since most of the jobs filled by women are in the three lowest brackets,
the majority of the women have basic hourly rates below any for men
except the common labor rate.
Differences in Job Rates of Men and Women on the Same and
Similar Jobs
Classifying the jobs into appropriate brackets on the basis of job
duties, skills required, strains, and working conditions is a managerial
function. All the large national meat packers have rate and time
study units that classify jobs and set piece rates. In most companies,
rating is based on an overall knowledge of the jobs and conditions
without the aid of formal job evaluation plans. The classification of
jobs of the same or similar titles into wage brackets occasionally
8
PROGRESS TOWARD EQUAL PAY
varies from plant to plant even within the same company. Local
practices, working conditions, and traditions are factors that affect
the evaluation of jobs. In all, however, a lower rate schedule for
women is accepted as an established traditional pattern. Women are
usually assigned the light jobs that require dexterity, patience, and
application to details, and these job factors are not given as much
weight in rating jobs as the strains of manual effort and disagreeable
working conditions.
Although the opportunities for women to be employed on the same
jobs as men are few, there are some jobs for men and for women that
have identical titles and the same or very similar job descriptions.
Usually the bracket rating or grade classification of the job is the
same but, because of the dual rate structure, the woman’s hourly rate
is 5 cents less—until recently it was 9 or 10% cents less in the Metro
politan area. Where the job descriptions as well as the job titles are
identical, it seems that there is inequity in pay rates.
The following illustrations are from the rate books of several plants
and are for jobs with identical titles and job descriptions for men and
women. The classifications or brackets are the same but, because of
the dual wage structure, women are paid less than men.
Same job title for men and women and same bracket classification
Stuff meat loaf or ham in artificial casings (bracket 1, male and female).—
Pick up artificial casing from pan to table. Open end of artificial casing and
pull on to horn or hand operated stuffier. Operate lever and spread casing.
Pick up loaf or ham from table, dip end in gelatine. Position product in horn
and stuff into artificial casing. Place stuffed product aside on table.
Operate roping machine (bracket Z, mgle and female).—Obtain supply of
string, thread machine, start or stop motor switch as necessary. Pick up piece
of sausage to be roped and hold stx-ing along sausage. Actuate foot control
roping sausage. Cut string, tie string, and toss to truck.
Clean out between toes (brackets, male and female).-—Remove machine muti
lations from front shank. With knife in hand cut between toes of each front
foot. Cut out hair and scurf. When necessary pull toenails with hand puller.
Tend gas singer. Open and close valve when chain starts or stops.
Hog dressing trim (bracket Z, male and female).—Trim off loose fat, tissue,
skin and flesh along back bone, rib inside, and hanging tender. Trim glands and
fat from inside of carcass, working downward from tenderloin. Make knife
cut to drop skirt. Remove heart artery. Trim out small pieces of liver and
other foreign particles remaining after evisceration.
The following list gives additional selected jobs with the same title
and bracket classification on which women receive the established
differential:
MEAT-PACKING INDUSTRY
9
Wage
bracket
Job title
Place and pin shroud_________________________
Wash sheep___________________________
Pull caul fat___________________________________
Trim, flush and count bladders____________________
Trim off loose fat tissue and flesh along brisket and neck.
Trim jawbones_______________________________
Trim and save glands—pancreas, adrenal, thyroids, etc_.
Trim plucks (sheep)____________________________
Trim cheeks and tongues______________________
Salt and pack butts in tierces______________________
Scrub, trim and wash beef tripe___________________
Skin bungs___________________________
Flesh black guts___________________________
Mark briskets____________________________
Cut off heads and ears_________________________
Operate ham press___________________________
Stitching machine operator_____________________
Inspect measure and salt casing__________________
Operate slicing machine (bacon)_______________
Pack and scale, dry sausage_____________________
Artery pump, hams________________________
Pressure spray, dry sausage__________________
1
1
1
-
-
2
2
2
-
2
-
2
2
-
2
2
2
2
-
2
2
-
2
-
-
2
2
-
2
-
3
3
3
-
Same job titles for men and women with women’s jobs in a higher
bracket
Occasionally the same job title carries a higher bracket rating for
women than for men. However, although a one-bracket higher rating
reduces the differential 3y2 cents an hour, the women’s rate is still a
little less than the men’s. The higher rating for women may be token
recognition of discrimination and a move towards narrowing the dif
ferential in the rate for the job. The following are examples of
identical job titles in the same departments and in the same plant rated
one bracket higher for women than men.
