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Woman Worker

JANUARY 1941

United States Department of Labor

Women’s Bureau

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Frances Perkins, Secretary

WOMEN’S BUREAU
Mary Anderson, Director

THE WOMAN WORKER
PUBLISHED EVERY 2 MONTHS

No. 1

Vol. XXI

January 1941

CONTENTS

Page

Women’s Chances for Defense Jobs________________________________________

Conference on Training Women for Defense Needs____________________

Processes Women Are Performing

Defense Industries___________________

Minimum Wage in 1940_____________________________________________________
State Minimum Wage—Fair Labor Standards Administration.

Extent

and

Location of Home Work_______________________________

Women in Unions__________________________________________________________
Progress in Wearing Apparel, Textiles, Rubber, and Food Manufacturing, and
White-Collar Work.

Conferences and News Notes______________________________________________
Seventh Conference on Labor Laws—Women’s Centennial Declares Purpose—
Pan American Women Delegates Meet—Children’s Bureau Committees—Con
necticut Household Employment—California Home Work on Garments—
Training St. Louis Garment Workers—Compensation for Virginia Women—
Woman British Official on Training.

Recent Publications______________________________________________________

Notice to Subscribers—Subscriptions for 1941 now due

Published under authority of Public Resolution No. 57, approved May
11, 1922 (42 Stat. 541), as amended by section 307, Public Act 212, 72d
Congress, approved June 30, 1932. This publication approved by the
Director, Bureau of the Budget
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C., at 5 cents a copy
or 25 cents a year

Women’s Chances for Defense Jobs
as to job chances for women quently for the Navy (for example, marine
is much in demand, since many women surveyor, welding inspector, boiler inspector,
seek effective ways to do their share in theglass blower). Examinations closed recently
defense program. Dr. Harriet Elliott, in for stenographers, typists, bilingual stenog
charge of the Division of Consumer Protec raphers, medical technicians, and punchtion of the National Defense Advisory Com card operators. If these or others are
mission, advises those doing a job that con opened, the notices will tell of it. Examina
tributes to the well-being of the people: “Go tions for junior graduate nurse and for artis
on with what you are doing, only do it bet tic lithographer are now open until further
ter than ever before.”
notice. There also have been examinations
requiring highly technical or professional
Jobs Are Found Through Employment Offices.
training of various kinds. The Department
Defense jobs are filled by the Employ of Labor has advised, “Don’t come to Wash
ment Service. Persons seeking placement ington unless the Civil Service Commission
in the defense program should register with specifically asks you to. Most of these jobs
the nearest one of the 1,500 full-time and are not in Washington, and just coming
3,000 part-time local employment offices. won’t land a job for you.”
nformation

These deal with all types of work, including
manufacturing, clerical, and professional em
ployment. The major requirements have
been those of a mechanical and technical
nature in which men are more likely to have
experience, but many of which may be done
by women.1 Such offices can give informa
tion as to workers needed in other localities
as well. The kinds of workers needed by
these offices also would indicate the types of
training called for.
Government Jobs.

Some civil-service examinations are being
given for Government work. Information
as to these can be obtained from the bul
letin boards in 5,000 larger post offices,
where Civil Service Commission announce
ments are posted telling the job require
ments, pay, and how to make application.
Many of these apply especially to men, fre1 See articles on processes women perform (p. 6) and on confer
ence on training (p. 4).
277023—40

Special Skills Required.

Very specific skills are required today, and
persons, whether younger or older, who do
not have such skills can find employment
only by acquiring them. Training programs
designed to give definite preparation in the
kinds of work needed are discussed elsewhere
in this issue of the Woman Worker, and
should be investigated through authorities
in the particular locality. There is little new
opportunity for women without definite
skills, nor for those who have not worked
recently, nor for those with other experience
who desire to “get into industry,” or to do
some “defense” work. Management jobs,
now as always, are relatively few for women
and demand experience in industry, often
in a particular industry. Camp hostess jobs
are few—only about 100 in all, and 10,000
persons have applied for these. Age limits
are 25 to 45 for junior hostess, 30 to 50 for
senior. Applications are considered by the
commanding general of each corps area.
3

THE WOMAN WORKER

Conference on Training Women for Defense Needs
A ctive participation of women in plans for
/"^vocational training for defense needs,
including appointment of women on national
and local committees making such plans, was
the chief objective of a joint session of the
Women’s Bureau Advisory Committees held
in November. Members urged that selec
tions for training include suitable numbers of
women, since skills in which women can excel
will be demanded; and that the Women’s
Bureau continue to investigate the situation,
to promote women’s contribution to the
defense program.1
Of special interest to the conference was
the definition of semiskilled, as given by
Channing R. Dooley, Director of TrainingWithin-Industry Section of the Advisory
Commission to the Council of National
Defense. The vague term semiskilled, ap
plied so generally to women’s industrial
occupations, was defined by Mr. Dooley as
implying a high degree of skill but within a
narrow field, as distinct from skilled workers
competent in all requirements of the job.
This branch of the Defense Council work
advises plants as to training on the job for
production workers who are already em
ployed and are selected by the plant employ
ment manager in consultation with the
trade-school superintendent. In each dis
trict a committee representing industry and
labor advises as to the supply and type of
labor needed.
Types of Preemployment Training.

