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Woman Worker

United States Department of Labor

Women’s Bureau

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Frances Perkins, Secretary

WOMEN’S BUREAU
Mary Anderson, Director

THE WOMAN WORKER
PUBLISHED EVERY 2 MONTHS

No. 5

Vol. XX

SEPTEMBER 1940

CONTENTS
Page

3
4
5

\0 N
O\

Women Who Can Work in Defense Industries____________________________
How a Minimum-Wage Law Provides a “Floor”___________________________
Recent Trends in Women’s Wages and Employment_______________________
Earnings in Household Employment___________________________________________
Women Agricultural Workers_________________________________________________
Toward Minimum Fair Wages__________________________________________________

Progress Under the Federal Act—Minimum Wage in the States.
Women in Unions_________________________________________________________

Progress of Apparel, Food and Tobacco, Auto and Electrical, White-Collar, and
Service Workers.
News Notes and Announcements__________________________________________
State Legislation—Home-Work Laws Upheld—More Rhode Island Women Em
ployed—Connecticut Night Law Upheld—Work Hours of Virginia Women—
Delaware Beauty Shops—Georgia Women County Officers—Productivity and
Wages—Compulsory Labor of German Women—-Work Rules for British Women.
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

Women Who Can Work in Defense Industries
not far from 2 million women of Labor Statistics figures, women comprise
are immediately available for defense the following proportions of skilled workers:
Percent
work, according to preliminary and con
Knitted outerwear_________________________
76
servative estimates covering women actively Hosiery (full-fashioned)_____________________ 52
seeking work through the Employment Knitted underwear_________________________ 30
Security Agency and those now on W. P. A. Boots and shoes (not rubber)_________________ 22
rolls. Almost a sixth of these already have Cotton goods______________________________ 21
the necessary skills or at least some experi
This group includes the following occupa
ence, enabling them to adapt themselves
tions
that were listed as skilled:
easily.
There is a large additional group who have In cotton manufacture—Smash hands, weavers, and
hand drawers-in.
only partial employment and would be
In shoe making—Machine cutters, binding stitchers,
available for further work. Indicated by
padding or soft-shoe stitchers, top stitchers, all
the 1937 Census of Unemployment as at
round stitchers, and vampers.
least half a million, this probably is not an In hosiery mills—Loopers, seamers, toppers, menders,
and miscellaneous knitters.
overestimate for the present.
In knitted-underwear plants—Cutters, hand and ma
Well over a quarter of a million of the un
chine knitters, and loopers.
employed women are possessed of skill, ac
Long experience with women in industrial
cording to a recent preliminary report of the employment shows that there are certain
Employment Security Bureau. Of this group types of work that women perform particu
of skilled women, 34 percent are in the Mid larly well. They excel in work requiring
dle West; 22 percent in the Middle Atlantic care and constant alertness, good eyesight,
States (excluding New York1); 20 percent and use of light instruments such as gages,
in New England; 14 percent in Southeastern micrometers, vernier calipers—work calling
States; and 8 percent in the Far West (ex for little physical exertion. These are
cluding California x) and the Southwest.
characteristics of such jobs as inspection of
Figures reported by the W. P. A. show castings, machinings, and finished parts, of
more than 300,000 available women on proj routine powder analysis, of testing electrical
ects in May 1940. Many of these have equipment.
had experience with machines. Last Decem
Women excel at work requiring manipu
ber about 17,000 women were at work on lative dexterity and speed, but which permits
power machines in sewing projects.
them to set their own tempo and to work in a
In addition to those unemployed and on sitting position. These are characteristics
W. P. A. work, there are large but indefinite of bench work calling for laying-out work for
numbers of women now at work on jobs less machine operators, operating very small
skilled than they are accustomed to who machines to finish small and irregular parts,
could quickly be called back to their more assembling delicate instruments and ma
skilled occupations.
chines, loading shells, filling powder bags.
They
also are expert at work requiring skill
Women do much of the skilled work in the
but
little
strength either in handling parts or
manufacture of certain textiles and clothing
in
setting
up machines. These are char
needed in a defense program, and as these
acteristics
of
drilling machines, lathes, mill
expand, large numbers of women can be
ing,
grinding,
and polishing machines oper
used. According to United States Bureau
ating on small parts. Women operate large
1 New York and California were the only two major industrial
machines on heavy work when lifting de
States not included in this preliminary report, which covered 33
vices and pneumatic chucks can be used.
States.
robably

251789-40

THE WOMAN WORKER

How a Minimum-Wage Law Provides a “Floor”
Percent receiving
in which a minimum wage,
under 25 cents an hour
fixed by State or Federal authorities,
1939
1938
Illinois
__
12
operates to keep wages from falling to bot

