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THE

Woman Worker
WOMAN’S C0LLE&E LIBRARY
NIKE UNIVERSITY
DURHAM, N. $.
(PUBLISHED EVERY TWO MONTHS)

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Frances Perkins, Secretary

WOMEN’S BUREAU
Mary Anderson, Director

WASHINGTON, D. C.

Volume XVIII

MAY 1938

Number 3

THE WOMAN WORKER
May 1938
+

CONTENTS
Page

Women’s Bureau Surveying Millinery Industry...........................

Public Contracts Act Benefits Women Workers...........................

Toward the 40-Hour Week......................................................................

New York beauty operators benefited.
Coverage of new Virginia law.
Toward Minimum Fair Wages.................................................................

in Strikes......................................................................................
Texas pecan workers’ union recognized.
Michigan garment workers win decision.

Women

Employment and Earnings

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

Women’s earnings in cotton goods.
Hourly wage rates of women and men.
More women in Missouri factories.
South Carolina employment and wages improve.
Health and Safety......................................................................................

Industrial injuries and occupational disease.
Industrial poisoning in Massachusetts.
Reviews of Recent Studies......................................................................

Why women work.
Effects of technological changes.
Employment service placements.
Household employment problems.
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

Women’s Bureau Surveying Millinery Industry
Women’s Bureau is now conduct Millinery Stabilization Commission to help
ing a field survey of conditions in the industry get back on its feet through
millinery manufacture to obtain information
better planning and better methods.
that will assist in improving the situation of
In 1937, however, when many industries
the industry and its workers. The survey were showing gains in employment, labor
covers New York and nearby New Jersey, earnings, and plant profits, millinery manu
Massachusetts, and Connecticut, the region facturing continued to suffer losses. The
where most of the industry is located, and Stabilization Commission then appealed to
also the less important millinery centers in the Women’s Bureau to make a survey of
Alabama, California, Georgia, Illinois, the industry in order to have a base for
Missouri, and Texas.
diagnosing its ills and planning its rehabili
In 1935 and 1936 more than half the tation.
millinery firms in the United States did
Women’s Bureau field agents are now
business at a loss and many failed. Wages gathering information on fluctuations in
declined and the busy seasons became employment, hours, earnings, and produc
shorter and shorter until a bare 6 weeks of tion. Special attention is being given to
work could be counted on twice a year. employer-employee relationships and manu
Hours of work often were excessive, reach facturing practices. Variations among the
ing 60 a week, during production peaks. different plants and areas in cost of produc
The volume of cancelations and returns of tion, receipts, and labor productivity also
merchandise increased and heavy discounts are being covered. Methods of selling
factory products will be considered, with the
became the rule.
Late in 1935 New York workers and em cooperation of other government agencies.
The several millinery employers’ organi
ployers together held a series of conferences
on the problem of how to cure this sick zations, the trade-unions, and the Millinery
industry. At the suggestion of the mayor Stabilization Commission, as well as many
of New York City they agreed to create a individual employers and shop chairmen,
voluntary unofficial body known as the have aided in furthering the study.
he

Public Contracts Act Benefits Women Workers
Surveys by Women’s Bureau

cereal preparations. The surveys, which
began April 1, cover wage rates, hours,
o assist the Public Contracts Division earnings, and employment conditions.
The Bureau will also conduct a survey
of the United States Department of
throughout the country during the canning
Labor in determining the minimum-wage
rates that should be recommended for work season. This will cover (1) the canning of
ers employed on Government contracts, the fruits, vegetables, and fish, and (2) the proc
Women’s Bureau is conducting Nation-wide essing, canning, and bottling of sauces and
field surveys of four industries—condensed miscellaneous food preparations. The data
and evaporated milk, drugs and medicines, will be placed before the Public Contracts
cosmetics and other toilet preparations, and Board but will also assist State minimum3
64568-38

THE WOMAN WORKER

wage boards in deciding how minimum
wages shall be made applicable to this sea
sonal industry.
Minimum-wage rates established under the Public
Contracts Act
Industry

Hourly
[cents)

Men’s welt shoes,________ ______ 40
Men’s cotton garment and allied in
dustries______________________ 37)4
Learners (not more than 10 per
cent of all workers in a shop):
First 4 weeks____________ __
Second 4 weeks__________ __
Third 4 weeks___________ _
Seamless hosiery_________________ 35
Learners, handicapped, or super
annuated (not more than 5 per
cent of all workers in a shop)__ 28
Men’s underwear:
12 southern States.____ ______ 32)4
All other States______________ 35
Handicapped or superannuated
(not more than 10 percent of
all workers in a shop)________25
Men’s hats and caps_____________ 67)4
Auxiliary workers (not more than
20 percent of all workers in a
shop and not including cutters,
workers in cutting room, ma
chine workers, blockers, pressers, hand sewers)___________ 37%
Men’s raincoats_________________ 40
Learners, handicapped, or super
annuated (not more than 10
percent of all workers in a shop) 25
Men’s neckwear_________________ 50
Learners, handicapped, or super
annuated (not more than 10
percent of all workers in a shop)
and boxers and trimmers_____ 37%
Men’s work gloves_______________ 35
Learners, handicapped, or super
annuated (not more than 10
percent of all workers in a
shop)____________________ 25
Handkerchiefs___________________ 35
Dimension granite:
New England, New York_____ 57)4
12 southern States___________ 32)4
All other States______________ 42)4
Barrack bags___________________ 37)4
Learners (same conditions as for
those in men’s cotton garment
and allied industries, which see.)
Envelopes_____________________ 42)4
Vitreous or vitrified china_________42)4
Leather and sheep-lined jackets___ 42)4

Weekly

#16
IS

8
10
12
14

11.20
13
14

Because the Secretary of Labor has se
lected low-pay industries for first attention
in establishing minimum-wage rates to be
paid on Federal contract work and because
low-pay industries often are woman-employ
ing industries, the Women’s Bureau fre
quently has been called on by the Public
Contracts Division to assist in making sur
veys necessary for determining the prevail
ing wage rate in an industry. All but one of
the industries for which the Secretary of
Labor has thus far established minimumwage rates under the Public Contracts Act,
as shown in the accompanying table, are
large employers of women. The weekly wage
rates may be arrived at either by paying
the hourly rate or by paying piece-work
rates.