The special defense training program,
for which Congress has appropriated over
575,000,000, consists of preemployment
instruction, and is directed by the Federal
Board for Vocational Education, operating
through local school authorities. A local
committee, recommended to include mem
bers from both labor and industry, ascer
tains requirements of plants in the com1 See p. 6 for findings of Women’s Bureau on processes performed
by women in defense industries.

munity for labor on defense products,
advises as to types of training needed, and
cooperates with authorities of the voca
tional school and of the employment service
in selecting for training applicants for jobs
who have the necessary aptitudes.
A negligible number of women in perhaps
5 of the 600 courses have been among
approximately 140,000 enrolled in these
defense training classes. That opportuni
ties for women in such courses should and
will increase is the expressed opinion of the
Board of Education of New York City. In
a letter to the Federal Board for Vocational
Education, read to the Conference by John
C. Wright, vocational education authority
of the United States Office of Education,
James Marshall, president of the New York
City Board of Education, strongly urges
organization of courses to train women. He
specially mentions industrial assembly and
inspection, instrument manufacture, light
punch-press operation, and work as nurses’
aides and as cooks—in all of which women
have demonstrated ability.
The defense training just described is not
to be confused with the regular vocational
school work directed by the same authority,
the Federal Board for Vocational Education,
and in which some 50,000 to 60,000 women
are enrolled. These are largely in home
economics and other occupations tradi
tionally employing women, but there are a
few places where women are being given
specific training for employment in defense
industries in the locality, as for example in
the schools at Hartford, Conn., and Wil
liamsport, Pa., which are responding closely
to community labor needs in industries with
defense contracts.
Training programs have been conducted
also by the N. Y. A.; also in the C. C. C.
camps, where, it is estimated, 13,000 to
15,000 boys are offered opportunity to learn
army cookery. Shortage of boys reported
for N. Y. A. projects in some communities

January 1941

TRAINING WOMEN FOR DEFENSE

has led to further opportunities for girls.
This agency works only with persons of
16 to 24 years of age. To insure freedom
from industrial competition, products made
are limited to those for the use of publicly
supported agencies. Of some 94,000 girls
on N. Y. A. projects, about 18,000 are in
workshop projects. Most promising in giv
ing skills for industrial jobs is the assembly
of radios for the use of local police and fire
forces. The sewing projects in the N. Y. A.,
and in the W. P. A. as well, may prepare for
another type of defense need. For ex
ample, workers will be in demand for such
army supplies recently contracted for as
service coats, mackinaws, and barrack bags.
Among woven or knit textiles recently con
tracted for are fabrics for shirting, and
woolen uniforms, mercerized cotton socks,
quarter-sleeve cotton undershirts, bed
sheets, and mosquito netting.
Persons Invited to Conference.

National Consumers’ League.
National Council of Catholic Women.
National Council of Jewish Women.
National Federation of Business and Professional
Women’s Clubs.
National League of Women Voters.
National Women’s Trade Union League.
Women’s Service Club Representatives:

American Federation of Soroptomist Clubs.
International Association of Altrusa Clubs.
International Quota Clubs.
Pilot Club International.
Zonta International.

Work for Which Women Should be Trained.

Among the necessary skills for which
women should be trained are the interpre
tation of shop blueprints, the reading of
scales, micrometers, calipers, and other
gages; and a knowledge of metals and their
hardness, of the speeds and feeds of cutting
tools, of shop mathematics, and of shop
routine and practice. Among types of jobs
that trained women can perform are:

The Advisory Committees to the Wom
en’s Bureau include representatives of labor
groups directly connected with the defense
program who have intimate knowledge of
the processes in their industries and the
needs of workers, and representatives of
women’s organizations who seek more
effective methods to secure further training
and employment opportunities for women in
their communities. The following were in
vited to send members to the conference:

The operation of punch presses and such machines as
single, multiple, and radial drills; light lathes and
chucking machines; boring, reaming, tapping, thread
ing, grinding, and buffing machines; milling machines.
Assembly and bench work, as for example on air
plane instruments and small electric motors, which
may require use of mechanical screwdrivers and hand
tools, spot welding, soldering, cleaning with compressed
air, burring, filing, operating arbor or rivet presses.
Inspecting small parts, which often requires reading
blueprints and mechanical drawings, use of precision
gages, calipers, scales, and other measuring tools.
Armature, stator, and coil winding.

Labor Advisory Committee on Standards for the Employ
ment of Women in the Defense Program:

Optical lens grinding, polishing, blocking, cementing,
inspecting.
Stamping small parts from light sheet metal (du
ralumin).
Grinding and cleaning of tools.
Clerical or routing operations requiring knowledge
of factory procedures, terminology as to jobs, tools,
machines, processes; for example, giving out tools, re
cording and checking tool supplies. Assistants in draft
ing rooms, which requires somewhat longer training.
Health services, such as ward helpers in hospitals;
laboratory assistants; nursing aides in homes; physio
therapists’ aides; health clinic assistants; dental assist
ants; occupational therapists.
Food preparation and servicing, for example, at
camp service clubs, hospitals, expanding factories.
Radio receiving and transmission, for example,
ground service in airplane dispatching.

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
International Association of Machinists.
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers of
America.
National Women’s Trade Union League.
Steel Workers Organizing Committee.
Textile Workers Union of America.
United Automobile Workers of America.
United Rubber Workers of America.
Advisory Committee to the Women’s Bureau:

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
American Association of University Women.
American Federation of Labor.
General Federation of Women’s Clubs.
National Board, Y. W. C. A.
National Catholic Welfare Conference.

Acetylene and electric welding.

