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Woman Worker

MARCH 1941

United States Department of Labor

Women’s Bureau

lltf *

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Frances Perkins, Secretary

WOMEN’S BUREAU
Mary Anderson, Director

THE WOMAN WORKER
PUBLISHED EVERY 2 MONTHS

Vol. XXI

No. 2

March 1941

CONTENTS

Page

Women Do Key Work in Defense Manufacturing_________________________

How Can Women Best Serve Defense?___________________________________

Women in the Labor Market, 1940_______________________________________

Defense________________________

Women in Unions________________________________________________________

Upholding Labor Standards Important

Progress in Defense Industries, Making of Dresses and Accessories, and WhiteCollar Work; Women’s Trade Union League Activities.
in Minimum Wage______________________________________________
Minimum Wage Conference—In the States—Under the Fair Labor Standards

Progress

Act.
Women’s Contribution to Family Support_________________________________

Women_________________________________

News Notes_____________________________________________________________

Unemployment Compensation

for

National Consumers’ League Meets—Proposed Laws for Women Workers—
Women Trained for Defense Jobs—Oklahoma Trains Domestic Workers—
New York Office Workers’ Earnings—Injuries to Massachusetts Women—
Women’s Employment in Alabama—New York Home-Work Action Upheld—
Job Clinic for District Women—Home Work Banned on Public Contracts.
Recent 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

r " 4* C.
Women Do Key Work in Defense Manufacturing
was paid to women’s vital part be made. However, some additional
in munitions manufacture in 1919 by ing may be necessary.
the then Assistant Secretary of WarIn smokeless-powder plants women may
be employed in the laboratories as routine
Benedict Crowell, who stated:
analysts
working under experienced women
For the successful carrying out of our program for
the production of vast quantities of explosives and or men chemists. They may be temperature
propellants, as well as shell loading, the women of readers in the powder-drying rooms. They
America must be given credit, on account of the highly work on presses and cutting machines and
important part they took in this phase of helping to
at inspection of powder in the finishing
win the war. Fully 50 percent of the number of em
ployees in one explosive plant were women, who braved room. Women also perform numerous op
the dangers connected with this line of work, to which erations involved in loading shells with
they had been, of course, entirely unaccustomed but powders and high explosives.
whose perils were not unknown to them.
Four of these plants will make powder
Today women are expected to constitute and high explosives, two will load bags, and
half the work force in 10 new munition four will load shells. Powder plants and
plants being constructed for the Federal bag-loading plants will be in or near
Government. Because of the dangerous Charlestown, Ind., and Radford and Pu
character of this work, these plants are laski, Va. Shell-loading plants will be at
being built in small
communities. Union Center, Ind., Wilmington, Ill., Bur
Wherever possible the workers will be lington, Iowa, and Ravenna, Ohio. An
drawn from nearby cities, towns, and additional small-arms ammunition plant is
farms, and commuting arrangements will to be constructed at St. Louis, Mo.
ribute

How Can Women Best Serve Defense?
the work, the very life
itself of communities all over the
country form the essential keystone in
arch of defense in a democracy. It follows
that for women asking how they can best
serve in the defense program, the answer is
in work as citizens through local or State
defense councils. If there is no such local
group, representatives of existing organiza
tions can cooperate in a request to the mayor
or other local authority to create one.
Until a local defense council is formed, these
representatives of existing groups can co
operate as a citizens’ committee, studying
the needs and resources of their community
and helping to coordinate the activities of
agencies that seek to meet the needs.
Such is the recommendation of a group of
50 women experienced in various fields of
civic activity which met late in 1940.
he agencies,

291117—41

Among them were experts in certain
Government positions and special national
the
private agencies, and 20 executives of major
national women’s organizations. The con
ference urged also that every State and local
defense council should include a woman
member familiar with what women’s groups
can offer.
These recommendations apply to the work
of women as citizens. For those seeking
paid work, the answer again goes back to
their own communities. They must find
such chances chiefly through local employ
ment offices or by civil service examination,
notices of which are displayed in 5,000 post
offices in the larger localities. Opportuni
ties for training before taking a job also
should be sought through the proper local
agencies or the regular educational channels.
Certain well-defined professional groups,
3

THE WOMAN WORKER

such as medical women, nurses, home
economists, have been registering the quali
fications of their own members.
In nonmilitary defense, in the building of
community strength, lies the chief defense
function of women, working as citizens.
This work on the home front may be less
spectacular than military operations, but it
is every bit as vital. The endurance of our
democracy can rest only on the deep con
viction of its citizens that the American
chances for life and liberty are worth the
sacrifices of defense.
The work to be carried on in the com
munity may include nutrition, health, hous
ing, relief, vocational guidance and training,
naturalization and Americanization, recrea
tion, employment, education, maladjust

ments in family life, cost of living, labor
standards, knowledge of governmental func
tions and resources.
A practical set-up that gives place to the
services women can offer is found in the New
Jersey Council of Defense.
Among a
number of advisory committees this council
has created one on consumer interests,
headed by an experienced woman, and com
prised of representatives of at least 18
organizations in the State that work in this
field. This committee is building civilian
interests into the defense program and
guarding against spiraling price levels, both
designed to prevent lowered standards of
living. Further work also is undertaken to
raise these levels, in order to build greater
physical fitness in the democratic way.

