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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS, SECRETARY

WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director

BULLETIN OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU, NO.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY
INDUSTRIES
A Study of Hours, Wages, and
Working Conditions

©k 13

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1923

[Public—No. 259—66th Congress.]
[H. R. 13229.]
An Act To establish in the Department of Labor a bureau to be
known as the Women’s Bureau.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be
established in the Department of Labor a bureau to be known as the
Women’s Bureau.
Sec. 2. That the said bureau shall be in charge of a director, a
woman, to be appointed by tho President, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, who shall receive an annual compensa
tion of $5,000. It shall be the duty of said bureau to formulate
standards and policies which shall promote the welfare of wage
earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their
efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employ
ment. The said bureau shall have authority to investigate and
report to the said department upon all matters pertaining to the
welfare of women in industry. The director of said bureau may
from time to time publish the results of these investigations in such
a manner and to such extent as the Secretary of Labor may prescribe.
Sec. 3. That there shall be in said bureau an assistant director,
to be appointed by the Secretary of Labor, who shall receive an
annual compensation of $3,500 and shall perform such duties as
shall be prescribed by the director and approved by the Secretary
of Labor.
_
Sec. 4. That there is hereby authorized to be employed by said
bureau a chief clerk and such special agents, assistants, clerks, and
other employees at such rates of compensation and in such numbers
as Congress may from time to time provide by appropriations.
Sec. 5. That the Secretary of Labor is hereby directed to furnish
sufficient quarters, office furniture, and equipment for the work of
this bureau.
Sec. 6. That this act shall take effect and be in force from and
after its passage.
Approved, June 5, 1920.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS, SECRETARY

WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director

BULLETIN OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU, NO.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY
INDUSTRIES

A Study of Hours, Wages, and
Working Conditions

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1923

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U. S. Department of Labor,
Women’s Bureau,

Washington, November 13, 1922.
Herewith is transmitted the report of the investigation of
women in Kentucky industries which extended through the months
of October and November in the year 1921.
This investigation was made at the request of the Governor of
Kentucky and the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs. The
information was gathered from 151 establishments in 19 industries
and covered a total of 10,107 women. The work of the inquiry was
much facilitated by the cooperation of State officials—the depart
ment of agriculture, labor, and statistics; the State department of
health; and the department of health in Louisville. Among the
women’s organizations which cooperated with the Women s Bureau
were the State Federation of Women’s Clubs, the League of Women
Voters, the Consumers’ League, and the Young Women’s Christian
Association.
The survey was conducted by Miss Caroline Manning in charge of
the Women’s Bureau staff in Kentucky. The statistical material
was compiled by Miss Elizabeth A. Hyde and the report was written
by Miss Mary V. Robinson and Mrs. Mildred J. Gordon.
Respectfully submitted.
.
Mary Anderson, Director.
Hon. James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor.
Sir:

CONTENTS

Page.

Part I.—Introduction and summary:
Scope and method of investigation..........................
Summary of facts......................................................
Part II.—Hours:
Scheduled hours......................................................
Daily...................................................................
Weekly................................................................
Saturday.............................................................
Night workers’....................................................
Lunch periods....................................................
Hours actually worked.............................................
Lost time............................................................
Overtime.............................................................
Conclusion.................................................................
Part III.—Wages—White and negro women:
Week’s earnings.........................................................
Time work and piece work.....................................
Earnings and hours..................................................
Earnings and rates....................................................
Earnings and experience..........................................
Year’s earnings..........................................................
Conclusion.................................................................
Part IV.—Hours and wages in the telephone industry:
The workers...............................................................
Hours.........................................................................
Wages.........................................................................
Part V.—Working conditions:
General workroom conditions..................................
Hazard and strain................................................... .
Sanitation............................................................... .
Service facilities......................................................
Employment management....................................
Part VI.—The workers:
Nativity...................................................................
Age...........................................................................
Time in the trade....................................................
Conjugal condition..................................................
Living condition.....................................................
Appendix A.—General tables.......................................
Appendix B.—Schedule forms......................................

3
7
13
14
17
21
22

22
22

23
23
27
29
34
39
42
46
48
55
58
60
61
64
70
73
77
79
81
81
82
82
84
87
111
V

CONTENTS.

TEXT TABLES.
Table 1. Number of men, women, and children employed in the establishments studied, by industry...............................................................
2. Scheduled daily hours, by industry........ :..........................................
3. Scheduled weekly hours, by industry..................................................
4. Hours worked less than scheduled, by scheduled weekly hours........
5. Week’s earnings, by industry................................................................
6. Week’s earnings of time workers and of piece workers, by industry..
7. Median week’s earnings, by hours worked........................................
8. Median week’s earnings of white women with hours record, who
worked 48 hours or more, by industry............................................ ..
9. Median weekly rates and median week’s earnings of white time
workers, by industry..........................................................................
10. Median weekly rates of white time workers, by scheduled weekly
hours and by industry........................................................................
11. Median week’s earnings, by time in the trade.....................................
12. Actual and average number of weeks lost by white women for whom
52-week records were secured, by industry......................................
13. Comparison of medians, actual earnings of white women during late
pay-roll period and average earnings of white women for whom 52week records were secured, by industry...........................................
14. Age of telephone operators.....................................................................
15. Week 'a earnings of telephone operators........... ..................... ............ ..

’
5
15
18

24
30
35

40
41
43
45
47
51
53
58
52

APPENDIX TABLES.
Table

I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.