THE WOMAN WORKER

Processes Women Are Performing in Defense
Industries1
s a beginning to an extensive investiga- changes in designs, materials, and engineer
L tion of the possibilities of women’s ing practices have retarded standardization
employment in the defense industries,
and the making of interchangeable parts.
agents of the Women’s Bureau visited last Therefore, a high degree of skill and con
fall about 40 plants having defense con stant adaptability are required; machines,
tracts for products on which women could dies, shop equipment, and lay-out have not
be employed. These plants, chiefly in the yet reached an assembly-line set-up, and
industrial Northeast with a few in Ohio, the jobs are not of the repetitive type so
include machine-tool manufacture; electri largely employing women.
In plants making engines and parts the
cal-supply plants; ammunition and firearms
factories; plants fabricating iron, steel, major job for women is inspecting small
brass, and aluminum products; and aircraft parts, and this generally is more than a
plants making engines, instruments, and simple visual task, since blueprints are used
parts, and assembling planes. Women are and all parts are inspected to fine degrees of
at work on many processes and could be tolerance. Some women are at work clean
employed even more widely.
ing metal parts by dipping them in vats
containing a soda solution to remove grease;
Airplane Factories.
others etch identification numbers on small
Airplane manufacture usually spreads parts with an electric needle, in a few cases
itself over several specialized types of using a pantograph, in others operating a
establishment. The making of the fuse multiple electric needle—15 needles with a
lage, wings, ailerons, rudders, engine mounts, foot control. In a body plant very small
elevators, and stabilizers, and the final as numbers of women were found in the paint
sembly of the planes, are carried on in the shop where doping of wings is carried on,
but this is done to only a limited extent;
body plants.
Development of jobs for women has been and in the upholstery department, but
delayed by the oversupply of male labor bombing planes have no upholstery.
In inspecting pipes, tubes, and small parts
and the lack of opportunity for women’s
training. Women are said to comprise a for engines, women use scales, length gages,
large share of the personnel in some Euro snap gages, ring gages, plug gages, go-no-go
pean plants. A recent report states that gages, and so forth. Gears are inspected
four-fifths of the force in some French visually with gages; spark plugs checked for
factories were women, and they produced leakages with the use of electric indicators;
fighter planes in their entirety. Women are weight and diameter of pistons checked with
quick and skillful, and the industry pro close tolerances; all parts purchased or made
vided lighter tools for them and arranged elsewhere are closely inspected with hard
that the heavier lifting in assembling ness-testing devices, verniers, Rockwell and
Schore testing indicators; stiffness of springs
machines could be done by electric belts.
In the United States openings for women is tested with a special indicator; some of the
have been limited, the chief requirement parts to be inspected are projected by
being for skilled all-round mechanics, shadowgraph to insure more accurate work.
and tolerances for error being small. This Plants Making Instruments.
condition is due to the fact that rapid
The instrument field for aircraft is a rela
1 See reprints from Woman Worker for September and Novem
tively
new and developing one. The air
ber 1940, and mimeograph: Increase in Woman Employment,
plane
of
today has many instruments and
1914-18, and Occupations of Women in Defense Industries.

January 1941

PROCESSES PERFORMED BY WOMEN

meters. There are fuel and oil gages,
rate-of-climb indicators, turn and bank
indicators, speed indicators, clocks, com
passes, altimeters, air and oil temperature
indicators, tachometers, voltmeters, syn
chronizers, automatic gyroscope pilots, and
others. Instrument workers must have
ability for careful work on small parts and
appreciation of fine mathematical tolerances.
At present many of them have been watch
makers. Women’s training and participa
tion could be extended.
Most of the women now in instrument
factories are on bench work, assembling
parts with riveting presses, arbor presses,
automatic screwdrivers, soldering, electric
spot welding of wires, and other light jobs
involving the winding and cutting of wires.
Some of this work is fine and requires close
attention as well as finger dexterity. In one
plant women operate small automatic screw
machines of turret-lathe type, which are set
up and adjusted by men. A number of
women operate small sensitive drills of the
bench type, some do multiple-jig drilling on
metal and bakelite parts, and some do
countersinking on small parts. Other ma
chine jobs are tapping and grinding pivot
points. Radium painting of dials for instru
ments is the occupation of a small group,
protected by glass-shielded exhaust boxes.
In plating departments women hang parts
on racks and remove them after the plating
operation is completed, a job formerly done
by men.
Women are employed quite extensively on
inspection of incoming, in-process, and com
pleted parts. This requires checking with
blueprints, and using micrometers, calipers,
microscopes, and a variety of small gages.
Other jobs are the hand polishing and finish
ing of some parts with fine emery paper,
cloths, and abrasives; and packing small
parts and instruments. Winding armatures
and coil winding are principal occupations of
women in one plant, a type of work familiar
to women in electrical manufacturing. A
few women production clerks route orders
and keep stock records. Women also work

in small numbers in the drafting room, doing
some scale drawing, tracing, and serving as
general assistants, but draftsmen are men
with engineering training.
Electrical-Products Plants.

In electrical-supply manufacturing, women
have long worked on various light assembly
and inspection jobs. Winding coils and
armatures is important in these plants.
Also, there seems less opposition in elec
trical than in some of the metal plants to
the idea of trying out women on new jobs
when defense contracts are in full swing,
and the general feeling seems to be that
women’s employment both as machine oper
ators and as inspectors will be extended.
Women could be employed much more
extensively on many light machines, bench
lathes, repetitive milling-machine opera
tions, welding, tool cribs, and as drafting
helpers. More women could be employed
on drill presses and on some of the heavier
assembly jobs in which the work is not too
strenuous for them; on arbor-press assembly,
operating riveting machines, and doing light
wet grinding. Men were found testing the
resistance of springs with indicators and
this seems a woman’s job possibility.
Machine-Tool Factories.

A few women are in machine-tool fac
tories, and more can be employed. Women
are doing bench work, inspecting, light ma
chine work, wrapping and winding coils,
and packing. In one plant women are
driving and controlling overhead cranes,
and are found more efficient than men.
Gun and Ammunition Plants.

In the shell divisions women are employed
largely as inspectors and as tenders of ma
chines that draw the cups for the shells.
Inspection is visual, with occasional use of
gages, and work on drawing machines is
simple, so little training is required. Wom
en assemble some types of shells, and
spray guns with lacquer. Women are em
ployed on punch-press operations and as
sembly on other nondefense products.

THE WOMAN WORKER

A striking instance of the employment of
women because of skills developed in other
work is that of a plant where the delicate
operations required in making time fuses
were done by women who had worked on
fine embroidery. Male watchmakers had
not proved successful at this work.
Other Metal and Electrical-Supply Plants.

