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DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
DUPLICATE

Woman Worker

JULY 1939

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

Vol. XIX

No. 4

July 1939

CONTENTS
Page

The Millinery Worker...............................................................................................
State Laws Passed

in

1939

...........................................................................................

Women Workers and Old-Age Insurance................................................................
Many Women Support Chicago Families...................................................................

Problems

of

Household Workers...............................................................................

Toward Minimum Fair Wages.......................................................................................

Progress under the Fair Labor Standards Act—Alaska and Maine enact laws—
Recent State minimum-wage orders—Compliance with New York order—
Wage rates on Public Contracts.
Women in Unions...........................................................................................................
Labor Relations Board decisions—Recent union agreements.
Earnings of Women Workers.......................................................................................
Beauticians in Connecticut—White and Negro women in Georgia—New Jerseyhome workers.
Job Opportunities of Older Workers........................................................................
News Notes.......................................................................................................................
Recent Women’s Bureau Publications....................................................................

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



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The Millinery Worker
HE Women’s Bureau has recently one-fourth of the workers had a full year’s
published its report on “Conditions in employment of 46 weeks or more in 1937.
Over
the Millinery Industry in the United States
” half had worked less than 6 months for
(Bulletin 169), which gives a detailed study the firm. Though some may have trans­
of the problems of the millinery worker. It ferred to another firm during the year, it is
shows how the employer also suffers from obvious that many were being employed
lack of stability in the industry and points merely as extras.
out the necessity for the employers and work­
Average Wages in 1937
ers to get together in an effort to solve
mutual problems.
Wages paid out by the entire industry in
Women predominate in the millinery in­ 1937 averaged $23.54 a week per employee,
dustry, making up nearly two-thirds of all but there was a wide range from the $16.11
those employed in 1937. Men do the work average for general factory girls to the
of blocking and, for the most part, cutting, $39.04 average for cutters. Trimmers and
and many are employed as sewing-machine milliners, the largest group, averaged $16.44,
operators. It is women who trim the hats sewing-machine operators $30.31, and block­
and put in linings and bands, and who are ers $36.96. The relatively high figure for
the milliners making the entire hat body when sewing-machine operators shows the in­
it is not a felt or straw shape. Women also fluence of New York City, which employs
do the general factory work of assembling about half the millinery workers in the
materials for trimmers.
United States and where it is usual to have
About half the workers in the industry are men sewing-machine operators, rather than
trimmers or milliners and a fifth are sewing- women as in other centers.
machine operators. General factory workers
When employment was at its peak, trim­
make up about one-seventh in the industry mers and milliners averaged $24.34, but
and blockers constitute almost another those who still held their jobs in the dullest
seventh. Only a very small proportion of week averaged only $8.74. Seasonal peaks
the workers are cutters and designers. The and slumps had a similar effect on the earn­
occupational ratios vary from one part of the ings of other production workers.
country to another, however, depending on
Even when a trimmer or milliner had a full
what type of hat is produced. In northern 46 weeks or more of employment, her earn­
New Jersey, where about one-half of the sales ings for the year averaged only $849 to
are of the cheapest hats, more work is done $889, or about $17 or $18 a week.
on 'the sewing machine than where ex­
One problem of the workers is that of
pensive hats are made, as in Los Angeles having piece rates fixed on products that
and San Francisco. Where the good tailored change rapidly. Because women’s hats are
hat is produced, as in up-State New York produced on an order basis and many re­
and Connecticut, there are larger proportions tailers take only a few of any given hat,
of blockers than where this type of hat is a reordering as the style meets with public
approval, many different types of hats may
minor item, as in San Francisco.
There are many more millinery workers be worked on in any one week. Each hat
than are needed under current business con­ may require somewhat different handling,
ditions. The study shows that only about and whenever work is paid on a piece-rate
153378—39
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THE WOMAN WORKER

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basis, rates must be set for each operation
on each hat. Trimmers in the same shop
in the same week may work on hats for
which they are paid as much as $6.92 a
dozen and as little as 15 cents a dozen, a
difference that makes easily possible errors
of judgment in piece-rate fixing.

Solving the Piece-Rate Problem
Wherever there is a union contract, the
basic hourly rates for “an average good
worker” are stated in the contract and the
piece rates for the various operations on
each hat are set to yield these amounts.
Some locals of the union have contracts with
the employers that provide certain minimum
pay per week. In San Francisco a weekly
rate is paid because here the work is largely
on a fill-in basis and little speed can be
acquired. In some localities cutters and
general factory workers frequently are paid
on a time basis. Blockers usually work as a
“corporation;” that is, two or three or four
blockers pool their earnings, each getting a
specified proportion for the week. Some­

times sewing-machine operators work as a
corporation if they are employed on fabric
hats.
Workers cannot achieve much better
conditions until the manufacturers adopt
more efficient methods, the study indicates.
This would be to the employers’ advantage
as well as to the workers’, for profits are low,
there are many failures, and some employers
have smaller earnings than the better-paid
of their employees. A method should be
found for assessing style trends far enough
in advance to permit planning each season’s
manufacture. The manufacturers must
adopt efficient purchasing methods, under­
take cost accounting (now almost entirely
lacking in the industry), negotiate advance
sales on the basis of preliminary designs,
and have sufficient assets to obtain credit
from legitimate sources at legitimate rates.
The industry would benefit also if the manu­
facturers were organized as strongly as the
workers, more than 80 percent of whom
belong to one union, the United Hatters, Cap,
and Millinery Workers’ International Union.