Women in the Labor Market, 1940
of the eagerly awaited figures labor market in 1940 have jobs, about 86
from the 1940 Census of Occupations percent of them in private industry.
have been released, in the shape of an estiThese comparisons give a rough picture
mated total based on a 5-percent sample. of the trend in American economic life,
It is no surprise that the number of women though the figures are preliminary and the
workers has increased markedly since 1930. basis in the two periods differs in two im
The 10% million women in gainful work in portant respects: In 1940 the numbers
1930 were considered an important number, reported are those of the total labor market,
but there are now more than 12% million including persons unemployed but seeking
women in the labor market, an increase in jobs, both experienced and new workers.
the past 10 years of about 20 percent, The numbers employed are broken down
though the woman population of 14 years according to those in private employment
and over has increased by only 14 percent. and in public emergency work. The 1930
Obviously, the new occupation figures census reported those “gainfully occupied,”
cannot take account of the acceleration due instructing enumerators to include in this
to the defense program, which already has category those out of work if they normally
added more and will continue to swell the were employed; at that time, too, there
number, though at present there is no com were no large public emergency agencies of
plete measure of its extent.
employment such as the W. P. A., the
Women show a significant increase in the N. Y. A., or the C. C. C.
proportion they comprise of all persons in
The second difference relates to age, the
the labor market, constituting 24 percent, 1940 figures being for persons of 14 years
or practically one-fourth, of the total in and over, the 1930 figures for those of 10
1940, as compared with 22 percent in 1930, years and over. For totals or large areas
and about 21 percent in 1910 and 1920. this makes little difference, since there are
The figures show that 90 percent of the relatively few children 10 to 13 years of age
women as well as of the men reported in the in employment.
he first

THE WOMAN WORKER

March 1941

Upholding Labor Standards Important to Defense
The President

Department of Labor, September 1940

There is nothing in our present emergency
to justify a lowering of the standards of
employment. Minimum wages should not
be reduced. There is nothing to justify a
retreat from any of our social objectives.—
Radio address, May 1940.

National defense includes the defense of
American living standards, as well as the
production of machines and the training of
men.

The strength of this Nation shall not be
diluted by the failure of the Government to
protect the economic well-being of its citi
zens . . . machines are operated by the
skill and the stamina of the workers . . .
For the workers provide the human power
that turns out the destroyers, and the planes
and the tanks.—Radio address, December
29, 1940.

(Labor Advisory Committee on Standards for the
Employment of Women in the Defense Program,
representing eight leading labor organizations, in co
operation with the Women’s Bureau.)

Certainly this is no time for any of us to
stop thinking about the social and economic
problems which are the root cause of the
social revolution which is today a supreme
factor in the world.—Message to Seventyseventh Congress, January 6, 1941.
We know that we still have far to go;
that we must more greatly build the security
and the opportunity and the knowledge of
every citizen, in the measure justified by the
resources and the capacity of the land.—
Inaugural Address, January 20, 1941.
National Defense Advisory Commission

All work carried on as part of the defense
program should comply with Federal statu
tory provisions affecting labor wherever
such provisions are applicable. This applies
to the Walsh-Healey Act, the Fair Labor
Standards Act, the National Labor Rela
tions Act, and so forth. There should also
be compliance with State and local statutes
affecting labor relations, hours of work,
wages, workmen’s compensation, safety,
sanitation.
Governmental Labor Officials, September 1940
(Held in New York, September 1940)

In a program of National defense it is of
paramount importance to safeguard and
promote the health, safety, and morale of
its workers. . . .
Opposing any efforts to limit the protec
tion of minimum-wage laws, State or Fed
eral, by weakening amendments. . . .

Advisory Committee on Women’s Labor

Extended experience, both in commercial
plants and in the World War industries in
1914-18, shows positively that the fullest
productivity depends on adequate safe
guards to health ....
The defense program, calling for speed,
quality, and quantity of production, can
be attained and maintained over an extended
period only when working conditions leading
to fatigue, discomfort, ill health, or accident
are eliminated.
National Consumers’ League
(New York, January 10-11, 1941)

Resolved, That the National Consumers’
League will—
Continue to do all in its power to maintain
and to strengthen existing labor legislation,
and to arouse the community to the neces
sity for an informed and watchful public
opinion, mobilized to this end.
The resolutions specify as essential the
Fair Labor Standards Act, the Walsh-Healy
Act, and the National Labor Relations Act,
effective administration of State labor laws,
and extension of coverage of the Social
Security Act.
Conference on Labor Legislation
(Conference, called by Secretary of Labor. Repr<sentatives, appointed by Governors of States, include
many State officials, such as Governors, labor com
missioners, or legislators, and State Federation of Labor
officials. Washington, December 9-11, 1940.)

The success of the National defense pro
gram rests upon the efficiency, health, and
well-being of labor. . . .
Resolved, That the conference strongly
oppose and condemn any move during this
emergency to weaken or destroy labor

THE WOMAN WORKER

standards established by years of effort by
State and Federal labor legislation; and be
it further
Resolved, That the conference recommend
positive action to extend the scope of this
legislation and the programs for social secur
ity to those sections of the population which
are still working and living at substandard
levels, for only thus can National unity be
achieved within the framework of a demo
cratic society.

Women’s Conference
(Fifty women experienced in civic activities, in
cluding 20 executives of women’s national organiza
tions and various experts in Government positions and
special national private agencies, Vassar College, De
cember 5-6, 1940.)

Findings include: In a total defense pro
gram, nonmilitary defense is as important
as armed forces. . . .
It is important that labor standards be
maintained.