A miscellaneous group of plants making
sewing machines, needles, electric motors,
electric fans, vacuum cleaners, storage bat
teries, magnetos, springs, machinery parts,
fuses, air manifolds, pumps, and so forth
were visited. Machines successfully oper
ated by women are drill presses of all
kinds—sensitive, jig, and counter sink

ing-tapping machines, small and medium
sized punch presses, riveting presses, ma
chines moulding bakelite parts, specialized
machines for the milling, punching, grinding,
polishing, and packing of needles, wire
winding machines, and other small machines
of a specialized type. Women perform a
variety of bench-work operations, preparing
work for processes, cleaning, assembling
with the use of hand tools and automatic
screwdrivers, hand filing, burring, and light
grinding. Large proportions are inspecting
and a few acting as drafting assistants and
production clerks. An official of one of
these plants that did not employ women
felt that they might be used successfully on
many drilling, grinding, tapping, assembly,
and inspection operations.

Minimum Wage in 1940
Note.—The Women’s Bureau minimum-wage conference, usually
held in November, has been called for January 17 and 18, 1941.
the Friday and Saturday before President Roosevelt’s inaugura
tion, January 20.

State Minimum Wage
100,000 women and minors
were covered by 8 new State orders
in 1940. These were for restaurants and
for hotels in New York; laundries in Penn
sylvania; public housekeeping (hotels, res
taurants, and allied industries) in Colorado;
retail trade and restaurants in Utah; dry
cleaning in New Hampshire; and fish pack
ing in Maine. In addition, Connecticut re
vised its orders for laundries and dry
cleaning. (See earlier issues of Woman
Worker.)
early

apparel factories and retail stores were in
compliance, in Illinois 95 percent of the
candy factories. In Pennsylvania, after a
period of education by inspectors, about
90 percent of the laundries were in com
pliance.
Effects of Wage Orders.

The extent to which low-paid workers
have their wages raised is indicated by the
following statement showing the propor
tion of women and minors receiving less
than the minimum set before and after
certain orders were put into effect:

Compliance.

Reports issued in the year show com
pliance to be very general. In New York
69 percent of the restaurants, 77 percent of
the candy factories, and 97 percent of the
beauty parlors were found to be obeying
the orders. Compliance in beauty shops
increased from 88 to 97 percent in the year
following the mandatory order. In Rhode
Island about 95 percent of the wearing

Percent
Before
After

District of Columbia: All industries___
New York: Laundries1______________
Confectionery___________
Rhode Island: Retail trade__________
Wearing apparel 1______

63
46
31
22
58

23
13
2
2
23

1 Less than the highest minimum set for any group.

Sworn pay rolls of New York candy
manufacturers again prove that the mini
mum fixed under a wage order does not

January 1941

MINIMUM WAGE IN 1940

become the maximum paid. These pay
rolls cover a week in December 1937 and
one in November 1939, a year before and a
year after the order fixed a 35-cent mini
mum. The proportion of women who re
ceived 40 cents and over increased from
39 to 50 percent. From September 1 to
April 1, the order guarantees #10 a week
for 3 days or less of work. The proportion
receiving #15 or more increased from 57 to
66 percent. As a reward for cooperation,
the confectionery employers were able to
stabilize the workweek, with fewer women
and minors working less than 40 or more
than 48 hours.
In New York beauty parlors, after the
mandatory order had been in effect for a
year, 41 percent of the workers were receiv
ing more than the required minimum.
Wage-Board Activities.

Wage boards have been appointed and
have been in session for clerical and res
taurant occupations in Massachusetts, for
restaurants in Illinois, for beauty culture in
Ohio, Connecticut, and New Jersey, and for
hotels in Utah.
Enforcement.

When firms are found to be paying less
than the minimum wage, the enforcing
agency attempts to collect all amounts due.
If an order is mandatory, court action may
be brought if necessary. Statistics on such
collections were received in 1940 from Cali
fornia, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Ohio.
In these States, for periods varying from 6
months to a year (the most recent avail
able), a total of over #272,000 was restored
to underpaid women and minors.
Washington—Beauty Culture.

The Washington beauty-culture order,
providing a #15 weekly minimum, has been
revised to fix one of #18.50 for instructors.
This went into effect December 1.
Special Studies.

Surveys were made of dry-cleaning plants
in New Hampshire, clerical workers in
Massachusetts, small telephone exchanges

in Washington, restaurants in Illinois, and
restaurants and stores in certain cities in
Utah.1 In Connecticut, laundries were re
surveyed following amendment of the mini
mum-wage law, and wage and hour informa
tion is being collected from retail stores.
Illinois—Restaurants.

The study of 15,000 women and minors
in Illinois restaurants, not previously re
ported in the Woman Worker, showed
half of them receiving less than #10.05 a
week, #12.83 if value of meals and lodging
is included (lodging for only 32 employees).
Eighty-six percent of them received in cash
less than a living wage; this was true of 97
percent of the waitresses and 90 percent of
the counter girls. This was based on an
estimate that #15.82 is required to main
tain a woman living alone in Chicago, work
ing in a restaurant and receiving 12 of her
21 meals. In Chicago, where earnings were
a little higher than elsewhere in the State,
half the women and minors surveyed earned
less than #13.58, including estimated value
of meals. Wages ranged from less than #3
to more than #25 and low wages often were
associated with long hours. Only one-half
of the waitresses received tips, and they
averaged only #3.34 a week (according to
statements of employees), which bears out
the fact that tips do not constitute a reliable
source of waitresses’ incomes.
Fair Labor Standards Administration

The hourly earnings of women increased
in 1940 under the minimums required by
the Fair Labor Standards Act and the
special orders it authorizes. This is indi
cated by all available evidences, which show
that employment also has increased. The
Supreme Court further strengthened the
right of the Wage-Hour Division to make
routine inspections as it had been doing, and
refused to review a decision upholding the
right of the Division to subpoena pay-roll
records. The court has consented to review
two cases involving the constitutionality of
the law.
1 See Woman Worker for May and July 1940.