Scheduled Saturday hours, by industry.......................................
Length of lunch period, by industry.............................................
Hours worked more than scheduled, by scheduled hours...........
Week’s earnings, by hours worked..............................................
Weekly rates and actual week’s earnings, by industry...............
Weekly rates, by scheduled weekly hours...................................
Week’s earnings, by timg in the trade..........................................
Year’s earnings of women for whom 52-week records were
secured, by industry.......... .................. ................ ...................
IX. Year’s earnings of women for whom 52-week records were
secured, by number of weeks worked....... .................................
X. Weeks worked during the year by women for whom 52-week
records were secured, by industry.............................................
XI. Weeks lost during the year by women for whom 52-week records
were secured, by industry........................... ..............................
XII. Weeks lost during the year through closing of the establishment
or department, women for whom 52-week records were
secured, by industry...................................................................
XIII. Average week’s earnings for 52 weeks, women for whom 52-week
records were secured, by industry.............................................
XIV. Average week’s earnings for weeks worked, women for whom
52-week records were secured, by industry..............................
XV. Week’s earnings of telephone operators, by time worked............
XVI. Nativity of the women employees who supplied personal infor
mation, by industry.....................
XVII. Age of the women employees who supplied personal informa
tion, by industry.........................................................................
XVIII. Conjugal condition of the women employees who supplied per
sonal information, by industry...................................................
XIX. Living condition of the women employees who supplied per
sonal information, by industry...................................................

87
88

89
90
92
96
97
98
99
100
iqi

102

103
104
105
107
108
109
110

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.
PART I.
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY.

In September, 1921, the Women’s Bureau of the United States
Department of Labor was requested by the Governor of the State of
Kentucky and by the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs to
undertake a survey of hours, wages, and working conditions for
women in industry throughout the State. This survey was made
during October and November of the same year.
The work of- the agents of the Women’s Bureau was much facili
tated by the cooperation of State officials who gave the benefit of
their experience and knowledge of local conditions. Among these
assisting agencies were the Department of Agriculture, Labor, and
Statistics, the State Department of Health, and the Department of
Health of Louisville. A number of women’s organizations also co
operated with the agents of the Women’s Bureau. Among these
were the State Federation of Women’s Clubs, the League of Women
Voters, the Consumers’ League, and the Young Women’s Christian
Association. To the managements of the establishments visited es
pecial credit is due for their courtesy and helpfulness in supplying
the desired information. In only 3 of 154 establishments was all
information refused, while in 3 others information as to wrages was
not given, but the agents were allowed to inspect the working condi
tions and to secure scheduled hours.
The period of the investigation was one of more or less abnormal
industrial conditions. For about a year prior to the survey the indus
trial depression with its concomitants of slackened production, wage
cuts, curtailment of hours, and unemployment had been disturbing
the economic equilibrium of the country. In fact, the army of un
employed workers, men and women, had grown to such appalling
proportions that a special conference was called in Washington to
discuss the subject and to precipitate remedial measures throughout
the country, which conference was coincident with the beginning of
the survey made by the Women’s Bureau in Kentucky. The indus
tries and wage earners in this State were naturally involved in the
general slump. A number of plants, however, which had been
operating for only part time throughout the year, were once again
on a full-time basis in the closing months of 1921. On the whole,
the figures in this report may be taken as representative of normal

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

conditions in the establishments, since the normal scheduled hours
as well as wage material for a full-time working week in the fall of
1921 were recorded in all the plants visited. As striking evidence in
substantiation of the foregoing statement is the fact brought out in
the wage section of this report that in the majority of the plants the
earnings of the women who were paid according to time rates showed
in general only a small decrease below these rates.
Although Kentucky is not one of the leading industrial States of
the country, its industries are an important feature, and as far as
women are concerned the number employed as wage earners is
sufficiently great to render a study of their wages, hours of labor,
and conditions of work of real social and economic value to the State.
A brief rfeumts of some of the general features in Kentucky as
revealed by the Bureau of the Census will prove a helpful background
for the present study. It must be remembered that the striking
increases reported in salaries and wages, cost of materials, and value
of products for the period 1914 to 1919 are traceable largely to the
war and are therefore not indicative of a normal growth, but at
least part of the industrial development during these years could be
described as a natural increase. According to the census 1 Kentucky
ranked thirty-first among the States in the value of its products in
1919. There were 3,957 manufacturing establishments at that time
in the State, with their products valued at $395,660,000, showing an
increase of 71.8 per cent over the value of manufactured products in
1914. Although the number of wage earners had increased only 7.4
per cent in 1919 over the number in 1914, the wages paid out by the
manufacturing enterprises had increased 110.6 per cent. Even so,
the per capita wage in 1919 was only $967, which placed Kentucky
thirty-eighth among the States in this respect, only 10 others show
ing a lower per capita wage. However, of the four States in the
East South Central Division, Kentucky surpassed the others, as
Alabama had a per capita wage of $924, Mississippi of $890, and
Tennessee of $855. Maine, Louisiana, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,
North Carolina, and South Carolina were the other seven States in
descending order that ranked below Kentucky in this matter. To
be sure the per capita wage in Kentucky had increased 96.1 per cent
in 1919 over that in 1914. This increase was virtually counteracted
by the advance in the cost of living in almost the same interim, since
the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a 99.3 per cent increase in the
cost of living throughout the country from 1913 to December, 1919.1
2
It must he remembered that the per capita wage was based on
the average number of employees in each month of 1919, both men
and women included, and that if the per capita wage for women only
1 U. S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census, 1919, Bulletin of Manufactures, 1922, pp. 27-29.
2 U. S. Department of Labor Monthly Labor Review. Changes in cost of living, v. 14, May, 1922,