State Laws Passed in 1939
in most of the 44 States
where regular sessions have been held
this year have adjourned, and a survey
their activities shows that thus far very
few laws have been adopted that have
special reference to working women. Some
of those passed already were reported in
The Woman Worker for May; for example,
in Massachusetts, suspension until 1941 of
the night-work law for women in textile
industries; amendments to the Nevada minimum-wage law and to the New Mexico and
Utah hour laws; the passage in West Virginia
of an act to regulate industrial home work.
egislatures

L




In addition, New York has amended the law
prohibiting the employment of women at
of
night by extending the exemption for linotypists and monotypists to those in com­
mercial printing establishments; Minnesota
has amended its minimum-wage law by
adding certain exemptions for telephone
operators; the Oklahoma Legislature rejected
a proposal to repeal the minimum-wage law
of that State; and Alaska and Maine
have passed their first minimum-wage laws.
(See page 10.) The Alaska law limits the
workweek of household employees to 60
hours.

THE WOMAN WORKER

July 1939

5

Women Workers and Old-Age Insurance
UST over 8% million women had wages for only about 1 percent of the women as
taxable to provide old-age insurance in compared with 12 percent of the men.
the initial year of such tax collection, 1937. The average earnings of all women in
This is shown by an analysis recently com­ industrial and commercial jobs covered by
pleted by the Bureau of Old-Age Insurance old-age insurance in 1937 were 5525, com­
of the Social Security Board. Women con­ pared with 51,027 for men. Younger
stituted 27 percent of all workers covered, women’s earnings more nearly approached
though they were but 22 percent of all per­ those of men than did older women’s
earnings, as the following shows:
sons employed at the last census.
Percent women’J
That the occupations covered by old-age
earnings were
of men’s
insurance are more generally those in which
All age groups________________ 51
the women workers are young is apparent
20-24 years________________________ 69
in the fact that women less than 25 years of
25-29 years________________________ 60
age constitute about the same proportion of
30-34 years________________________ 53
those covered by insurance as of all em­
35-39 years________________________ 50
40-44 years________________________ 49
ployed women at the last census (37 per­
45-49 years________________________ 49
cent), while women of 40 or more comprise
50 years and over___________________ 52
much smaller proportions of those covered
by insurance (20 percent) than of all em­
Negro women covered by old-age insur­
ance numbered only 335,000, or 4 percent
ployed at the last census (28 percent).
Taxable wages amounted to less than 5200 of the total number of women though they
in the year for nearly 31 percent of the constituted 17 percent of all gainfully em­
women and for 19 percent of the men. This ployed women at the last census. These
does not necessarily mean that no more was figures reflect the fact that large proportions
earned, since workers may have been em­ of Negro women are in agriculture and
ployed part of the year in an exempt occu­ household employment, not yet covered by
pation. For 54 percent of the women tax­ old-age insurance. The average year’s wage
able earnings were less than 5500, and for taxable for Negro women was 5247, about
only about 14 percent were such earnings 55 percent that of Negro men and 47 percent
51,000 or more; they were 52,000 or more that of all women.

J

Many Women Support Chicago Families
pin-money theory of women’s work cent sample of all the families in the city.
has long been outmoded. Important Judging from the data it provides, more than
99,000 Chicago families (not on relief) had
new evidence of the very real share women
bear in the support of their families is shown a woman as the principal wage earner, that
in the study of family income in Chicago is, the one whose earnings made the greatest
recently published by the United States contribution to the family support.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is the Women as Principal Family Wage Earners.
first to appear of a series of such studies
In 14 percent of the native white families
reported a woman was the principal wage
made in 32 cities.
The report includes practically a 10-per- earner. Three-fourths of these were not
he

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THE WOMAN WORKER

“complete” families, that is, they did not
contain both husband and wife.
The fullest information tabulated is for
the sample of native white complete families.1
Of these, 25,800 were scheduled, a random
sample of approximately 10 percent of all
in the city. Of the employed women from
these complete families, 27 percent were the
principal earners. These women were con­
centrated most largely in the clerical fields,
while the men who were the principal
family wage earners were more commonly
engaged in the wage-earner occupations.
In nearly 1,100 of the complete families a
woman was the principal wage earner, and in
almost 650 of them this chief earner was the
wife. Most of these wives were not ex­
tremely young women, since 25 percent of
them were 45 years of age or older, and some­
what more than 50 percent were at least 35;
only a small proportion were under 25.
However, their income increased only up to
the age of 35, while the income of husbands
who were principal wage earners increased
until they were 55 years old.
Women’s wages are low, and practically
70 percent of the families in which women
were the principal wage earners were living
on less than #2,000, 23.5 percent of them on
less than #1,000, a very low city income.
Women As Sole Wage Earners in the Family.

Four-fifths of the native white complete
families had only one wage earner. Though
this usually was a man, in 205 families the
wife, and in 131 families some other female
member, was the sole wage earner. Since
this is approximately a 10-percent sample,
the indication is that more than 2,000 wives
in the city and more than 1,300 other women
members are the sole support of native white
complete families. Practically 90 percent of
the families supported entirely by the wife
were living on less than #2,000, over half of
them on less than #1,000.
Women Supplementing the Family Income.

