Full text of The Woman Worker : July 1938, Volume XVIII, Number 4

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THE

WOMAN'S C0LLE3E LIBRARY
W UNIVERSITY
DURHAM, N. C.

Woman Worker
(PUBLISHED EVERY TWO MONTHS)

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Frances Perkins, Secretary

WOMEN’S BUREAU
Mary Anderson, Director

WASHINGTON, D. C.

Volume XVIII




JULY 1938

Number 4

THE WOMAN WORKER
July 1938

♦
CONTENTS
Page

Women Workers......................

3

Status of Women....................................

4

Household Employment Problems...........................................................

7

The Federal Wage-Hour Law
The League

of

Nations

and

and

Y. W. C. A. members urge more public funds for training.
Philadelphia training school reports progress.
Chicago women ask #12 for 60 hours.
New Jersey women study problem.
Toward Minimum Fair Wages . ,..................................................................

10

News Notes...................................................................................................

15

South Carolina shortens workweek.
New Jersey night-work law amended.
Bedspread workers win agreement.
Fewer home-work employers.
Reviews...........................................................................................................

16

Recent Women’s Bureau Publications...................................................

16

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



The Federal Wage-Hour Law and Women Workers
HE Federal wage-hour bill has become
Relation to State Laws
law. On June 14 the United States
Congress outlawed the long hours in sweat­In spite of the great advantages to be
shops and factories and the wages of 10, 15, found in a Federal law, the need for State
and 20 cents an hour that have been the lot minimum-wage laws remains as great as
of thousands of women workers. The before. The majority of women workers are
Women’s Bureau hails the Fair Labor employed in occupations not covered by the
Standards Act of 1938 for the benefits it Federal minimum-wage provisions. The
provides for women in interstate industries Federal Act applies to interstate industries
and for the principles it establishes of Fed­ and apparently the minimum-wage section
eral responsibility for the welfare of the does not cover the following large groups of
Nation’s wage earners and of equal wage women wage earners: Saleswomen, laundry
and dyeing and cleaning operatives, cannery
rates for women and men.
and allied workers, waitresses, other hotel
and restaurant employees, beauty operators,
What the Act Does for Women
agricultural laborers, household employees,
Beginning next fall, no person in the and clerical workers in industries not inter­
industries affected may be paid less than 25 state in character.
cents an hour or be employed more than
In the interstate industries as well, the
44 hours a week without overtime pay at need for State minimum-wage standards con­
time and a half the usual rate. Beginning tinues. States whose laws require that the
a year from next fall, no person in the indus­ minimum wage shall equal the cost of living
tries affected may be paid less than 30 may find it necessary to establish rates for
cents an hour or be employed more than women factory workers higher than those
42 hours a week without overtime pay. provided under the Federal law.
Two years from next fall, the 40-hour week
Where a State has already established
goes into effect, and 7 years from next fall higher standards than those of the Federal
the 40-cent minimum wage will be the Act, the State standard will take precedence.
standard.
Section 18 of the Act provides: “No pro­
At any time after industry committees vision of this act or of any order thereunder
have begun to function, they may recom­ shall excuse noncompliance with any Fed­
mend, and the Administrator may order, a eral or State law or municipal ordinance
higher rate than the 25-cent or 30-cent establishing a minimum wage higher than
absolute minimum for a given industry or the minimum wage established under this
classification of industries, but not more act or a maximum workweek lower than
than 40 cents an hour. Hence, there is a the maximum workweek established under
possible range in minimum-wage rates of this act.”
from 25 to 40 cents.
In respect to hour regulation, few ques­
The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act of tions as to State and Federal jurisdiction
1938 establishes the principle of equal pay need be raised. In almost all States the
for women and men in section 8 (c) (3), Federal act brings a marked reduction in
which states: “No classification [referring the hours that women may legally be em­
to wage differentials] shall be made * * * ployed without overtime pay in the inter­
on the basis of age or sex.”
state industries covered by the law.

T

74696—38




3

THE WOMAN WORKER

4

The League of Nations and Status of Women
The legal bodies that will conduct the
committee of the League
of Nations on status of women, at its detailed work of the inquiry are the Inter­
national Institute for the Unification of
first meeting in Geneva this spring, blocked
out the pattern of the study of women’s Private Law, the International Institute of
status that it is undertaking and referred Public Law, and the International Bureau
the various parts to international legal for the Unification of Penal Law.
bodies, which were directed to report back
on the proposed plan of study at the next
Scope of the Study
committee meeting in January 1939. It
was estimated when the committee was
To be investigated under private law is the
appointed by the Council of the League of position of women in the various countries
Nations in 1937 that the study would take in regard to marriage and divorce, including
the questions of guardianship of children;
3 years.
This projected survey of women’s legal rights of married women to acquire, manage,
status is “the greatest study of comparative or dispose of their own property, and to
law” ever attempted, according to the chair­ carry on business or industry; laws of suc­
man, Prof. H. C. Gutteridge, of Cambridge, cession; and financial arrangements between
England. It includes an investigation of husband and wife.
women’s status under private law, public
Under public law the position of women
law, and criminal law. For the present at will be considered as to their right of national
least, the investigation will be confined to and local franchise, eligibility for public
the legal systems of European countries and office, and right to participate in the civil
those of related civilizations, since results services. Under criminal law will be de­
might be delayed interminably if efforts scribed the codes dealing with criminal
were made now to examine the entire sys­ responsibility of women. This last section
tems of Indian and Mohammedan laws, as of the investigation will include participation
well as hundreds of tribal customs.
of women in police activities, as officers in
administration of prisons or detention homes,
American Woman on Committee
and as magistrates in the administration of
justice in criminal courts.
Serving on the committee with Professor
Gutteridge are Miss Dorothy Kenyon,
Women’s Organizations Consulted
New York lawyer; Mme. Paul Bastide,
professor of law at the University of Lyons,
After preparing this plan of procedure the
France; Mme. Anka Godjevac, Yugoslav committee invited representatives of inter­
woman lawyer; Dr. Paul Sebestyen and Dr. national organizations of women to a public
de Ruelle, legal advisers to the Hungarian hearing to discuss the proposed arrange­
and Belgian Governments, respectively; and ment of study. It was felt that these organi­
Miss Kerstin Hesselgren, veteran woman zations were in a particularly good position
delegate to the League from Sweden and to know of cases in which laws bearing upon
member of the Swedish Parliament. The the status of women no longer apply. Hence
modest sum of 25,000 Swiss francs (some­ they were especially asked to inform the
thing over #6,000) was appropriated for this committee of such instances as well as to
committee, with 20,000 of it allocated to the give their practical comments and sugges­
expenses of two meetings.
tions on the legal survey.
he special