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

could have been obtained it would have been considerably lower.
The preliminary census figures show that of 69,340 wage earners
engaged in 1919 in manufactures, 10,756, or 15.5 per cent, were
women.3 This number does not include women employed in stores,
laundries, and telephone exchanges, which are the other three types
of industrial occupation included.in the investigation by the Women’s
Bureau.
...
According to these preliminary figures the manufacturing industries
most important in Kentucky as employers of women are clothing and
tobacco manufacturing. The former employed in 1919 more women
than did any other type of manufactures in the State, the number
being 2,701, or 81.2 per cent of the total working forces in the clothing
factories. The tobacco industry falls into two main divisions, one
comprising the manufacture of chewing and smoking tobacco and
snuff, and the other the manufacture of cigars and cigarettes. The
first employed 1,064 women, who formed 44.4 per cent of the total
number of workers in these establishments, and the second 1,287
women, constituting 82.3 per cent of the total force, flhus clothing
and tobacco manufacturing together employed not far from one-half
of all the women in manufactures in the State. The proportion in
clothing factories, 25.1 per cent of the women in the manufacturing
group, was a little larger than the proportion in tobacco factories,
22.8 per cent. The next largest group were engaged in what might
be generally termed food manufacturing, which consists of such
diversified enterprises as bakeries, canneries, poultry killing and
dressing, meat-packing, coffee roasting and grinding, and the making
of ice cream, butter, and flavoring sirups. In the textile group,
embracing cordage, thread, and cotton and woolen yard goods, were
11 per cent of the women. None of the other manufactures showed
so high a proportion as 5 per cent of the total number of women
reported in manufacturing industries.
The foregoing percentages serve as an index of the relative impor
tance of the various manufacturing industries as far as women are
concerned. The fact that stores, laundries, and the telephone com
panies employ large numbers of women is so well recognized that
further discussion along this line seems unnecessary.
SCOPE AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION.

As it was impossible in the limited tune of the survey to include
all establishments wherein women worked, a representative number
of plants in the various industries employing women were chosen.
Stores, laundries, telephone exchanges, and manufacturing establish
ments were visited. These were distributed in the following towns
Unpublished material obtained from the Bureau of the Census.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

and cities: Ashland, Augusta, Carrollton, Covington, Dayton, Eliza
bethtown, Frankfort, Henderson, Hickman, Leitchfield, Lexington,
Louisville, Mayfield, Maysville, Newport, Owensboro, and Paducah.
The manufacturing group showed a great variety of products, as
would be expected in view of the diversity of manufactures in the
State. Paper and wooden boxes, candy, clothing, food, furniture,
metal products, shoes, cordage and thread, cotton and woolen and
knit goods, cigars, and tobacco were the chief manufactures surveyed.
A group of miscellaneous manufactures comprised many varied prod
ucts, including caps, caskets, drugs, mattresses, miliinery, paints,
porcelain tiles, and electrical, paper, and plastic products.
The inquiry was carried on along several main lines. Definite
information about numbers of employees, hours, wages, and working
conditions was scheduled by investigators from interviews with
employers, managers, and foremen, from inspection of plants, and
from examination of pay rolls. In order to- obtain accurate and uni
form information, data were taken personally from pay rolls by the
investigators. A special form was used for recording the earnings,
rates, and hours of each woman in each occupational group for a
representative and current week. The week chosen was one in which
the women worked full time, without a holiday, and which was
regarded by the management as fairly normal. The date of the week
varied somewhat in the different plants, but, in the main, figures from
a pay roll in October or November were taken. With the wage and
hour data were combined the facts, obtained from questionnaires
distributed in the plants and filled- in by the employees, as to age,
nativity, experience in the trade, and conjugal and living conditions.
Year’s earnings for a representative number of women, usually 10 per
cent in each establishment, were recorded on 52-week schedules. In
addition, the investigators by means of home visits to a number of
women were able to supplement the foregoing information with
personal statements about their educational and industrial history
and their home responsibilities.
The number of establishments in each industry included in the
investigation, and the number of employees by sex and age, are
shown in the accompanying table:

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES,
Table 1.—Number

of men, women, and children employed in the establishments studied,
by industry.
Per cent
of total
Number
of estab employees
in each
lishments.
industry.

Total
number of
employees.

1.2
4.5
2.3
9.2
5.2
3.1
12.6
2.0
5.4

1.2
1.4
2.7
14.1
3.8
.8
3.6
.8
5.5

230
904
450
1.831
1,025
619
2,502
399
1,081

5.0
1.4
3.1

5.2
2.6
3.3

1,111
288
623

6
14
11
15
9
17
15

4.7
21.5
4.0
6.2
1.4
3.7
3.0

8.7
20.8
3.5
8.8
2.3
5.1
5.8

926
4,284
792
1,227
271
735
604

151

Manufacturing:
Boxes, paper.....................................
Boxes, wooden.................................
Candy—...... ................................
Clothing............................................
Food..................................................
Furniture..........................................
Metal products.................................
Printing and publishing.................
Shoes.................................................
Textiles—
Cordage and thread..................
Knit goods.................................
Cotton and woolen goods.........
Tobacco—
Cigars.......................................
Other........................................
Miscellaneous.................................
General mercantile...............................
5-and-lO-cent stores...............................
Laimdries...............................................
Telephones.............................................