THE WOMAN WORKER

10
Wage Orders Issued.

Overtime Begins at Forty.

Besides the 30-cent hourly minimum now
in effect, the Wage-Hour Administration
has fixed a higher minimum for 12 industries,
raising wages for an estimated 550,000
workers, many of them women (since
women’s wages often are the lowest).
Application of the act to home workers also
has been established. Of the 12 orders,
those fixing the 10 minimums listed below
were issued in 1940. Prior to this, 32%
cents had been fixed for cotton, silk, and
rayon textiles and for seamless hosiery, and
40 cents for full-fashioned hosiery.

The final stage in the regulation of work
ing time was reached in October, when 40
hours became the normal week beyond
which time and one-half must be paid to the
workers under the act. It was estimated
that about 2,650,000 wage earners were
working more than 40 hours but that the
change would affect less than 2,000,000,
since large numbers already received the
required overtime rates, many through
union contracts. This probably affected
fewer women than men, since women’s
hours generally average less than men’s in
the industries covered by the act.

Industry

Minimum
(cents anhour)

Apparel___________________________ 32)4 to 40
Shoes_____________________________
35
Woolen textiles_____________________
36
Knitted underwear__________________
32)4
Knitted outerwear__________________
35
Millinery__________________________
40
Hats______________________________ 35 to 40
Pulp and primary paper______________
40
Leather___________________________
40
Luggage and leather goods____________
35

In addition to this list, needleworkers in
Puerto Rico are to receive a minimum of 20
to 22% cents an hour if factory workers, 12%
to 20 cents if home workers, depending on
product. These rates became effective De
cember 2.
Recommendations and New Committees.

Suggested rates for five more industries
were being considered late in the year:
Railroad employment, carpets, embroi
deries, converted paper products, and port
able lamps, the four manufactures, with
many women workers, employing about
255,000. Committee for the jewelry indus
try has been appointed recently.
For the 200,000 workers making boxes,
bags, and other paper containers, special
kinds of paper, tags, labels, and so on,
approximately half of whom are women,
three rates have been recommended, by
type of product—36, 38, and 40 cents. It
is thought that some 25,000 wage earners
will receive increases if these rates meet with
approval.

Learners.

General regulations for the employment
of learners were revised during the year and
new or revised ones issued for specific indus
tries. Special provisions are in effect in the
following: Textiles (cotton, silk, and rayon),
gloves, hats, millinery, knitted wear, hosiery,
other apparel, woolen textiles, artificial
flowers, silk throwing, and independent
telephone exchanges. General regulations
enable management in other industries to
employ learners as needed. Learners in ci
gar making were prohibited as unnecessary.
Special regulations recently issued and
not yet given in the Woman Worker pro
vide that in the woolen industry the learn
ing periods for two lists of skilled occupations
are 320 hours (about 8 weeks) and 240
hours (about 6 weeks). The learning rate
is 30 cents plus whatever may be earned in
excess of this at regular piece rates. In
general, learners may number 3 percent of
production workers, allowing at least 2.
In the making of artificial flowers, the
rate for learners is set at 26% for millinery
and clothing, otherwise at 22% cents. The
learning period is about 4 weeks and the
proportion of learners may vary with the
number of flower makers employed.
New regulations for the knitted-wear
industry increase the learning period from
about 8 to about 12 weeks. They provide
also that employers need not seek skilled

January 1941

MINIMUM WAGE IN 1940

labor in neighboring communities before
being permitted to employ learners. Limi
tation of learners to 5 percent of all workers
is the usual provision.
Industrial Training Programs.

Employee attendance on training pro
grams to achieve higher skills will not be

considered working time to be paid for,
provided that (1) attendance is voluntary;
(2) employees do no productive work dur
ing training periods; (3) training courses are
given outside of regular working hours; (4)
the program is to train the employee to a
new, different, or additional skill, not to
make the worker more efficient in the
present job.

Extent and Location of Home Work
home workers, most of whom an analysis of the data for firms requesting
are women, probably have been more handbooks for home workers from the
profoundly affected by the Fair Labor Wage and Hour Division for a period of
Standards Act than any other group of about a year and a quarter, ending in May
workers. The legal application of the act 1940. These report maximum number of
requires payment of the minimum to home home workers for whom handbooks were
workers, though no prohibition of home asked by the firms. The following sum
work is made. Practically every former mary is based on the maximum number of
study of home work revealed large numbers home workers estimated by the requesting
receiving piece rates too low to afford them employers, and includes only firms making
10 cents an hour, hence the effect of intro such estimates. The actual number of
ducing a 25-cent minimum (October 24, home workers is not known, since there is
1938) was spectacular. The average sum no check on the number of handbooks
restored to all workers has been $25.52, asked for that actually were used, nor on
to home workers almost twice that, $46.01. whether or not the individual did home
Only slightly over 1 percent of the cases work for more than one employer.
litigated in the first 2 years of the act’s
In this first 15-month period of applica
operation involved home workers; but such tion of the Wage-Hour Act to home workers,
workers comprised 13 percent of all persons 1,330 firms in 38 States requested hand
who received back wages, and nearly a books for a maximum number of home
fourth of all underpayments restored to workers estimated by them at 42,144?
workers went to them. A recent case of
To a large extent the firms gave out work
restitution is that of some 300 home workers to home workers within the State. Of the
on hairpins, wffio were paid more than 737 firms in States other than New York,
$100,000 in back wages. Altogether, the only 20 in 7 States gave home work out
latest information shows that about $616,000 side the State, as did only about 8 percent
has been ordered paid to some 13,500 home of the New York firms. The existence
workers making knitted wear, gloves, paper of interstate home work means, of course,
products, lace, embroidery, novelties, and that at any time its extent may increase,
so forth. Not all companies using home but it still remains chiefly an intrastate
work violated the act, and evidence shows matter.
that home-work employers adjusted to the
law without serious economic dislocation.
1 The District of Columbia is listed as a State throughout this
ndustrial

Number of Home Workers.