Hearing on Tag Manufacture
10
27

15
16

10
20

15
14

10
14
23
13
17
15

17
17. 10
17

At a hearing on wages in the making of
tags, held by the Public Contracts Board in
April, the Tag Manufacturers’ Institute
presented data showing a notable increase
in hourly wage rates since 1929, beginning
with the N. R. A. code period. The data
illustrate also the condition characteristic
of many industries, that women’s rates of
pay are considerably below men’s.
Whereas in 1929 an hourly wage of less
than 35 cents was received by 71 percent
of the women surveyed, the proportion
paid so little declined to 59 percent in 1933,
the first year of the N. R. A., and to only
22 percent in 1938. In 1929 only 15 percent
of the women earned 45 cents an hour or
more, but in 1938 there were 22 percent
with these higher earnings. The propor
tion receiving as much as 50 cents was prac
tically the same in 1938 as in 1929, about
one-tenth of the total.
The proportion of men’s rates in the
higher ranges showed an advance from 1929
to 1938 similar to that for women. Their
earnings, however, ran much above those of
women. In 1938, 92 percent of the men
had hourly averages of 45 cents or more,
and over a third received as much as 80

PUBLIC CONTRACTS ACT

cents an hour, an amount rarely paid to any
woman.
Women’s Bureau Urges Home-Work Ban.

At this Public Contracts hearing, the
Women’s Bureau called the attention of the
board to the impossibility of maintaining
wage and hour standards within an industry
when any part of the work of that industry
is carried on in private homes. Since much
of the work of preparing tags was done in
private homes prior to 1933, and in spite of
earnest efforts to eliminate home work, a
small amount still enters the home, and
since Government orders are a large factor
in the tag industry, the Women’s Bureau
urged that home work be prohibited in the
manufacture of tags for the Government.

A survey of home work in the tag indus
try, conducted by the Women’s Bureau in
1936, showed that very few home workers
engaged in stringing tags were able to earn
the hourly minimum of 33 cents which
factory workers received and which the Tag
Manufacturers’ Institute had claimed could
be earned under a schedule of rates that the
organized part of the industry had agreed
to pay.
In view of the demonstrated failure of an
earnest effort to pay to home workers the same
minimum earnings as were paid to factory
workers, the Women’s Bureau recommended
that home work be recognized as a method
of paying less than standard minimum wages
in this industry.

Toward the 40-Hour Week
New York Beauty Operators Benefited

Coverage of New Virginia Law

first time the working hours of
women employed in beauty shops in
New York State are to be limited as are the
hours of other women wage earners. An act
passed at the recent session of the State
legislature amends the labor law so as to
include women in beauty parlors. It pro
vides that they shall not be employed more
than 48 hours or 6 days a week or 8 hours a
day. As in the case of mercantile establish
ments, beauty parlors are given two optional
exceptions to the 8-hour day. To make one
shorter workday a week they are permitted
one 10-hour day; or they are permitted one
10-hourday and four 9-hour days if the sixth
day does not exceed 4% hours and the week
does not exceed 48 hours. Employment
between 10 p. m. and 7 a. m. is prohibited.
Beauty operators in centers of less than
15,000 population are exempt from the pro
visions limiting daily and weekly hours.
The act becomes effective July 1, 1938.

Of approximately 100,000 women at work
in Virginia, about one-third will have shorter
hours of work under the new 9-hour-day,
48-hour-week law to go into effect June 19.
This was pointed out at a recent meeting of
the board of directors of the Virginia Con
sumers’ League. The remaining women,
who now have hours that fall within the
prescribed limits, are protected against
future exploitation by the new legislation.
Figures for the laundry and cleaning
and dyeing industries indicate that con
siderable numbers of the women em
ployed in such establishments will benefit
from the law. In these industries 29 per
cent of the women reported worked more
than 48 hours. Commentators in the State
point out that one of the major effects of the
law will be in stores and restaurants.
In manufacturing industries, about 5,100
of the 45,779 women shown in the report of
the Virginia Department of Labor and

or the

THE WOMAN WORKER

Industries for the calendar year 1936 were
working more than 48 hours. More than
two-thirds of those having long hours—
nearly 3,500 women—were in tobacco
rehandling, fruit and vegetable canning, and
peanut shelling. Women in these seasonal
industries will benefit little by the new law,
since it permits work for 10 hours a day for
90 days in the year.

According to the State report threefourths of all women in manufacturing had
worked less than 44 hours. The same was
true of practically 90 percent of the men and
women in textile industries. No women in
rayon-yarn factories were reported working
so long as 44 hours. In paper and printing
industries only six women in the State were
reported as working more than 48 hours.