T




THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND STATUS OF WOMEN

The hearing brought out the great interest
in women’s economic position, especially in
the disparity between men’s and women’s
rates of pay. Women may seldom expect
payment for their work at the same rate as
men even though they may have the legal
right to enter the professions and public
services, it was pointed out. On this issue
the women’s organizations were reminded
that disparity in pay often arises not from
any legal situation but from social attitudes
based on custom and prejudice, and that
such economic questions had been referred
to the International Labor Organization for
study. However, the committee of legal
experts may make some contribution to this
subject through its study of women’s right
to enter professional work.

Earlier Action of the League
The plan for the present study is a next
step following several actions taken in the
past by the Assembly of the League of
Nations.
The question of status of women in all its
aspects was first considered officially by the
Assembly at its session in September 1935.1
At that time, the Assembly passed a resolu­
tion calling for study of “the existing
political, civil, and economic status of
women under the laws of the countries of
the world.” The question of political and
civil status was “referred by the Secretary
General to the Governments for their
observations * * * ancj information as
to the existing political and civil status of
women under their respective national laws.”
The resolution also recommended that
“The women’s international organizations
should continue their study of the whole
question of the political and civil status of
women.” The question of economic status
(especially referring to “conditions of em­
ployment”) was considered “a matter which
properly falls within the sphere of the
International Labor Organization” and was
1 Further adherence to the Convention on Certain Questions
Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws, adopted at The
Hague in 1930, had been discussed in the Assembly in 1931 and in
following years. This convention dealt with the nationality of
women and related matters.




5

referred to it with the hope that it would
“undertake an examination of those aspects
of the problem within its competence.”
The report of the director of the Inter­
national Labor Office for 1935 stated:
The Governing Body agreed that the suggestion made
by the Assembly should be carried out and that a report
should be prepared in regard to the legal status of
women in industry with particular reference to any
discriminatory measures which may have been taken
against their employment. This is to be followed by a
more extensive investigation covering not only the
legislation affecting women’s employment but also their
actual position in respect of conditions of employment,
wages and economic status.

The question of general status of women
had been placed on the agenda of the
Assembly for 1935 by request of 10 member
countries, all Latin-American. In that part
of the world much interest had centered
around an Equal Rights Treaty signed by
four countries represented at the Interna­
tional Conference of American States at
Montevideo in 1933. The Conference itself
officially passed a resolution declaring that
“it would seem unwise to conclude a treaty
on the granting of civil and political rights
to men and women.”

Information Sent by 38 Countries
By the time of the 1937 meeting of the
League Assembly, 38 widely scattered coun­
tries had contributed information on
women’s political and civil status either
through their governments or through inter­
national women’s organizations. Much
wider interest had been aroused in the
subject of women’s status than in 1935, as
shown by the fact that the question was
put on the agenda at the request of 15
widely scattered countries, including 5
Latin-American, 7 European (chiefly Bal­
kan), 2 Eastern, and 1 South Pacific.
The information supplied from the various
countries was summarized for the First
Committee (legal committee of the As­
sembly, to which the question was referred)
and for the Assembly itself by Miss Hesselgren (the “Rapporteur,” or committee

6

THE WOMAN WORKER

member in charge of this subject), who
declared that the reports showed greater
progress toward the complete emancipation
of women than was generally supposed. She
felt that the information so far collected,
however, was not sufficient to serve as a
basis for action by the League of Nations
on the question of improving women’s status
and that further study should be made.
The First Committee thereupon decided
that “the question of the status of women
cannot usefully be further discussed by the
League until after a study such as now is
contemplated has been completed.”