General indication of the extent of indus
trial home work in this country is found in

discussion. For 10 of these States fewer than 40 home workers
were estimated; for 12 States fewer than 50. Since this analysis
was prepared, the Wage-Hour Division has reported for an added
period of nearly 4 months, as of September 21, 1940, a maximum
number of 45,470 home workers asked for by 1,477 firms.

THE WOMAN WORKER

Furthermore, home work is overwhelm
ingly a problem of the northeastern part
of the country, where there are 1,050 (79
percent) of the entire 1,330 firms that
estimated the number needed in their appli
cations for home workers’ handbooks. Of
all these firms giving out home work, about
45 percent are in New York, about 63 per
cent in New York and New Jersey.
Location of Home Workers.

Half of the estimated 42,144 home workers
were for New York firms, 98 percent of
which firms employed only within the State.
Other North Atlantic States increased the
total to 74 percent, and the addition of
New England brought it to 81 percent of
the estimated number. Three groups of
States—6 New England, 8 Middle Western,
11 Southern—requested books for fairly
equal numbers, 3,200 to 3,600.
This concentration of home workers in
New York and neighboring States and in
industrial New England is not surprising.
Also important are Illinois and certain other
States in the midwestern group; such cloth
ing centers as California, Texas, and Mary
land; and the mountain regions of Kentucky,
West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North
Carolina, and Virginia. Perhaps some
what less to be expected are the 95 asked
for by Maine firms (shoes); 72 by Vermont
(sewing and knit goods); 469 by Iowa (but
tons and photography); 56 by Colorado
(novelties); and so forth.
A recent Illinois report shows that less
than 2 percent of the home workers in homes
inspected were physically handicapped, and
about 70 percent were less than 45 years of
age. For the most part they were house
wives who could not leave home but needed
to supplement the family income; many
also had to receive relief funds.
Chief Home-Work Products.

Home work on more than 70 types of
products can be singled out. However, a
third of the estimated home workers—
14,000 of the 42,000—were to be employed

on leather gloves and various types of
knitwear. The leather-glove work was done
almost entirely in New York. About 7,600
of the 14,000 were to do work on knitwear,
some of which consisted largely in finishings
on garments not made in homes. For the
various types of knitted wear, 86 percent of
the home workers asked for were in New
York and New Jersey, with an almost equal
division between the 2 States. Another 11
percent were in Pennsylvania, Maryland,
and Ohio. However, some work was to be
done on knitwear in homes in 12 States.
Most of the home workers asked for to
knit women’s sportswear were in New Jer
sey, with some in New York and Pennsyl
vania; of those to put the finishing touches
on infants’ knitwear, in New York, New
Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania; of the
other workers on knitted wear, in New
York and New Jersey, with appreciable
numbers also in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
According to another type of analysis,
over 60 percent of the home workers were to
work on some 35 products included under
the general terms of sewing, knitting, cloth
ing, textile products, lace, art needlework,
and various trimmings. Somewhat less than
a third of these home workers were to work
on knit goods of various types. For 7 of
the 35 products fewer than 60 home workers
were estimated. Those for work on textile
products were as follows:
Number

Percent

Textile and allied products.. 26,094

100.0

7, 664
Knitwear .
Embroidered goods.
5,984
4, 060
Trimmings.
Other textile products (including
8,386
hosiery)

29.4
22.9
15.6
32.1

Workers on major home-work products
other than sewing, knitting, and textiles in
cluded 6,367 for leather gloves; over 1,000
each for jewelry and buttons; over 800 for
cards and for powder puffs; over 500 each
for athletic goods and novelties; over 400
each for dolls and toys, shoes (infants’ and
so forth), and handbags; and over 300 each
for paper products and shoe trimmings.

January 1941

THE WOMAN WORKER

Women in Unions
Progress in Wearing Apparel.

A New York City local of workers on
neckwear and other accessories has been in
vestigating conditions in a relatively new
industry, the making of shoulder pads to be
sold to the makers of dresses and coats.
They find bitter competition between inside
shops and jobbers who give out work to
home workers or to contractors furnishing
material to home workers. Thus inside
workers are forced to accept home-work
rates of pay. Some 3,000 workers are in the
industry, with 6 to 10 home workers to every
inside worker. The home-work problem will
be taken up with the State Department of
Labor. One of the largest firms in the in
dustry has already signed with the local.
The time-motion study in St. Louis, given
three nights a week beginning last January,
graduated its first class in October. Two
women students are returning to their
regular shops to help systematize produc
tion methods. A third is helping to regular
ize the curtain industry in St. Louis.
A men’s clothing union in New York City
conducts a number of correspondence courses
for its members on union problems, eco
nomics of the clothing industry, and cultural
subjects. The objective is to enroll 3,000
students.
Workers on bathrobes in Maine have
secured a general raise of from 10 to 25 per
cent for all operators and pressers.
A renewed agreement with a Chicago
raincoat firm guarantees 36% weeks of work
during the year, secured by a deposit of 15
percent of each week’s pay roll.
Progress in Textiles.