Women in Unions
Progress in Defense Industries.
landmark in trade-union history is the
recent admission of 156 Bridgeport
(Conn.) women mechanics—most of them
foot- and power-press experts and bench
workers—to full-fledged membership in the
International Association of Machinists.
Leader of the group is Gertrude Sweet, em
ployed in a plant making metal bands for
wrist watches.
“Women of Steel” and the kinds of work
they do are discussed by Florence M.
Clowes of the Steel Workers Organizing
Committee, in Life and Labor Bulletin for
December 1940. She points out that about
2,500 women—exclusive of clerical em
ployees—are employed in steel works and
rolling mills and about 4,000 in tin mills,
chiefly as inspectors. A few hundred are
doing actual production and maintenance
work. In the fabricating end there is an
increasing number of women. Even in
1929 from one-fifth to three-tenths of the
workers on cutlery, certain types of hard
ware, tin cans, and wirework were women.
Many occupations requiring manual dex
terity, quick perception, and general alert
ness rather than sheer physical strength can

be filled well by women.
In general, there are rate differentials
between men and women running from 5 to
20 cents an hour, and a great influx of women
may mean a lowering of wage standards.
A recent union contract in a plant making
kitchen utensils provides a minimum for

men of 72 cents, for women of 65 cents; an
aircraft plant fixes minimums of 75 cents
for men, 65 cents for women. In contrast,
the agreement with a plant making bearings
fixes a 90-cent minimum regardless of sex
or occupation.
The steel workers’ union announces nearly
700 companies with contracts now in effect.
In 75 of these in New Jersey and Ohio more
than 2,100 women (probably including
office workers) were employed in recent
years. Records showed 50 or more women
in 9 of these plants, one having over 200
women, another more than 400. In 12 of
the New York plants women were employed
on production in 1936, though numbers em
ployed are not available.
Work on textiles is a defense essential, and
uninterrupted production is important. A
contract covering 1,500 workers in a southern
cotton mill forbids strikes or lock-outs. A
strike against an increased workload affect
ing 800 workers was settled by a reduction of
assignments.
In men’s clothing, also a defense industry,
a number of recent gains are reported.
About 185 workers on uniforms secured a
15-percent wage increase and a 36-hour week.
Some 100 neckwear workers whose wages
had been cut in the last 11 months received a
12)£-percent increase on Government work
through union activity. On the next Gov
ernment contract, wages are to be raised
again, to bring them to the level of other
local workers on similar contracts.

March 1941

WOMEN IN UNIONS

Women’s Trade Union League Activities.

Public forums are being conducted by a
number of local branches of the Women’s
Trade Union League, notably in St. Louis,
Mo., and in Racine, Wis. These are varied
in program, some giving the history of tradeunionism and showing how the league fits in
with the labor movement as a whole.
The educational program of the New
York branch, under the direction of Nora
Piore, features a “Classroom Without
Walls.” This sponsors Saturday morning
trips for league members to Government
agencies important to labor, such as the
State Labor Department, the State Labor
Relations Board, the local branch of the
Federal Wage and Hour Division. The
Dressmakers’ Union is to be host to the
group for one evening, and for another the
Town Hall has invited members to be
present at one of its broadcasts. New
classes starting in February deal with such
subjects as current developments in the
world crisis, trade-unionism in the United
States, and the 1941 legislative sessions in
Albany.
Progress in Making Dresses and Accessories.

Great interest is being taken in negotia
tions going on in the dress industry in New
York looking toward a new contract cover
ing 85,000 workers. The union has pre
sented a program for greater stabilization of
the industry, based on some special studies.
The chief problem for the industry seems to
be not one of labor costs, but of better
management and planning. A detailed ex
amination of five shops making dresses
selling for about the same price showed
that while variations were only 2 cents per
unit in labor costs, they were 7 cents in
overhead and 16 cents in profits.
Average earnings of workers in 1939 were
found to be 3935 in contract shops and
31,252 in inside shops. Spread over 52
weeks this meant an average of respectively
318 and 324 to meet the worker’s living
expenses. One source of waste is idle plant
hours. A few manufacturers have overcome
this by improved merchandising and provide

40 to 50 weeks of work in a year, greatly
reducing overhead. The greatest need
seems not a higher wage rate nor a shorter
workweek but steadier employment through
out the year. In 1937 employment in
regular shops in New York at its low point
was less than two-thirds of the peak, with
the difference even greater in contract shops.
In Baltimore some 200 cotton-dress
workers negotiated a 10-percent wage in
crease, price committees, division of work,
and a closed shop, while 100 workers in a
sportswear house gained a 5-percent increase
for operators and pressers and one of 32 or 33
a week for cutters, and a week’s vacation
with pay for all.
Paid vacations for out-of-town as well as
New York workers have been incorporated
in a new contract negotiated by a New
York local. Some 6,000 to 7,000 workers
are affected, and approximately 4,000 will
be given vacations for the first time.
Workers on clothing accessories are in
cluded in the clothing unions. A local in
New York covering certain types of buttons,
plastics, and novelties reported a member
ship of 2,000. Recent contracts with a
number of firms have brought gains to
more than 1,000 workers. In several shops
wage increases varying from 32 to 34 a
week were obtained. Pay for certain holi
days and for vacations also was secured.
Pleaters in 13 Chicago firms employing 300
received a flat increase in a contract.
Progress for White-Collar Workers.

A contract covering about 150 employees
of a chain of drug stores provides for a
joint research committee representing the
union and management. The committee
will have the authority to raise employees’
ratings with a view to promotion. A 10percent wage increase and an additional
week’s vacation with pay for workers with
3 years’ seniority—1 week’s for at least 1
year—also were included.
A salary scale for teachers, promoted by
a local union, gives raises of 360 a year for
5 years and 3120 a year for the next 5 years
up to a maximum of 32,160.

THE WOMAN WORKER

Employees of the national office of a
social agency have secured minimum-wage
rates of from $21 to $40 a week, a 37%-hour
week (35 in summer), 15% holidays, seniority
rights, and a draft clause. Negotiations are
in progress with another office of the agency.
In all, 300 employees will be affected.
An agreement by which over 80 percent

of the workers in the larger cities receive
at least $23 a week is in effect with a tele
phone company in southern California.
Entrance pay is $16, with $1 raises after 6
months, after 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 9 years,
and $26 after 13 years. Eighty-one percent
of the employees have worked 10 years or
more.