Some other member besides the chief wage
earner added to the income in more than



5,000 of the native white complete families—
a fifth of those reported. These supple­
mentary wage earners were found in a
larger proportion of the wage earners’ and the
clerical workers’ families than of those in
business and the professions.
This supplementary wage earner was the
wife in 1,368 families, more than a fourth of
all those that had supplementary wage earn­
ers (26.6 percent). Over half the families
(54.5 percent) in which the wife added to the
family earnings had less than #2,000 in the
year; almost an eighth (12.2 percent), less
than #1,000. Obviously a family living in
a large city at such an income level was in
very definite need of the wife’s contribution.
It is of interest to note the extent to which
the wife was at work in relation to the size of
the family. The study contains data for a
number of family types, worked out with
great care. The present discussion can
show only a few selections significant pri­
marily from the angle of the woman worker.
The wife was either the principal or the
supplementary wage earner in 14.6 percent
of the families with only man and wife; just
over one-third of these working wives were
the principal wage earners. Where there
were one or two children 5.2 percent of the
wives were at work. In the largest families,
which presumably might have an older child
or other adult member employed, 3.1 percent
of the wives were in gainful work.
The foregoing discussion has dealt chiefly
with the native white complete nonrelief
families, which constituted about 80 percent
of the total number of families not on relief.
A woman was the principal wage earner in
55 percent of the “incomplete” native white
families—those that did not contain both
husband and wife. She was the principal
wage earner in 13 percent of the foreignborn and in 18 percent of the Negro families.
The wife or woman head was the principal
wage earner in about 29 percent of the
foreign-born and in about 77 percent of the
Negro families that had a woman as princi­
pal wage earner.
1 This applies to the families not on relief, and the discussion from
this point on includes only nonrelief families.

THE WOMAN WORKER

July 1939

7

Problems of Household Workers
Social Security for Domestics
on low earnings of household
enployees compiled recently by the So­
cial Security Board lend support to the
board’s recommendations that domestic
workers be included under Social Security
old-age and unemployment benefits. They
show that domestic workers as a class are
too low-paid to provide for old age and un­
employment from their own meager earn­
ings.
The data were obtained by the board
from a random sample of the records of do­
mestic workers registered with State em­
ployment offices in four cities—Cincinnati
and Lakewood, Ohio; Wilmington, Del.;
and Washington, D. C. Data on wages at
placement or in last employment were ob­
tained for 1,734 workers registered in 1936,
1937, and 1938.
The most frequent weekly cash wage re­
ported in any city, in any year, was from $5
to $7. Daily rates ranged from 50 cents to
$3.50, with the largest single group receiving
between $2 and $2.50 a day. In each city
hourly rates reported were from 25 to 30
cents for 90 percent of the workers paid on
such a basis.
Another important reason for extending
Social Security to household employees—a
move which the President has endorsed—is
the unstable employment of such workers.
Household employment fluctuates greatly.
The Nation-wide unemployment census of
1937 revealed that the domestic workers
totally unemployed or on emergency work
were 12 percent of the number of such work­
ers reported in the United States by the
Census of 1930. An additional 5 percent
had only part-time jobs and were seeking
more work.
igures

Conditions in Illinois and Texas
Information on earnings, hours, working
conditions, training, and experience of house­



hold workers is provided by the Young
Women’s Christian Association from studies
in Illinois and Texas.
$3.50 to $20 in Illinois.

Questionnaires to all Y. W. C. A. branches
in Illinois resulted in 263 usable reports from
13 communities, including Chicago and its
vicinity. All but 23 of the women reporting
lived at the place of employment, and the
majority were general workers.
Women living in received from $3.50 to
$20 a week, over half of them earning be­
tween $7 and $11. Wages tended to be
higher in Chicago and vicinity, where the
average was between $11 and $12 as com­
pared with $8 in other communities. Ex­
perience generally brought higher earnings,
and usually workers on specialized jobs, such
as cook or nursemaid, earned more than
general workers.
Wages for the small group of workers
living out ranged from $3.50 to $12. When
it is remembered that such women had to
pay at least for their lodging, and in some
cases for meals and carfare, their position
compares very unfavorably with that of the
workers who lived in.
The minimum scale of wages proposed in
the voluntary agreement sponsored by the
Y. W. C. A. is, by population classification,
$7 or $8 for workers living in, and $3 higher
for workers living out but receiving meals
where they work. More than one-fifth of
the women living in and almost seventenths of those living out would have their
wages raised by the adoption of such
minima.
80-Hour Week in Texas.

A similar questionnaire survey for white
household employees in Houston, Tex.,
brought 30 replies thought to be typical.
More than half of these girls worked 80
hours or more a week, with a 55-hour week
the shortest reported. Their duties usually

THE WOMAN WORKER

8

included the preparation of two or three
meals a day, responsibility for part of the
laundry work, cleaning seven or more rooms,
care of one or more children. Nearly half
reported no time for rest during the day,
and few were paid extra for overtime. Prac­
tically all had two half-days a week off, but
half of those reporting on the subject were
not allowed any whole holiday free.
Wages ranged from $5 to $12 a week, with
three-fourths earning less than $8. More
than two-thirds of the girls contributed to
the support of their families and more than
two-fifths of those reporting the amount
gave at least half their wages. In one case
the girl kept for herself only $1 out of a
wage of $8.

Laws Proposed for Household Workers
Efforts have been made this year in a
number of States to include household em­
ployees in the occupations with legally safe­
guarded hours and wages, though none of

these proposals has as yet become law. In
still other labor bills these workers were not
excepted so often as has been done hereto­
fore; for example in several of the State wage
and hour laws patterned after the Federal
Fair Labor Standards Act. Bills to apply a
minimum wage to these workers specifically
were introduced in Illinois, Maryland, Mas­
sachusetts, Michigan, New York, Washing­
ton, and West Virginia. An attempt to
limit their hours was made in California,
Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and
West Virginia. However, the maximum usu­
ally suggested was as long as 60 hours.
At present only one State, Washington,
has a law regulating hours of work in house­
hold employment, and only one State, Wis­
consin, has set minimum-wage rates for these
occupations. Except in Idaho and to a
limited extent in New York, household
workers are without the protection of
unemployment insurance, and nowhere are
they covered by old-age insurance.

