Full text of Wage Structure of Electroplating and Polishing Industry, January 1945 : Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 875

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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
L. B. Schwellenbach,

Secretary

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
A . F. Hinrichs, Acting Commissioner
♦

W age Structure o f Electroplating
and Polishing Industry
January 1945

B u lletin

7S[o. 875

For sale by the Superintendent o f Documents, U . S. Governm ent Printing Office




Washington 25, D. C.

-

Price 5 cents

Letter of Transmittal
U n it e d S t a t e s D e p a r t m e n t o f L a b o r ,
B u r e a u o f L a b o r S t a t is t ic s ,

Washington, D. C., June 5, 1946.
The S
L
:
I have the honor to transmit herewith a report on wage structure
of electroplating and polishing industry, January 1945. This report
was prepared in the Wage Analysis Branch by Joseph W. Bloch. Field
work for the survey was conducted under the direction of the Bureau's
Regional Wage Analysts.
A. F. H
, Acting Commissioner.
H
. L. B. S
,
Secretary of Labor,
ecretary of

abor

in r ic h s

on

ch w ellenbach

Contents
Page
Summary------------------------------------Background and scope of survey.______________________________________
Characteristics of the industry_________________________________________
Establishment size and location_________
Labor force, and types of work performed__________________________
Wage structure---------------------Distribution of workers by straight-time average hourly earnings____
Occupational rates_________________________________________________
Regional differences----- ------------ . --------------------------------------------------Variation in pay levels with size of establishment and community,
unionization, and method of wage payment,__________ ____________
Wage practices and sources of supplementary income------------------------------Vacations, sick leave, and insurance provisions---------------------------------------




(ii)

1
1
2
2
3
4
4
4
6
6
7
8

Bulletin 7\[o. 875 of the
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics
[Reprinted from the M onthly L abor R eview, May 1946].

Wage Structure of Electroplating and Polishing
Industry, January 1945 1

Summary
PLANT workers employed by job eleetroplaters earned an average of
88 cents an hour in straight-time pay in January 1945. Men averaged
94 cents an hour, compared with 70 cents earned by women; a twelfth
of the men and a third of the women received less than 65 cents an
hour. Men platers and platers’ helpers averaged $1.00 and 78 cents
an hour, respectively; straight-time earnings of women in these jobs
were about 15 percent lower. Among men, both polishers and buffers
and polishing- and buffing-machine operators earned an average of
$1.18 an hour. Workers in these four occupations constituted 60 per­
cent of the industry’s labor force.
Electroplating establishments in the Pacific region paid the highest
rates in the industry; Great Lakes plants generally ranked second.
Workers paid on an incentive basis received higher rates than time
workers. It was also found that wage rates were commonly higher in
the larger cities.
Background and Scope of Survey
The electroplating and polishing industry in peacetime serves manu­
facturers of motor-vehicle accessories, lighting fixtures, electrical
appliances, and other consumer goods requiring a smooth surface and
high polish. During the war years, plating parts for airplanes, radios,,
and other military equipment constituted the greater part of the
industry’s activity. The requirements of war production and critical
shortages of materials also compelled changes in the type and amount
of plating metals used. Although the scarcity of certain metals cur­
tailed plating operations, the substitution of available, sometimes in­
ferior, metals created a compensatory demand for plating services,
particularly for corrosion proofing.
Because electroplating will play an important role in the production
of consumer durable goods in the postwar period, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics included this industry in its series of Industry Wage Studies.
This study, covering wages and wage practices early in 1945, is the
first made on a national scale by the Bureau in the electroplating
industry.
i More detailed information on wages in the industry is available in a mimeographed report (Wage Struc­
ture, Electroplating and Polishing, 1945) Wage data by locality may be obtained from the Bureau’*
regional offices.
698251°—46
(1 )