Toward Minimum Fair Wages
Developments Since March 15

Action to Enforce Kentucky Law

in minimum-wage develop
ments since the March issue of The
Woman Worker have been the prompt
action of Kentucky in beginning prepara
tions for enforcement of its new minimumwage law, and the adoption by the District
of Columbia Minimum Wage Board of a
guaranteed weekly minimum wage for
laundry and dry-cleaning workers, similar
to that now in effect in New York. The
minimum-wage administrators in Colorado,
Connecticut, Utah, Rhode Island, and
Pennsylvania also have taken action on the
laundry or laundry and dry-cleaning indus
tries during the past 2 months. New or
newly revised wage orders for other indus
tries have been issued in Illinois, Massachu
setts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island. Wage
boards have been called and studies of
industries begun or completed in several
other States.
In Oklahoma an injunction denying the
State industrial welfare commission the right
to enforce the minimum-wage orders was is
sued April 27, 4 days before these orders
were to go into effect. The Associated In
dustries, Inc., and other powerful interests
attacking the constitutionality of the act,
are particularly opposed to its inclusion of
men. If the Supreme Court sustains the
law, employers failing to observe it may be
subject to prosecution from May 1, 1938,
the date that the orders went into effect, so
it is widely believed in the State that most
employers will observe the law pending the
outcome of the case.

First steps to be taken in administering
the new Kentucky minimum-wage law,
which goes into effect June 1, were discussed
in Louisville on April 12 at a committee
meeting called by the Kentucky Consumers’
League and attended by Kentucky labor
leaders, the State Commissioner of Labor
Relations, W. C. Burrow, who will adminis
ter the law, and a consultant from the
Women’s Bureau of the United States De
partment of Labor.
Ground work of surveying wages and hours
in woman-employing industries in the State
already has been completed by the Women’s
Bureau, which recently published prelimi
nary reports on a survey of wages and hours
of 21,819 women workers in 359 establish
ments in 33 Kentucky cities and towns.
The survey was made at the request of the
Louisville League of Women Voters and the
Kentucky Department of Agriculture,
Labor, and Statistics.

ighlights

Results of Kentucky Survey.

More than two-thirds of the women sur
veyed by the Women’s Bureau were factory
workers. Their average week’s earnings
ranged from #8 or #9 in hosiery, wooden
boxes and baskets, and miscellaneous cloth
ing industries to #16 or #17 in metal prod
ucts and cigars and cigarettes. For all
factory workers the average was #13.
Average hourly earnings for all women
factory workers amounted to 36 cents,
ranging from 24 cents in wooden-box facto
ries to 46 cents in the men’s suit and overcoat

MINIMUM WAGE
industry. Hours worked usually were 8 a
day and 40 or less a week, with the 5-day
week.
For the next largest group of workers,
those in retail stores, the average week’s
earnings were $13.70 in department stores,
$14.40 in ready-to-wear stores, and $12.40
in limited-price stores. Average hourly
earnings were 26 cents in limited-price
stores, 30 cents in department stores, and
31 cents in ready-to-wear stores. Hours
worked generally were 7% a day and 45 to
48 a week.
For workers in hotels and restaurants, the
average week’s earnings were found to be
$8.20 in hotels, $8.65 in independent res
taurants, and $9.15 in store restaurants.
These earnings did not include tips nor the
value of meals or lodging furnished. Hours
worked usually were 40 to 56 a week and 9
or less a day, with a long spread from be
ginning to end of the day. In hotels 63
percent of the workers had a 7-day week;
the same was true of 23 percent of the
workers in independent restaurants.
Average week’s earnings in laundries were
$9.05, and in dry-cleaning establishments
$12.65. Hourly earnings were 21 cents in
laundries and 28 cents in the dry-cleaning
industry. Annual earnings in laundries
averaged $513. Hours worked generally
were 44 to 54 a week, with 23 percent of the
women in laundries and 38 percent of those
in dry-cleaning establishments working 50
or more hours.

Action on Laundry Industry
All but 3 of the 24 minimum-wage States
have taken some action toward establishing
minimum-wage rates for the laundry in
dustry. The first wage board called under
Pennsylvania’s 1937 law is a laundry board,
now in session and expected to report its
recommendations soon. The District of
Columbia Minimum Wage Board has
adopted wage rates effective July 5. The
Colorado laundry wage board has made its
recommendations, now being considered by
the State Industrial Commission. Recom

mended wage rates have been announced in
Connecticut and Utah. The Rhode Island
minimum-wage order for the laundry indus
try went into effect April 25. The following
are the 17 States in which minimum-wage
rates are in effect in laundries.
Arkansas (flat rate in law).
California (special order).
Illinois (special order).
Massachusetts (special order).
Minnesota (general order).
Nevada (flat rate in law).
New Hampshire (special order).
New Jersey (special order).
New York (special order).
North Dakota (special order).
Ohio (special order).
Oklahoma (special order).
Oregon (special order).
Rhode Island (special order).
South Dakota (flat rate in law).
Washington (special order).
Wisconsin (general order).

New minimum-wage rates for laundry and
dry-cleaning industries are shown in the
table on the following page.
It should be noted that the $14.50 mini-:
mum wage in the District of Columbia is for
a week of from 17 to 44 hours. If a woman
works the full 48-hour week permitted by
law, her weekly wage will be $15.90, because
she must receive 35 cents for each of the
4 additional hours worked.
Laundry Surveys.