________
17
5
________
14
tom levels is strikingly illustrated in a Indiana.
Maryland
51
29
Women’s Bureau study of women employed
New York.
___ ________ 19
(*)
in numerous types of canneries in 1938 and Wisconsin____ _
_ .________ 43
0
1939. If in so highly seasonal an industry,
1 Less than 0.05 percent.
one in which employment necessarily is
Labor costs in this industry usually are
irregular and in which the peak periods
may be very brief, workers benefit by these only a small proportion of total production
laws, even fuller effects are indicated for costs—in tomato canneries frequently only
occupations with less seasonal change in 9 to 12 percent—so a raise for a substantial
number of wage earners adds relatively
employment.
In Wisconsin and Minnesota, important little to the total costs.
The plants that paid above the minimum
pea-canning areas where a State minimum
wage was in operation, the rates prevailing fixed did not reduce rates, and the amounts
for women on this product were above such earned by those processing the same prod
minimum. Though some of the rates set ucts in different States still vary widely.
seemed low, they were well above the For example, in plants covered by the act,
amounts earned by many women in States workers on tomatoes averaged from 21.2
where no minimum had been fixed. Most cents an hour in Texas to 47.3 cents in
Wisconsin pea canneries were in the smaller California; pea canners from 26 cents in
communities, where the minimum rate was Arkansas and Virginia and 27 cents in Mary
20 cents, but relatively few women were land to more than 44 cents in Washington.
paid so little and the prevailing rates in In those not covered by the act rates some
1938 were 22% cents (the minimum for times ran very low—the average for tomato
larger communities) and 25 cents. Simi cannery workers in Arkansas was only 15.5
larly in Minnesota, with minimum rates of cents an hour, in Texas 15.9 cents, and in
24 and 27 cents in the smaller communities Virginia 17.3 cents.
where most of the canneries are situated,
The 1940 season is affected by the some
the larger numbers of women received 25, what higher minimum of 30 cents an hour.
30, 32%, or 35 cents. In important pea The 1939 study indicates that this would
canning States where no minimum had been result in increases for 55 percent of the
set, 20 cents or less was paid to 17 percent workers in citrus-juice plants, and to more
of the New York women and to over 75 per than 60 percent of those in plants canning
cent of the Maryland women in 1938.
citrus fruit or both fruit and juice. Juice
In the 1939 season the Federal Fair Labor is prepared almost solely by men but the
Standards Act was in effect, with its floor canning of the fruit sections is done largely
of 25 cents (though this excepted canneries by women. The workers in plants produc
in communities of under 2,500 if all their ing cold-packed and frosted fruits and vege
produce came from an area within 10 miles). tables in Washington and Oregon, two of
The proportions of all employees in tomato the leading States, already receive above the
canneries who received less than 25 cents 30-cent minimum.
were markedly reduced, as shown in the
The report also discusses the effect of
following information for identical plants hour laws and of other legislation, and
in 1938 and 1939.
covers additional types of canning.

he way

September 1940

THE WOMAN WORKER

Recent Trends in Women’s Wages and Employment1
employment in manufactur at the bottom of the wage scale undoubtedly
ing increased about 2 percent from had an important influence in pushing up
the spring of 1939 to the spring of 1940.
the hourly averages. Most notable of the
The picture differs markedly among the advances were the following:
various industries. A number of those im
Percent
increase
portant in defense showed outstanding gains,
10—cotton dresses.
with increases also for men though usually
6—cotton goods; hosiery; confectionery; women’s
in smaller proportions than for women. In
undergarments; rubber boots and shoes.
5—silk and rayon; woolen and worsted.
a number of other industries there were
appreciable employment declines for both
Average week’s earnings in these firms
sexes.
were not greatly different from those of a
The more notable changes in identical
year ago, due to some extent to a decline of
firms in employment of women from March
nearly 3 percent in hours worked. There
1939 to March 1940, with those of men for
were, however, decided changes in earnings
comparison, were in the following industries:
in a number of industries. In March 1940
Percent increase
Women Men
week’s earnings of women in these manu
Electrical machinery and supplies________23
19
facturing industries averaged $15.92, with
Glass and pottery____________________ 18
7
an average of 34 hours worked in the week.
Hardware___________________________ 12
10
Here
again the wage picture varies widely
Auto tires and tubes__________________ 8
6
with the industries, some having high,
Knit underwear______________________ 7 10
Men’s cotton clothing_________________ 7
4
others quite low, averages.

omen’s

Cotton goods________________________ 5
Paper boxes (set-up)__________________ 5
Dresses other than cotton_____________ 4
Book and job printing________________ 4
Radios and phonographs_______________ 4
Cotton dresses_______________________ 3

6
6
(*)
(*)
13
3

Percent decrease
Women Men

Boots and shoes (rubber)______________ 20
Hosiery____________________________ 16
Silk and rayon_______________________ 15
Woolen and worsted_________________ 12
Cigars______________________________ 5
Boots and shoes (leather)______________ 4

10
18
8
4
10
3

1 Less than 1 percent change—a decrease in dresses and an increase
in book and job printing.

Changes in Average Hourly Earnings.

In March 1940 women’s hourly earnings
averaged 47 cents in the major womanemploying manufacturing industries, an
increase of 3 percent from March 1939
figures for the same firms, according to
data reported twice a year by the Women’s
Bureau. Hourly earnings had increased in
the great majority of the industries reported.
During the year the 30-cent minimum re
quired under the Fair Labor Standards Act
went into effect, and the resulting increases

Changes in Week’s Earnings.

Week’s earnings are influenced by number
of hours worked. In some industries wom
en’s earnings advanced considerably from
March 1939 to March 1940; in some they
declined. However, a net gain is indicated,
since the increases in earnings were greater
than the lengthening of hours. There was
even a slight increase in week’s earnings in
four industries in which hours worked had
shortened—the making of cotton goods,
woolens and worsteds, women’s undergar
ments, and paper boxes. Further, in almost
all industries where week’s earnings had de
clined, hours of work had decreased more
1 Source: Pay-roll records mailed by employers to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics for a week about the middle of March. Included are
over 372,000 women in 22 industries representing nearly two-thirds
of all women in manufacturing, and nearly 27,000 women in laun
dries and cleaning and dyeing plants. Wage and hour figures given
cover all plants reported; percent changes are computed from data
for identical plants only. The 12 States included employ about
three-fourths of all women in manufacturing—California, Con
necticut, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri,
New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania.
Mimeographed tables showing more complete data for March 1940
can be obtained from the Women’s Bureau. Earlier data appeared
in the Woman Worker for March and September 1938, May and
September 1939, and March 1940.

THE WOMAN WORKER

than wages (a notable exception is women’s
coats and suits, where week’s earnings,
though higher than in any other industry
reported, went down markedly in the year).
The more outstanding changes in week’s
earnings, with changes in hours worked in
these industries, were as follows:
Percent increase in—
Avreage
Average

earnings

Men’s cotton clothing
______ 11
Cotton dresses___
.
______ 9
Confectionery ________ _
______ 6
Electrical machinery and supplies___ 4
Hardware.
_
______ 3

worked

1
0
3
2

Percent decrease in—
Average
Average

earnings

Women’s coats and suits ...
Boots and shoes (leather). .
Boots and shoes (rubber)___
Glass and pottery
Hosiery.__ ___ _____
Silk and rayon________ _
Men’s suits and overcoats.