Per cent
of women
in each
industry.

Industry.

100.0

ioo. o

19,902

15
i
6

All industries..............................

Number and per cent of employees of each sex.
White
women.

Industry.

Negro
women.

Boys
Girls
(under 16). (under 16).

Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
Manufacturing:

109
754
178
396
Clothing..........................................
634
534
Metal products............................... 2,126
309
520
Textiles—
Cordage and thread................
580
26
Cotton and woolen goods.......
288
Tobacco—
45
2,172
437
Miscellaneous..................................
General mercantile...............................
314
35
213
11
All industries.............................. 9,681

Boxes, wooden................................

i Less than 0.05 per cent.

47.4
83.4
39.6
21.6
61.9
86.3
85.0
77.4
48.1

120
143
272
i, 422
360
82
357
84
551

52.2
15.8
60.4
77.7
35.1
13.2
14.3
21.1
51.0

52.2
9.0
46.2

520
258
319

46.8
89.6
51.2

4.9
50.7
.55.2
25. 6
12.9
29.0
1.8

$80
991
349
855
226
441
591

95.0
23.1
44.1
69.7
83. 4
60.0
97.8

48.6

8,821

44.3

1
1

0.4
.1

0.6

0.1

8
30
3
1

.4
2.9
.5

1
1

.1
.1

15
6
2

1.0

4
4
6

.4
1.4
1.0

1
1.121
1
11
10
81
1

.1
26.2
.1
.9
3.7
11.0
.2

1
16

.1
1.3

4
31

.5
2.5

1,280

6.4

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

The foregoing table shows that in the 151 establishments included
in the survey there were employed 10,167 women and girls. These
constituted slightly over one-half (51.1 per cent) of the working
forces in the plants. Telephone exchanges and cigar factories, with
the feminine contingents forming 98.2 per cent and 95.1 per cent,
respectively, of the working forces, took the lead in the proportion
of women and girls employed. A number of other industries showed
a preponderance of women. Knitting mills, 5-and-10-cent stores,
and clothing factories reported over three-fourths of their workers
to be women, and laundries, general mercantile establishments,
woolen and cotton mills, and candy, paper-box, and shoe factories
reported over one-half of the force to be women. The tobacco
industry other than cigar making also gave extensive employment
to females, its 2,112 women—a larger number than were found in
any other industry—constituting 49.3 per cent of the employees.
The following summary shows the distribution of the women, for
whom data were secured, among the various industries:
Industry.
Percent.
Manufacturing:
Boxes, paper................................................................................
1. 2
Boxes, wooden.............................................................................
1. 4
Candy...........................................................................................
2. 7
Clothing........................................................................................ 14.1
Food.............................................................................................. 3. 8
Furniture..,.......................................................................................... 8
Metal products.............................................................................
3. 6
Printing and publishing.......................................................................8
Shoes............................................................................................
5. 5
Textiles—•
Cordage and thread..............................................................
5. 2
Knit goods............................................................................
2. 6
Cotton and woolen goods.....................................................
3. 3
Tobacco—Cigars.....................................................................................
8. 7
Other..................................................................................... 20. 8
Miscellaneous............................................................................... 3. 5
General mercantile..................................... .......................................
8. 8
5-and-10-cent stores............................................................................
2. 3
Telephones..........................................................................................
5.1
Laundries............................................................................................
5. 8
100.0

From this it appears that the largest group of women, 29.5 per cent,
were engaged in the manufacture of tobacco, and the next largest,
14.1 per cent, in the production of clothing. The third largest num
ber were found in textile mills and in stores, each of these showing
11.1 per cent of the women included in the survey. Printing estab
lishments with 84 women and furniture factories with 85 had by far
the smallest groups. Also, the smallest proportion of female labor—

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

13.7 per cent of the total force—was found in furniture manufac
turing. Metal shops and wooden-box factories had noticeably small
numbers of women and girls, the proportions being 14.4 per cent
and 16 per cent, respectively.
The figures in the table for the number of girls under 16 years of
age, compiled from the statements of managers, reveal a very small
proportion (less than 1 per cent) of female workers in such an age
classification. General mercantile establishments, with girls under
16 constituting 2.5 per cent of the total force, surpassed all other in
dustries in this respect. Five-and-ten-cent stores, laundries, printing
establishments, and paper-box, candy, food, furniture, cigar, and
other tobacco manufacturing reported no girls under 16.4
Among the women included in the investigation the proportion of
negroes was not large—12.6 per cent. The manufacture of tobacco
other than cigars was the only industry with a conspicuously large
number and proportion of negro women, 1,121, or somewhat over
one-half, of the women in this industry being negroes. Laundries,
in which 15.5 per cent of all women were negroes, had the second
highest record in this respect. Except in food establishments, where
7.7 per cent of the women were negroes, the proportion of this race
in each of the other industries was less than 5 per cent, and the few
reported were generally employed in the capacity of cleaners or
matrons in charge of service rooms. The only negro girl under 16
found in the plants visited wms working in a clothing factory.
SUMMARY OF FACTS.