Connecticut.—The recommended minimum
wage of 30 cents an hour in Connecticut
corresponds to the average (median) hourly
wage received by women in Connecticut
laundries in the spring of 1937. Half the
women surveyed by the Connecticut Labor
Department received less than 30.3 cents
an hour, and half of them worked less than
41.6 hours a week. The recommended
minimum-wage rate therefore should raise
wages for about half the women in Con
necticut laundries.
The report on the industry made by the
Connecticut Labor Department to the
minimum wage board was presented in effec
tive question-and-answer form. It showed

THE WOMAN WORKER
New Minimum-Wage Rates for Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Industries
Minimum-wage rate
Women workers
covered

State

Weekly

Hourly
(cents)

Hours to which rate
applies

Learner or
apprentice rate

Special provisions

Adopted:

Rhode Island (in
effect Apr. 25).

Plant, office, and
distribution.

District oi Columbia
(effective July 5).

Plant_____ _____ 314.50

17 to 44_______ __ do______
More than 44.
Less than 17.
40 to 48_______ 314.50 for 2
Less than 40.
months.

35
40
Office and store__

None____

17.00

Recommended:

Connecticut (laun
dries only).

Plant and office ..

30
33

35 to 48_______ __ do______
Less than 35.1

Utah.........................

All—Laundries

30
45
33

24 to 45__ _
. None___
More than 45.
Less than 24.

All—Dry cleaning
and dyeing.

16.00

Worker must be
paid for at least
4 hours a day
when called by
employer, except
on Saturday.

Worker must be
paid for at least
4 hours a day
when called by
employer.
48___________ __ do______ Part-time workers
Less than 8 a
shall be paid for
day.
at least 4 con
secutive hours a
day.

1 Not more than 310.50 a week.

that the median average earnings of women
were 30.3 cents an hour and $12.61 a week, 41
percent of the total getting between 25 and
30 cents an hour. More than two-fifths
(43 percent) made less than $12 in a week.
The average hours worked were 41.6 a
week, but 16 percent of the women worked
less than 32 hours and 11 percent worked
between 48 and 52 hours.
Rhode Island.—The minimum hourly wage
rate of 30 cents ordered for women in
laundry and dry-cleaning industries in Rhode
Island will raise the wage rates of more than
one-third of the women so employed, ac
cording to a survey of 73 laundries and drycleaning establishments by the Rhode Island
Department of Labor in March 1937. The
results of this survey were published recently
by the division of women and children of the
Rhode Island Department of Labor under
the title, “Conditions of Employment in the
Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Industries in
Rhode Island.”

Half the women in the 73 establishments,
all of which employed at least 5 women or
minors, earned less than 31 cents an hour,
and nearly a fourth were paid less than 27%
cents an hour. Practically 70 percent
earned between 25 cents and 37% cents.
Average hours of work of women and girls
were 40.8.
A year’s wage data were collected for a
sample of 59 women from 9 firms, including
7 laundries and 2 cleaners. Year’s earnings
ranged from $29.70 to $866.20. The aver
age woman in this sample worked 40.9
hours a week for 51.2 weeks. Her earnings
were $13.25 for the weeks worked and her
year’s earnings were $652.27.
Pennsylvania.—The minimum wage board
for the laundry industry in Pennsylvania is
now considering the report on the laundry
industry made by the division of research
and statistics of the bureau of hours and
wages, Pennsylvania Department of Labor
and Industry, and recently published by

MINIMUM WAGE
the department in mimeographed form.
The study was made as of the pay period
ending nearest to November 15, 1937. A
total of 305 plants were investigated.
The average (median) year’s earnings in
1937, including meals and lodging when fur
nished, were found to be $614 for women and
minor laundry workers. About 16 percent
of the workers made less than $500, 26 per
cent made $700 or more, and 3 percent made
$1,000 or more.
For the pay-roll period ending nearest to
November 15, 1937, the average week’s
earnings were $11.54; 27 percent of the
workers made less than $10 and 18 percent
made $14 or more. These amounts include
20 cents for each meal furnished and 40
cents a day for lodging when furnished.
Hourly earnings in the pay-roll period
ending nearest to November 15 averaged
29.3 cents (median). About three-tenths of
the women and minor workers earned from
27 to 29.9 cents an hour, one-fourth earned
less than 27 cents, and more than one-tenth
earned less than 25 cents. One-tenth aver
aged 40 cents or more.
More than half of the workers for whom
hours were reported worked from 40 to 44
hours a week; about 45 percent worked less
than 40 hours and less than 4 percent ex
ceeded 44 hours.
Of the 305 plants visited, 56 were working
under union contracts covering 2,219 em
ployees, or 47 percent of the women and
male minor employees in all laundries sur
veyed. Union pay rates ranged from 25 to
40 cents an hour for woman-employing occu
pations, depending on occupation, union,
and locality.

Recent Minimum-Wage Orders
District of Columbia—Laundry and Dry
Cleaning.

See page 8.
Illinois—Wash-Dress Industry.
Directory Order No. 4 for the wash-dress

industry, effective May 1, sets a minimum
rate of $14.80 for experienced workers for a
basic week of 40 hours, or 37 cents an hour.

For more than 40 hours a week, the hourly
rate is 40.7 cents. Apprentice rates are
$7.40 a week for the first 8 weeks and $11.10
for the second 8 weeks. Learners and ap
prentices shall not exceed 15 percent of all
employees. Special licenses may be issued
for handicapped workers. If uniforms are
required, the employer may deduct their
actual cost from the workers’ pay.
Massachusetts—Bread and Bakery Products.