Wage bracket
Job title
Trim and save pepsin skins- Pull guts—small and bung__.
Trim plucks______________
Cut lean meat from weasands
Artery pumper____________
Women
3
6
3
3
Men
2
5
2
2
6
5
Same job titles for men and women with women’s jobs in a lower
bracket
A more frequent occurrence is a higher bracket classification of
men than women on the same job titles in the same plant. Slotting
women s jobs with identical titles to men’s in the same plant in a
lower bracket widens the gap in their respective rates by 3% cents for
each bracket of difference in addition to the basic 5 cent differential.
•
PROGRESS TOWARD EQUAL PAY
10
Wage bracket
Women
Job title
Men
1
Cut, grade, and inspect beef bungs
Grade beef middles------------------Viscera separator (sheep)-----------Tablet maker--------------------------
2
2
5
4
3
6
5
Job descriptions for these jobs, which are the same for men and
women, follow.
Out, grade, and inspect beef bung (bracket 1 for women, 2 for men).—Pick
up bung from table, place open end on air valve, inflate, place bung in gage to
determine size, inspect for nodules, turn back open end and inspect for particles
of dirt. Toss bung into proper vat.
Grade beef middles (bracket 2 for women, 3 for men).—Take string of middles
(casings) from vat. Position on grading table. Locate end of middle. Clip
off, using safety knife. Inflate with air. Grade for size and quality by gaging
several times. Toss reject casing to inedible can. Hang grade casing on proper
pin in measuring vat.
Viscera separator (sheep) (bracket 5 for women, 6 for men).—Take viscera
from conveyor. Separate viscera from pluck. Push down separate product
chutes. Tally condemnations.
Tablet maker (bracket 4 for women, 5 for men).—Set up machine. Scoop
powder into machine. Add alcohol and water until proper consistency. Remove
product. Set up granulator. Place oven pan in granulator. Spread product.
Place in dryer. Set up tablet machine. Tend machine, inspect, scale tablets
for weight and adjust if necessary. Dump tablets into drums.
Job titles similar
Men and women perform work that is comparable in the skill and
duty requirements on some jobs where the job titles are not identical.
The similarity of such jobs is generally recognized by classifying them
in the same brackets. The rates, of course, follow the dual scheduling
and women in most plants receive cents less an hour than do men.
Job title for women
Wage
bracket
Split hearts and remove blood
clots
Cut out ear drums and save ears—
Cut out stomach linings----------Cut open lungs-----------------------Trim and wash cheek meat--------Seal or tape packed containers----Hand form and pack veal drum
sticks--------------------Grade and bunch dried weasands,
bladders, and rennets------------Wipe cans, wash pans—_--------Label jars and packages_______
Job title for men
Wage
bracket
Trim hearts 2
2
2 Cut out ear pits--------------------2 Cut open and flush stomach lin
ings
2 Cut open paunches_____________
2 Trim jawbones and trim and wash
tongues 2
2 Seal fiber containers___________
Form hamburgers---------------------2
Inflating, grading, and tying ren
nets
2
0 Washing, sorting, and trucking
molds —
0 Label shipping containers----------
2
2
2
2
2
2
0
0
MEAT-PACKING INDUSTRY
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Other indications of inequities in rating women’s jobs
Even within a company there is a lack of uniformity in bracket
classification among the various plants. Eandom checking in exam
ining rate structures indicated a tendency to grade jobs with the same
or similar titles in higher brackets in plants designating these as men’s
jobs than in plants where they were classed as women’s jobs. When
all trimming jobs were performed by men, the brackets for such jobs
were in some cases higher than when performed by both men and
women.