I. Date and scope.

This survey of women in Kentucky industries gives, in general,
data on hours, wages, and working conditions in the fall of 1921. It
covers 8,886 white and 1,281 negro women and girls employed in 151
establishments in 19 industries, comprising stores, mills, factories,
laundries, printing establishments, and telephone exchanges, located
in 17 towns and cities throughout the State. These women may be
considered as representative of the wage-earning women in Kentucky.
II. Hours.

Kentucky is one of the backward States in regard to hour legisla
tion for women. It permits a 10-hour day and a 60-hour week. It
has no law prohibiting night work for women and no law requiring
one day of rest in seven. Although scheduled hours were found in
many cases to be less than the legal hours, since a few progressive
plants and industries had adopted even the 8-hour day and the 48hour week, a large proportion of the women were working under
* The statements of managers were accepted in regard to the number of employees under 16; the inves
tigators made no attempt at verification by consulting records or by questioning employees. On the
personal record cards, which were obtained for a little over one-half of the women in the survey, four girls
In candy factories, one in a printing establishment, and one in a laundry gave their ages as under 16.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

hour schedules sufficiently long to be a decided menace not only to
the health of the women themselves but to their efficient employ
ment in industry and the well-being of the community of which
they formed a part. That this drain on strength and vitality—the
unavoidable accompaniment of long working hours—is not essential
to successful production is illustrated by the fact that many establish
ments were found to be operating satisfactorily with much shorter
hours.
The following statements summarize the data on hours :
1. Daily scheduled hours in 136 6 establishments were—
8 or under in 22 establishments employing 15.4 per cent of the women.
Over 8 and under 9 in 26 establishments employing 13.4 per cent of the women.
9 in 36 establishments employing 29.1 per cent of the women.
Over 9 and under 10 in 16 establishments employing 15.7 per cent of the women.
10 in 38 establishments employing 26.4 per cent of the women.
2. Weekly scheduled hours in 1365 establishments were—
48 or under in 30 establishments employing 21.9 per cent of the women.
Over 48 and under 54 in 67 establishments employing 46 per cent of the women.
54 in 2 establishments employing 2.4 per cent of the women.
Over 54 and under 60 in 37 establishments employing 25.9 per cent of the
women.
60 in 3 establishments employing 2.7 per cent of the women.
3. Saturday hours in 136 6 establishments were—
Not any, the place being closed in 7 establishments.
From 3 to 6, inclusive, in 89 establishments.
7 or more in 416 establishments.
4. Lunch period in 136 6 establisments was—■
A half hour in 56.
Between one-half hour and one hour in 22.
One hour in 59.
5. Lost time—
A little over two-fifths of both the white and negro women with hour records
(42 per cent and 43.6 per cent, respectively) worked less than the scheduled
hours during the week recorded.
6. OvertimeOnly 6.5 per cent of the white women and 4.4 per cent of the negro women
with hour records worked longer than the scheduled hours during the week
recorded.

HI. Wages.

Kentucky is not one of the 13 States which have a minimum
wage law. Consequently, although a few of the industries investi
gated paid wages that compared favorably with the minimum wage
rates in more progressive States, the majority of the industries
gave what would appear to be insufficient remuneration for the serv
ices of many of the women in their employ. The results of such
extensive underpayment of large groups of women, that is, the
lowering of the standard of living below the level not only of comfort
but of health itself, and the elimination of all chance of saving
s Sum of establishments exceeds total because of certain establishments having more than one schedule.
'In a11 but one store the Saturday schedule was longer than that on other days.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

or providing for the future, can not be too strongly emphasized,
The provision of an adequate wage is the first step toward the
elevation of women in industry to a plane where due recognition is
given the value of their work in the industrial world and of their
health, vitality, and happiness in the community as a whole, and
this seems to be a step which has not yet been taken in many of the
industries in the State.
The following statements summarize the data on wages paid:
1. Week’s earnings and rates.
(a) Median earnings of all women:
White (7,426 women)................................................................ $10.75
Negro (1,253 women)................................................................
8. 35
(b) Median earnings of women in the highest and lowest paid industrial groups:
HIGHEST.

White—Metal products manufacturing (310 women)___$14.05
Negro—Food manufacturing (27 women)............................
9.05
LOWEST.

White—Wooden-box manufacturing (142 women)................ $7. 50
Negro—Laundries (76 women)............................................... 8.15
(c) Median earnings of time workera and piece workers:
Time workers—
White (4,650 women)..........;...... .......................................... . 10.55
Negro (306 women).................
8.75
Piece workers—
White (2,631 women)............................................................ 10.55
Negro (937 wromen)..................... ...........................................
8.10
(d) Median earnings of women with hour records who worked 48 hours or more
in the week recorded:
White (3,515 women, or 63.9 per cent of the total number).. $11. 60
Negro (187 women, or 63.6 per cent of the total number).. 10.15
(e) Median earnings of night workers:
White (35 women).......... ..................................................... 12.15
(/) Median earnings of women with 5 years or more of experience:
White (1,433 women)............................................................ 14.10
Negro (305 women)................................................................
9. 80
(gr) Median weekly rate of time workers:
White (4,619 women). . ....................................................... 11. 20
Negro (302 women).......................... .....................................
9. 55
(h) Of all the women whose week’s earnings were recorded—
,
, , (62.0 per cent of the white women.
Less than $12 was earned byl QC „____ c
___ _
_
186,0 per cent of the negro women.
,
, , (79.9 per cent of the white women.
Less than $15 was earned byl197.4 per cent of the negro women.
.
. , ,„
J
2. Year’s earnings.
(а) Median earnings:
White (667 women).................................................................... $618
Negro (61 women)..................................................................... 442
(б) Median earnings of highest and lowest paid industrial groups 7:
HIGHEST.