Functions of the Committee
The recommendations' of the committee
were accepted and the Council, at the
request of the Assembly, appointed the
committee that met this spring. The
committee was directed to decide the scope
of the study, assign the parts to scientific
institutes, coordinate the work of these
bodies, and be responsible for the final form
in which the report should appear. It
was directed not to deal with questions of
the nationality of women, on which the
Assembly had already made decisions, nor
on conditions of employment, which had
been referred in 1935 to the International
Labor Organization.
Miss Hesselgren had stated in her report:
“The committee of experts will have full
and entire responsibility for the form and
content of the publications which are the
result of the contemplated inquiry,” and
shall decide in “what shape the results of
particular inquiries or communications
which the committee may have received
from organizations are to be printed * * *.
The League, on the completion of the pro­
posed inquiry, will be put in possession of
an entirely objective picture of the actual
legal position of women. The publication
of such a comprehensive survey should be
of assistance to Governments and to all
organizations and persons interested in the
problem,”




Surveys in the United States
The Women’s Bureau has assisted both in
the survey of women’s political and civil
status and in the survey of economic status.
The Bureau was instructed by the Secretary
of Labor to furnish the information on civil
and political status in the United States orig­
inally requested of the Secretary of State
by the League of Nations in 1935. Accord­
ingly, it undertook a study now in progress
that will supply for this country much of
the information sought by the special com­
mittee appointed in 1937. The study covers
thoroughly, State by State, insofar as
statutes and recorded cases are concerned,
the branches of the law included in the com­
mittee’s outline under private law, as well as
some of the information listed under public
law. It does not cover the third section of
the proposed study, that on criminal law.
A preliminary report of the Women’s
Bureau study was sent to Geneva prior to
the 1937 session of the Assembly and was
published by the League Secretariat as an
official document, as was done with informa­
tion furnished by other countries (League of
Nations, Official No. A.14(e). 1937. V).
The Women’s Bureau is now publishing
the results of this study for each State as
they are completed, and will later bring the
whole together in a single volume. Reports
have been issued for Alabama, Connecticut,
Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Min­
nesota, Missouri, and New York, and those
for practically half the States are in press.
Before the material for any State is put into
final form, it is sent to two separate author­
ities within the State for a careful reading
and for suggestions.
The request that the Women’s Bureau
assist in the study of economic status came
from the women’s organizations that had
been asked by the International Labor Office
to furnish this information. The Women’s
Bureau responded by making a compilation
of available material on certain phases of
women’s economic status. This was sent
to the International Labor Office and later

HOUSEHOLD EMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS
published, in the fall of 1937, in a bulletin
“Women in the Economy of the United
States.” The Bureau also sent the I. L. O.
its regular compilation of labor laws affecting
women in this country, lent a staff member

7

to the Division of Women’s Work of the
I. L. O. for several months, and continues to
cooperate with the Division by furnishing it
with pertinent information as it is obtained
in Women’s Bureau research and surveys.

Household Employment Problems
of the job problem of house­ workers was urged by the industrial assem­
hold workers and of the “servant bly of the fifteenth national convention of
problem” of household employers is to bethe Young Women’s Christian Association
found in general education of employer and held in Columbus, Ohio, in April. The
employee, job training, extension of labor assembly was composed of 150 industrial
legislation to household workers, and union workers, 50 of them household employees,
elected as delegates from the industrial
organization.
These appear to be the conclusions of departments of local associations.
The assembly recommended to the local
several recent discussions of the household!
employment problem both at employee and' groups that they take necessary action to
employer conferences and in published release Federal and State funds for pro­
material. Apparently, a shortage of skilled moting training for household workers in
domestic help in a period of widespread un­ local schools under union or community
employment has brought home to a growing auspices.
On the question of organization of house­
number of civic and employer groups and
governmental bodies the realization that hold workers, the assembly concluded that
something must be done to bring jobs and some usual union methods, such as picket­
workers together. On the other hand, ing, striking, and so forth, were unsuitable
domestic employees themselves have seen for workers in the home. It recommended
other workers winning more and more pro­ that local groups experiment during the
tection through trade-unions and labor laws, coming year with different techniques of
and are becoming aroused to the need for group action in order to discover the best
some organized action if they are to share in methods for establishing standards of house­
hold employment.
the general advance of labor.
On legislation, the assembly proposed that
This increased interest and activity in the
local
groups study labor laws in their locali­
field of household employment is reflected in
ties
with
respect to coverage of household
the recent meetings reported here, in the
workers,
and
that they try to extend labor
first annual report of the Philadelphia Insti­
laws
to
this
group.
tute on Household Occupations, and in such
The Y. W. C. A. convention as a whole
publications as The Women in the House,
also
discussed the problem of household
reviewed on page 16.1
employment at separate meetings of employ­
ers and employees. At both meetings the
Y. W. G. A. Members Urge More
director of the Philadelphia Institute on
Public Funds for Training
Household Occupations described this ex­
Local action of Y. W. C. A. groups to periment in training for greater occupa­
obtain public funds for training household tional skill. Methods that proved success­
1 For a discussion of “Domestic Workers and Unions” by a member
ful in securing a 60-hour-week law for house­
of the Women’s Bureau staff, see the American Federationist, May
hold workers in the State of Washington
1938. Reprints are available in the Bureau.
olution

S




8

THE WOMAN WORKER

were explained to the employees by State
Senator Mary U. Farquharson and a mem­
ber of a Washington Y. W. C. A. club.
Margaret Bondfield, British labor leader,
reminded the employers that though their
cooperation would be helpful in improving
standards, in the last analysis domestic
workers, like all others, must work out their
salvation through their own collective efforts.
A representative of the Women’s Bureau,
who served as consultant at the industrial
assembly, addressed the employees’ meeting
on the mechanics of organizing household
workers.