______ 14
______ 8
______ 5
______ 5
______ 4
______ 3
______ 3

worked

6
10
11
4
9
8
5

Women’s Earnings in March 1940.
The average of week’s earnings in the
total of the manufacturing industries re
ported in March 1940 was $15.91. Figures
secured in this way, from the better or
ganized and for the most part larger firms,
are somewhat higher than those found in

intensive field studies giving a cross section
of plants of all types and sizes. However,
even for the industries reported in March
1940, week’s earnings of women in almost
half the industries averaged less than $15,
though in a few they averaged above $20.
Average week’s and hourly earnings of
women workers are shown in the following.

Average
week’s
earnings

Over SIS:
Women’s coats and suits___
_ _ $23.77
22.10
Dresses other than cotton. . ..
Auto tires and tubes____
.. _ 20.84
Electrical machinery and supplies.. 20.62
19.43
Boots and shoes (rubber).
Men’s suits and overcoats___
17. 39
Book and job printing. . ._ __ . 17. 25
Radios and phonographs___
16.64
16.00
Hardware ________ __
15.80
Women’s undergarments__ _
15.59
Hosiery___ ___________
15.52
Glass and pottery... ....
Under $15:
Woolen and worsted. .
__
14. 89
Confectionery _
__________ 14. 86
Boots and shoes (leather)________ 14.38
Paper boxes (set-up) _ _____ _ _ 14.30
Cigars. .... _ _
__ _____ 14. 24
Cotton dresses__ ___
____ 14. 20
Knit underwear ....
14.09
Men’s cotton clothing __________ 13.72
13.35
Cotton goods_______ . _ _
Silk and rayon. _ .
13.05

Average
hourly
earnings
(cents)

82.8
69.2
67.6
54.7
51.9
51.2
49.2
50.3
44.2
45.8
48.2
44.6
48.4
42.8
42.0
40.1
41.6
38.3
39.5
39.2
39.1
39.7

Earnings of Women and Men.

The lowest weekly average for men in
March 1940 was $16.05 in cotton mills, but
women’s earnings averaged less than this in
all manufacturing and in 14 of the 22
branches reported.
Trends in Laundries and Dry Cleaning.

The reports included also about 27,000
women in laundries and dry-cleaning plants,
almost nine-tenths of them being in laun
dries. Women’s employment had increased
in the laundries reporting for March 1939
and March 1940; their week’s earnings had
increased also, and more than their hours.

Earnings in Household Employment
average weekly earnings of general
21 maids and housekeepers—the latter
excluding presumably the women who su
pervise staffs of servants—ranged from
about $2 in South Carolina and in North
Carolina to not quite $8.50 in New York
when room and board was furnished by the
employer, according to estimates made by

the officials of the United States Employ
ment Service in its branch offices for every
State in the Union. The average for women
receiving meals only was about 60 cents more
in New York and less than 30 cents more in
the two other States. These are the first
figures on earnings in household employ
ment that ever have undertaken to repre-

September 1940

EARNINGS IN HOUSEHOLD EMPLOYMENT

sent all the States. They have been pre
pared from data for 1936 and 1937.
Average wages in each State were esti
mated for seven classes of employment, in
cluding the more specialized jobs usually found
when more than one person is employed in
a household. The most common situation,
however, is that of one person, practically
always a woman, doing alone whatever work
is required. The following discussion per
tains to such a group of women, namely, the
general maids and housekeepers.
An average of less than #5 was estimated
in 29 States for workers receiving room and
board and in 24 States for those receiving
meals only. The average was #5 but less
than #6 with room and board in 9 States,
with meals alone in 12. In only 2 States
and the District of Columbia did workers
furnished either full maintenance or board
only average as much as $8, and in none so
much as #9 a week.
Wage figures quoted here show the great
need for some minimum-wage machinery in a
field employing more women than does any
other. A suggestion that each community
form a specialized service for household
workers within their local employment serv
ice was made by a representative of the
Women’s Bureau at a panel held during the
convention of the International Association
of Public Employment Services. Such a
program could seek more desirable jobs for
the workers and better qualified applicants.
It could be supplemented by a committee
representing the various community inter
ests, such as the W. P. A., the N. Y. A., the

public schools, organizations of homemakers
and household workers, private non-fee
charging placement agencies, and many
others. Subcommittees could concentrate
on various phases of the problem, such as
training, standards, and legislation.
A careful, factual approach to the question
of fair minimum rates for household employ
ment is being made by the committee on
household employment of the Chicago
Y. W. C. A. In determining such a rate
material has been brought together on cost
of living, actual wages paid, and minimum
rates fixed for other industries in Illinois.
Wages at which workers were placed by em
ployment agencies and wages offered in
newspaper advertisements in Chicago were
studied. The average prevailing wage at
which experienced workers were placed was
nearly #11 a week; for beginners the wage
was slightly more than $7. The average
offered in newspaper advertisements during
a single week was around #8. A preliminary
report proposed a minimum of #8 a week for
beginners, with two or three raises of #1 each
in the first year. About #8.20 was estimated
as the living cost for a single woman in house
hold employment, based on the budget for
Philadelphia determined by the Pennsyl
vania Department of Labor and Industry,
but deducting for room and board (usually
furnished the household worker), for differ
ence in transportation and clothing require
ments. This was borne out by average
actual expenditures of a small group of such
workers in Chicago. The problem will be
studied further at later meetings.