2

The establishments studied are engaged primarily in coating metal
objects with various metal finishes by means of an electrolytic bath
and in polishing and buffing them to impart a smooth finish and high
luster. • These plants operate on a jobbing or contract basis, plating
and polishing metal parts owned by other manufacturing establish­
ments. Thus, metalworking establishments that do their own
electroplating were excluded from this survey.2
Included in the survey were 252 establishments with 9,717 workers;
they constituted three-fifths of all establishments with 8 or more
workers and accounted for over two-thirds of the workers in the in­
dustry. The establishments scheduled were selected to be representa­
tive in terms of location, number of workers, unionization, and other
significant factors. The proportion of establishments selected for
study varied from region to region, hence in the computation of
average hourly earnings for all workers and for selected occupations
certain intraregional weighting factors were applied in order to correct
for partial coverage. It should be noted, however, that the un­
weighted data were used in the discussion of wage determination and
sources of si’pplementary income.
Field representatives obtained the wage data from pay rolls and
other plant records and classified the workers by occupation on the
basis of standard occupational descriptions.3 Most of the pay rolls
used referred to a January 1945 period; in some establishments an
April pay roll was used. With the exception of data relating to earn­
ings by occupation, which apply solely to the designated jobs, the
information presented covers all plant workers, excluding technicians,
supervisors, and administrative personnel. Apprentices, learners, and
handicapped workers were excluded from the occupational wage data
but were included in the distributions of all plant workers by straight*
time hourly earnings.
Characteristics of the Industry
ESTABLISHMENT SIZE AND LOCATION

Electroplating and polishing establishments are concentrated in
and around the large cities; in January 1945 about 85 percent of the
plants were in communities with populations exceeding 100,000.
As in metalworking generally, the greater part of the electroplating
industry is in the Great Lakes and Middle Atlantic regions. The
New England and Pacific regions are less important, and only a scat­
tering of small plants was found elsewhere in the country.4
Job-electroplating establishments are typically small; in January
1945—a period of relatively high production—employment per plant,
in plants employing 8 or more workers, averaged about 35 workers.
* For data on earnings of plating and polishing workers in machinery establishments, see Wage Structure
in the Machinery Industries, January 1945, in Monthly Labor Review for February 1946.
3These descriptions are contained in a mimeographed report (Job Descriptions for Wage Studies—Metal­
working), available on request to the Bureau.
4 The regions used in this study are as follows: New England—Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont; Middle Atlantic—New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania;
Border States—Delaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia; South­
east—Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee; Great Lakes
—Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin; Middle West—Iowa, Kansas, Missouri,
Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota; Southwest—Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas;
Mountain—Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming; Pacific—California
Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Electroplating establishments were not found in all States.




3

Four-fifths of the establishments surveyed employed fewer than 51
workers, and only 4 employed over 200.
Electroplating establishments exhibit other characteristics common
to job or contract shops, chiefly the high ratio of labor costs to total
production costs. The industry’s annual wage bill ordinarily exceeds
all other prime costs, including those of materials, supplies, and
power.
LABOR FORCE, AND TYPES OF WORK PERFORMED

The total employment in electroplating establishments at the time
of the survey was estimated at 14,000 workers, of whom women con­
stituted about a fourth. This high incidence of women was a war­
time development common to many metalworking operations tradi­
tionally considered as men’s work.
Technically, electroplating is a complex process. However, the job
structure is relatively simple, even though methods may vary from
plant to plant or even within a single plant (depending upon the nature
of the surface to be plated and the character of the finish desired).
Metal objects to be plated, usually small and easily handled, are ini­
tially cleaned by buffing or by immersion in alkaline cleaner solutions,
acid, water, or grease solvent, in order to produce a surface suitable
for adhesion. After those parts that are not to be plated are masked
or insulated, the pieces are submerged in a solution of metallic salts
in a tank or barrel where an electric current accomplishes the deposit
of metal to any thickness desired. Further rinses or dips follow this
operation and the plated objects are then ready for the polishing and
buffing wheels, there to receive the smooth surface and high luster
characteristic of electroplated metal, Almost all commercial metals
are used for electroplating; among these are zinc, cadmium, chromium,
copper, nickel, tin, and lead.
About two-thirds of the industry’s labor force were engaged in
direct processing jobs in January 1945. Four occupations—platers,
platers’ helpers, polishers and buffers, and polishing- and buffingmachine operators—accounted for almost all of the processing work­
ers. Other significant operations were performed by rack makers,
warehouse workers, craters and packers, general laborers, power-house
workers, and supervisors in other than processing departments. A
fifth of the processing workers, more than half of other plant workers,
and nine-tenths of the office workers were women.
Except for the polishing operations, a.comparison of the occupa­
tional structures of small and large establishments revealed differences
caused mainly by the greater division of labor and the more diversified
operations normally found in the larger plants. The smaller shops
generally employed a higher proportion of polishers in relation to the
number of platers employed. Since the corrosion-proof coating
applied to many parts of military equipment required little or no
polishing, plants that had a higher proportion of military work em­
ployed a smaller proportion of polishers.
Workers in electroplating plants come into daily contact with
processes and materials which create unusual industrial hazards.
Routine familiarity with harmful acids, alkalis, certain metallic salts,
such as cyanides, polishing compounds, etc., is part of the job. Acid
mists, vapors, and gases rising from the tanks, and dust and grit thrown