Minimum rates varying with size of town
or city have been fixed for all women and
minors in the industry. For cities of 100,000
and over, the rate is $14 a week; for cities of
25,000 and under 100,000, $13 a week; and
for localities of less than 25,000, $12 a week.
The order became effective May 1.
Massachusetts—Pocketbook
Goods Industry.

and

Leather-

A minimum-wage order for the pocket
book and leather-goods industry went into
effect May 1. No woman or minor with 3 or
more months’ experience in the industry shall
be paid less than 35 cents an hour, or $14
for a week of 40 hours. Workers with less
than 3 months’ experience are to be paid not
less than 26% cents an hour, or $10.50 for a
40-hour week.
Minnesota—Any industry, business, or trade.
Minimum wages of from $11 to $15 a
week, depending on size of locality, become
effective July 11 for experienced women and
minor workers employed 36 to 48 hours a
week in any industry, business, or trade in
Minnesota, by order of the State industrial

commission.
The order divides the State into four pop
ulation groups-—class A, cities of 50,000 or
more population; class B, places of 5,000 to
50,000; class C, places of 3,000 to 5,000; and
class D, smaller towns and rural areas.
Minimum hourly rates range from 24 cents
in class D to 36 cents in class A for part-time
work (less than 36 hours) and overtime
work (more than 48 hours).
Rhode Island—Laundry and Dry Gleaning.

See page 8.

THE WOMAN WORKER

Other Minimum-Wage Activity
The Industrial Commission of Arizona is
preparing to call a wage board for retail
trade occupations.
The District of Columbia Minimum Wage
Board will begin public hearings on the
beauty-shop industry on May 17.
The division of women’s and children’s
employment of the Illinois Department of
Labor reports that a wage board for the
candy industry will be appointed soon.
Field work has begun on a study of restau
rants, to be followed immediately by a
survey of retail stores.
In Massachusetts wage boards have been
established for the knit-goods and millinery
industries. A study of hair-dressing and
beauty-culture establishments is under way.
The minimum wage commission has returned
the recommendations for wages for the paperbox industry for reconsideration by the wage
board for that industry. The commission
has received requests for action toward
setting minimum-wage rates in the curtain
manufacturing industry and for waitresses
and theater ushers.
A study of the shoe industry in New
Hampshire has been completed and sent to
the State Commissioner of Labor. A study
of retail trade is being put into final form.
Studies of the textile industry and of com
mercial and resort hotels are in progress.
The New Hampshire Commissioner of
Labor reports that there has been a marked
rise in the amount of back wages collected
since the State was divided into four
districts, with an inspector assigned to each.
Inspection is more efficient and records have
improved. The present plan is to visit all
firms under wage orders at least twice a year,
and more often if necessary, thus providing
a continuous check.
The Rhode Island minimum-wage order
for wearing apparel and allied occupations
was made mandatory April 25. It has been
revised so that the requirement that piece
workers must receive at least the minimum
hourly rate need apply to only three-fourths
of them.

In New York State a wage board for the
beauty-shop industry has recommended for
full-time workers a minimum wage of $16.50
for a week of 45 hours or less, with additional
pay for hours worked in excess of 45. Parttime workers (employed 3 days or less a
week) shall be paid at least $4 a day. This
represents a considerable improvement over
actual wages and hours, as shown in the sur
vey that guided the board in making its
recommendations. Results of the survey
follow.

New York Beauty-Shop Survey
Half of the 5,212 women employed in the
1,608 beauty shops surveyed by the State
Department of Labor in 1936 received less
than $13.47 a week, after deductions averag
ing 72 cents (median) had been made by
the employer for job expenses. Nearly
one-third of the women earned less than $10,
43 percent earned less than $12, and only
15 percent earned as much as $20.
Variation in hours worked accounted for
only part of the differences in week’s earn
ings. Hourly earnings also showed con
siderable variation, half the workers earning
less than 27.6 cents an hour, over one-third
less than 25 cents, and nearly one-fifth less
than 20 cents. On the other hand, 19
percent of the total earned at least 40 cents
an hour.
Employers expected workers to augment
their wages by tips, but tips were uncertain.
One factor in keeping wages low was the
employment of apprentices or learners and
“brush-up” workers—unemployed operators
who worked to keep their hand in. Many
shops were found to be using such workers
as cheap labor and giving them no satis
factory training. Such shops were able to
charge lower prices and caused other shops
to lower their prices and wages to meet
competition.
The great majority of the employers re
quired their workers to be trained. Such
training cost $50 to $150 for a complete
course in half of the schools covered by the
survey and more than $150 in the larger and
better-known establishments.

THE WOMAN WORKER

Women in Strikes
Texas Pecan Workers’ Union
Recognized
The 6 weeks’ strike of the pecan workers
of San Antonio, Tex., was settled March 10
with recognition of the workers’ union,
Local 172 of the United Cannery, Agricul
tural, Packing, and Allied Workers of
America. The employers and the union
agreed to refer the question of wages and
working conditions to an arbitration com
mittee of three, including a representative of
the workers, a representative of the em
ployers, and a third person agreeable to both
sides. The strike was brought to this con
clusion after the union had filed charges
against the company with the regional office
of the National Labor Relations Board.
The strike, which eventually involved
8,000 workers and 200 pecan-shelling shops
and resulted in many arrests, began Feb
ruary 1 in protest against a 15-percent cut in
wages. The workers demanded rescinding
of the cut, recognition of their union, free
health examinations by the companies to
protect consumers and workers, and union
committees to weigh the shelled nuts.
The Women’s Bureau in a survey in 1936
found wages of pecan pickers to average
#2.05 a week (median) in contractors’ shops
Pecan sorters in dealers’ sheds averaged
#3.55 a week, as compared with #11 in a
large firm in St. Louis.
Reports of the recent strike indicate that
the low piece rate in effect resulted in wages
as low as 25 cents a day in many cases and
that few workers were able to earn more than
40 or 50 cents a day. Before the 15-percent
cut, the piece rate was 5 to 6 cents a pound
for shelling nuts, and average wages were
about #2.50 a week.
Employers blamed the low factory wages

on the competition of contractors who em
ployed home workers at even lower rates of
pay.