Women Agricultural Workers
agricultural workers in the
United States seldom present an
isolated problem. Rather they are an
gral part of family agricultural enterprises
and their work status is determined largely
by family economic activities. The 1930
census reports 909,900 women as agricul
tural workers. Of this number over 171,300
omen

251789—40------ 2

are wage earners and 475,000 are unpaid
family laborers. The first of these groups
inte
adds
to the family income by securing cash
wages, as do industrial workers; the other
increases the money crop of the farm and
makes unnecessary the hiring of paid labor.
Of all women agricultural workers, large
proportions are in the East South Central,

THE WOMAN WORKER

the South Atlantic, and the West South
Central States. The numbers quoted by
the census may be considered a minimum,
for the enumerators were instructed to con
sider a woman as doing farm work only if
she did such work “regularly and most of
the time.” The great numbers of women
in farmers’ households who work in the
field only at specific seasons are not included.
No figures are available that will permit
an accurate statement of the number of
women field workers, the amount of service
they render, the conditions under which
they work, the other burdens they carry,
the effect of their field labor on conditions
in the home, or its effect on present-day
farm problems. Only a spotted picture can
be given, but it may be enough to indicate
the deep need of a carefully planned and
thorough study of women in agriculture.
The largest number of women farm wage
workers are employed in the cotton fields.
In spring they chop and in fall they pick or
pull the cotton. These women may be able
to fit in some hoeing of corn after the cotton
chopping and in some places pick up pecans
for a short time in late fall. A study of
migratory cotton pickers in Arizona showed
that the average cash income of 518 migrant
families and unattached persons from all
jobs in 1937 was $393. Southern Negro
cotton workers undoubtedly receive less
than this.
A large number of women work in tobacco
fields in summer and in the strip houses in
fall. Strip sheds are on the tobacco planta
tions and their workers are considered farm
workers. The tobacco stalks, or in Con
necticut the leaves, are strung and hung on
laths in curing sheds. When cured the
tobacco is taken down and leaves are
stripped from the stalks and sorted by
women. A recent study by the Connecticut
Department of Labor found that shed
workers (chiefly women) receive $1.50 to $2
a day for the short season, though boys
picking tobacco in the fields are paid more,
and women stringing the leaves for curing
average $2.60 a day.

In Louisiana and Florida women work at
planting and cultivating sugar cane and at
cutting, topping, and stripping and other
harvesting operations, at wages of 11 to 18
cents an hour (houses and medical attention
furnished by employers). In Colorado and
other States growing sugar beets women are
part of the family groups that thin out the
young plants and cultivate them in May
and June and pull and top the beets in late
fall. A recent estimate showed some 15,000
women so employed, chiefly in Colorado,
California, and in the Great Lakes region.
Another survey showed Colorado families
averaging 6.4 persons in the sample covered,
with half the families receiving $340 or less
for the year’s work of all their members.
A recent preliminary survey of 325 potato
farms in three New Jersey counties revealed
that most of the migratory Negro workers
had come from Florida and Virginia in family
groups. About one-sixth of all reported
were women. Earnings were 20 to 35 cents
an hour, and of course the work is seasonal.
Fifteen years ago cultivating and harvesting
on truck farms near metropolitan cities was
done by women and children brought out
from the cities. It is not known how much
of this work is done by city families today,
nor how much of the picking of berries, other
fruits, hops, or other special crops is done by
local women and their children, how much
by migratory groups.
When fresh fruits and vegetables are
trucked or shipped to nearby markets, the
packing in baskets or barrels is usually done
on the farm. Distinct from these field
workers are the men and women who pack
specially prepared fresh fruits and vegetables
for distant markets. This latter type of
work is done in central packing houses, some
times owned by large producers, sometimes
by cooperatives, and then again by contract
packers or shipping-point dealers. The prin
cipal crops so handled are citrus fruits,
apples, other deciduous fruit, green'wrapped
tomatoes, celery, lettuce, and to a less
degree broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, and
other vegetables.

THE WOMAN WORKER

September 1940

Toward Minimum Fair Wages
Progress Under the Federal Act
Seasonal Products and Area of Production.

Administrator of the Fair Labor
Standards Act has applied the sea
sonal exemption in the act to the storing of
agricultural products in their raw and nat
ural state, having found that 50 percent or
more of the year’s volume is received in 14
workweeks. This allows them, for 14 work
weeks, a 12-hour day, 56-hour week, before
payment of overtime.
The Administrator has announced that a
seasonal exemption is granted also to plants
canning or first processing or picking perish
able or seasonal fruits or vegetables for 14
workweeks up to 12 hours a day or 56 hours
a week. This doubles the time during
which such plants may work overtime before
payment of overtime rates, since the act
already allows unlimited hours for 14 work
weeks.
A new definition makes the “area of pro
duction” the “immediate vicinity” for plants
with 10 or fewer employees canning or proc
essing or packing fresh fruits and vege
tables. On October 1 this replaces the
present definitions, one of which fixes a
10-mile area for plants in the open country
or in towns of under 2,500, while the other
exempts plants with 7 or fewer employees.
It will be remembered that the act exempts
these plants from any wage and hour
standards.
he

Wage Order for Paper and Pulp Industry.
A minimum of 40 cents an hour has been
fixed for the making of pulp and primary
paper, effective September 16. Many of the

11,000 women in the industry are among the
more than 8,000 workers whose wages will
be raised. Since labor costs range from 17
to 22 percent of operating costs, the latter
will be increased by only about one-tenth
of one percent.
Recommendations for Two More Industries.
The luggage and leather-goods committee
has recommended a 35-cent minimum,

which if approved will increase hourly
earnings for about 4,900 workers in a total
of 18,250. The committee requested the
Administrator to call this or another com
mittee 6 months after the effective date of
any wage order to reconsider the minimum.
The carpet and rug committee has recom
mended a minimum of 40 cents for em
ployees making wool carpet yarns, rugs, and
carpets, and 35 cents for workers on carpets
and rugs made of other fibers. If approved,
these will increase the rates of some 1,100
of the 31,000 workers in the industry, rais
ing about 1,000 of them to 40 cents.
Two New Industry Committees Appointed.