4

off by the polishing and buffing wheels, may cause respiratory diseases
if not carefully controlled. Skin irritations, diseases, or abrasions are
ever-present dangers. These hazards can, however, be effectively
minimized by protective clothing, respirators, guards, proper ventila­
tion, and care.
At the time of the survey, slightly more than a fourth of the estab­
lishments in the industry operated under the terms of trade-union
agreements, with either A. F. of L. or C. I. O. unions participating*
Some 30 percent of the industry’s workers were employed in union
establishments.
Wage Structure
Two types of basic data relating to wage rates and the level of
earnings prevailing in the electroplating industry in January 1945 are
summarized here: (1) straight-time average hourly earnings and a dis­
tribution of workers according to their individual hourly earnings,
for all plant workers in the industry, and (2) straight-time average
hourly earnings for representative occupations (accounting for about
70 percent of the workers).5
As the term is used here, “average straight-time” hourly wages
do not include premium overtime pay, shift differentials, or any
additional money income accruing to workers in the form of non­
production bonuses. They do include incentive earnings and any
cost-of-living bonuses.
Because the present survey was conducted on a sample basis, it was
necessary to make allowance for those areas and regions in which less
than 100 percent coverage was obtained. Employment and wage
data in the following tables, consequently, represent industry levels
rather than partial coverage, and provide a balanced picture of
the industry.
DISTRIBUTION OF WORKERS BY STRAIGHT-TIME AVERAGE HOURLY EARNINGS

On the average, plant workers employed by job electroplaters
earned 88 cents an hour in January 1945 (table 1). On a straight-time
basis, 15 percent of the workers earned less than 65 cents an hour
and 29 percent averaged $1.00 or more. Separate tabulations revealed
that men’s earnings averaged 94 cents an hom* as compared with
70 cents for women. Earnings of less than 65 cents an hour were
reported for about a twelfth of the men and a third of the women.
OCCUPATIONAL RATES

Average wage rates for key occupations, representative of the range
of skills ami wage rates in the electroplating industry, are presented
in table 2. For men, these rates varied from 65 cents an hour, paid
to watchmen, to $1.20 an hour, paid to working foremen. Both
polishers and buffers and polishing- and buffing-machine operators
earned an average of $1.18 an hour. The high national level of
earnings in the latter group was strongly influenced by the $1.50 aver­
age reported for polishing- and buffing-machine operators in the
• Information regarding minimum establishment entrance rates and job rates, intercity variations in wage
rates, and detailed data relating to other topics treated briefly in this article are presented in the mimeo­
graphed report, Wage Structure, Electroplating and Polishing, 1945.




5
T a ble 1.—Percentage Distribution of Plant Workers in Electroplating and Polishing
Establishments, by Straight-Time Average Hourly Earnings and Region, January 1945

Percent of workers in each classified earnings group
Average hourly earnings»

New Middle Border Great Middle
United Eng­
Pacific
States2 land Atlan­
tic States Lakes West