Clauses such as the following were negotiated with national chain
packers in several 1950 master agreements: “The parties agree to re
examine certain female wage rates and male common labor rates for
the purpose of adjusting any inequities * * *. Adjustment made
pursuant shall become effective on the date agreed on between the
parties.” The extent to which adjustments could be made was lim
ited to an agreed upon number of brackets or grade increases. No
complete data were available on the actual number of women’s jobs
that had been reclassified in all companies, but in one, it was known
that 24 job titles classified as women’s had been regarded to higher
brackets or wage grades. The, number of women employed on these
jobs was not reported but some of the upgraded jobs employed many
women.
Examples of Equal Pay
Although the big packers have dual wage schedules as their basic
plan for wage determination, undef some conditions women receive the
same rates of pay as men and a number of independent packers have
adopted single rate structures and have achieved an equal-pay status.
Piece rates established on a straight unit basis usually carry the
same rates for men and women while employed on such operations.
The same piece rate for men and women is a well-established rate
condition in most industries. Incentive systems or bonus production
plans for output above the standard set are usually related to the
basic hourly rate for the job, and unlike straight piece rates are
affected by basic differentials in rates.
In some plants where the policy is against men and women being
employed on the same job titles, if women actually replace men on
jobs designated as men’s, they receive the men’s rate. In one of the
“Big Four,” a few women separating plucks in hog-kill received the
same rate as the men, which was the third bracket above common
labor. These women were reported as “old timers,” and it was ex
pected that if they should leave their jobs they would be replaced
by men.
12
PROGRESS TOWARD EQUAL PAY
Two of the five independents visited followed the usual wage differ
ential plan, but three had single rates for production jobs that applied
irrespective of the sex of the worker. Two of these plants were small;
together they employed fewer than 50 women. No rates had any sex.
designation and women employed along with men on trimming and
packaging jobs received the same rates as the men. All these women
were paid above the common labor rate for men.
The other independent plant with a single rate structure had about
300 women employed, comprising about 20 percent of the plant em
ployment. Eates for production jobs were not on separate schedules
for men and women. Several years ago the local union cooperated
with management in planning and introducing a job evaluation plan
for grading jobs and establishing a rating plan based on job content.
Jobs are compared, ranked, and rated through a point plan of factor
comparison job evaluation. The five major factors used to rate jobs
are knowledge, skill, responsibility, effort, and working conditions.
Each of the major factors is broken down into from 3 to 10 subfactors.
Under the knowledge factor, experience has the greatest potential
point value of any single subfactor in the plan. Effort and working
conditions have been subdivided into a greater number of subfactors
than the three other major factors. Under efforts, weight lifting and
physical activity are given detailed analysis, and the working con
ditions factor is broken down into 10 elements, taking into considera
tion exposure to poor ventilation, dust, fumes, dirt, wetness, noise,
monotony, heat, eye strain, and accident hazards. The consideration
given to effort and working conditions indicates that these are con
sidered job factors of primary importance in ranking jobs in the
meat-packing industry. Dexterity, precision, and versatility, sub
factors under skill, have less maximum point values in rating than
exposure to dust, fumes, and heat.
In this plant, women for the most part are employed on light jobs
requiring little experience and less strength and physical activity
than many men’s jobs. Women’s jobs tend to be performed under
the more favorable working conditions in the industry. Often their
primary characteristics are dexterity and precision, subfactors with
relatively low point values. Since the opportunities for women are
on the types of work that carry the lower total point values, the jobs
filled by women mass in the lower brackets of the wage structure.
Trimming cheeks, hearts, pig’s feet and tongues, turning, trimming
and measuring casings, preparing and packing small products, carry
the same job rates for men and women. If a man worker is placed
on a job that ordinarily is considered a woman’s he receives the rate
that applies to the job, not a higher one because he is on a man’s
schedule.
MEAT-PACKING INDUSTRY
13
In addition to the plants visited, the meat-packing unions reported
on a considerable number of independent plants with a single rate
structure. A master agreement covering independent packers in
southern California employing approximately 2,000 persons, of
whom about one-fifth are women, has a single rate structure with
the common labor, or lowest, rate, $1.59. All rates follow a pattern
similar to that of the male rate structure for the Big Four plants in
the area. Provision houses in the same area have a similar master
agreement with no sex discrimination in rates. Women were reported
on jobs ranging in rates paid from bracket 0, common labor, at $1.59
an hour, to bracket 9, $1.90% an hour.