Industry committees have been appointed
for the converted paper products industry
(No. 14) and the embroideries industry
(No. 15).
State Agreements for Enforcement.

Connecticut and Minnesota have signed
agreements providing for inspection and
investigation by State authorities for the
Federal Wage and Hour Division. The
only other such agreements are in North
Carolina and the District of Columbia.
Applying the Act to Puerto Rico.

An amendment to the Fair Labor Stand
ards Act approved June 26 provides for
special industry committees for Puerto
Rico and the Virgin Islands. These com
mittees may fix a minimum less than the
statutory 30 cents if economic factors de
mand it. However, the minimum provided
must not give the islands a competitive ad
vantage over the mainland. Overtime pay
requirements and the ban on child labor
remain as before.
The first wage-hour restitution for Puerto
Rico has been reported. Under this a gar
ment manufacturer pays about $2,555 to 128
employees who had received less than the
statutory minimum of 30 cents. The firm

THE WOMAN WORKER

sells its entire output in New York and other
clothing centers in the United States. In
the case of another needlework firm, a sub
stantial volume of art linen goods and in
fants’ wear has been held up until the re
quired wage is paid. The plant has 30 to
70 employees and receives goods from over
2,000 home workers.

tion case, is the opinion that Alex Elson,
Chicago regional attorney, has filed with
the Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of a
pearl button company. The court decision
cited establishes the principle that “inter
pretations of administrative agencies charged
with the enforcement of the statute are
entitled to great weight.”

Pay for Rest Periods.
Employees coming under the provisions of
the Fair Labor Standards Act are to be paid

Minimum Wage in the States

for short rest periods, according to recent
instructions. A “short” rest period is con
strued to include periods up to and including
20 minutes. When rest periods customarily
taken are longer, final decision on whether
or not employees shall be paid for them will
rest with the regional director.
The Courts and Wage-Hour Enforcement.
It was estimated early in July that more
than 137,000 persons work for employers
against whom court action has been brought.
Recent cases include those of a Virginia
hosiery mill ordered to pay back wages of

$11,052 for failure to pay the minimum and
overtime rates. A Georgia firm making
pants and overalls has been held in contempt
of court for suspending payment of $2,067
ordered paid to 70 employees, and requiring
a “kick back” of the amounts paid on the
first installment.
In a late case two Minnesota lumber
companies were fined $10,000 and ordered
to pay back wages and overtime of about
$35,000 to 700 workers. This involved
family labor where a single check, averag
ing $6.18 a week in winter and $9.66 in
summer, was paid the father for work of the
mother and of children under 16. Women
peeled bark from pulpwood and girls 12 to
20 did men’s work. Children piled or cut
brush. One woman trucker averaged about
$4 a day, from which she paid $2 for the
helper plus the cost of gasoline, oil, and re
pair for the truck.
That interpretative bulletins of the
Wage-Hour Division are “more than legal
opinions” according to the Supreme Court
decision in the American Trucking Associa

California—The Standard Week.

The Attorney General of California has
reaffirmed his previous opinion that orders
setting a minimum rate for a “standard
week” require the payment of $16 for what
ever the usual hours of an establishment may
be, even if less than 48. Many firms have
entered into union agreements to pay $16
for a 40-hour week, but others are still pay
ing at the rate of 33% cents an hour for less
than 48 hours. Prosecutions have begun in
such cases. Review of the opinion has been
requested by a group of manufacturers.
Colorado—Public Housekeeping Order.

All establishments offering food or refresh
ments, or lodging with or without food, are
covered by a Colorado wage order effective
June 16. Among others specifically included
are hospitals and sanitariums, private schools
and colleges, but only the employees in pub
lic-housekeeping occupations are affected.
The basic minimum rate for experienced
workers in Denver and certain of the ad
joining areas is 27% cents an hour; in the re
mainder of the State, 22% cents. Time and
one-half is to be paid for over 48 hours in a
calendar week. Learners may be paid half
these rates for the first 288 hours (6 weeks)
of employment and three-fourths these rates
for the second such period. Limited deduc
tions are allowed for meals, lodging, and uni
forms, but gratuities are the workers’ sole
property and are not to be considered part
of the minimum wage.
Wages undoubtedly will be raised for
many women. In 1937, of women receiving
cash wages only, nearly two-fifths in hotels
and more than half in restaurants had been
paid less than $10.

September 1940

MINIMUM WAGE

Connecticut—Benefits of Order for Cleaning.

Earnings are higher and employment is
more stable in the Connecticut cleaning and
dyeing industry since the wage order went
into effect in January 1939. A survey by
the Minimum Wage Division found average
(median) hours and earnings of women and
male minors in a period before and in one
after the order to be as follows:
Median earnings
Weekly
Hourly
(.cents)

Busy week—1938__
___ £14.22
1940_____
15.24
Slack week—1938 __ .... 13.27
1940____ .... 14.82

32.4
35.3
31.4
35.4

Median
weekly
hours

47.2
48.0
41.5
45.8

The proportion of women earning be
tween $14 and $16 had increased from 22
percent in 1938 to 45 percent in 1940. In
1939, 68 percent of the women had 9 months
or more of work, though in 1938 only 54
percent of the women had employment for
so long.

ufacturing were made mandatory, each pro
viding a 35-cent minimum for experienced
workers. The provision in the directory
order for wearing apparel, calling for a pro
gressive increase above 35 cents each year
from October 1941 to October 1943, was not
made mandatory. On the request of the
labor commissioner, the original wage board
for the apparel industry met July 23 to
consider the question of establishing a lower
rate for learners.
New York—Laundry Order Modified.

Effective June 15, the New York laundry
order was modified in respect to laundries
in resort counties that are required to pay a
higher rate in the summer season—35 in
stead of 30 cents. Previously this rate
was to be paid from June 15 to September
15, but on the basis of study and experience
the period has been shortened to include
only the weeks of July 4 through Labor Day.
Ohio—Recommendations for Beauty Culture.