0.2
Under 4/5.0 rants___ ________________ 0.2
0.3
.1
45.0-49.9 cents___________________1______
6.7
.3
1.2
3.2
2.5
4.8 (3)3.6
1.7
50.0-54.9
cents......................................................
55.0-59.9 rants ______________________ ___ 3.9
6.4
2.7
2.5
5.5
1.0
3.9 11.6
60.0-64.9 cents...................................................... 8.1 10.8 14.8 13.8
5.6
6.7
9.3
8.8
4.8
65.0-69.9 cents___ _____ ________________ 7.1
7.9 10.4 19.0 11.3 24.7
70.0-74.9 cents...................................................... 9.9
7.9
9.6 16.4
1.7
7.1
75.0-79.9 cents...................................................... 8.6
8.2
8.5
8.8
9.5 11.2
80.0-84.9 cents__________________________ 8.5
5.9
10.5
8.9
9.0
8.8
7.3
85.0-89.9 cents__________ _______________
9.4
6.2
2.5
8.4
4.3
90.0-94.9 cents...................................................... 7.6
3.2
7.7
8.2
5.1
2.8
95.0-99.9 cents..................................................... 5.5
9.2
6.2
7.7
7.2
2.7
100.0-104.9 cents______ __________________
5.2
3.2
1.7
2.4
2.3
105.0-109.9 cents-------------------------------------- 3.8
4.2 21.5
2.7
4.1
4.1
110.0-114.9 cents................................................... 4.6
3.2
1.2
2.7
3.1
___
3.6
115.0-119.9 cents_____________________
J90 0-194 9 rants .. n__ _ _
1.5
1.6
1.5
1.1
1.7
3.4
125.0-129.9 rants__ _______________ _____ 3.2
1.6
1.6
1.1
.1
1.7
.6
130.0-134.9 rants_________________________ 1.0
135,0-139.9 ran ts_
_____
.5
2.7
.7
.5
.8
.7
.2
140.0-144.9 rants_________________________
.5145 0-149.9 rants T ..........
.1
.1
.1
.1
.7
150.0-159.9 rants________________________
.4
.6
.6
.1
.5
160.0-169.9 rants___ ___________________ _
.2
.3
.1
.1
170.0-179.9 rants___ _________________
.3
.6
.1
.2
.2
.4
180.0-189.9 rants_____ ___________________
.1
.3
190.0-199.9 cents_________________________
.2
.2
200.0-209.9 eents_________________________
.2
.3 (S)
(8)
.1
.1
210.0-219.9 cents_________________________
.1
.1
220.0-229.9 rants_________________________
.1
.1
230.0-239.9
cents_______
:__ !______________
94ft ft—94Q 0 rants
.1
.1
(3)
.4
250.0 rants and over ____________________
.2
(8)
Total........................................................... 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
121
188 6,205
Total number of workers................................... 13,562 1,347 4,224
Average hourly earnings1.................................. $0.88 $0.83 $0.81 $0.81 $0.92 $0.83

0 .5

2.3
6.7
2.6
9.9
5.6
a9
4.8
4.4
7.6
4.2
7.6
10.6
6.4
11.8
1.6
2.8
1.4
.6
.8
.2
.6
.2
.2
100.0
1,310
$1.02

*Excluding premium pay for overtime and night work.
2Includes data for regions not shown separately.
8 Less than a tenth of 1 percent.
T a b le 2.

—Average Straight-Time Hourly Earnings 1for Selected Occupations in Electro­
plating and Polishing Establishments, by Region, January 1945
At­ Border States
United States2 New England Middle
lantic
Occupation and sex

Num­ Aver­
ber of age
work­ hourly
ers rates

Men
Janitors. .......................................... ............... 111 $0.73
Loaders and unloaders.................................... 206 .79
Maintenance men, general utility_________ 276 1.02
Platers.................................................. . . ____ 2,277 1.00
Platers’ helpers................................................... 2,889 .78
Polishers and buffers, metal............................. 894 1.18
Polishing- and buffing-machine operators___ 527 1.18
Truck drivers........................... ........................ 182 .92
Watchmen.......................................................... 132 .65
Working foremen, processing departments... 586 L20
Women
Platers. ____ _____ ___
_ ____
•97 .85
Platers’ helpers............................................... . 1,437 .68

See footnotes at end of table.




Num­
ber of
work­
ers

Aver­
age
hourly
rates

Aver­
age
hourly
rates

Num­ Aver­
ber of age
work­ hourly
ers rates

6 (8)
32 *$0.70
19 $0.80
85 .73
33 .94
83 1.02
249 .97 479 .93
224 .78 1,015 .72
120 .98 245 1.16
25 .79 261 .95
24 .83
58 .87
8 (8)
31 .64
80 1.16
112 1.21

3 (3)
9 (3)
5 $1.04
31
.91
41
.74
10 1.04
5 (8)
3 (3)
5
4 (8>

91

.68

Num­
ber of
work­
ers

14
416

.69
.63

23

.72

—Average Straight-Time Hourly Earnings1for Selected'Occupations in Electro­
plating and Polishing Establishments, by Region, January 1945—Continued

T a b le 2.