Progress in Minimum Wage
Minimum-Wage Conference
of State minimum-wage
orders as rapidly as possible to cover
workers in service industries and others that
cannot be aided by the Federal Wage and
Hour Act was the first recommendation of
the annual conference of State minimumwage administrators held in Washington in
January. At least one State that in the
past has issued a wage order covering
manufacturing industries plans a revision,
making a special effort to bring the pro
visions governing learners into conformity
with Federal regulations for the same
industries.
Most of the major industrial States hav
ing minimum-wage laws were represented
at the conference, at which administrators
exchanged experiences and considered vari
ous technical aspects of their problems.
Care in drafting wage orders was stressed,
and the conference considered especially
helpful draft orders prepared by the
Women’s Bureau and designed to fit the
needs of particular industries in the light of
minimum-wage experience.
It was recommended that all workers in
an industry, including the clerical force, be
covered by the wage order for that industry.
Later a special order should be issued for
office workers not attached to a covered
industry.
The conference considered the slender
budgets available for minimum-wage prog
ress, fand recommended that economy in
enforcement be secured through greater
efficiency of operation, as, for example, by
the training of inspectors, careful routing
ssuance

for inspections, time-saving devices in
inspection, cooperation with other agencies,
and so forth. However, all States felt
regular inspections to be of primary import
ance for the protection of both workers and
employers.
The conference stressed the aid that can
be given in securing the objectives of mini
mum-wage laws by public groups intelli
gently aware of the purpose of such
legislation and of the work of the State mini
mum-wage division. Since the main object
is to secure the payment of the legal wage
to the workers, and this can be done best
through employer cooperation, it was rec
ommended that employers be given a
chance to pay back wages voluntarily,
providing records are not falsified, reserving
final prosecution for repeating offenders.

In the States
Illinois—Beauty Culture Order Upheld.

The minimum-wage act of Illinois applies
to beauty parlors, according to a recent
decision by the municipal court of Chicago.
A beauty-parlor employer charged with
failure to comply with the law contended
that her business was a profession and not
under the act. The court held that whether
or not the defendant’s endeavor is a pro
fession is unimportant. The term business
includes a profession. The act covers all
occupations not specifically excluded.
New York—Dry Cleaning Wages Still Up.
A second check-up of wages in cleaning
and dyeing establishments since the New
York order became effective in May 1939
showed that not only have all gains made

March 1941

MINIMUM WAGE

in the first year been maintained, but there
has been some improvement. The terms of
the order were responsible for most of the
gains in 1940. In establishments outside
the metropolitan area, in cities with a pop
ulation of 10,000 and over, the minimum
wage was increased from 34 to 35 cents on
July 1, 1939, and to 36 cents, the level in
New York City, on January 1, 1940. The
proportion of women and minors earning
$15 or more a week had increased from 54
percent in 1939 to 56 percent in 1940.
Median hours had not changed, but there
were fewer persons working extremely long
hours.
New York—Candy Order Upheld.

$14 to $11. Full-time maids are those
working from 33 to 44 hours a week; other
employees are classed as full time if they
work on 3 or more days, regardless of the
number of hours worked in each day.
The above weekly rates of full-time em
ployees are for work up to and including 44
hours a week. Additional hourly pay is
scheduled for each type of employee, by
size of city, for all work over 44 but not over
48 hours a week. After 48 hours, all em
ployees shall be paid 75 cents an hour.
Hourly rates for part-time work range
from 38 to 30 cents for maids, from 40 to 32
cents for beginners, and from 44 to 36 cents
for others. Waiting time is to be paid for
at not less than the regular minimum rate.
Tips are not to be counted as part of the
minimum wage.

The New York order for the candy and
confectionery industry, calling for a 35-cent
hourly minimum and a 40-hour basic week,
has been upheld by the State supreme court
in an Erie County case. The judge ruled,
however, that the part of the order calling
for payment of wages to employees whether
they work or not was unreasonable and in
valid. He held that a guaranteed wage
equal to 3 full days’ pay should not be re
quired when only part-time work is avail
able. Under the decision, the order is
referred to the State board of standards and
appeals for further consideration of the
part-time employment problem. It should
be remembered that a guaranteed wage for
the laundry industry has been upheld by the
same court (see Woman Worker for July
1940), so the question is not yet finally
settled.

The Wage-Hour Law was unanimously
upheld by the Supreme Court in a decision
in February on two cases sent up from lower
courts, involving a Georgia lumber company
and a group of Southern cotton mills, both
challenging the constitutionality of the
minimum-wage and overtime-wage provi
sions of the Federal act. The Court stated
that it overruled the 1918 case of Hammer v.
Dagenhart, which was a five-to-four decision
declaring that Congress could not bar from
interstate commerce products made by child
labor, and which, the Court stated, departed
from the interpretations of the commerce
clause made before and since.

Ohio—Order for Beauty Parlors.

Establishing Wage Rates.

Full-time beauty operators, manicurists,
or other employees, except learners or maids,
are to be paid at least $16, $14.50, or $13,
according to size of city, by the terms of an
Ohio order effective December 5, 1940.
The $16 rate is for cities of 50,000 or more,
Ohio having 12 such cities. Full-time
learners or beginners—workers who either
have no cosmetology license or have had
one for less than 6 months—are to be paid
from $14.50 to $11.50, full-time maids from

A minimum-wage rate of 35 cents an hour
for workers on luggage, pocketbooks, cases,
and certain other small articles of leather or
artificial leather went into effect under the
wage-hour law January 6. It is estimated
that about one-fourth of the 19,000 workers
in the industry will receive wage increases.
In 1929 women were from a sixth to a fifth
of the employees in luggage and pocketbook
factories, and well over a third of those mak
ing small miscellaneous articles.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
The Act Upheld by the Supreme Court.