Dual Seniority and Women’s Opportunities for Advancement
Dual seniority, through separate departmental and plant length of
service lists for men and women employees, has been established by
collective bargaining in master agreements of three of the national
packers and also in agreements with some of the independent packers.
Women’s seniority rights are definitely restricted to women’s jobs.
The following are typical excerpts from union agreements setting up
dual seniority:
There shall be separate plant and departmental seniority lists for male and
female employees.
The practice in effect as of the date of this agreement with regard to admin
istering seniority of female employees separately from that of male employees
shall be continued.
Seniority will operate on a departmental basis separately by male and female.
Promotional opportunities for women are limited in most plants to
the traditional women’s jobs. Most jobs in the women’s schedules are
in the first two brackets above the common labor rate. Women’s
jobs in brackets above the third are few. Men’s jobs are distributed
in considerable numbers through the seventh and some are more
than 20 brackets above the base rate.
Traditionally men have been loathe to have women take over any
so-called men’s jobs, fearing that the rate paid would be lowered,
and this is especially true if women are on a separate and lower rate
schedule. The same rates for men and women tend to lessen the fear
of unfair job competition.
Equal-Pay Clauses in Union Agreements
Collective bargaining has given limited recognition to equal pay in
master agreements with the national packers and in agreements with
some of the independent and local packers. In a study, “Collective
Bargaining in the Meat-Packing Industry,” released by the Bureau
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PROGRESS TOWARD EQUAL PAY
of Labor Statistics in February 1952, 16 of 50 agreements had pro
visions relating to equal pay.
Approximately 90 percent of the production and maintenance
workers of the meat-packing industry are covered by agreements
with 3 unions—the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Work
men of North America (AMC and BW), AFL; the United Packing
house Workers (UPWA), CIO; and the National Brotherhood of
Packinghouse Workers (NBPW), Ind. The NBPW bargains almost
exclusively with one of the national packers. The UPWA reported
that 80 percent of the employees covered by collective bargaining in
the major plants were covered by its agreements.
Both the AMC and BW and the UPWA in their program of con
tinuing objectives include equal pay and the reduction of the gap
between men’s and women’s rates.
Seven master agreements of the “Big Four” with the three unions
cover 85,000 to 90,000 workers. All seven agreements have antidis
crimination clauses specifying that there shall be no discrimination
in hiring or employment because of race, color, sex, nationality, or
membership in the union. This has not been construed as related to
rates of pay, but rather to hiring and general personnel policies.
One of the “Big Four” has the same statement in master agree
ments with both the CIO and AFL related to equal pay on piecework.
It is:
No piecework employees (except in the case of learners) will be paid less
than the basic hourly rate for the piecework job times the number of hours
worked on such piecework job in any given day. Female employees employed
on piecework operations which are also performed (either regularly or at
times) by male employees shall be paid the same piece rate as male employees
and in such case shall be guaranteed the same basic hourly rate as male
employees.
Another of the “Big Four” does not have any equal-pay clause
for piecework operations. Its master agreement with one union
makes no mention of equal pay for women. In master agreements
with two other unions, it has a clause containing two sentences which
seem to contradict each other. One sentence approves equal pay when
women replace men; the other makes the possibility of this occurring
practically impossible. This clause is:
All skilled or semiskilled female help shall receive above the minimum rate
for female unskilled labor and shall be paid according to the scheduled rate
estabished for female help. If female employees are assigned to jobs formerly
performed by male employees, they shall be paid the approved male rate. It is
agreed that work will be assigned to females which was formerly performed
by men only after it has been changed so it will be comparable with other work
performed by females for many years in the past. Hourly rates of pay for
such work shall have the same ratio to the women’s unskilled rate as the rate
paid men before the job was altered has to the male unskilled rate.
MEAT-PACKING INDUSTRY
15
The preceding statement definitely restricts women in taking over
work that has been classified as men’s jobs at men’s rates. Escape
from the wage differential is difficult for women when there is a dual
wage structure.