Qreat Lakes .
Occupation and sex

Middle West

Pacific

Number Average Number Average Number Average
of work­ hourly of work­ hourly of work­ hourly
ers
rates
ers
rates
ers
rates

Men
Janitors,........................................ ...........................
TiOftdftrs and un1oaders__
^
Maintenance men, general utility.......................
Platers-..,--...................................... ......................
Platers’ helpers.......................................................
Polishers and buffers, metal.......... .......................
Polishing- and buffing-machine operators______
Truck drivers..........................................................
Watchmen...............................................................
Working foremen, processing departments.........
Women
Platers’ helpers........................................................

59
93
136
1,231
1,323
379
231
58
84
242

$0.73
.85
1.02
1.01
.82
1.24
1.50
.97
.64
1.15

1
2
12
61
19
4
2
3

(*)
(3)
$0.99
.72
1.10
(3)
(3)
(3)

10
16
258
195
112
4
33
2
137

$0.81
1.20
1.15
.89
1.27
(3)
1.02
(3)
1.30

82
858

.87
.70

12

.68

1
37

(3)

.84

1Excluding premium pay for overtime and night work.
2 Includes data for other regions not shown separately.
3Insufficient number of workers to justify presentation of an average.

Great Lakes area, which had the greatest concentration of incen­
tive workers. In other regions the more highly skilled polishers and
buffers held a wage advantage. Platers averaged $1.00 and platers’
helpers 78 cents an hour.
In the two occupations in which women were employed in signifi­
cant numbers—platers and platers’ helpers—rates averaged 85 cents
and 68 cents an hour, respectively, or 15 and 13 percent below the
earnings of men in similar jobs.
REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

The highest general level of earnings was found in the Pacific region
where Los Angeles and San Francisco plants, representing the industry
in that region, paid an average of $1.02 an hour. Establishments in
the Great Lakes area, employing approximately 47 percent of the
industry’s workers, reported an average wage, of 92 cents an hour,
second to the Pacific region. Earnings of men workers ranged from
$1.11 an hour on the Pacific Coast to 82 cents in the few plants in the
Border States. Women plant workers also fared best on the West
Coast but poorest in New England establishments (77 and 62 cents
an hour, respectively).
The occupational wage data in table 2 also show the top ranking of
Pacific establishments, with Great Lakes plants generally second.
Among the other regions, however, no predominant pattern is indi­
cated by the data.
VARIATION IN PAY LEVELS WITH SIZE OF ESTABLISHMENT AND COMMUNITY,
UNIONIZATION, AND METHOD OF WAGE PAYMENT

In order to picture the variation of wage rates with factors that
frequently play a role in wage determination, electroplating establish­
ments were classified according to employment, size of community,
size of establishment, union status, and method of wage payment. A
distinct tendency was indicated for rates in the electroplating industry
to be higher for incentive than for time workers. There was also some