Philadelphia Training School Reports
Progress in Year
Intelligent, capable, healthy girls are will­
ing to train for jobs as domestic workers if
they can be guaranteed hours and wages
approximating those of industrial workers
and an opportunity to live some life of their
own. Moreover, employers are willing to
shorten hours and increase wages if they can
be assured of competent employees. These
are the most significant conclusions in a report
of the first year’s work of the Philadelphia
Institute on Household Occupations.
This institute is a research project estab­
lished in February 1937 for two purposes—
“to shed light on the maladjustment which
at the present time characterizes and dis­
tinguishes the household industry from all
other industries offering employment to
women, and to point the way, as a result of
research and analysis, to procedures that
may alleviate this maladjustment.” Con­
ducted jointly by the Philadelphia Board of
the Young Women’s Christian Association
and the Philadelphia Board of Public Edu­
cation, the institute engages in recruitment,
training, placement, and follow-up of house­
hold workers.
Early difficulties in finding desirable girls
willing and able to take the free training
course were soon overcome after news of the
first placements got around. It took 2
months to recruit the first class of 6 girls;
but as others heard of the jobs in which the



graduates had been placed, the number of
applicants increased until at the end of the
first year the school was full to its capacity
of 25 students, including 2 men training as
butlers, with a waiting list of 3 women and
1 man. Standards are high. Girls must be
attractive, intelligent, and capable of doing
other jobs but with a liking for housework
under satisfactory working conditions.
Women forced into domestic service because
they cannot hold other jobs or are on relief
are not accepted.
A 3-month course is offered. Students,
who include both white and Negro workers,
put in a 5-day, 29-hour week—8 hours in a
cooking class in a public trade school and
the other 21 hours in a 9-room house equipped
for the routine of ordinary family life. Em­
phasis in the home is on organization of
work, budgeting of time, and keeping up to
a schedule.
Graduates are placed with employers will­
ing to accept the wage and hour standards
established by the institute. These were
arrived at after study of wages and hours in
industrial employment. They include the
48-hour week for girls who go home at night
and the 54-hour week for girls who live in,
since the latter lose no time going to and
from the job. The worker living at home
receives $10 a week to start and $12 a week
when she proves that she can handle the job
satisfactorily. The worker living in begins
at a cash wage of $8, to be raised to $10.
Overtime in both cases must be paid for at
25 cents an hour. The institute follows up
each placement at regular intervals to see
that the employer is living up to her agree­
ment.
Once the work of the school was pub­
licized, placement became an easy matter.
A large number of employers proved willing
to meet the wage and hour standards in
return for high-class workers. One feature
story, in a Philadelphia Sunday paper, de­
scribing the experiment, resulted in 200 tele­
phone calls in 3 days and hundreds of letters
from interested employers “who saw in these
graduates the solution to the servant
problem.”

HOUSEHOLD EMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS
Chicago Women Ask $12 for 60 Hours
A 60-hour week through legislation or
union agreement was one of the goals set up
by the first city-wide conference on problems
of household workers, held in Chicago May
19-22 under the sponsorship of the Domestic
Workers’ Association of that city.
The conference voted to assign the draft­
ing of a State 60-hour bill for household
workers to a committee appointed for the
purpose which should submit its draft to a
later meeting for consideration.
The conference endorsed a contract to be
signed by employers, providing:
A 60-hour week and 10-hour day for weekly workers
and an 8-hour day for day workers.
For weekly workers, a minimum wage of 312 a week;
for day workers, 40 cents an hour with a minimum of 4
hours’ work guaranteed per day; both weekly and day
workers to be paid time and one-half for overtime.
One full day’s rest in 7 in addition to 2 full Sundays’
rest in each month, rest on 4 of the important holidays
in each year, and a week’s vacation with pay after a
year’s work in the same position.
Weekly workers living in shall be furnished comfort­
able sleeping quarters with a bed and use of bath, ade­
quate food, and allowance of at least 30 minutes to eat
each meal.
Uniforms, if required, shall be furnished and laun­
dered at employer’s expense.
Workmen’s compensation insurance covering domes­
tic workers shall be carried by the employer.
The Domestic Workers’ Association shall be the
bargaining agent between employer and employee.
The position of an employee temporarily absent from
the job because of such reasons as illness or accident
must be kept open; the association may furnish a sub­
stitute.
The adjustment coriimittee of the association will
confer with the employer in case a worker feels she has
been unjustly discharged. In event of failure to reach
an understanding, the employer and the association will
submit the case to an arbitrator.
After a 2 weeks’ trial period the employer, upon dis­
charging a worker, must give 2 weeks’ notice or 2 weeks*
dismissal pay.

The association decided to work for
greater organization, better training facili­
ties for domestic service, other types of edu­
cation, and the extension of labor legislation




9

to cover household workers. As urgent
reasons for such efforts were cited the bad
working conditions under which many
of Chicago’s more than 40,000 household
workers are employed.
Sessions were held at the headquarters of
the Chicago Women’s Trade Union League,
which has lent its support to the Domestic
Workers’ Association during the 5 years of its
existence. The metropolitan industrial sec­
retary of the Chicago Y. W. C. A. also took
an active part in promoting the conference.
Speakers included representatives of the
Chicago Women’s Trade Union League, the
Chicago Teachers’ Union, and the Women’s
Bureau of the United States Department of
Labor. The Women’s Bureau representative
also served as national consultant on house­
hold employment problems.
The first number of the Domestic Work­
ers’ Association’s new monthly bulletin, The
Domestic Worker, was issued during the
conference. Copies are available at the
association’s headquarters, 3451 Michigan
Avenue, Chicago.

New Jersey Women Study Problem
Problems of household employment were
discussed at the annual employment com­
mittee meeting of the New Jersey State
Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs in
Asbury Park, June 2. The committee has
made its special project for the past year the
study of household employment. At this
meeting the fact was stressed that special
training is particularly essential for Negro
household workers, since domestic employ­
ment is likely to be less a stop-gap and more
a permanent occupation for Negro workers
than for white. Instead of having a per­
spective of leaving this type of employment,
Negro workers should seek to improve its
working conditions and their own fitness for
the jobs. A representative of the Women’s
Bureau spoke on labor problems of house­
hold employment.