THE WOMAN WORKER

An order directing payment of at least
cents an hour to workers making
embroidery, effective January 27, will raise
wages for some 4,400 of the 14,250 workers,
chiefly women, in addition to home workers,
who also are covered.
In the carpet and rug industry, a rate of
40 cents an hour for the wool and 35 cents
for the “other than wool” section of the in
dustry has been approved by the Adminis
trator effective March 17. It is estimated
that this will raise wages for 1,100 of the
industry’s 31,000 workers.
Wage rates of from 33 to 36 cents, effective
March 1, cover office workers, track workers,
redcaps, car waiters, and certain other em
ployees in railroad transportation. It is
estimated that the wage order will bring
increases of more than #7,000,000 to some
70,000 employees.
For the jewelry industry, two rates have
been recommended, 40 cents for workers on
watch cases, on stones, and on more expen
sive jewelry; and 35 cents for all others. It
is estimated that these rates will raise the
wages of about 8,000 workers out of a total
35,000. In 1929 more than a fourth of the
workers on jewelry and watch cases alone
were women.
A committee for the enameled-utensil in
dustry was appointed late in the fall and
shortly recommended a 40-cent minimum.
If accepted, wages should be raised for about
one-fifth of the 6,200 workers covered. A
recent study by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics shows more than one-third of the
employees to be women. It also shows

that about 85 percent of those earning less
than 40 cents were women.
To enforce the minimum rates recently
set for needlework in Puerto Rico (see
Woman Worker for January 1941), the
Wage and Hour Division has set piece rates
for more than 300 hand-sewing operations.
“These piece rates should enable the resump
tion of hand needlework in Puerto Rico,
among the estimated 60,000 needleworkers
on the island, in compliance with the law.”
The regulations setting the piece rates call
for the registration of all embroidery and
other designs and operations with the wage
and hour office in San Juan. Hourly rates
of from 15 to 20 cents for work on gloves
were approved, effective February 19.
New Committee.

A committee has been appointed for the
drug, medicine, and toilet preparations
industry. Probably about half the em
ployees in this industry are women.
Administration.

A charge of falsification of records which
concealed underpayment to a number of
women was brought successfully against a
southern cotton mill, and will lead to the
restitution of about #5,000 to the women.
Records showed the payment to these
women of the correct minimum for the
correct number of hours. It was found,
however, that they were forced to split this
wage, as recorded, with helpers employed
for them by the mill, so that they were
actually being paid only 16% cents.

Women’s Contribution to Family Support
place of the woman wage
earner in the family economy can be
more accurately determined than ever
fore through a series of studies of family
incomes made by the United States Bureau
of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of Home
Economics. Reports to date include 45
cities of from about 9,000 to over 3,000,000
population. These data show considerable
he”usual

numbers of women as the principal earners
of their families, “principal” defined as the
be
member bringing in the largest sum to
one
buy the daily bread (not necessarily the
customary “head” of the family). The
surveys also show that many women are
the sole wage earners in their families.
In each city the most usual family was
one not on relief, with husband and wife

March 1941

WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTION TO FAMILY SUPPORT

both present (the “complete family”), and
both of them white and native-born. It is
with these families that most of the report
is concerned. Families were classified into
occupational groups according to the work
that furnished the greatest proportion of the
family income. Usually, though not always,
this corresponded to the job of the principal
wage earner. A few families with no wage
earners have been disregarded in the follow
ing discussion.

Incomplete Families
Little detail is given regarding the in
complete families, those lacking either the
husband or the wife or both, though it is
in these that a woman’s contribution is
often the greatest. A woman was the prin
cipal wage earner in the following propor
tions of the incomplete families1 reported:
Percent

Chicago________________________________
54
Pacific coast____________________________ 33-50
East central______________________________ 41-60
Southern—White___________
40-74
Negro__________________________67-78

Of the women principal wage earners re
ported in Chicago, three-fourths were in
incomplete families, as were 61 to 77 percent
of those of such white and 81 to 86 percent
of such Negro families in five southern cities.

Complete Families
Women as Principal Wage Earners.

Of all employed women reported in the
131,000 families in the sample, 21 percent
(5,500) were principal earners; almost 3,300
of these chief earners were wives. Women
principal earners were concentrated most
largely in families in the clerical field, while
men who were principal earners were more
often in wage-earning families.
It is not surprising that where a woman
was the principal earner the family income
was lower than where a man brought in the
chief pay, since women’s earnings usually
are considerably below men’s. Almost
1 These include some one-person families.

three-fourths of such families were living on
less than $2,000, more than a fourth of them
on less than $1,000.
Women as Sole Wage Earners.

More than three-fourths of the families
had only one earner. Though in most cases
this was the husband, in about 1,600 families
a woman—in nearly 1,000 the wife and in
over 600 some other female member—
furnished the sole support. More than 90
percent of the families supported entirely
by the wife were living on less than $2,000,
about 60 percent of them on less than
$1,000.
Women Supplementing the Family Income.