Michigan Garment Workers Win
Decision
The outcome of a strike of 34 girls against
a Michigan garment factory in the spring
of 1937 was a decision by the National
Labor Relations Board March 31, 1938,
ordering the company to reemploy the
strikers, on application, and to pay them
back wages for the period since they may
have applied for and been refused reemploy
ment. The board also ordered the reem
ployment with back pay of a girl discharged
in March 1937 for union activity. The
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
was named the exclusive representative of
the production workers in the plant for
purposes of collective bargaining. The com
pany was ordered to bargain collectively
with this union and to cease to support a
company union.
The Michigan Department of Labor and
Industry, which undertook an investigation
of the strike, found that many of the girls
had been working 44 to 53 hours a week for
less than 15 cents an hour. Earnings of as
much as 28 cents an hour were exceptional.
One of the best-paid girls averaged only
#11.12 a week, as compared with between
#14 and #15 which she made when the
N. R. A. code was in effect. She reported
that she sometimes worked 10 hours a day.
The girls organized the union in an effort
to improve their conditions. The employers
refused to deal with the union and the girls
struck. During the strike a staff of 24
extra policemen was appointed for protec
tion of nonstrikers against the 34 girls.

THE WOMAN WORKER

Employment and Earnings
Women’s Earnings in Cotton Goods
Average hourly earnings of women in the
cotton-goods industry in 15 States in a
reporting period in 1937 ranged from 26.7
cents in Mississippi to 47 cents in New
Jersey, according to a report recently issued
by the United States Bureau of Labor
Statistics. Most of the figures are for April.
Among the eight northern States reporting
there was a difference of 9 cents from high
to low and the seven southern States showed
a range of practically 10 cents in average
hourly earnings.
A comparison with average hourly earn
ings as reported by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics in 1934 shows an increase for
women of 16 percent in the North and 7
percent in the South. Increases were slight
ly greater for men. For both sexes the
increases were more than twice as great in
the North as in the South.

Hourly Wage Rates of Women and Men
In the cotton-textile industry the lowest
hourly rates paid to women in factories
studied averaged slightly above the lowest
paid to men in September 1937, according
to a survey made by the National Indus
trial Conference Board. This was true in
no other industries reporting such rates
separately for women and men. Lowest
hourly rates paid to women were 94 percent
of those paid to men in the furniture in
dustry, 83 percent in foundries and machine
shops, and only 55 percent in the printing
industry.

More Women in Missouri Factories
Nearly 75,000 women were employed in
manufacturing and public-utility establish
ments in Missouri in 1936, according to the
report of the Labor and Inspection Depart
ment for that year, recently received. Em
ployment in manufacturing had increased

since 1930 by nearly 2,000, while the pro
portion that women formed of all workers
in manufacturing had increased from 22 to
29 percent. In both years clothing, leather,
and food industries were the most impor
tant woman-employers, and the concentra
tion of women in these industries had
increased by 1936.
Percent of all women
in manufacturing
1930

All manufacturing ...___ 100.0
Clothing________________ .... 24.9
Leather_____________ ....... 22.0
Food__________ _______ .... 11.5

1936

100.0
35.0
23. 5
11.7

Weekly wages were reported for nearly
68,000 women. Just under three-fourths of
these had earned from $10 up to $20, while
one-tenth had earned less than $10. Pro
portions of women earning less than $10
were 11 percent in clothing manufacture,
12 percent in telephone service, and nearly
15 percent in food industries. On the other
hand, well over one-fourth of those in tele
phone exchanges had earned $20 or more,
as had nearly half of those employed by
other public utilities.

South

Carolina Employment
Wages Improve

and

The position of women in manufacturing
industries in South Carolina greatly im
proved in the 2-year period ending June 30,
1937, according to the second annual report
of the State Department of Labor recently
received. From July 1935 to June 1937 the
number of women wage earners increased
by nearly 23 percent to over 39,000, and
the per capita year’s earnings increased by
nearly 17 percent. Women salaried employ
ees increased by 19 percent to 834. The
proportion women formed of all workers in
these groups was practically the same in
1936-37 as in 1934-35, about 30 percent of

EMPLOYMENT AND EARNINGS

all wage earners and 18 percent of salaried
workers.
In textiles, where 84 percent of the women
wage earners were employed, their number
had increased by one-sixth and the per
capita wage payment by one-fifth.
As is almost invariably the case, the
average per capita yearly earnings of men

were higher than those of women in the
three major woman-employing industries.
Average earnings
in 1937
Men

Women

All manufacturing__ _ ____ $756
Textiles. _________________ ____ 805
Clothing_____________ ____ ____ 803
Tobacco and cigars__________ ____ 913

2634
663
504
616

Health and Safety
Industrial Injuries and Occupational
Disease
Massachusetts.