White—Cigar manufacturing (53 women)................................. $735i
i Tobacco other than cigar manufacturing is the only industry employing enough negro women with
year’s records to make the computation of a median possible.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.
LOWEST.

(c)

White—Wooden-box manufacturing (15 women.)................... $492
Of all the women whose year’s earnings were recorded—
46.5 per cent of the white women.
Less than $600 was earned by75.4 per cent of the negro women.
80.2 per cent of the white women.
Less than $800 was earned by96.7 per cent of the negro women.
93.9 per cent of the white women.
Less than $1,000 was earned by100. per cent of the negro women.

IV. Hours and wages In the telephone industry.

Certain complexities in the hour and wage data in the telephone
industry preclude the inclusion of this material with that of the
other industries.
1. Hours.—On the whole, daily and weekly hours in the 15 tele
phone exchanges included in Kentucky were fairly good, since there
was a decided trend toward the 8-hour day and 48-hour week. A
few operators were reported with unduly long hours, and the custom of
the 7-day week was an objectionable feature. Although compara
tively few operators were scheduled for 7 days of employment
every week, a large number worked 7 days every other week. Care
ful regulation of the hours of telephone operators is especially nec
essary, because of the nervous strain inherent in the job.
2. Earnings—The median earnings of 557 telephone employees
for the week studied were $14.85, which is a higher median than that
of any other industry included in the survey.
V. Working conditions.

Kentucky has very little legislation regulating working conditions
for women in industry, and the few existing laws are neither broad
enough to cover many of the bad conditions discovered in the inves
tigation nor definite enough to enable State factory inspectors
easily to determine and prosecute violations. Although the condi
tions in some of the factories visited were good, and in only a few
were they startingly bad, in a large number there remained much
to be done for the attainment of desirable standards.
In the following summary the unsatisfactory conditions noted in
the 151 establishments are stressed particularly in order to indicate
the lines along which improvements are needed.
1. General workroom conditions were as follows:
(а) Cleaning unsatisfactory in 59 establishments, including 7 food factories,
because of dirty condition of workroom or wrong system of cleaning.
(б) Ventilation inadequate in 32 establishments, chiefly because of failure to
solve special problems of dust, lint, and humidity arising from the
nature of the industry. In other establishments having such problems
the installation of artificial ventilating devices had proved highly effi
cacious.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

1. General workroom conditions—Continued.
(c) Lighting inadequate in 46 establishments because of glare or insufficient
light.
(d) Seating inadequate in 87 establishments, 11 having no seats whatever lor
women, 43 others no seats for women with standing jobs, 65 an insufficient
number of seats, and 46 the wrong kind of seats, that is, makeshift arrange
ments or stools and benches without hacks.
2. The report on hazard and strain showed—•
(а) Special occupational hazards that seemed preventable, that is, danger of
cuts, burns, infections, or colds, in 49 establishments.
(б) Workroom hazards that were avoidable, that is, unguarded machinery,
belts, or elevator shafts, in 27 establishments.
(c) An unnecessary occupational strain, such as strain from lifting, posture,
speeding, or pressure, in a considerable number of establishments.8
(d) Fire hazards, such as doors opening inward, narrow aisles and stairways,
obstructed exits, or lack of fire escapes, in 99 establishments.
3. The need for improved sanitation is shown by the following:
(a) Drinking facilities unsatisfactory in 109 establishments, because of insani
tary bubble fountains, use of common drinking cup, or failure to provide
any cup.
(t) Washing facilities inadequate in 132 establishments, because of failure to
provide hot water, soap, or individual towels, in some cases all three.
(c) Toilet facilities inadequate in 133 establishments, because of improper
cleaning or ventilation, inadequate screening or equipment, inconvenient
location, insufficient number, or the lack of separate toilets for women
and men.
4. The record of service facilities disclosed—
(а) No lunch room in 99 establishments, and in 24 other establishments lunch
rooms inadequate as to equipment, cleaning, or ventilation. Hot food
obtainable in only 16 establishments but in 26 others facilities for heating
food or drinks.
(б) No cloak room in 26 establishments, and in 70 other establishments cloak
rooms inadequate as to equipment, cleaning, or ventilation.
(c) No rest room in 88 establishments, and in 35 other establishments rest
room inadequate.
(d) No first-aid equipment in 29 establishments, and in 41 other establishments
such equipment inadequate. A nurse in attendance in only 2 estab
lishments, a doctor in 1, and a physical examination required in 4.
(e) No centralized employment system in 53 establishments. A definite em
ployment manager in only 7 establishments.

VI. Workers.

1. Of the 10,167 women and girls covered by the survey, 12.6 per
cent were negroes.
2. Of the 5,580 women whose nativity was ascertained, only 1.1
per cent were foreign born.
3. Of the 5,099 white women reporting on age—
30.5 per cent were................................................... under 20 years of age.
33.7 per cent were.................................................. 20 and under 30 years.
28.2 per cent were.................................................. 30 and under 50 years.
7.6 per cent were.....................................................50 years and over.
8 Exact number not given because of the impossibility of making a comprehensive analysis in the
limited time of the survey.

31601°—23-----2

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Of the 622 negro women reporting on age—
6.4 per cent were.................................................. under 20 years of age.
33.0 per cent were...................................................20 and under 30 years.
50.0 per cent were...................................................30 and under 50 years.
10.6 per cent were............................... ....................50 years and over.