Others besides the chief earner contrib
uted to the income in nearly a fourth of the
families reported. These supplementary
earners were found in a larger proportion of
the wage earners’ and clerical workers’
families than of those in business and the
professions. Just over half of them were
women. The wife was a supplementary
earner in nearly 11,500 families, more than a
third of all that had additional wage earners.
Over three-fifths of the families in which the
wife added to the family earnings had less
than $2,000 in the year; more than one-eighth
lived on less than $1,000.
It is of interest to note the extent to which
the wife was at work in relation to size of
family. The studies contain data for a
number of family types in 5 cities with a
population of more and in 20 cities with a
population of less than 20,000. Where there
were one or two children and no other family
member but husband and wife, only 8 per
cent of the wives were at work, one-fifth as
principal earners. In larger families, with
an older child or children or other adult mem
ber, a slightly larger proportion of the wives
were in gainful work—9 percent. In the
families with only man and wife, the wife
was either principal or supplementary wage
earner in 18 percent of the cases, and it is
significant that well over a fourth of these
working wives were the principal wage
earners in their families.

THE WOMAN WORKER

12
The Negro Woman Worker.

The situation of the Negro nonrelief com
plete family was presented for seven
southern and one midwestern city, incomes
being shown for some 11,400 such families.
A woman, usually the wife, was at work more
frequently than was the case with similar
white families. Negro women were princi
pal earners in nearly 1,000 families, and the
wife was working in nearly 5,300 families, 46
percent of the total. In at least 250 families
a woman, usually the wife, was the only
earner. More than half of all families had
one or more supplementary earners, 74 per
cent of such earners being women.
Influence of Size of City.

The cities included in the survey fall into
four groups according to population: 1 over

3,000,000 (Chicago), 4 between 200,000 and
350,000, 11 between 30,000 and 80,000, the
remaining 29 between 9,000 and 20,000.
The general level of income increased as the
population increased. In Chicago about 80
percent of the families had only one earner,
and this was the case with around 75 per
cent of the families in all the groups of
smaller cities. The extent to which a woman
was either the sole or the principal earner
differed very little according to the size of
the city. Women comprised 48 percent of
all supplementary earners in Chicago and 51
to 57 percent of those in cities of other sizes.
Among the women supplementary earners in
Chicago the working wife appeared less
frequently than in the groups of smaller
cities; in Chicago about 44 percent of the
women supplementary earners were wives,
in the other groups of cities 57 to 62 percent.

Unemployment Compensation for Women
reports from Michigan and from
Since the benefit rate is related to the
Kansas cover two quite different phases worker’s earnings, low-paid workers, more
of unemployment compensation. Both show
often women, have a low benefit rate. To
that women’s employment opportunities are add to the serious situation of these workers,
more changing and uncertain than men’s. those with the lowest benefit rates also were
The Michigan report deals with the ade the ones who had used up most of what was
quacy of the duration of benefit payments, due them, and this always was true even
and shows in general a higher proportion of where workers had qualified for the same
women than of men who had exhausted their number of weeks of benefits. For example,
benefit rights before being reemployed. The of workers who had qualified for the maxi
Kansas report showed a very high propor mum 16 weeks, three-fourths of those with
tion of women claimants for unemployment weekly benefit payments of less than $7 had
benefits in certain industries employing large exhausted their benefit rights, compared
numbers of both men and women.
with a little more than one-fourth of those
The Michigan study considered the ex receiving the maximum of $16.
perience of 55,260 workers who received their
Study of a smaller sample of 5,400 men
first benefit payment in July, August, or and 1,300 women in Detroit who had used
September 1938. Of these persons 15 per up all the benefit due them gave some in
cent were women. By June 30, 1939, all dication of the time such persons continued
benefit rights had been used up by 62 percent to be unemployed in the following 9 months.
of the women, though this was the case with Persons were considered to have been re
only 43 percent of the men. This means, employed who had earned at least $50
of course, that it took longer for women to in one quarter in a covered occupation. Here
find jobs. This greater difficulty for women again, women were found to be in a less
was in general found in almost every in_ favorable position, since 45 percent of them,
dustry.
compared with 31 percent of the men, had
ecent

March 1941

UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION FOR WOMEN

not been reemployed (as defined) in the
9-month period. Only 29 percent of the
women, compared with 35 percent of the
men, were reemployed in the same quarter
in which they had used up their benefit rightsBecause of the long intervals of unem
ployment when they could not get benefits,
about 30 percent of all those in Detroit
who did use up their benefits, and a some
what smaller percent of those who did not,
were obliged to obtain general relief or
work-projects employment immediately be
fore or during the benefit year. About 15
percent received general relief or workprojects employment after the exhaustion of
benefits. Nearly two-thirds of the bene
ficiaries in households receiving relief were
considered to be heads of the family, 4
percent of these being women. Of all ben
eficiaries in households receiving relief, 15
percent were women.
Among claimants reported for the last 6
months of the year, in the Kansas report,1
11 percent of all beneficiaries in 1939 were
women. Their average weekly benefit
amounted to $6.56 for white women and
$6.33 for Negroes, while the average total

amounts received were respectively $58.18
and $53.92. Women comprised somewhat
larger proportions of those in manufactur
ing and in trade, smaller proportions in
service occupations, than might be expected
from the extent to which, according to the
1930 census, women constituted the labor
supply in such occupations, as the following
shows:
Percent of women—
In the
Claiming
industry
benefits

Manufacturing__
_____
8
Trade
________ 22
Service
_____ 55

23
23
39

In a number of important industries
which employ large proportions of women,
more women than men claimed benefits.
Women comprised 82 percent of all claim
ants in clothing factories, in which 91 per
cent of the employees were women. They
were 68 percent of the claimants in general
stores, 54 percent of those in apparel stores,
and 67 percent of those in personal service
(including laundries, cleaning and dyeing
establishments, beauty parlors, and so
forth). Between 40 and 50 percent of the
claimants from hotels and restaurants were
women.