Two women were fatally injured in the
672 industrial accidents investigated by the
division of industrial safety of the Massa
chusetts Department of Labor and Indus
tries in 1936. One was employed in shoe
manufacture and one in the manufacture of
paper and paper products. A total of 56
women, including the 2 fatalities, were in
volved in industrial accidents, accounting
for 8 percent of the total. Of these 56
women, 11 worked in the manufacture of
textiles, 8 in shoes, 7 in paper and paper
products, 5 in electrical products, and 4 in
novelties.
The division investigated 229 cases of
occupational disease, of which 49, or over a
fifth of the total, involved women, a third
of them less than 21 years old. One woman
died as the result of asbestosis. She had
worked as a weaver for 15 years in the
manufacture of brake linings. The other
48 women suffered from some form of derma
titis. A third of the dermatitis infections of
women were acquired in shoe manufacture.
Minnesota.

Practically 5,000 women were injured in
industrial accidents in Minnesota during the
2-year period ending June 30, 1936, accord
ing to the eighth biennial report of the State
Industrial Commission recently issued. Wom

en’s injuries formed 9 percent of all in
juries reported during the period.
Over three-fifths of women’s injuries
caused temporary total disability. Over
one-third of the injuries to women caused
no disability, and 2 percent resulted in some
permanent disability. Nine injuries re
sulted fatally.
Missouri.
Over 10,000 women were injured in in
dustry in Missouri during the year 1936,
according to the tenth annual report of the
Missouri Workmen’s Compensation Com
mission. Two women lost their lives and
49 women suffered some permanent dis
ability as a result of their work. Women
constituted over one-eighth of all the work
ers injured in the year, but compensation
for their injuries amounted to only 3 percent
of the total amount paid.
Only four cases of occupational disease
affecting women were compensated under
the Missouri law, which makes workmen’s
compensation for such diseases elective on
the part of the employer.

Industrial Poisoning in Massachusetts
Women were found exposed to the hazards
of volatile solvents in 21 cases, men in
66 cases, in Massachusetts shoe factories,
according to a study made by the
division of occupational hygiene of the
Massachusetts Department of Labor and
Industries for the year ending November

THE WOMAN WORKER

30, 1936. The division made industrial
chemical surveys of six industries—leadstorage-battery manufacture, paint manu
facture, shoe manufacture, wood-heel cover
ing, rubber-goods manufacture, and fur
cleaning.
Of particular interest to women because
of their greater susceptibility to the poison
is the study of the benzol hazard in the shoe
industry. In the 49 establishments visited,
7,970 women were employed, 44 percent of
all employees. Of these establishments, 31

used materials containing benzol. Of the
six processes involving the use of benzol
cements and not equipped with blower sys
tems, all but one showed amounts of benzol
vapor greater than 100 parts per million,
which is the highest concentration consid
ered safe for all-day exposure, while the
three operations equipped with local exhaust
systems showed less than 50 parts per million.
Four of the plants visited discontinued the
use of benzol as a result of the survey, while
one installed a blower system.

Reviews of Recent Studies
Based on a study
made by The National Federation of
Business and Professional Women’s
Clubs, Inc. Public Affairs Committee,
Inc. Public Affairs Pamphlet No. 17.
1938.
Most business and professional women
work because they have to and not just for
the fun of it or for the sake of extra luxuries.
That is the conclusion of a survey made by
the National Federation of Business and
Professional Women’s Clubs early in 1937
in response to a request from the Inter
national Labor Office for facts on the
“existing political, civil, and economic
status of women” in the United States.
The I. L. O. has been gathering such infor
mation from various countries for the use of
the League of Nations. The Federation s
survey was particularly concerned with the
‘‘family circumstances of gainfully-employed
women and their responsibility for depend
ents.” It covered women white-collar workers
in 47 States, Alaska, and Hawaii.
Of the 12,043 members of the federated
clubs who returned usable answers to the
Federation’s questionnaire, only 3 percent
had contributed nothing to the household
in which they lived and were supported by
it. The other 97 percent all supported
themselves and half of them (48 percent of
the total) had other persons partially or
totally dependent on them. One-sixth of
Why Women Work.

the group (17 percent) were the sole support
of households of from 2 to 8 persons.
The typical woman covered by the sur
vey was about 40 years old and single,
living with relatives in a town or small city.
She was most likely to be a teacher, or a
secretary, stenographer, or other clerical
worker. Her earnings in 1936 were $1,315.
The women who were the sole support of
their households were somewhat older than
the others, averaging44 years; they had high
er average earnings, $1,560 a year, indicat
ing, as the report states, that “as a woman’s
resources increase, she is likely to assume
greater responsibility for dependents.”
National Research Project on Reem
ployment Opportunities and Recent
Changes in Industrial Techniques.
Summary of Findings to Date,
March 1938. Works Progress Admin

istration.

1938.

Evidence that women are finding a more
prominent place in the labor market with the
increase in industrial mechanization and in
the introduction of automatic machines, and
with the consequent decline in specialized
skills, is shown in studies made under the
National Research Project of the Works
Progress Administration.
The data analyzed in the summary of
findings indicate the situation and prospects
as to production, productivity of workers,

RECENT STUDIES

and employment, and show the employment
and unemployment experience of workers.
The discussion is based on intensive studies
of particular aspects of the employment situ
ation in Philadelphia, with additional mate
rial from studies of basic industries in cities
and towns elsewhere in Pennsylvania, and in
New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachu
setts, Minnesota, Indiana, and West Vir
ginia.
Unprecedented increase in productivity
of the worker has occurred since 1929 in a
number of industries that are important
woman-employers. The four industries in
which the workers’ productivity increased
by a yearly average of more than 10 percent
from 1929 to 1935 were important womanemployers—confectionery, glass, knit under
wear, and silk and rayon goods. When
mechanization in an industry had in
creased or automatic machines had been
introduced, the proportion of women in the
labor force was sometimes found to have
increased, as in cigar manufacturing and in
candy making in some places.
Another factor tending to increase the
proportion of women in the labor market is
the loss of jobs, or of the more skilled and
better-paying jobs, by other wage earners in
the family. In Philadelphia, for example,
it was found that the number of women
seeking employment was 19 percent greater
in 1937 than in 1931.
Survey of Employment Service Infor
mation.
Analysis of the characteris

tics of more than 4,000,000 applicants
in the active file inventory, November
1937, and of placements during the
period from April 1, 1937, to February
1, 1938. U. S. Employment Service.
1938.