District of Columbia—New Official.

John E. Laskey, formerly United States
attorney and past president of the District
Bar Association, has been named employer
representative on the District Minimum
Wage Board for a 3-year term. Claude H.
Woodward, who has served since the fall of
1937, said he resigned because of the time
necessary for his own job.
Minnesota—Enforcement.

The value of State minimum-wage laws
is well illustrated by the work of the Minne
sota Division of Women and Children in
May. Nearly $5,400 in wage restitutions
was secured for women and minors from 101
firms. Only 9 of the firms were subject to
the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and
adjustments in these amount to $275.
Women in the other 92 plants would have
lost over $5,000 if the State act had not
been in operation to secure these wages.
New Jersey—Orders Made Mandatory.

Effective July 15, the New Jersey wage
orders for wearing apparel and for light man

The beauty-culture board in Ohio has
recommended that employees in beauty
shops (except those employed exclusively as
maids) be paid $16 for work up to and in
cluding 44 hours, if employed to work on
more than 3 days in any week, irrespective
of number of hours worked on any one day.
If employed for 3 days or less, such workers
are to receive $4 for each day of 8 hours, or
50 cents an hour, with a minimum of 4 hours’
pay in any one day. Persons employed
exclusively as maids are to be paid $14 for
33 to 44 hours, inclusive, and 38 cents an
hour for less than 33 hours. Higher hourly
rates are recommended for both maids
and other workers—for more than 44
hours of work a week for full-time workers,
and for over 8 a day for part-time workers.
A report from the Ohio Bureau of Unem
ployment Compensation, covering women
in beauty and barber shops who had worked
12 or 13 weeks in the first quarter of 1940,
shows that 64 percent had averaged less
than $16 a week in that time. Almost
four-fifths of the women in cities below
100,000 had averaged less than $16.

THE WOMAN WORKER

Utah—Public Housekeeping; Retail Trade.

Minimum rates of from 510 to 514 a
week, by zones to be determined by the
Industrial Commission, have been recom
mended for public-housekeeping occupations
in Utah. The industry is defined as includ
ing all establishments offering lodgings, and
hospitals and institutions as well. All

women and minors are to be covered except
registered nurses and resident managers.
The mandatory order for retail trade in
Utah has been amended to fix the minimum
at 514 in Salt Lake City, the same as in
Ogden. Other towns remain at 510 to 513
minimum. Learners’ and part-time rates
remain as before. (See Woman Worker,
July 1940.)

Women in Unions
Progress of Workers Making Apparel.

wo great unions of clothing workers
reviewed in the late spring the impor
tant progress made in their organizations
over long periods.
The International
Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union cele
brated its fortieth anniversary in May.
With a membership of less than 5,000 dur
ing its first 9 years, it passed 50,000 in
1911, and 100,000 in 1920. The past 4
years have seen the membership mount to
about 250,000. Practically 80 percent of
these are women. The extent of organiza
tion, varying with branch of industry,
ranges from 26 percent in knitted outerwear
to 94 percent in coats and suits. The con
vention empowered the general executive
board to take action looking toward the
abolition of home work; to work for equali
zation of standards in certain branches of
the industry; and to study the problem of
a guaranteed annual wage.
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers
reviewed the 25 years of organization at
their convention in New York City. The
general executive board reported that in
this quarter of a century the union has
achieved the 5-day week, more than trebled
the wage rates of clothing workers, and
reduced hours from 60 and 70 to 36 a week.
While the organization began with the suit
and coat industry, it has been extended into
such low-wage industries as shirts. It is
planned to continue a stabilization program
which includes identical w’age rates for a
given industry throughout the country.

Such a program was put into effect last
year for 20,000 workers in the low-priced
clothing field. It is estimated that about
90 percent of men’s clothing is manufac
tured under Amalgamated contract. The
membership of fully 250,000 includes work
ers in laundries and dry-cleaning plants.
Approximately half the members are women.
Some 130 Chicago cap makers have se
cured an immediate 5-percent increase in
piece rates with a further 2%-percent in
crease for operators, cutters, and blockers
on January 1, 1941. The contract pro
vides a closed union shop, equal division of
work, protection against discharge, and
machinery for adjusting disputes.
Progress of Food and Tobacco Workers.

Early in the season a year’s contract was
signed with an association of canners in
northern California covering between 50,000
and 60,000 workers. It provides 1 week’s
vacation with pay for regular workers, a
preferred-hiring clause, the right to collect
union dues on the job, and recognition of
seniority on union lists. Basic pay of 42%
cents for women and 52% cents for men
remains unchanged. The past year’s hour
schedule also is continued; this sets a 40hour week in the off-season and a 66-hour
week during 14 busy weeks. A campaign
is planned to organize other canneries and
dried-fruit, nut-packing, cottonseed, and
vegetable-oil plants in the State.
A renewed contract signed in an eastern
date-and-fig-packing plant secured a 12-

September 1940

WOMEN IN UNIONS

percent wage increase for 800 workers, also
a closed shop and a week’s vacation with
pay.
A year’s contract in a Washington State
preserving factory secured a raise in hourly
rates of 2% cents for women and 4 and 5
cents for men.
A contract in a cracker factory in Ohio
provides a 5-day 40-hour week, with a mini
mum of 45 cents an hour and time and a half
for overtime. Rates are to be raised 3 cents
an hour every 3 months until the maximum
for each class is reached. In addition, this
contract and one in a bread bakery in the
South provide for paid vacations, seniority
rights, time-and-a-half pay for holidays, and
safety and health measures.
More than 7,000 workers are covered by
an agreement negotiated with a firm making
cigarettes and other tobacco products in
three plants in Virginia, Kentucky, and New
Jersey. Outstanding provisions are a 40hour week, a flat 5-percent wage increase,
a week’s vacation with pay, seniority rights,
union recognition, and adjustment of dis
putes. This is the first union contract with
this firm.
Progress of Auto and Electrical Workers.