News Notes
National Consumers’ League Meets
National Consumers’ League held
its forty-first annual meeting in New
York in January. The 300 members pres
ent applauded a statement by Col. Philip
B. Fleming, Administrator of the Wage and
Hour Division of the United States Depart
ment of Labor, that regular routine inspec
tions of factories are being made to secure
full compliance with the Federal act. He
added that arguments against a 40-hour
week in defense industries are made by “the
very people who were opposed to the law in
the first place,” and that countries at war
have found excessive work hours unproduc
tive. The conference also gave approval
to Dr. Harriet Elliott, who urged maintain
ing living standards as an important part of
total defense.
he

1 Data based on a 30-percent sample.

Resolutions passed included support for;
Strengthening Federal and State labor
laws; a national health program; increased
coverage of the unemployment and old-age
insurances; spread of price data to prevent
speculative increase in prices of consumer
goods, including rents; solution of the prob
lems of migratory workers and their families.

Proposed Laws for Women Workers
Forty-two State legislatures have con
vened in regular session. The more impor
tant bills affecting women workers are as
follows:
Minimum Wage.

Connecticut.—To change the law to fix a
flat rate of 30 cents for all workers. (H. 521.)
Maine.—To extend coverage to all occu
pations. (S. 41.)

THE WOMAN WORKER

Massachusetts.—To change the law to fix
a flat rate of #14.40 for 40 hours or 35 cents
hourly, less for inexperienced. (H. 1682.)
North Dakota.—To extend employee’s
right to recover full amount. (H. 48.)
New York.—To extend the law to domestic
workers in homes. (A. 485.)
Hours of Work.

California.—To extend the 8-48 law to
any establishment, industry, or office (now
applies only to manufacturing, mechanical,
mercantile). (A. 513.)
To provide at least 12 hours off duty after
8-hour work day. (A. 514.)
To extend the hour-law coverage to agri
cultural workers. (A. 10.)
Connecticut.—To extend the 8, 48, and
6-day law to all establishments (now only
mercantile). (H. 179.)
New York.—To limit hours of domestic
workers to 60 a week. (A. 484.)
Oklahoma.—To provide 8, 48, and 6-day
law for women in intrastate industries.
(H. 220.)
At least 17 States have sought to include
men either under wage or hour coverage dr
both, either by new wage-hour act or under
present law. Illinois H. 123 proposes repeal
of women’s law and flat minimum for all.

Women Trained for Defense Jobs
Thousands of men throughout the Nation
are receiving vocational training for defense
on projects operated by the Work Projects
Administration in cooperation with the
United States Office of Education, the Na
tional Defense Advisory Committee, and
State vocational training boards. Very few
women have received such aid specifically
for defense work, though for 5 years the
W. P. A. has trained thousands of women in
work habits that fit them for defense em
ployment.
In one such W. P. A. national defense
project in Newton, Mass., all the trainees are
women. Women have proved themselves
more adaptable than men on the particular
work, the manufacture of time-bomb mech
anisms and similar precision devices. They

have demonstrated possession of hand and
finger dexterity which makes for speed and
accuracy in this delicate precision work.
The vocational trainees on the Newton
project are taught to operate light lathes,
watch lathes, bench engine lathes, kick
presses, punch presses, and eyelet and rivet
ing machines. They also receive instruction
in spot welding. All the machines used are
extremely light and are similar to those oper
ated by women workers in Massachusetts
watch factories, precision instrument compa
nies, and other such establishments.
Nearby watch factories, working on de
fense orders for instruments such as those
that the girls are learning to make, pay
beginners from #18 to #20 a week and provide
trainees with chances for private employ
ment in the vicinity of their homes. Many
Massachusetts families have been skilled
watch makers for generations. The same
skill and precision needed for the manufac
ture of fine timepieces now is required for
defense purposes.

Oklahoma Trains Domestic Workers
Household employment is one of the few
occupational fields in which the demand
for workers exceeds the supply. The Okla
homa State Employment Service reports
that in 1939 there were 16,659 girls and
women placed in such work, but thousands
of job openings were canceled because
trained, efficient workers were not available.
This led to development of several types of
training projects in the State, under the
Trade and Industrial Division of Voca
tional Education made possible by the
Federal Vocational Act of 1936. For such
classes organized under the act, teachers’
salaries are paid with Federal money.
Under the Oklahoma plan three types
of classes are carried on for both white and
Negro girls, and nearly 600 young women
received such training in the school year
1939-40. Day trade-school classes are pro
vided in high schools for girls who desire to
enter household employment on gradua
tion; these were conducted in seven centers,
with an enrollment of 132. Diplomas are

March 1941

NEWS NOTES

presented by the State Department of
Trade and Industrial Education.
Basic classes for beginners who have left
school gave training to 107 girls in four
centers. Under this plan girls are placed in
selected training homes where they earn a
wage and room and board, and where em
ployers permit them to practice the pro
cedures and methods gained in class under
actual working conditions. They are al
lowed to attend special classes 9 hours a
week. A follow-up of basic-training grad
uates in one center over a period of 3 years
indicates that 44 percent had doubled or
more than doubled their earning power and
that another 30 percent had increased it by
at least one-half.
The third type of training is in evening or
advanced classes, planned for experienced
workers wishing to improve their knowledge
and skill; also for graduates of the basictraining classes wishing to specialize. Such
advanced classes were given to 345 students
in 11 centers in 1939-40.

1939 there were 855 accidents, 127 of them
resulting in injuries to women, 4 of them
fatal. Serious injury to women occurred in
all but 3 of the chief industry classes, but
the largest numbers were in the following:
Textiles, 26 cases; shoes, 17; paper and
metal, 9 each; clothing, 8; toys and novelties,
and food, 6 each; rubber, 5. Of the women
injured, 16 were under 18 years, 51 were
under 21. Just over a fourth of all occu
pational-disease cases—all of them derma
titis—were to women.