THE WOMAN WORKER

10

Toward Minimum Fair Wages
Oklahoma Law Declared
Constitutional
State minimum-wage legislation for men
has met its first test of constitutionality.
A State District Court held on June 10 that
the Oklahoma minimum-wage law and the
nine obligatory orders issued under it were,
with two exceptions, valid according to both
Federal and State Constitutions. The Okla­
homa law is the first State minimum-wage
law to apply to men as well as to women and
minors. The portions of the orders estab­
lishing minimum wages for men and minors
were declared invalid under the Oklahoma
Constitution only because of a technical de­
fect in the law—the subject of minimum
wages for men and minors was not clearly
covered in the title of the act. The pro­
visions of the orders applying to contiguous
and unallocated territories “within the dis­
cretion of the Commission” outside cities
and towns of given population were declared
invalid because the standards as expressed
were “indefinite and indeterminable.”
The decision made clear that in providing
minimum-wage and maximum-hour regula­
tions for men the Oklahoma act did not
violate the fourteenth amendment of the
United States Constitution. It said: “The
Opinion of the United States Supreme Court
in the case of the West Coast Hotel v. Parrish,
has settled the question as regards women,
and logical reason cannot suggest that the
liberties of men to manage their own affairs
and contracts is any more sacred than the
rights of women, nor that the general health
and morals, as affected by conditions of
labor of men, are any less a proper subject
for the exercise of the police power of the
State than that of women.”
The decision also overruled the contention
of the Associated Industries that the act
violated the Oklahoma Constitution by dele­
gating general legislative powers.



The court’s decision was appealed both by
the Associated Industries of Oklahoma,
which had challenged the constitutionality
of the act, and by the Industrial Welfare
Commission, which challenged the two ex­
ceptions made by the court. Thereupon
the court continued, for a period of 20 days,
the order restraining the Industrial Welfare
Commission from any attempt to enforce
the penal provisions of the law.
The court permanently enjoined the In­
dustrial Welfare Commission from enforcing
or attempting to enforce the law and orders
1 to 9, insofar as they apply to men and
minors, and from enforcing or attempting to
enforce any orders as they cover or attempt
to cover territory contiguous to or unallo­
cated territory adjacent to cities and towns
covered by such orders.
When the temporary injunction is lifted
it is understood that the nine minimum-wage
and maximum-hour orders can be enforced
for women workers except in the unallocated
and contiguous territory referred to. It is
expected also that the minimum-wage por­
tions of the law can be made applicable to
men and minors through amending the title
of the law at the next session of the legis­
lature.

Coordinating Committees Report
To secure full protection of minimum-wage
laws for both workers and employers in
manufacturing industries, while at the same
time establishing fair standards of interstate
competition, is a primary aim of State mini­
mum-wage administrators. They are con­
cerned also with the problem of reducing, so
far as consistent with sound administrative
procedure, the work and expense involved in
making industry surveys.
With these objectives in view, the two
committees of State minimum-wage admin­
istrators appointed at the Seventh Minimum

TOWARD MINIMUM FAIR WAGES
Wage Conference in Washington last fall
have met and made recommendations for
greater cooperation among States in this
branch of their activity. The Women’s
Bureau, whose director of minimum wage is
secretary of both committees, has been made
the clearing-house for information and sug­
gestions.
Specifically, the Committee on Scope of
Wage Orders has recommended (1) that
minimum-wage orders be extended as rapidly
as possible, beginning with the industries in
which the largest numbers of women are
employed at the lowest wages; (2) that in
the field of manufacturing, each order be
made to cover as broad a group as practic­
able; and (3) that in the interest of fair
competition the minimum-wage States co­
operate to the utmost in establishing rates
for manufacturing, the initiative for each
industry to be taken by those States in
which the bulk of the industry is located, as
determined by the Women’s Bureau from
census data. It was further suggested that
if the Women’s Bureau found that two or
more States were contemplating minimumwage rates for a given manufacturing in­

11

dustry, the secretary of the committee
should call the administrators of those
States into conference to exchange opinions
on how best to proceed with this industry.
Conference on Candy Industry.

In line with this last recommendation, the
Women’s Bureau recently called together
the minimum-wage administrators from the
seven States in which at least 1,000 women
were employed in the candy industry at the
time of the latest census of occupations.
These included Illinois, Massachusetts, and
New York, which had indicated their inten­
tion of establishing wage boards for this
industry; California and Wisconsin, which
already have general wage orders covering
candy; and Ohio and Pennsylvania. Three
administrators, those of Illinois, New York,
and Pennsylvania, attended the conference.
A similar procedure may be followed in
the needle trades, and in certain novelty
industries that are being considered for wage
boards by some of the States. Though the
determination of rates is in the hands of
wage boards appointed for each industry, it
is felt that on some problems the adminis-

HISTORY OF STATE MINIMUM-WAGE LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN, 1913 TO 1938
STATES WITH MINIMUM-WAGE LEGISLATION
□= RATES IN EFFECT (IN ONE OR MORE INDUSTRIES)

★In April 1923 the U. S. Supreme Court declared the District of Columbia minimum-wage law unconstitutional.
★In March 1937 the U. S. Supreme Court declared the Washington State minimum-wage law constitutional
and reversed its decision on the District of Columbia law.