A new and improved contract has been
negotiated for 130,000 automobile workers
in 54 plants operated by one corporation.
To end inequalities in wage rates a total of
55,000,000 a year in increases was secured.
A dividend of 40 hours’ pay in place of a
vacation is to be given this summer to all
workers with 1 year or more of seniority.
These dividends will total some 57,000,000.
Other important provisions include: Sen
iority rights and their protection in sickness
or absence for union activities; prohibition
of strikes, curtailment of production, or
lockouts; grievance procedure; protection of
workers in the timing of operations.
A union in the electrical and radio field
announces that in the 8 months ending in
March 1940, approximately 51,600,000 a
year in wage increases has been secured
through 88 contracts covering about 14,500
workers. Altogether about 250,000 work

ers in some 300 plants are under union con
tracts, in contrast with about 15,000 in 1936.
Progress of White-Collar Workers.

Knowledge of conditions is an important
first step to progress. A New York City
union has made a survey of earnings of
about 440 employees (an 11-percent sample)
in 36 book and magazine publishing houses.
About four-fifths of these employees are
women. There seemed to be no accepted
standards for beginning salaries, increases,
advancements, or bonuses. Beginning sal
aries for stenographers varied from 517 to
532. Switchboard operators received from
514 to 530. About one-third of all workers
covered received less than the minimum of
522.93 which the New York Department of
Labor considers necessary for a woman living
alone. There was evidence of marked dis
crimination against women as far as salary
levels and advancement are concerned.
For example, the average for men editors,
editorial assistants, and proofreaders was
547.22 a week, while the average for women
in the same category was only 526.17.
The union of teachers in Chicago, through
various committees, has made detailed
studies of important problems. These in
clude: Sick and maternity leave; the need
of time for record-keeping; physical condi
tions, such as fire hazards, poor heating, and
ventilation in school buildings; teacher
load and overtime.
Progress of Service Workers.
Dining-room, kitchen, and room-service
workers in 10 hotels in Washington, D. C.,
have secured a new agreement, which in
cludes for the first time a week’s vacation
with pay after a year’s employment. A
minimum of 532 a month is set for all non
service employees, and the contract has
protective clauses for dining-room, kitchen,
and all service workers. Other provisions
include: Uniforms to be furnished and
laundered by the hotel; overtime for more
than 8 hours’ work a day; the union to fill
all jobs; the right to draw a full week’s wage
each week. A similar agreement is in force
in 5 other hotels in the same city.

THE WOMAN WORKER

News Notes and Announcements
State Legislation

More Rhode Island Women Employed

State legislatures in session
Women’s employment in major Rhode
when the Woman Worker went to Island industries showed a marked increase
press were Maine, reconvening July 22,
from April to October 1939. In the latter
and Missouri, meeting in special session month more than 66,000 women were at
on the same date. New Jersey and Cali work in establishments employing 5 or more
fornia had recessed until late in the year. persons. They comprised 38 percent of all
so employed, and over a 12-month period
New Jersey.
their numbers had increased by 14 percent
Effective in June, an amendment to the as compared with 8 percent for men. Well
industrial home-work law requires home over 31,000 of these women were in textile
workers and employers in the hand-knitting mills, nearly 8,000 in jewelry factories, and
industry to maintain for 2 years daily about 2,000 in the metal and machine indus
records of work done, and requires employers tries. Compared with April 1939, employ
to pay each worker immediately upon com ment of women had increased as follows:
Textiles, 7 percent; jewelry, 32 percent;
pletion and delivery of work.
metals and machinery, 18 percent.

he only

Louisiana.

The legislature has repealed the act
passed early in 1940 to prohibit employ
ment by the State of both husband and wife
if either was paid as much as 5100 a month.

Home-Work Laws Upheld
In California, the first prosecution under
the new home-work act resulted in placing
the offending employer on 6 months’ proba
tion, fine and jail sentence being suspended.
Desired results were obtained, as prosecution
caused home work to be entirely suspended in
Chinatown.
The New York home-work law has been
upheld a third time by the action of the
Board of Standards and Appeals in denying
the petition of a group of manufacturers
against the order governing the artificial
flower and feather industry. This latest
decision clears up two contested points:
First, the Federal Fair Labor Standards
Act does not supersede or conflict with the
New York law; second, the order may apply
to men as well as women, since the law’s
chief objective is the gradual elimination of
home work by any person.

Connecticut Night Law Upheld
A unanimous decision has been handed
down by the Connecticut Supreme Court
holding valid the law prohibiting the employ
ment of women in restaurants after 10 p. m.
A group of women musicians employed as
entertainers in a restaurant sought an injunc
tion against the Labor Department restrain
ing it from enforcing the law against them.
The Supreme Court denied the request.

Work Hours of Virginia Women
The 48-hour week for women in Virginia,
which went into effect in June 1938, largely
confirmed a schedule quite generally estab
lished, especially in manufacturing. The
report of the Department of Labor and
Industry showed that in 1937 the workweek
was 48 hours or less for 88 percent of the
women in manufacturing and 74 percent of
those in laundries and dry-cleaning. The
effects of the law may be seen in the report
recently issued for the calendar year 1938.
The percent of women working more than

September 1940

NEWS NOTES

48 hours was reduced in manufacturing from
12 to 6 and in laundries and dry-cleaning
shops from 26 to 3. The law allows longer
hours in fruit and vegetable canning, tobacco
rehandling, peanut cleaning, and oyster
shucking and packing. The first three ac
count for 90 percent of the women in manu
facturing who worked 49 hours or more in
1938.