Toward Minimum Fair Wages
Progress Under the Fair Labor
Standards Act

and others had overtime pay that they would
not otherwise have received.
Though 11,910 complaints of violations
“Six Months of Wage and Hour Progress.”
were received in the first 6 months of the
n a Nation-wide broadcast on April 24,
act, or one complaint for each 11,000 work­
Administrator Elmer F. Andrews of the ers covered, many were based on misunder­
Wage and Hour Division of the Department standing of the law or were filed by workers
of Labor summed up the accomplishments not employed in interstate commerce. Fur­
of the 6 months in which the Federal Fair ther, many of them were duplicates, Mr.
Labor Standards Act had been in effect.
Andrews said, since a number of persons
Probably most of the 300,000 workers in complained of the same situation. Only
interstate industry who had been getting 4,145 of the total complaints appeared to
less than 25 cents an hour before October 24, be valid.
1938, had their wages raised by the act,
Nineteen cases of violation were taken to
Mr. Andrews estimated. Another 250,000 court, five for criminal prosecution and
receiving less than 30 cents an hour should fourteen for injunctions. In all its court
get a raise next October when the 30-cent cases settled the Wage and Hour Division
minimum goes into effect.
had been upheld. About $12,000 was paid
Of the workers in interstate industry who to workers as a result of injunction cases
received no immediate wage increase under against employers who had withheld wages
the act, some had their workweek shortened due. Thousands of dollars had been paid

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July 1939

MINIMUM WAGE

to workers without court action, merely by
the Administrator pointing out to employers
that they were violating the law.
Amendments to Wage-Hour Act Proposed.

Amendments designed to facilitate the ad­
ministration of the Fair Labor Standards
Act, introduced by Representative Mary
T. Norton of New Jersey but not adopted by
the House, include the following:
Permitting a lengthened workweek without overtime
pay (60 hours a week, with no limitation during 14
weeks in the year) for a large group of farm occupations.
These include, for example, such important occupations
of women as the making of dairy products; poultry
picking and dressing; handling chicks and other fowls;
preparing, preserving, and canning fruits and vege­
tables; handling eggs; and so forth. Instead of apply­
ing, as at present in some occupations, only to the
“area of production” (a term that has caused great
administrative difficulty) the new exemption would
cover a wider area, though in general it would not in­
clude terminal establishments, defined in the amend­
ment.
Exempting from both wage and hour provisions
certain workers at present covered: Switchboard op­
erators in telephone exchanges having less than 500
stations; certain salaried employees receiving #200 a
month or more, who at present are entitled to overtime
pay above 44 hours a week under, the act; workers
engaged in tobacco processing prior to storage, and
storing of leaf tobacco; and those who handle fresh
fruits and vegetables on farms.
Giving the Administrator authority to restrict in­
dustrial home work and fix piece rates for it to the extent
necessary to safeguard the minimum standards pro­
vided in the act, which at present makes no mention
of home work.
“Area of Production” Further Defined.

Another definition of “area of production”
as applied under the Fair Labor Standards
Act to agricultural and horticultural products
has been issued by the Administrator of the
Wage and Hour Division. This definition
exempts from the wage and hour provisions
of the act employees engaged in canning,
packing, and storing of fresh fruits and vege­
tables in establishments situated in the open
country or in towns of less than 2,500 popu­
lation and that draw all their products from
within a radius of 10 miles.
(For other definitions of “area of produc­
tion” see Woman Worker for January,
March, and May 1939.)



9

Home-Work Regulations Explained.

The Administrator has issued a statement
pointing out that the act makes no mention
of home work and does not prohibit it. Con­
sequently, provisions of the act apply to
home workers exactly as they do to all other
Workers if the employer is engaged in inter­
state commerce or the production of goods
for interstate commerce. The special regu­
lations on home-work records had been
issued only to determine whether em­
ployers of home workers were complying
with the wage and hour provisions of the
statute.
The Administrator also found it necessary
to point out that domestic servants are not
industrial home workers and are not in any
way protected by the act.
Hours of Work Defined.

An interpretative bulletin to guide em­
ployers and employees in determining what
are “hours worked” under the Fair Labor
Standards Act was made public May 3, It
explains that as a general rule hours worked
include all time during which an employee
is required to be on duty or on the employ­
er’s premises, or at a prescribed workplace,
and all time during which an employee is
permitted to work, whether or not he is
required to do so.
Time clocks are accepted as an appropriate
basis for recording hours worked only when
they accurately reflect the period worked by
the employee, and not, for example, when
they are punched after the employee has
been at work for some time. Brief periods
of inactivity due to break-down of machin­
ery, waiting for materials, or other interrup­
tions beyond the workers’ control should
generally be computed as hours worked.
Time spent in travel may be considered as
hours worked, depending on circumstances,
as may time spent attending meetings and
lectures sponsored by the employer and
related to the employee’s job.
Employees having more than one job must
be paid the minimum rate by each employer
if the employers are disassociated from each
other. If two employers share the same

THE WOMAN WORKER

10

worker, however, they are not each required
to pay the minimum for all hours worked.
Other Policy Decisions Under the Act.

The Administrator has advised that: All
employees of banks should be considered
subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act
since banks are not considered service estab­
lishments.
Overtime payments must be made in
cash on the regular pay day.
Workers engaged in making buttons, knife
handles, and similar products from shells
cannot be exempted from the act under the
claim that they are engaged in processing
fish products or byproducts, the Adminis­
trator has declared in an interpretative
bulletin. Office employees of fish companies,
except when engaged in actual “marketing”
or “distributing,” also are not exempt, nor
are cooks and watchmen employed in the
sea-food and fishery industry. The exemp­
tion of workers in fish processing can be
applied only to those operations closely con­
nected with catching fish and affected by
natural factors, such as freezing, canning,
curing, storing, and distributing.
The temporary blanket exemption of non­
profit agencies that employ handicapped
persons was extended from April 1 to June
1, 1939. Meanwhile a committee has been
appointed to study such employment.