A third company of the “Big Four” group takes cognizance of equal
pay for equal work in its master agreement with the UPWA, but no
specific mention of application to male and female rates is included in
a clause reading: “The Company recognizes the principle of equal
pay for equal work performed.”
In the same agreement, the company agrees to equal pay for women
assigned to men’s piecework jobs, but makes clear the existence of a
dual wage structure and protects males from female rates when the
assignment is reversed, which would not be in accordance with the
equal pay for equal work performed” statement. The equal-unequal
pay clause is:
When female employees are assigned to work on male piecework jobs, such
employees shall be entitled to the male basic hourly rate for all purposes under
is agreement. When male employees are assigned to work on female piece
work jobs, the piecework rate for such employees shall be computed on the basis
of the male basic hourly rate and such employees shall be entitled to the male
basic hourly rate for all purposes under this agreement.
The fourth company has the most comprehensive equal-pay clause
m master agreements of the “Big Four,” the clause is:
The company recognizes the principle of equal pay for equal work performed.
In applying this principle it is agreed that the female workers must perform the
same quantity and quality of work as the male employee on the same job.
This company has a few women on men’s jobs receiving male rates
of pay.
In a study, “Collective Bargaining in the Meat-Packing Industry,”
released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in February 1952, 16 of 50
agreements, covering about one-half of the workers, contain some
equal-pay provision. Three agreements of the “Big Packers,” cover
ing about two-thirds of the workers with equal-pay clauses, provide
for equal pay on piecework. Payment of the same piece rates for
men and women is an accepted practice in industry and is only a ges
ture in the direction of equal pay. Ten agreements between independ
ent packers and unions were reported as having provisions for equal
pay for women on work that is normally performed by men.
I he present equal-pay clauses in the meat-packing industry seem
of little value in establishing equality in rates for most of the women
in the industry. There is an apparent need for better clauses in union
agreements if they are to be effective in achieving and supporting
equal pay. Both the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Work
men of North America, AFL, and the United Packinghouse Workers
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PROGRESS TOWARD EQUAL PAY
of America, CIO, have tried for years through contract negotiations
and grievance procedures to eliminate or reduce discriminatory wage
differentials based on sex.
The International Executive Board of the AMC and BW reporting
to the 1948 convention of the organization urged support of equal-pay
legislation in Congress, stating: “There is no justifiable reason why
women, who perform the same work as men, and have acquired the
same skills, should be discriminated against when it comes to paying
wages. Although we have provisions in most of our collective bar
gaining agreements which require equal pay for equal work, regardless
of sex, the enactment of this law will eliminate a great many presently
existing inequalities.” At its June 1952 meeting their policy com
mittee included, among specific proposals for negotiation, an increase
in female rates to eliminate differentials for similar jobs performed
by both men and women.
The UPWA during World War II tried to eliminate wage dif
ferentials on a sex basis in cases before the War Labor Board. At
its 1947 convention, the elimination of sex differentials in wages was
one of the projects in its long-range program, and this has been re
affirmed at later conventions. At the 1952 convention, women dele
gates took their leaders to task for laxity in correcting unfair wage
differences. A resolution adopted at that convention endorsed equal
pay for equal work, the elimination of the differential in wages be
tween men and women employees, the appointment of at least one
woman on bargaining or negotiating committees in plants with women
employees, and the education of local membership on problems of
women employees through a woman’s affairs committee.
Local unions, through grievance procedures, have been able to ob
tain adjustments of inequities in rates on an individual basis, but such
adjustments are relatively few and do not remove the basic differen
tials. Union representatives reported that women are less inclined
than men to bring their grievances to the attention of local and in
ternational representatives and often women’s problems get less at
tention than those of men.
Where a dual wage standard exists, with women on a lower level,
the difficulty of achieving equal pay even through collective bargain
ing is great. The dual wage structure of the meat-packing industry
and its traditional justification typify the problems that are common
to many plants in other industries. In this industry as in others,
there is still a need in many companies for appreciation and applica
tion of specific criteria to analyze and rate jobs in relation to content,
duties, skills, responsibilities, application, and working conditions.
Differences in rates, if equitable, must reflect actual differences in job
content.
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1953
@FedFRASER