What is considered a model contract in
the hosiery field covers 1,000 workers with
a Minnesota firm. It calls for unionmanagement cooperation in increasing the
efficiency of the plant, enabling it to main
tain its competitive position and at the same

time providing job security. The union is
to be responsible for training new employees
and will designate persons in each depart
ment for this work.
In a bag firm employing 5,800 workers in
21 plants, workers in two States have
secured an agreement giving the union sole
collective bargaining rights and allowing a
week’s vacation with pay to all. The con
tract will be extended to other units in the
chain of plants as soon as the union repre
sents a majority of the workers. Wages,
hours, and other working conditions are to
be negotiated plant by plant.
Progress in Rubber.

An increase of 21 percent in membership
was announced by the rubber workers’
union that held its fifth annual convention
in September. In 1929 nearly one-fourth
of all wage earners in this industry were
women, the proportion being smallest in
tire and tube making and largest in footwear.
From 1937 to 1939, production in the indus
try increased, though employment fell by
16,000.
Some 90 rubber-goods plants were recently
reported under contract or at least as 100
percent organized. In about 20 of these
from which information was available on
sex of workers, approximately 5,900 women
were employed. Wage increases averaging
7% cents an hour for women, higher for
men, were gained in a recent agreement in
New Jersey. Workers are to receive their
first paid vacations.
Progress in Food Manufacturing.

Food workers, often low paid, report
gains. Agreements in a large chocolate
plant in Pennsylvania and in a Missouri
candy factory have brought wage increases.
Pecan shellers in Texas are renewing an
agreement that in three years has about
quadrupled their earnings.

THE WOMAN WORKER

Progress for White-Collar Workers.

An arbitration award gave a New York
office workers’ union a 10-percent wage
increase, 40-hour week with time and a half
for overtime, vacations with pay, sick leave,
seniority, and a preferential shop. The
award,to run for 1 year, provides for renewal.
Contracts have been signed with two
5-and-10 chains in an Illinois city. Hours
are reduced from 48 to 45% and minimum

rates raised from 510 to 512.50 for beginners
and from 512.50 to 516.50 after 1 year’s
experience.
Workers in a department store in Indiana
have signed a contract providing a 52-hour
week with time and a half for overtime and
double time on holidays. This is important
in a State that places no legal restriction on
hours. After 1 year’s service employees
are to have 1 week’s vacation with pay.

Conferences and News Notes
Seventh Conference on Labor Laws

Woman’s Centennial Declares Purpose

labor standards was
stressed as basic in upholding democ
racy, by officials and representatives of
organized labor present at the annual con
ference called by the Secretary of Labor.
It was pointed out that the success of a
national defense program rests on the effi
ciency, health, and well-being of labor.
Backed by years of experience of their
members in the administration of the laws,
the conference committees presented highly
practical programs. Among important rec
ommendations were:

That women will take an increasingly
active part in strengthening the democratic
way of life was the keynote of the Woman’s
Centennial Congress held in New York in
November. (See Woman Worker, July
1940.) A “Declaration of Purpose” for
the coming century, signed by hundreds of
the leading American women who were pres
ent includes the following:

aintaining

Extension of State minimum-wage orders, with uniform
approach by Federal and State agencies.
Further application to industrial home workers of labor
standards, both Federal and State.
Opposition to the “equal rights amendment,” since it
would undermine State minimum-wage and other
labor standards for women.
Further regulation of child labor in street and entertain
ment trades and industrialized agriculture; passage of
Federal amendment.
Federal aid to States for the promotion of industrial
hygiene activities in State labor departments.
Extension of coverage of workmen’s compensation laws
to include all industrial establishments and all indus
trial diseases, and to provide compulsory insurance in
every case.
Increased use of the State and Federal conciliation
services, and the avoidance of antistrike laws which
would introduce ill will and weaken morale.
Liberalization of the unemployment compensation pro
gram by extension of benefits both to workers now
covered and to those at present not covered.
Requesting appointment of a committee to study Fed
eral grants-in-aid for State factory inspection.

We . . . declare it to be our purpose to . . . use our
freedom to work for the progressive securing of
freedom, social justice, and peace for all people.
We purpose to do our part ... in our communities
and in our Nation, in discovering new skills and
methods for making democratic principles op
erative ....
We will strive to participate more effectively in the
direction and control of the economic life of our
Nation, to the end that all people shall have the
basic necessities of life and equal opportunity for
individual development.
We will be vigilant to guard the economic freedom of
women [married or single].
We must . . . strengthen the ethical and religious
values which characterize our times.
We advocate no fixed pattern of progress to be followed,
but shall advance step by step, using in each decade
the means appropriate to our objective.
We shall work as individuals and through the organi
zations of women .... We shall work side by
side with men, for it will be from the common
endeavor of all men and women of good will that
the goal will be reached.

Further recommendations were made by
five special committees: Economic and
Social Welfare; Government and Politics;
Education of Women; World Peace Through
World Organization; and Ethical and Reli
gious Values.

January 1941

NEWS NOTES

Pan American Women Delegates Meet

Connecticut Household Employment

The spirit of unity among the delegates
from 14 countries attending the first annual
session of the Inter-American Commission
of Women, held in Washington, was the
chief feature of the conference, according to
the chairman, Senora Ana Rosa de Martinez
Guerrero of Argentina. A constitution and
bylaws were adopted, subject to approval
by the Pan American Union, to be recom
mended to the next conference in Bogota,
Colombia, in 1943. This women’s group
was made permanent at the 1938 conference
in Lima, with a continuing committee in
Washington to coordinate women’s activi
ties. (See Woman Worker, March 1939,
November 1940.) Reports on women’s
status in the various countries were made to
the sessions. A policy was adopted under
which each delegate will work independently
(but adhere to general principles of the con
ference) in her own country for reforms
most needed there. Resolutions adopted,
all unanimously, include:

Conferences on household employment
problems were held in November in Hartford
and New Haven, Conn., a Women’s Bureau
representative participating in each. Need
was stressed for better labor standards and
improved employer-employee relations, to
induce more young women to take the ex
cellent 12-week household-training course
offered in both Hartford and New Haven
by the Connecticut Professional and Service
Division of the W. P. A., of which Miss
Mary M. Hughart is the director. These
training centers are outstanding among the
more or less similar projects now operated
by the W. P. A. in about 30 States.
The State Public Employment Service
sponsors the Connecticut centers, with a lay
committee of prominent women as the co
operating sponsor. At the outset the women
assumed responsibility for supplying the
training house and equipment, securing the
latter free through the cooperation of local
business men. The committee is now help
ing to run the center and to extend commun
ity interest in the local efforts to solve household-employment problems for the sake of
both workers and housewives. For this
purpose a larger council has been developed
in the two cities. Some housewives on the
committee take the trainees into their homes,
on a part-time basis at an apprenticeship
wage, for further close supervision after
7 weeks of drill at the center. Even at the
center a practical set-up is maintained,
through renting rooms to outsiders who
serve as experimental clients for the trainees.

Call to all delegates to work without respite for
the indissoluble union of the Americas in pre
serving democracy.
Endorsement of the good-neighbor policy.
Recommendation that competent women dele
gates be appointed to all Pan American con
ferences.
Recommendation that governments improve the
penal systems for women in juvenile courts and
reformatories.
Surveys to be made of women’s industrial employ
ment and sex differentials in wages.
Surveys of maternal welfare, child-welfare centers,
protection and special training for children.

Children’s Bureau Committees
Recommendations for a program of
maternal care, child health, and community
child-welfare services which will help to
solve problems growing out of the defense
program were agreed upon at a joint session
of advisory committees meeting at the Chil
dren’s Bureau. It was pointed out that
problems of maternal and child health
become acute because of rapid population
increase in areas adjoining camps and in
those with expanding defense industries.

California Home Work on Garments
Hearings were held in December on the
desirability of forbidding industrial home
work in the California garment industry, a
step favored by employers.

Training St. Louis Garment Workers
In 1938 a study by the employment
service of St. Louis showed that at least
1,200 trained power-machine operators were
needed each year for existing demand (not

THE WOMAN WORKER

considering new firms or expansion of old
ones) in the making of garments, curtains,
slip covers, automobile seat covers, and bags,
and in mending departments of laundries.
The Garment Trades Training School was
opened early in 1940, with 35 carefully
selected girl students, through the coopera
tion of union, employers, vocational school,
and employment service members. By
October about 50 girls had been trained
and placed.

Compensation for Virginia Women
For a 2-year period ending September 30,
1940, nearly 73,000 women applied for un
employment compensation in Virginia.
These were 30 percent of all applicants. The
first 9 months of 1940 brought the appli

cations of more than half of the women and
47 percent of the men reported for the
2 years. Just over half the women applying
for benefits were under 30 years of age, more
than three-fourths were under 40. Nearly
a third were Negroes.

Woman British Official on Training
Appointment of a woman as consultant to
the Minister of Labor on the Training of
Women is characterized as a milestone in
the history of Great Britain. She is Miss
Caroline Haslett, president of the Women’s
Engineering Society. Seeing that mechani
zation was spreading rapidly, she founded in
the early 1920’s the Electrical Association for
Women, bringing electrical education to
thousands of home makers.

Recent Publications
Women’s Bureau

Printed Bulletins1

Women’s Wages and Hours in Nebraska.

178.

SO pp.

Other Department of Labor Publications 1

Bul.

10 cents.

Employment in Service and Trade Industries in
Maine. Bul. 180. 27 pp. 10 cents.

Women’s Bureau—Mimeographed Material1
Processes on Which Women Are Now at Work in
Defense Industries. October 1940. 5 pp.
Women Available for Defense Work. Prepared

October 1940.

8 pp.

Women’s Vocational Training Needs in the De
fense Industries and Services. November 7,

1940.

Recent Progress

State Labor Legislation.

Division of Labor Standards. 1940. Bul. 42.
The Pay Envelope. A series of 10 recordings of
radio programs. Consists of dramatic episodes about
the Middletons, America’s middle income family.
These records are available to noncommercial organ
izations for use on the special play-back mechanisms
in local broadcasting studios; they cannot be played
on ordinary phonographs. To be secured from Divi
sion of Labor Standards. A small transportation
charge to borrower.

Other Recent Publications

7 pp.

Report of Women’s Bureau Conference, Nov. 7,
on Vocational Training of Women Under the
Defense Program. 6 pp.
Household Employment: 1. Reading List, Supple
ment to Bul. 154, 11 pp.; 2. Outline For Study
Groups, 56 pp.

Women’s Bureau—Exhibit1
Available for loan from
the Women’s Bureau is an attractive table display,
in which color, light, and action illustrate how satis
factory employer-employee relationships in the home
promote family welfare. The only cost to the bor
rower is payment for transportation. The weight is
243 pounds, the size 4 by 3 by 2 feet. A unit that
can be used separately, weighing only 50 pounds,
consists of a series of small automatically moving
panels.

Household Employment.

By Mary B. Gilson.
A vivid picture of the significant experiences of a
woman who has done pioneer work in industrial
relations, always thinking through to the more con
structive economic policies and avoiding mere factory
“welfare work.” Harper and Brothers, 1940, 299
pp. plus index. S3.
Should Married Women Work? By Ruth Shallcross. An important contribution to the current
discussion. Upholds the right of married women to
jobs. Summarizes a study by the National Federa
tion of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs.
Public Affairs Committee, Inc., New York City.
Public Affairs Pamphlets No. 49. 1940. 31 pp.
10 cents.
What’s Past Is Prologue.

1 Bulletins may be ordered from the Superintendent of Docu
ments, Washington, D. C. Mimeographed reports and the house
hold employment exhibit are obtainable only from the Women’s
Bureau.
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1940

Full text of The Woman Worker : January 1941, Vol. XXI, No. 1

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