Alaska and Maine Enact Laws
Effective March 9, 1939, the Legislature
of the Territory of Alaska enacted a mini­
mum-wage law for women workers, estab­
lishing $18 as the minimum-wage rate for
a 6-day week of 48 hours in all types of em­
ployment. The minimum hourly rate for
part-time employment is 45 cents, “provided,
however, that part employment is not
intended to include domestic or caretaker
service where no manual labor is required
of employee.” The rates apply to women
over 18 years of age.
On April 21, 1939, Maine adopted a mini­
mum-wage law for women and minors ap­
plying to only one industry—the packing of
fish and fish products in oil, mustard, or



tomato sauce. The law provides for investi­
gation of wages in the industry and appoint­
ment of a wage board representative of the
employers, employees, and the public, to
determine a minimum fair-wage standard.

Recent State Minimum-Wage Orders
Arizona—Laundry and Dry-Cleaning.

A minimum rate for women and minors
in laundries and dry-cleaning establishments
with a modified weekly guarantee for threequarters of the year went into effect in
Arizona as a directory order April 15, 1939,
and became mandatory June 15.
Employees of 3 months’ or more expe­
rience, working not less than 32 hours nor
more than 40 hours in a week, are guaran­
teed $11.20 for 9 months of the year, except
in cases of voluntary absence. The guaran­
tee does not apply in nine counties, forming
roughly the southern half of the State, from
June 1 to August 31, nor in the remaining
five counties from December 16 to March 15.
A minimum rate of 28 cents applies to
hours worked above 40 a week and to 32
or more hours during the 3-month period
when the weekly guarantee is not in effect.
A rate of 30.8 cents an hour must be paid
for hours under 32 a week.
Learners, those of less than 3 months’
experience, must be paid at least 90 percent
of the rate for experienced workers.
District of Columbia—Manufacturing and
Wholesale.

A minimum-wage rate of $16 has been
ordered for women and minors in manufac­
turing and wholesaling establishments in
the District of Columbia for a workweek of
32 to 44 hours. It became effective June 5,
1939. Overtime is paid at the rate of time
and a half the regular rate. The minimum
hourly rate for hours under 32 is 40 cents.
A learning period of 3 months is established
for adults in all but the graphic arts indus­
try, with a rate of $13 a week. In graphic
arts the learning period for adults is 18
months, with rates of $13, $14, and $15,
each for a 6-month period. Office workers
and maids in manufacturing and wholesale

July 1939

MINIMUM WAGE

establishments must be paid the rates
previously ordered for these types of work.
(See Woman Worker for May 1939.)
This final order completes coverage of all
the major groups of women in the District
of Columbia in occupations that come under
the minimum-wage law, the earlier ones
having been retail establishments, beauty
parlors, laundries, dry-cleaning establish­
ments, public housekeeping, offices, and un­
classified occupations.
Illinois—Confectionery Industry.

Effective June 1, minimum rates for the
confectionery industry have been set at 35
cents an hour in the Chicago area and 31%
cents elsewhere in Illinois.
Minimum
hourly rates for work in excess of 44 hours
a week shall be not less than 1% times the
basic rate, except during 14 weeks of peak
activity when the overtime rate need be
only l%o times the basic rate. Employees
called but given no work are entitled to at
least 4 hours’ pay.
Kentucky—All Industries.

The original Kentucky minimum-wage
order, effective January 14, 1939 (see
Woman Worker for March 1939), was
modified as of March 11 to allow a rate
below 25 cents an hour except in the 7 largest
cities of the State, those of 20,000 popula­
tion or over, and in 17 contiguous towns
listed, including territory within 1 mile of
the corporate limits of such cities and towns.
In these localities 25 cents is paid for the
first 48 hours and 37% cents thereafter. In
smaller cities of 4,000 to 20,000 population,
including the territory within 1 mile of the
limits of such cities, the rate becomes. 22%
cents for the first 50 hours and 34 cents
thereafter. In the smallest cities and towns
and all other unallocated territory in the
State, the rate becomes 20 cents for the
first 52 hours and 30 cents thereafter.
New Jersey—Apparel, Allied Products, Light
Manufacturing.
Effective July 3, a 35-cent minimum wage
is set for women and minors in New
Jersey apparel and allied products and light



11

manufacturing industries. Specifically in­
cluded with apparel are knit goods, foot­
wear, hats, and such articles as upholstery,
curtains, rugs, pillows, and mattresses.
Light manufacturing includes toys, brushes,
hand bags, razor blades, novelties, and so
forth. The overtime rate of time and onehalf is adjusted to the terms of the Fair
Labor Standards Act: Up to and including
October 24, 1939, it is applied to hours
above 44 a week; for the next 12 months
to hours above 42; and thereafter to hours
above 40 a week. Provisions are made for
regulating home work, which must be paid
at the same piece rates as factory work.
For wearing apparel and allied occupa­
tions the minimum rate is to increase
periodically, and be as follows: From Octo­
ber 24, 1941, to October 23, 1942, 38 cents;
from October 24, 1942, to October 23, 1943,
40 cents; and thereafter, 42 cents an hour.
For light manufacturing a 30-cent rate is
provided for a 6 weeks’ learning period.