12

THE WOMAN WORKER

trators can benefit by conferring before
such boards are called.
The Committee on Statistical Procedure
for State Minimum Wage Divisions recom­
mended at its recent meeting that State
minimum-wage divisions continue to make
detailed surveys of industries before issuing
wage orders. The committee felt that
comprehensive information is necessary to
meet questions raised during wage-board
deliberations and also to serve as court
evidence in case the orders should be chal­
lenged. Various means of economizing on
time and money involved in these studies
were proposed, and State administrators who
had found other such short-cuts were urged
to report their experiences to the Women’s
Bureau so that they could be passed along
to others.
The committee on scope is composed of
State labor department representatives from
Illinois, New Jersey, NewYork, Rhode Island,
Utah, and Wisconsin and the director of mini­
mum wage of the Women’s Bureau. On the
statistical procedure committee are the
representatives of the labor departments of
Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, New York,
and Pennsylvania, and the director of mini­
mum wage of the Women’s Bureau. The
chief statistician of the Women’s Bureau
also met with this committee.

The Booth-Renting Evasion
When is a beauty operator an employee
and when is she an independent contractor?
This question is being raised in every State
with minimum-wage rates in effect or con­
templated for the beauty-culture industry.
Beauty-shop proprietors have been attempt­
ing to evade the law in some places by chang­
ing the status of their employees to that of
tenant. The device is not new, for it has
been used in almost every State in connec­
tion with workmen’s compensation, unem­
ployment insurance, and other labor laws.
Recently, however, the practice seems to be
increasing.
In Massachusetts, where the Minimum
Wage Commission is preparing to establish
minimum-wage rates for beauty operators,



the legislature foresaw the possibility of this
type of evasion and amended the minimumwage law to make such disguising of em­
ployees’ status illegal and punishable by fine
or imprisonment. The amendment, signed
by the Governor on April 26, reads:
“No person shall, for the purpose of evad­
ing the provisions of this chapter, establish
any arrangement or organization in his busi­
ness, by contract, lease, agreement, whether
written or oral, whereby a woman or minor
who would otherwise be an employee of such
person does not have the status of such an
employee.” The amendment provides that
if the commissioner of labor and industries
has reason to believe that this law is being
violated he shall hold a public hearing on the
charges, and if he finds that the violation
exists, order the violator to cease and desist.
Any person who fails to cease such practice
within 30 days after the order shall be pun­
ished by a fine of not less than $100 or by
imprisonment of from 10 to 90 days, or both.
In New Hampshire, where a minimumwage order for beauticians went into effect
March 15, attempts of employers to evade
the order by booth-renting have been met
by a ruling of the attorney general, requiring
rented booths to be licensed as independent
shops.
In New York the recommendations of the
minimum-wage board for beauty shops in­
cludes the provision that “all persons who
perform beauty service shall be deemed em­
ployees within the order unless and until the
Industrial Commissioner has ruled upon
adequate proof that the order does not apply
to them.” This recommendation is based
on an opinion of the attorney for the Divi­
sion of Women in Industry and Minimum
Wage of the State Department of Labor.
After studying many such cases that had
arisen under other labor laws, the attorney
found that no general rule for distinguishing
between a contractor and an employee could
be formulated and that therefore the
minimum-wage order should assume that
booth renters were employees until proved
otherwise.
In Wisconsin the minimum-wage adminis­

TOWARD MINIMUM FAIR WAGES

trator may handle the problem of boothrenting by resorting to rulings of the State
Board of Health and to the State Recovery
Act. The Board of Health requires a full­
time licensed manager in every beauty parlor
and provides that operators and apprentices
cannot conduct beauty parlors nor be in­
terested in beauty parlors except as em­
ployees of the parlors in which they work;
they cannot perform their trade in any place
except a beauty parlor, and then only under
the supervision and direction of a licensed
manager. The Wisconsin Recovery Act
prohibits a malefice partnership in or lease of
a shop or chair in such manner as to defeat
any provision of the fair practice standards
of the act.
The Social Security Board has provided
the Women’s Bureau with a compilation of
legal rulings on this point arising under oldage assistance and unemployment insur­
ance acts. In most of these rulings the
Women’s Bureau found that so long as the
proprietor exercises any control over the
worker in the performance of his or her
duties, or has the right to exercise such con­
trol, the worker is an employee and entitled
to the protection of the labor laws.
To help State minimum-wage administra­
tors in deciding how they may best meet
the problem of booth-renting, the Women’s
Bureau has assembled all pertinent legal
rulings and decisions on the subject in
mimeographed form.

Recent Minimum-Wage Orders
Colorado—Laundry Industry.

Substantial gains in earnings and some re­
duction in hours of women in laundries will
result from the wage order effective June 20,
providing a guaranteed weekly wage for
plant and office workers. The State is di­
vided into two zones: Zone A including
Denver and Pueblo and, from June 1 to
September 1, Colorado Springs and Estes
Park; and zone B, the remainder of the
State. In zone A, the weekly rate is $12.80
for any hours up to and including 40 a week;
an additional 32 cents to be paid for each of
the next 5 hours and 48 cents for each hour
over 45, resulting in a minimum wage of



13

$15.84 for a 48-hour week, the longest work­
week permitted by the order. In zone B,
the order guarantees a weekly wage of $11.20
for hours worked up to and including 40,
and calls for 28 cents an hour for the next 5
hours, and 42 cents an hour for over 45
hours, thus providing $13.86 for a full 48hour week. The guaranteed feature applies
after the first week of employment.
Workers employed regularly for less than
24 hours a week may be granted a permit by
the Industrial Commission as part-time
workers. They shall be paid for at least
one-half day’s time and shall receive at least
32 cents an hour in zone A and 28 cents in
zone B. Permits for part-time employment
may be granted only at the request of work­
ers who express a desire to work less than 24
hours a week.
A study made in the summer of 1937 by
the Minimum Wage Division of the Colorado
Industrial Commission, with the assistance
of the Women’s Bureau, showed that over
three-fourths of the 1,386 women plant
employees surveyed in 56 laundries in 14
cities and towns had earned less than 28
cents an hour, that the average was 25 cents,
and the range from 10 to 57 cents. Average
weekly earnings were $11.60. Three-fourths
of the women had worked 40 hours or more,
three-fifths had worked at least 44 hours, and
one-fifth had worked more than the 48 hours
now permitted by the minimum-wage order.
Connecticut—Laundry Industry.