4. Of the 5,004 white women reporting on conjugal condition,
60.8 per cent were single, 19.9 per cent were married, and 19.3 per
cent were widowed, separated, or divorced.
Of the 597 negro women reporting on conjugal condition, 28.1
per cent were single, 36.2 per cent were married, and 35.7 per cent
were widowed, separated, or divorced.
5. Of the 5,044 white women and the 584 negro women reporting
on living conditions, 89.9 per cent and 86.8 per cent, respectively,
were living at home.
VII. Conclusion.

In general, although the hours, wages, and working conditions of
some of the women included in the survey were based on high stand
ards, the industrial life of the majority of wage-earning women
showed need for much improvement. It should be borne in mind
that throughout the pages of this report special emphasis has been
laid upon these unsatisfactory conditions in order to point out the
course to be pursued by those agencies interested in industrial better
ment. Credit must be given to those employers who already stand
as pioneers in this respect. Kentucky can not afford, however, to
rest upon the efforts of these few progressive citizens. As long as
any women in the State receive a wage too paltry to permit of a
respectable standard of living, or work under hour schedules so bur
densome as to sap energies needed for a healthy existence; as long
as any women work in insanitary plants, in uncomfortable postures,
with undue strain upon eyes and nerves, with exposure to unneces
sary hazards and strains, and with little provision in the plants for
health and comfort—situations by no means rare in Kentucky; then
not only are pride and satisfaction out of the question, but definite
action for improvement is called for. Since the effects of industrial
evils can not be confined within the walls of the workshops but are
felt by the families and in the homes of the workers, the cooperation
of all forces in the State is necessary for the establishment of higher
industrial standards.

PART II.
HOURS.
The realization of the need for investigating the length of the work
ing day of women in industry is becoming more widespread with the
increase in knowledge of the detrimental effect of unduly long hours
upon women and upon the community. In the various States and
in the different industries in each State, there is a general standard of
hours of employment which governs the working life of large groups
of women. This standard for the State is voiced in the law which
regulates women’s hours, and for the industries is shown by the hours
of labor generally prevailing.
Kentucky is one of the States that do not rank high in either case.
According to the Kentucky law. the 10-hour day and the 60-hour
week is recognized as the standard. The fact that 22 States require
for women in some occupations a working day shorter than 10 hours,
and 31 States a working week shorter than 60 hours, shows how far
below a progressive ranking stands the Kentucky law. do glance
from the legal to the industrial hour records obtained in the survey
is a little encouraging. The standard was found to be somewhat
higher by custom than by law, since there were a number of firms in
the several localities which voluntarily had adopted schedules shorter
than the legal maximum. The most progressive establishments
serve as pioneers in the shortening of hours for women wage earners
and inspire hope that eventually all Kentucky firms will be brought
up to their standard.
On the other hand, the number of establishments and the propor
tion of women working the full number of hours permitted by law
were sufficiently great to arouse concern in the State and to emphasize
the need for more advanced standards in this respect.
SCHEDULED HOURS.

During the course of this survey information was obtained from
managers about daily and weekly hour schedules in force in the estab
lishments; that is, the number of hours stipulated by a firm that
women in its employ should work regularly each day and each week.
The data given in this section represent the normal working hours
of the establishments visited and not short-time schedules resulting
from the industrial depression. Policies in regard to lunch periods,
Saturday half holiday, and night work in the various plants were
recorded, since knowledge of such practices aids greatly in determin
ing the suitability of the industrial hours of women.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

It should be borne in mind that scheduled hours do not take into
account overtime or lost time of employees, the hours which women
actually work during a week frequently not coinciding with the
scheduled hours. Accordingly, so far as possible, the hours actually
worked by the women included in the survey also were obtained.
The hours of telephone operators have not been included in the
following tables, since the irregularity of the schedules in this industry
is so great as to require separate discussion.
Daily hours.

Table 2 shows the length of the daily working hours for the women
employed in the industries scheduled. These daily hours do not
include Saturday hours, which usually are shorter, nor do they in
clude other occasional short days which were sometimes reported.
On the whole they may be considered to represent the schedule for
Monday to Friday, inclusive, but in one or two cases they represent
the working hours for only four days in the week.

Table 2.—Scheduled daily hours, by industry.
Number of establishments and number of women whose daily hours were—
Number re
ported.

Under 8 hours.

Over 8 and under
9 hours.

8 hours.

Industry.

Oyer 9 and imder
10 hours.

9 hours.

10 hours.

Manufacturing:
Candy.............................................................
Clothing.........................................................

Textiles—
Cordage and thread...............................

2
5
5
15
17
4
5
4
6

121
144
272
1,430
382
85
358
84
551

7
*2
2

5-and-10-cent stores..............................................
Laundries..............................................................

881
2,112
350
866
236
522

Total............................................................
Per cent distribution...........................................

* 136
100.0

9,469
100.0

Cuttxiu mid wooleu goods.- -- -- -- -- -- -
Tobacco—
Miscellaneous................................................