Compliance With New York Order
Inspection of the 211 candy factories in
New York that employed women and minors
during the first 3% months that the directory
order for the confectionery industry was in
effect showed that 171 firms, or 81 percent
of the total, were in compliance, or had
been brought into compliance by March 1,
1939. Included were 72 firms that were in­
duced to make payment of back wages due
women and minors under the order.

Wage Rates on Public Contracts
$13 in Tobacco Industry.
The Secretary of Labor has announced
that a minimum of 32% cents an hour or $13
for a 40-hour week should be paid in plants
producing cigarettes, smoking or chewing
tobacco, and snuff for the Government.

This order is made under the provisions of
the Public Contracts Act and applies to con­
tracts of $10,000 or more for which bids are
submitted on or after May 2, 1939.
Wage data submitted by about 90 percent
of the industry showed that 32% cents was
the prevailing wage for the industry as a

THE WOMAN WORKER

12

whole. The low-paid stemmers, in most
cases Negro women, should greatly benefit
by the order. The wage data showed that
nearly one-fourth of the stemmers in tobacco
plants were paid less than 35 cents an hour,
whereas this was true of less than 5 percent
of workers in other departments.
$12 to $18 in Furniture.

Minimum rates have been determined by
the Secretary of Labor for three branches of
furniture manufacture under the terms of the
Public Contracts Act. In the wood fur­
niture industry, three rates are fixed as fol­
lows: For 13 southern States, 30 cents an
hour or $12 for 40 hours; for California,
Oregon, and Washington, 50 cents an hour
or $20 for 40 hours; for the remaining States,
35 cents an hour or $14 for 40 hours. The

rate for the public-seating branch of the
industry is 37% cents an hour or $15 for a
40-hour week; and for metal furniture, 45
cents an hour or $18 for a 40-hour week.
Rates are effective on all Federal contracts
of $10,000 or more solicited on or after May
13,1939.
A study of the furniture industry made
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in October
1937 showed that women made up a small
part of the workers in these three branches
of the industry. In wood household fur­
niture, where women were most numerous
and made up 5 percent of the workers, they
averaged 44 cents in the North and 30 cents
in the South; 42 percent of the women had
earned less than 30 cents in the South and
27 percent had earned less than 35 cents in
the North.

Women in Unions
Labor Relations Board Decisions
Hosiery Workers Awarded Back Pay.
hree women and seven men who were
ousted from a North Carolina hosiery
plant in 1937 because of union activity are
to receive pay for time lost because of their
ejection from the plant, in a recent decision
of the National Labor Relations Board.
The women were ejected bodily on December
2, 1937, by a group of antiunion women
with the assistance of the company watch­
man. They were not allowed to return to
work until a week or more had passed.
Several men union members received similar
treatment and threats of bodily harm if they
continued union activity.
The board found that the company had
participated in the ousting and in spreading
antiunion sentiment in the plant. The com­
pany was ordered to cease permitting as­
saults on union employees and to grant pro­
tection to them at their work.




Textile Workers Reinstated.
Four textile workers, including two wom­
en, were ordered reinstated with back pay
by the National Labor Relations Board in a
recent decision against a Texas textile mill.
The women were the wives of two union
members who attempted to protect the

union organizer from intimidation by the
company superintendent and overseer. Af­
ter engaging in an altercation with the
officials in the lobby of a hotel where the
union organizer was staying, they and their
wives were discharged.
The board found that the men’s action in
seeking to protect their organizer was legiti­
mate union activity. The company was
ordered to cease discouraging membership
in labor organizations of its employees.

Recent Union Agreements
Minimum Wages in Needle Trades.
A wage of $14 a week has been set as the

minimum pay for the 300 workers employed

July 1939

WOMEN IN UNIONS

in seven Boston, Mass., shops which produce
embroidery, tucking, and stitching. The
union agreement also provides increases for
some workers up to #6; time and a quarter
for the first 4 hours of overtime, time and a
half for hours after that; the 40-hour week;
and the closed shop. As a result of lack of
organization and an influx of young workers,
wages had run as low as #11, #12, and #13 for
48 to 70 hours, the union reports. The in­
dustry in Boston is now said to be 100 per­
cent organized.
In St. Louis, Mo., a minimum wage of #13
a week has been set for women employees
of a company making automobile seat covers.
The starting rate for new workers is increased
by 2% cents an hour in the union agreement
recently signed. Other provisions are the
40-hour week, hiring through the union,
arbitration of disputes, and a price com­
mittee to set piece rates on new styles.
About 125 workers are affected.
A general wage increase of 10 percent and
the 40-hour week are provided in a renewed
contract with a shirt company, covering
1,000 employees in Kentucky and Indiana
plants. In Chicago, Ill., wage rates of
lower-paid occupations have been increased
in an agreement renewed for 2 years be­
tween organized dress manufacturers and
organized garment workers. Basters and
pinkers are raised #1 a week, and cleaners
and sorters 50 cents a week. Wages of
operators, cutters, and pressers are un­
changed. Hours remain 35 a week.
A #1 increase for women and a #2.50 in­
crease for men are provided in an agreement
between the tailors’ union and the ready­
made stores of Bridgeport, Conn. Also
provided are the 40-hour week, pay for all
legal holidays, and 1 week’s vacation with
pay.
Wage Increases for Laundry Workers.