7

tendency toward higher rates in the larger cities. For most of the
occupations covered, a slight advantage was observed in favor of
workers in small establishments as compared with those in the larger
plants in the United States as a whole, but this advantage was not
consistent on a regional basis.
In a comparison between union and nonunion establishments the
data revealed no decisive wage advantage one way or the other.
Union plant workers6 in the Pacific and Great Lakes areas had
slightly higher earnings in most of the occupations listed, and in the
Middle Atlantic region, where union representation was significant,
no clear-cut difference was evident. In the industry as a whole, how­
ever, janitors, maintenance men, watchmen, and working foremen
fared better in the union plants, while nonunion plant workers in the
other occupations, except platers, had higher average straight-time
hourly earnings. Men platers’ earnings were identical in both types
of establishments.
In general, earnings of incentive workers exceeded those of time
workers, in some instances by a wide margin. In the 4 occupations
and 3 regions in which incentive work was of some significance, time
workers earned more than incentive workers in only one instance, that
of platers in Middle Atlantic establishments. In the other 3 occupa­
tions incentive workers throughout the industry held a decided ad­
vantage.
Wage Practices and Sources of Supplementary Income
Straight-time rates have been of major interest in wage negotiations
and Government labor policy. In addition, management and labor
have long been interested in methods of wage determination and the
various ways in which workers’ income may be enhanced without
altering the basic rate structure. Ordinarily, these “fringe” issues
have been subordinated to the setting of wage rates, but the wartime
wage-stabilization program gave these issues added importance. Dur­
ing the war it was not uncommon for union-employer negotiations to
deal exclusively with wage factors other than job rates.
Methods of wage determination.—Less than 10 percent of the estab­
lishments studied operated under incentive-wage plans (piece rate or
production bonus) covering at least a fourth of their plant workers;
in most instances these plans were based on individual rather than
group production. The ratio of union to nonunion establishments
and of small to large establishments among the 23 plants in which
incentive wages were of importance did not differ markedly (consider­
ing the small size of this group) from the ratios existing in the entire
group of establishments surveyed.
Incentive-wage payments were more prevalent than the percentage
of establishments predominantly on an incentive basis would indicate,
since an additional 10 percent of the job-electroplaters had some
workers—perhaps 3 or 4—on an incentive basis. However, only 1 of
every 14 workers in the industry earned wages on a piece-rate or
production-bonus basis. Incentive workers were found in significant
numbers in certain occupations, particularly among polishers and
buffers and polishing- and buffing-machine operators, and their earn-*
* Establishments were classified as unionized if more than half of the workers were employed under terms
of a union agreement.



8

ings influenced considerably the regional and national averages for
these jobs.
Work schedules and premium pay.—In this survey no attempt was
made to obtain weekly earnings of workers; however, data regarding
scheduled weekly hours of work, one of the chief determinants of
weekly pay, and the payment of shift differentials, a source of premium
pay, are presented here.
A study of scheduled weekly hours or the established plant work­
week for first-shift workers in force at the time of the survey revealed
that men in all but 7 plants worked in excess of 40 hours a week, in
the majority of instances more than 48 hours. The industry’s yomen
workers also remained on the job for a considerable number of over­
time hours during the war period. In 80 percent of the plants in which
women were employed their scheduled workweek was 48 hours or more.
The study revealed that 10 establishments had adopted the practice
of paying first-shift employees for 30-minute lunch periods.7
At the time of the survey 2 of every 5 electroplating plants operated
extra shifts, and about a fifth of the industry’s workers were employed
on night shifts, with the third shift accounting for a fifth of this
number. Slightly more than three-fifths of the multiple-shift plants
paid a premium to workers on night shifts, the most frequent form of
differential reported being an addition of 5 cents to the regular hourly
rate.
Bonuses not directly related to production.—More than half the estab­
lishments surveyed reported the payment of a nonproduction bonus
to plant workers. In most cases the bonus was paid at Christmas time.
Information was obtained regarding the amount of money paid out in
such bonuses, and a rough apportionment was made to show the net
effect over the year upon the average worker’s hourly earnings. When
averaged over the entire industry the addition to plant workers’ hourly
earnings represented by such bonuses amounted to less than 1 cent
per hour.8
Vacations, Sick Leave, and Insurance Provisions
Paid vacations were given to plant workers with a year or more of
service by more than half of the establishments in the electroplating
industry. In 9 out of 10 cases the vacation period was for 1 week.
More liberal vacation policies were in effect for the industry’s office
workers.
Formal provisions for paid sick leave were not frequently encoun­
tered; only 3 establishmentsj>aid plant workers for a limited number
of days of illness, while office workers in 10 establishments were
covered by a formal sick-leave policy.
Slightly more than a fourth of the 252 establishments surveyed
maintained one or more forms of insurance or pension plan for plant
workers. In most of these establishments workers had life-insurance
policies paid for in whole or in part, by the employer, while health (or
accident) insurance policies were in effect in 32 plants. Retirement
pensions were rare. Office personnel received the benefits of insurance
in approximately the same measure as plant workers.
7Lunch periods of 20 minutes or less were not considered.
t Nonproduction bonuses were not included in the data on straight-time hourly earnings presented earlier
in this report.



V. 5 . GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICEi 1949