Minimum-wage rates were set for the
laundry industry, effective June 1. All
women and minors, including those in offices,
must receive at least 30 cents an hour for
more than 35 hours’ work. For a week of
32 up to and including 35 hours they shall
receive at least $10.50, and for 31 hours or
less the minimum hourly rate is 33 cents.
(These rates differ slightly from those rec­
ommended by the wage board, as reported
in the May Woman Worker.) The order
covers not only commercial laundries but
also those operated for their own use by
clubs, business establishments, or other pub­
lic or private institutions (except State
institutions).

14

THE WOMAN WORKER

New York—Beauty Culture.
A minimum wage of #16.50 for a week of
more than 3 days up to 45 hours becomes
effective August 1, 1938, for all employees in

the beauty-culture industry, except maids.
Maids must be paid #15 for a week of more
than 3 days up to 45 hours. Hours worked
over 45 up to and including 48 must be paid
for at one and one-half the usual rate and
hours worked above 48 must be paid double
time. Part-time workers, those employed
3 days or less in any 1 week, must be paid at
least #4 a day of 8 hours or less.

Collection of Wages
New York Workers Aided.

Collection of #1,215.75 in back wages due
458 women and minor laundry workers under
the new laundry minimum-wage order was
made by the inspectors of the Division of
Women in Industry and Minimum Wage of
the State Department of Labor in the first
6 weeks of enforcement, March 21 to April
30.
In June the State Department of Labor
released to the press the names of 124 New
York City laundries that had failed to
comply with the laundry wage order, effec­
tive March 14. Publication of names is the
penalty provided for nonobservance of a
directory wage order under the New York
minimum-wage law.
Increase in Ohio Collections.
During the first 4 months of 1938 the Ohio
Division of Minimum Wage collected #16,855
for 669 employees, who were due back wages
under wage orders covering laundries, dry
cleaners, and food and lodging establish­
ments. In contrast, during the entire year
of 1937, #21,676 was collected for 1,302
employees under the three orders.

Wage and Hour Surveys
Retail Trade in Colorado.

A study prepared for use of a retail-trade
wage board in Colorado shows that median
week’s earnings of full-time women employ­
ees in the summer or early fall of 1937 were



#13.45 in limited-price stores, #15.55 in
department stores, #15.95 in women’s-apparel stores, and #15.45 in miscellaneous
stores. Average hourly earnings were 29.2
cents in limited-price stores, 35.6 cents in
department stores, and 35.7 cents in women’s-apparel stores.
The survey was conducted by the Mini­
mum Wage Division of the Colorado Indus­
trial Commission with the assistance of the
Women’s Bureau. It covered 4,911 women.
All Industries in Kansas.

One-fifth of 17,000 employed women in
Kansas earned less than #10 a week in a
reporting period in the summer and fall of
1937, according to a survey conducted by
the Women’s Division of the Kansas Com­
mission of Labor and Industry. More than
one-third earned between #10 and #15 a
week. The 17,000 women represented a
30-percent sample of all women in the
woman-employing industries of the State,
exclusive of supervisors.
Average earnings in each of the groups
studied were as follows: Amusements, #8.99;
laundries, #9.12; hotels and rooming houses,
#10.08; restaurants, #10.34; trade (whole­
sale and retail stores), #12.90; beauty
parlors, #13.79; manufacturing, #14.73;
telephone companies, #15.84; clerical occu­
pations, #19.26. (The wages for hotel and
restaurant workers include the estimated
value of meals and room where supplied.)
The women covered by the study had
worked an average of nearly 44 hours a
week. The longest average workweek was
reported for women in trade, about 50
hours, and the shortest in manufacturing,
about 40 hours.

Other Minimum-Wage Activity
In Massachusetts the order covering the
manufacture of women’s and children’s
underwear and cotton garments was made
mandatory July 1. Steps are being taken
to form wage boards for office and other
building cleaners, and for canning, preserv­
ing, and minor lines of confectionery.

NEWS NOTES
The April issue of the Hairdressers’ News,
an organ of employers in the trade, wel­
comed the establishment of a minimum
wage for beauty shops in New Hampshire
and expressed the hope that such orders
would be adopted in other New England
States. It said: “State minimum wages for
operators are, unquestionably, the solution

15

to our most perplexing problem” (competi­
tion of cut-rate shops).
The New Hampshire Commissioner of
Labor has made the minimum-wage order
for the laundry industry mandatory as of
July 1. The order has been directory since
May 1, 1936.