A minimum wage of 36% cents an hour,
with time and a half for over 44 hours for
women and over 48 hours for men, is pro­
vided in an agreement signed with three
New Jersey laundries. Wages for weekly
workers are increased 5 percent. Workers



13

employed a year or more are to receive 1
week’s vacation with pay. During July and
August inside workers shall have a 15minute daily rest period with pay. The
union is recognized, and impartial machinery
is set up for adjustment of disputes. A
check-off system will be put into effect on
vote of a majority of the workers.
A 35-cent minimum wage for women and
minors is stipulated in an agreement with
eight Buffalo, N. Y., laundries and cleaning
plants employing 300. Hourly employees
receive increases of 2 to 15 cents an hour and
weekly employees are increased #2 to #10 a
week. Time and a third for overtime is pro­
vided for men and time and a quarter for
women and minors.
Following a 7 weeks’ strike, laundry
workers in a Los Angeles company, employ­
ing 225, won increases in wages up to 40 per­
cent, vacations with pay, the 8-hour day, and
union recognition.
One week’s vacation with pay and equal
division of work are provisions of a recent
agreement covering 10 laundries, employing
600, in Toledo, Ohio.
New York Department Store Contracts.

Two large New York department stores
have recently signed agreements with unions
of their employees. One has agreed to 2
days with pay for religious purposes, and a
reduction in July and August from the 45hour 6-day week to a 37%-hour 5-day week.
Vacations with pay continue, as in the pre­
vious contract—3 days after 26 weeks’ em­
ployment, 1 week after 51 weeks’, 2 weeks
after 102 weeks’, with additional safeguards
that will increase the number of employees
entitled to them. In case of industrial acci­
dent due to the employer’s negligence, the
employer shall pay for lost time not covered
by workmen’s compensation. Minimum
wages for permanent employees are #17 a
week for nonselling; #17 a week plus #1
guaranteed commission for selling; and #16
for temporary employees for their first 90
days.
The other department-store agreement
calls for the closed shop, wage increases,

14

THE WOMAN WORKER

shorter hours, time and a half for overtime,
paid vacations, legal holidays with pay, strict
seniority observance, and grievance machin­
ery to handle dismissals or transfers.
35- to 45-cent Textile Minimum.

Minimum wages of 35 to 45 cents an hour
are provided in union agreements with tex­
tile companies in New Jersey and California.
The 35-cent minimum is stipulated in an
agreement with a New Jersey coverlet man­
ufacturer employing 150. Also provided in
this agreement are some wage increases, the
8-hour day and 40-hour week, time and a
half for overtime, 7 holidays, equal division
of work, no subcontracting, the check-off,
arbitration, and the closed shop.
The 40-cent minimum is included in an
agreement with a New Jersey firm making
rugs and carpets and employing 400. This
agreement calls for no wage reductions; the
8-hour day and 40-hour 5-day week; time
and a half for overtime, Saturdays, Sundays,
and 7 holidays; no operating of looms by
loom fixers; 2 hours’ reporting pay; equal
division of work; the preferential shop; post­
ing of union notices in shop; and arbitration.
The agreement was signed following an
8 weeks’ strike.
A San Francisco cloth-sponging company,
employing 50, has agreed to a 45-cent mini­
mum wage, 15 to 20 cents an hour increase,
8-hour day and 40-hour week, 2-hour report­
ing time guarantee, a minimum of 4 hours’
pay per day, 1 week’s vacation with pay,
seniority, and the closed shop.
Wage increases of from 4 to 40 percent are
contained also in new or renewed textile
agreements. A New Jersey plush factory
employing 160 raised wages from 25 to 40
percent, and agreed to the 40-hour week,
time and a half for overtime, and the closed
shop. A 4-percent increase was granted by
38 Paterson, N. J., mills employing 3,000
jacquard workers; a South Carolina hosiery
mill raised wages 5 percent in an agreement
signed after a 7 weeks’ strike; also agreed
upon were continuation of the closed shop,




the 40-hour 5-day week, and time and a half
for overtime.
On the other hand, a 5-percent cut was
accepted by linen-thread workers in New
Jersey after a 10 weeks’ strike against a 10percent cut. The agreement provides that
the cut shall be restored when business con­
ditions improve sufficiently and that the
union may petition and present facts when
it thinks restoration should be made. Other
provisions are a #15 minimum wage and the
right to review changes in piece-work rates
under the Bedaux system before they are
put into effect. About 900 workers were on
strike.
Another recent textile agreement restored
jobs to workers who lost them through
strike activity. Eighty strikers were rein­
stated in their jobs in a Chicago felt com­
pany and were granted back pay averaging
#375 each. The company employs 400.
The jobs of 12 spinners at a North
Carolina cotton mill were saved and an
increase in the work load of 60 additional
spinners was prevented when the union in­
sisted on a review of the work load by
technical experts representing the manage­
ment and the union. The management had
notified spinners of an increase in their load
from 8 to 10 sides and from 9 to 11 sides,
and a reduction of 10 percent in piece rates.
Automobile Worker Tells of Benefits.
Following is part of a letter received by

Miss Mary Anderson, Director of the
Women’s Bureau, from a woman automobile
worker in Detroit, Mich.:
I have worked 14 years in the auto industry. I have
12 years’ seniority on my job. Before the N. R. A.
we earned 25 cents per hour. Now through our union,
United Automobile Workers of America, we earn 75
cents per hour with no more speed-up. We have more
than 4,000 women in our shop alone. Also I am an
executive board member of Local 174, which is the
largest auto workers’ local; we have 30,000 members.
About 9,000 are women workers and when I speak of
the benefits we receive that is the voice of all these
women workers. I would like to have my name added to
your mailing list for any information on women prob­
lems. We are especially interested in health and also
minimum-wage legislation for women. Thank you.