Delaware Beauty Shops
The Attorney General of Delaware has
ruled that beauty shops come under the law
fixing women’s hours in any “mercantile,
mechanical, or manufacturing” plant.

out the service, or encouragement to refusal,
is punishable by imprisonment or intern
ment. These orders apply to women in the
former Polish and Czech territories as well as
in the main Reich. An order issued a year
ago (September 4, 1939) increased the
strength of the compulsory labor service for
young women to 100,000. It was stated
that within a month the women’s labor
camps in operation had doubled, 1,575
camps being at work in October and over
2,000 expected by April 1940. Among the
occupations commanding these girls and
women was the seasonal agricultural work,
and some 25,000 of them were to be called up
in November for harvesting potatoes, beets,
and other products.

Georgia Women County Officers
A survey by Flora Beal Craton lists 84
women serving as county officials in Georgia.
Of these, 76 were elected. The largest
group, school superintendents, numbered 20.

Productivity and Wages
In spite of labor’s great increase in pro
ductiveness over the period 1923-24 to
1936-37, “gains to labor proved to be
chiefly greater leisure,” according to a
recent report of the Brookings Institution
entitled “Productivity, Wages, and Na
tional Income.” Labor’s share of the total
income from manufacturing was about the
same at both dates, though labor produced
about 50 percent more in the later than in
the earlier year. Total man-hours were
less by 16 percent, and real wages, on a
weekly basis, had increased by only 6
percent. Wages had risen less than 1
percent in the cotton-textile industry and
less than 2 percent in tobacco, but about 11
percent in automobiles and parts and in
paper and pulp, and about 8 percent in
iron and steel.

Compulsory Labor of German Women
Penalties for offenses against the system
of compulsory labor service in Germany
apply to women workers. Refusal to carry

Work Rules for British Women
The British Home Office early in March
presented a report on hours of employment
of women and young persons in factories
during the first 5 months of the war. It
stated that the ill effects of continued long
hours on production are widely recognized,
and that “* * * notwithstanding the excep
tional demands being made upon industry
for increased and accelerated production to
meet the war emergency the hours and con
ditions of employment of women and young
persons are being kept under supervision
and control.”
At the outset of the war overtime up to
60 hours a week and changes in starting and
stopping time were freely allowed. This
arrangement was temporary and was ter
minated at an early stage, after which
authority to depart from the peacetime
requirements of the factory act were ob
tained only after careful investigation. A
tendency toward standardization of emer
gency hours in some industries led in time
to the making of general orders.
When the report was published in March,
four general orders had been issued allowing
the following extended hours, inclusive of
overtime: Light engineering and metal
work, 57 hours a week; the clothing industry,
54 hours; the woolen and worsted industry,

THE WOMAN WORKER

54 hours; cotton spinning and weaving, 55%
hours. Orders issued, usually for short
periods, in the case of 2,914 individual
factories included the following authoriza
tions: Employment of women on two day
shifts of 8 hours each, in 299 factories;
employment of women at night in 57
factories.
Negotiations were undertaken in a num
ber of industries as to the wage to be paid
women who replace men for the duration
of the war. Women employed as bus or
tram conductors were ordered paid the
men’s rate on reaching the age of 21. For
those under 21 the rate was to be 90 percent
of that paid to men, and for both groups

there was provided a learning period of
6 months during which 90 percent of the
men’s rate was to be paid. An agreement
in the boot and shoe industry provided that
women transferred to men’s departments
were to be paid a graduated scale for the
first month and then to receive the same
piece rate as men. Labor agreements for
employing women to replace men in engi
neering during the war provide a period of
at least 32 weeks before paying the full rate
and bonus of the men, unless any woman
can work without added supervision, assist
ance, or training. Women drafted into
such work shall be regarded as temporarily
employed.

Recent Publications
Women’s Bureau—Printed Bulletins 1
Effective Industrial Use of Women in the De
fense Program. (Standards for women’s employ

ment.)
Hours

Special Bui. 1. 22 pp.

and

dustries:

10 cents.

Earnings in Certain Men’s-Wear In
Raincoats; Sport Jackets. Bui. 163—

5. 29 pp. 10 cents.
Earnings in the Women’s and Children’s Apparel
Industry in the Spring of 1939. Bui. 175. 91

pp.

15 cents.

in Selected Cities, 1935-36.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bui. 648. Vol. V,
Medical Care; Vol. VI, Travel and Transportation.

Family Expenditures

Wages, Hours, and Working Conditions in Union
Bakeries, June 1,1939. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Bui. 673.
Manual

Industrial-Injury Statistics.

Bureau

of Labor Statistics. Bui. 667.
Proceedings of Sixth National Conference on
Labor Legislation. Division of Labor Standards.

Bui. 35.
Discussion of Industrial Accidents and Diseases.

Women’s Bureau—Mimeographed Material1
State Minimum-Wage Orders for Laundry and
Dry-Cleaning Occupations, June 1940. 96 pp.

Address by Mary
Anderson before Arlington County (Va.) Soroptomist
Club, March 28, 1940. 8 pp.

Discriminations Against Women.

A New Program for Household Workers. Address
by Mary V. Robinson before panel of convention of
International Association of Public Employment
Services, Kansas City, Mo., May 16, 1940. 7 pp.

Other Department of Labor Publications 1
Money Disbursements of Wage Earners and
Clerical Workers, 1934-36. Bureau of Labor

Statistics. North Atlantic Region (11 cities). Bui.
637, Vol. II.

(1939 Convention.) Division of Labor Standards.
Bui. 36.
Protecting Eyes in Industry. Division of Labor
Standards. Bui. 37.
Safeguarding Manpower for Greater Production.

Division of Labor Standards. Special Bui. 1.

Other Recent Publications
A Story About 50,000 New York Women. New
York State Department of Labor, April 1940. 10
pp. (Mimeographed.)

This pamphlet presents in a lively way what has
been accomplished by four minimum-wage orders and
by the law governing home work.
1 Bulletins may be ordered from the Superintendent of Documents,
Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., at prices listed. A
discount of 25 percent on orders of 100 or more copies is allowed.
Mimeographed reports are obtainable only from the Women’s
Bureau.

U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1940

Full text of The Woman Worker : September 1940, Vol. XX, No. 5

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