Women’s Employment in Alabama

Women in factory offices in New York in
October 1940 averaged 522.88 a week, only a
little more than the amount found necessary
by cost-of-living studies of the New York
Department of Labor to maintain in health a
woman living alone. Even if a woman lived
with her family she had less than $3 a week
to spare, if she earned as much as the average.
The range in office women’s average earn
ings was from 520.60 in textile factories to
to 524.57 in printing and paper goods.
Women’s average was only just over half
that of men. This difference between earn
ings of men and women was greater for
clerical workers than for those employed on
production work in shops, yet even in shops
women’s average of 518.17 was only 56 per
cent of men’s.

A survey of 520 establishments, in 3 large
cities, made by the Alabama Department of
Industrial Relations showed lowest wages
in small concerns with local business.
Wages as low as 510 a week were paid to
office, store, and telephone workers; as low
as 56 to laundry workers and 55 to elevator
operators. Cash wages of waitresses ranged
from 52 to 515. Maximum hours of 60, 70,
and 72 a week were reported for various
white-collar workers, and of 66 for women’s
jobs in laundries. Waitresses sometimes
worked 84 hours, as did telephone operators
for taxi companies.
An Alabama College study concludes that
the industrial establishments of Alabama do
not at present offer much opportunity for
the employment of women, either in large
numbers or in varied types of work, except
as operatives in manufacturing. Trained
women are more generally used in steno
graphic and clerical work. However, there
are many concerns with no women even to
handle office routine, and many others with
only one. Except for electric power com
panies, few professionally trained women are
engaged. The employment of women in
large numbers is concentrated in the State’s
two major industries—cotton-textile and
garment manufacture.

Injuries to Massachusetts Women

New York Home-Work Action Upheld

Each year the Industrial Accident Board
of Massachusetts makes special investiga
tion of all serious injuries and fatalities and
of all cases of occupational disease. In

The New York home-work order covering
men was brought into question by firms who
conceded the right of the legislature to regu
late home work for women and minors.

New York Office Workers’ Earnings

THE WOMAN WORKER

Following a favorable opinion rendered by
the board of standards and appeals of the
New York State Department of Labor, the
Supreme Court of Albany County upheld
the law and tK'e revised order. The court
pointed out that\he clear intent of the law
was to do away with thp evils of home work,
and the wording of
law was such as to
indicate that adult male home workers also
would be included. (See earlier issues of
Woman Worker.)

Job Clinic for District Women
The Women’s Occupational Council was
organized in the District of Columbia to
meet the needs of business and professional
women over 35 who are unemployed or are
seeking better jobs. One important phase
of the work is the recently formed Women’s
Job Clinic, to be held once a week. Its
purpose is to provide a place where employed
and unemployed women may analyze their
own vocational abilities and present their
service-selling campaigns for criticism. Per
sonnel workers, vocational counselors, and
other qualified persons will act as leaders.

The first clinic meeting was attended by 22
women in search of jobs, and at a recent date
75 women were registered for work. Late in
1940 a careful canvass was made by 10 un
employed women and several independent
business women. Lectures are planned on
the assets of mature women and the fields of
work available to them.

Home Work Banned on Public
Contracts
Attention is again called to the prohibition
of industrial home work under the Public
Contracts Act by a recent letter from the
Administrator to an employer subject to the
law. The act requires every contractor
furnishing supplies to the Government to be
a “manufacturer” or “regular dealer.”
Rulings issued in 1937 define a manufacturer
as “a person who owns, operates, or main
tains a factory or establishment that pro
duces on the premises the materials, sup
plies, articles, or equipment required under
the contract.” This rules out those whose
low bids are made possible by the employ
ment of home workers.

Recent Publications
Women’s Bureau—Printed Bulletins1

Handbook of Federal Labor Legislation. Division

State Labor Laws for Women, December 31, 1940—
Summary. Bul. 156-1. 18 pp. 5 cents.
Primer of Problems in the Millinery Industry.

Junior Placement. Children’s Bureau, Bul. 256.
Report on the Jewelry Manufacturing Industry.

Bul. 179. 47 pp.

10 cents.

The Nonworking Time of Industrial Women
Workers—Study by students of Hudson Shore

Labor School, July 1940. Bul. 181. 10 pp. 5 cents.

Women’s Bureau—Mimeographed Material1
The Women’s Bureau and Its Work.

1940.

December

11 pp.

Accomplishments of the Women’s Bureau in
Recent Years. January 1941. 7 pp.
Differences in State and Federal Wage Standards
for Manufacturing. January 1941. 8 pp.

Other Department of Labor Publications 1
Annual Report of the Wage and Hour Division,
for Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1940.
Workers and National Defense. Department of

Labor, 1940.
1 Bulletins may be ordered from the Superintendent of Docu
ments, Washington, D. C. Mimeographed reports are obtainable
only from the agency issuing them.

of Labor Standards, Bul. 39, Part I.

Wage and Hour Division.
Earnings and Hours in
Industry, August 1940.

the

Enameled Utensil

Bureau of Labor Statis-

cist (mimeog.).

Publications Regarding Defense
Bulletin of the Advisory Commission to
the Council of National Defense. Weekly.

Defense.

Defense Papers; Defense Digests; Community
Councils in Action. Monthly publications of

American Association for Adult Education.
in High School. Education
and National Defense Series—No. 1. Federal
Security Agency, U. S. Office of Education.

Home Nursing Courses

Other Recent Publications
How Starched Are White Collars Today? Leader
ship Division, National Board, Y. W. C. A., New
York. 35 pp. (Mimeog.) Outline for study and
discussion on the subject of economic security of
white-collar workers.
u. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1941

Full text of The Woman Worker : March 1941, Vol. XXI, No. 2

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