THE WOMAN WORKER

July 1939

15

Earnings of Women Workers
Beauticians in Connecticut
average woman beautician in
Connecticut, according to a study in
the fall of 1938 by the State Minimum Wage
Board covering 28 percent of the beauty
shops and some 550 women, had earned
#15.60 a week and worked on a 48-hour
schedule. She was 25 years old and had
held her current position for 2 years. Twothirds of the women had earned less than
#17.99, the amount recently determined to
be the minimum necessary in the State for
women to maintain health and self-respect.
One out of nine had earned less than #10 a
week, and only three out of nine had earned
as much as #18.
On a yearly basis the average woman had
earned only #625, equal to about #12 a week
for 52 weeks. About 70 percent of the
women whose year’s earnings were secured
had worked from 9 to 12 months, and of
these more than half earned less than #800.
For these low wages both training and ex­
perience are required in Connecticut. Un­
der a State law beauticians must have a
course of training and 2 years of practical
experience before they can obtain a full
license as hairdresser and cosmetician.
Most of the women received tips, but
these averaged roughly only #1.50 a week.
A few shops paid extra for overtime; many
gave time off as compensation. The em­
ployees practically always furnished their
uniforms, and paid for laundering or had
them washed at home. Often they furnished
their own equipment (small tools) and kept it
in repair.
he

White and Negro Women in Georgia
Average weekly earnings of women in
various industries in Georgia in 1938 were
reported by the Commissioner of Labor for
nearly 41,000 white women and more than
3,300 Negro women.
White women in 12 industries with 400



or more women reported averaged from
#11.78 a week in laundries and dry-cleaning
establishments to #23.10 in beauty shops.
The leading employers of white women in
the State were textiles, with an average of
#14.90, and garments, with an average of #14.
The highest earnings of Negro women
were reported in sugar refineries, #13.20.
Practically four-fifths of the Negro women
were found in laundries and dry-cleaning
plants, in textile mills, and garment facto­
ries. In these their average earnings were
respectively #8.46, #8.42, and #9 a week.
The data were obtained in the course of
2,422 inspections made in the enforcement
of the State labor laws. They are admit­
tedly incomplete, since, because of inade­
quate appropriations, there are only two
inspectors, a man and a woman, to cover all
establishments in the State. The Commis­
sioner of Labor, in his second annual report,
urges that the appropriation for the depart­
ment be increased so that the intent of the
labor laws may be more fully carried out.

New Jersey Home Workers
Average hourly earnings ranging from 4 to
21 cents are reported by the New Jersey
Department of Labor as received by home
workers in 1938 on 10 different products.
Home workers employed in knitting and
crocheting women’s, children’s, and infants’
outerwear averaged 4 cents an hour for the
State as a whole and 7 cents in the northern
part of the State. Workers on artificial
flowers and feathers averaged 4% cents an
hour; those on powder puffs, 8% cents.
Averages of 10% to 16 cents an hour were
reported on six kinds of work: Embroidery
on infants’ clothes, hand sewing on dolls’
clothes, embroidery on women’s and chil­
dren’s clothes, lace cutting and thread
pulling, beads and bead work, and hand
sewing on men’s clothes. The highest aver­
age hourly earnings, 21 cents, were reported
for work on mechanical pencils.

THE WOMAN WORKER

16

Job Opportunities of Older Workers
more quickly than men suffer than younger workers.
a job handicap because of age,
The committee urges that employers dis­
according to the findings of the Committee
continue the use of age limits in hiring. It
on Employment Problems of Older Workers, points out, also, that the employees them­
which recently reported to the Secretary of selves can help to break down prejudice
Labor. Employment opportunities begin to against older workers.
decline for women after they become 35
Government service provides a larger
years of age, for men after 40. The com­ share of employment for older workers than
mittee concludes, however, workers are not does private industry, the report shows.
The committee proposes that age limits be
“through after 40.”
An examination of available material abolished in recruiting for Government serv­
showed no evidence of a decline in earning ice. Recommendation is made that the
power due to age alone. Net cost of acci­ United States Employment Service make a
dents varies little with age; older workers special study of job possibilities for older
have fewer though more severe accidents workers in certain communities or industries.

W

omen

News Notes
Industrial Injuries in Maryland.
Of industrial accident claims closed in
Maryland in the year ending October 31,
1938, 728, or 7.5 percent of the total, were
injuries to women, the State Industrial
Accident Commission of Maryland reports.
No injuries to women resulted fatally; 27 left
some permanent disability, the remainder
being of a temporary nature.
Of the women involved and reporting age,
a little more than one-third were under 25
and one-half were under 30. More than
one-fourth were 40 years old or more. The
women with permanent injuries were from
16 to 57 years old.
Home-Work Violations in New York.
Two manufacturers of artificial flowers in
New York have been found guilty and fined
for repeated violations of the home-work
law and of order No. 3 regulating the dis­
tribution of home work in the artificialflower industry. These firms had distrib­
uted work to home workers who had no



certificates to work at home, which are
required under the law. One firm, previ­
ously convicted for a similar violation, was
fined #400; the second firm, #250. (See
Woman Worker, March and September
1938, for history of this home-work order.)

Recent Women’s Bureau
Publications1
Printed Bulletins

Conditions in the Millinery Industry in the
United States. Bul. 169. 1939. 128 pages.

20 cents.
Economic Status of University Women

U. S. A.

Bul. 170.

1939.

50 pages.

in the

15 cents.

Mimeographed Material

Radio
talk by Mary Anderson, May 13, 1939. 4 pages.

Social Security for Household Employees.

Supplement to Gainful Employment of Married
Women. March 1939. 11 pages.
1 Bulletins may be ordered from the Superintendent of Docu­
ments, Washington, D. C., at prices listed. A discount of 25 percent
on orders of 100 or more copies is allowed. Single copies of 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: 1939