News Notes
South Carolina Shortens Workweek
OLLOWING closely on the introduction
of a 40-hour-week law for South Carolina
textile plants, effective in February, shorter
hours of work have been provided in several
industries by a law approved May 11.
Hours of women are limited to 8 a day
and 40 a week in garment factories. Hours
of men, women, and minor employees in
finishing, dyeing, and bleaching plants are
limited to 48 a week. The law provides
that these provisions shall become inopera­
tive May 1, 1939, “unless prior to that date
the Congress of the United States shall
enact similar laws limiting the hours of labor
in garment factories to 40 hours per week
and finishing, dyeing, and bleaching plants
to 48 hours per week or less.”
Hours of all employees are limited to 12 a
day and 56 a week in mercantile establish­
ments, public eating places, laundries, drycleaning plants, bakeries, mines, quarries,
and manufacturing not covered by other
laws. Some overtime is permitted on pay­
ment of time and one-half rates.
A list of exempt manufacturing industries
includes only two important woman-em­
ployers, the canning of fruits and vegetables
and the canning of sea foods. Other exemp­
tions include executive and professional
pursuits, printing establishments, eating
places in communities of less than 3,000
population, and other industries except
manufacturing in communities of less than
2,500.
The provision of the law prohibiting
employment of any female after 10 p. m. in



mercantile establishments is repealed, but
employment of all minors under 18 is pro­
hibited in any industry.

New Jersey Night-Work Law Amended
The law prohibiting the employment of
women between 12 midnight and 7 a. m.
was amended during the regular session of
the legislature so that all restaurants are
omitted from the provisions. Previously,
only hotel restaurants were omitted. The
amendment took effect on approval, April
28, 1938.

Bedspread Workers Win Agreement
The first important union wedge has been
made in the candlewick bedspread trade,
according to a recent issue of Justice, pub­
lished by the International Ladies’ Garment
Workers’ Union. A contract has been
signed with the southern office of the union
by the largest bedspread factory in the
country, located at Chattanooga, Tenn.,
and employing 400 workers. The contract
stipulates union hours and scaled wages,
and provides for shop machinery to deal
with the employers.
The I. L. G. W. U. reports that it has been
doing quiet organization work for the past
year among the bedspread workers, who
include thousands of women employed in
factories and homes in the mountain areas
of southern States. The Chattanooga agree­
ment is the first fruit of the year’s work.
Earlier efforts to unionize the home workers
on the part of other labor groups had not
resulted in permanent organization.

THE WOMAN WORKER

16

Fewer Home-Work Employers
Since the enactment of the industrial
home-work law in Pennsylvania, effective
September 1, 1937, 187 employers and con­
tractors have registered with the Bureau of
Women and Children of the Department of
Labor and Industry and paid the fees
required of firms using home workers.
This number is approximately 34 percent
of the total number of firms registered with
the bureau before the passage of the legis­
lation regulating the home-work situation.
While there has been a decline of approxi­
mately 66 percent in the number of firms
using the home-work device, yet the number
of home workers certificated remains at
about the same level as before the new
legislation went into effect. This indicates
that home workers not previously reported by
their employers have now been brought under
the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Women and
Children as a result of the new law.
Investigations by the Pennsylvania Bu­
reau of Women and Children disclosed that
the all-time high for the known number of
industrial home workers was 12,659, in 1927.

Reviews
The Women in the House. Stories of
Household Employment. Edited by

Ruth Sergei. The Woman’s Press.
New York. 1938. Price #1.
This “case book in household employment
relationships” was compiled by the House­
hold Employment Committee of the Chi­
cago Young Women’s Christian Association
as a means of stimulating “inquiry and ob­
jective thinking” on the problems of house­
hold employment, among both household
employees and their employers.
Case histories, presented from the view­
point of the household worker, the employer,
or both, are grouped under such headings as
“The Nature of the Job,”
“Wages,”
“Hours,” “Living Arrangements,” “Vaca­
tions,” and so forth. Each history is fol­




WOMAN'S COL LEGS LIBRARY
WE UNIVfRSITY
PUftHAM, N. (I.

Except for a slight increase in 1929 over
1928, the yearly decrease in the number of
workers was unbroken until 1936. The
N. R. A. caused a sharp drop—36 percent in
1934. In 1936 and again in 1937 increases
brought the number up almost to the preN. R. A. level.
About 1 in 5 of the homes investigated in
1931 were violating the child-labor law. The
women’s night-work law was violated fre­
quently. The new home-work law was de­
signed to provide more adequate enforce­
ment of the woman’s law and the childlabor law.
Investigation found 3 cents to 6 cents
an hour typical earnings of women hand
knitters who were working on garments
retailing up to #145. Wages were so low that
13% percent of the families working at home
were on relief. A previous investigation
disclosed that, though they worked for long
hours trying to stay off relief, 9 out of every
10 families of home workers actually made
less than they would have received on relief
alone. One-half made less than #3.54 a
week.

lowed by questions for discussion, and each
section concludes with a summation of the
problems raised.

Recent Women’s Bureau Publications1
Printed Bulletins

The Legal Status of Women in the United States
of America.
January 1, 1938. Latest reports

issued are Illinois (bul. 157-12), Kansas (bul.
157-15), Maine (bul. 157-18), Missouri (bul. 157-24),
New York (bul. 157-31), and Minnesota (bul. 15722). 1938. Price 5 cents each.
Mimeographed Material

State Minimum-Wage Orders for Beauty Culture
Occupations. June 1938. 33 pages.
1 Bulletins may be ordered from the Superintendent of Public
Documents, Washington, D, C., at prices listed. A discount of
25 percent on orders of 100 or more copies is allowed. Single copies
of the bulletins or several copies for special educational purposes
may be secured through the Women’s Bureau without charge as
long as the free supply lasts. Mimeographed reports are obtainable
only from the Women’s Bureau.
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1938