More than 900,000 women were listed in
the active file of the United States Employ
ment Service in November 1937, according
to the inventory of that date. This number
represented a 15-percent decrease from that
registered 4 months before. During the
same period the number of men in the active

file decreased 16 percent, to somewhat more
than 3,000,000 in November.
For every 100 women in the file in July,
46 had left by November to take jobs or for
some other reason, 54 had remained on the
rolls throughout the period, and 32 new ap
plicants had registered. For every 100 men,
42 had left, 58 had remained, and 26 had
been added.
During the 12 months ending December
1937 more than 900,000 women were placed
by the Employment Service. The number
placed in the last 6 months of the year was
slightly greater than in the first 6 months,
and was nearly one-fifth greater than in the
last half of 1936.
When placements in the last 6 months of
1937 are compared with those in the first
half of the year, it is seen that, though more
than half the women were given work in
domestic and personal service, placements
had increased appreciably in other lines,
especially agriculture and manufacturing.
Employment Problems. A
handbook for round-table discussions
among household employers. U. S.
Office of Education, Vocational Divi
sion. September 1937. (With bibliog
raphy.)
This bulletin brings together miscellane
ous information concerning the supply,
training, and selection of household em
ployees, and summarizes the national and
local programs undertaken for bettering con
ditions in this type of employment and the
various standards set up for it.
The study points out that the social
stigma attached to household work is a basic
difficulty in raising standards. Combined
with this factor is the frequency of long hours
and low wages. From various sources the
hours of work of household employees were
found to average 12 a day and more.
Suggestions listed for making this work a
more attractive occupation include time
study of the various duties, the formulation
of a written schedule of work to be com
pleted, a written agreement on hours, wages,
vacation, duties to be performed, and length
of notice on termination of employment.

Household

WOMAN'S COLtEGf LIBRARY
16

^''.w UNIVERSITY
DURHAM, N. C.

THE WOMAN WORKER

News Notes
Michigan Equal-Pay Law Invoked
Violation of a Michigan statute that pro
hibits paying women less than men for the
same work was charged against a Michigan
automobile manufacturer April 7. A
woman worker in Lansing filed a claim
for herself and 28 others seeking to recover
an undetermined amount of back wages—
the difference between what they were paid
and what men would have been paid for
the same work—alleged to be due them over
a 6-year period. They claimed damages up
to #75,000. The women charged that the
difference between their wages and those of
men doing the same work amounted to at
least 21 cents an hour. The Michigan
Department of Labor and Industries reports
that it has never enforced or attempted to
enforce the statute prohibiting discrimina
tion against women in the payment of wages
(section 556 of Act 328 of the Public Acts
of 1931).

Though the statute invoked by the
Michigan workers is of some value, it can
affect only a small minority of employed
women, since the two sexes, by and large,
work at different occupations. Moreover,
this type of legislation is most difficult to
enforce, even with a sufficient appropriation
for administrative purposes, since it often
is difficult to determine whether or not two
individuals are performing the same process
in industry.

Textile Piece Workers Protected
Managers of Rhode Island textile fac
tories are now required by law to post, in
every room where the employees are on
piece work, legible and accessible specifica
tions of each kind of work done, with its
rate of pay. Where looms are operated on
the piece-rate system, the manager must
place pick clocks on each loom in operation
and each weaver shall be paid according to
the number of picks registered on the clock.
The law became effective January 1,1938.

Recent Women’s Bureau Publications1
Printed Bulletins

State Labor Laws

for

Women, December 31, 1937.

Part I.—Summary. Bui. 156. 1938. Price 5 cents.
16 pages.
The Legal Status of Women in the United States
of America, January 1, 1938—Parts that report for

Alabama (bul. 157-1), Connecticut (bul. 157-6),
Florida (bul. 157-9), and Iowa (bul. 157-14). 1938.
Price 5 cents each.
Mimeographed Material

State Minimum-Wage Orders for Retail and
Wholesale Trade Occupations. March 1938.

36 pages.
Wages and Hours of Women in Manufacturing
Establishments in Kentucky. Report of a survey

of 155 manufacturing establishments in the fall of
1937. 17 pages.

Women’s Earnings

Retail Stores

Kentucky.

Report of a survey of 93 stores in the fall of 1937.
16 pages.
Women’s Earnings in Hotels and Restaurants in
Kentucky. Report of a survey of 18 hotels and 45

restaurants in the fall of 1937.

18 pages.

Kentucky, 1937.

Report
of a survey of 359 establishments. 12 pages.
A Year of the Minimum Wage. (From the American
Federationist, issue of April 1938.) 7 pages.
Women’s Employment

Women’s Hours and Wages

1938.

Stores—Arizona.

A series of mimeographed charts.

13 pages.

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

Full text of The Woman Worker : May 1938, Volume XVIII, Number 3

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