22
637
32
52
84

1
5
1
2
4

492
258
325

6
14
11
15
9
17

1
21
417

1
5

41
0.4

79
680
185

2
5
2
1

36
134
30
30

21
15.4

1,414
14.9

26
19.1

1,272
13.4

29
293

531

•

55
88
156

2
2

131

2
7
5
1
0.7

2
2
4

4
3
3
2
6

1.169
84
52
21
233

36
26.5

2,752
29.1

1
3
1

84
89
141

5
2

270
56

1
1

220
39

2
2

234
253

3
1
2

170
5
325

3
4
1

414
245
37

1
6
3

304
698
114

225

16
11.8

1.489
15.7

38
27.9

2,501
26.4

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Women.
lish Women. lish Women. lish Women. lish Women. lish Women. lish Women. lish
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.

1 Includes an establishment with 41 women working less than 8 hours and 32 working SJ hours,
i Includes an establishment with 125 women working 9$ hours and 5 working 10 hours.
• Details aggregate more than total because of 2 establishments which appear in more than one hour group. Telephones not included in hour tables.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

According to the table the greatest proportion of women in any one
classification (29.1 per cent) had scheduled hours of 9 a day, closely
followed by the 26.4 per cent with 10 hours a day, in which latter
classification is also the largest group of establishments, 38, or 27.9
per cent. On the other hand, a considerable number of women
(28.8 per cent) worked less than 9 hours daily. Of these, 1,455
(15.4 per cent of the total number of women in the survey) were
scheduled for an 8-hour day or less.
In certain industries the 10-hour day was prevalent, notably in
the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods, paper1 and wooden
boxes, food, and furniture, in all of which more than 60 per cent of
the women were scheduled for 10 hours of work daily. The per
cent of women in each industry whose scheduled hours were 10 a
day is as follows:
Cotton and woolen goods manufacturing..........................................
Food manufacturing...........................................
Paper-box manufacturing..............................................................
Furniture manufacturing...................................................................
Wooden-box manufacturing.........................................................
Candy manufacturing... . ..............
Laundries........ ■„...............................................................
Cordage and thread manufacturing...................................................
Cigar manufacturing. ............................... ......................................
Tobacco other than cigar manufacturing..........................................
Miscellaneous manufacturing......................
Shoe manufacturing...........................................................................
Knit-goods manufacturing..................................

100.0
797
09 4
65 9
61 g
51 g
43
34. 6
34 5
33.0
32 6
3 6
19

In the manufacture of metal goods and of clothing, in printing
and publishing, in general mercantile establishments, and in 5-and10-cent stores, there were no women who worked as much as 10
hours a day. On the contrary, the general mercantile establish
ments and 5-and-10-cent stores took the lead among the establish
ments in the matter of the 8-hour day for women, since 78.5 per
cent and 78.4 per cent, respectively, of the women employees were
scheduled for such a day—a fact brought out strongly in the follow
ing summary which gives the per cent of women whose scheduled
hours were 8 or less a day:
General mercantile .........................................................................
5-and-10-cent stores.............. :.............................................................
Clothing manufacturing.......................................................................
Miscellaneous manufacturing..............................................................
Candy manufacturing.......................................................................
Cigar manufacturing..................................... .......... ............................
Food manufacturing (under 8 hours).................................................

73 5
73.4

29.2
22. 6
7 7
3 0
10.7

1 Of the tw o paper-box establishments included, only one had a 10-hour schodule, but this firm employed
over two-thirds of the women reported in the industry.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Besides the stores only two other industrial groups—clothing and
miscellaneous manufacturing—had considerable proportions of their
women employees with an 8-hour schedule—29.2 per cent and 22.6
per cent, respectively. Another striking fact made apparent by
the summary is that in the other 10 industries included in the survey
no women were scheduled for an 8-hour day or less.
Weekly hours.
The report of daily hour schedules is not sufficient. These tell
only part of the story. The emphasis must be shifted from the
number of hours which women work a day to the fact that they
work such hours day after day. It is the grind of long hours for six
days a week for month after month that takes its toll of women’s
energy and efficiency, using up their fund of reserve strength. Con
sequently, an analysis of weekly schedules is significant in conjunc
tion with a consideration of daily hours. Such a study for Kentucky
revealed that some of the industries with a good record for daily
hours had not a correspondingly good record for weekly hours. The
accompanying table shows the women and the establishments in
each industry with certain specified weekly hours.

Table 3.—Scheduled weekly hours, by industry.

Number of establishments and number of women whose weekly hours were—
Number re
ported.
Under 44.

Industry;

Over 44 and
under 48.

44.

Over 48 and
under 50.

48.

Over 50 and
under 54.

50.

Over 54 and
under 60.

54.

60.

Manufacturing:
Boxes, paper..............
Boxes, wooden..........
Candy.........................
Clothing.....................
Food...........................
Furniture...................
Metal products..........
Printing and publishing...........................
Shoes..........................
Textiles—
Cordage and
thread..............
Knit goods...........
Cotton and
woolen goods...
Tobacco—
Cigars...................
Other...................
Miscellaneous............
General mercantile..........
5-and-10-cent stores..........
Laundries..........................

2
121
5
144
i 5 272
15 1,430
»7 382
4
85
34
219
4
6

417

1
1
1

21
147
41

490

154

2
1
2

109
32
29

3
1

91
47

492
258

84
551

1
1
1

338

135

1
2

47
253

1
3

19
220
39

Total....................... 6 135 9,330
Per cent distribution....... 100.0 100.0

1
0.7

30
0.3

2
2
1

417
4.5

79
5

1
1

28
368

1
5
3.7

163

11
8.1

541
5.8

1
1
2
2

9
6
24
47

5 1,346
2 ' 75
5 301
161
3
4
148

i
216

13 1,053
9.6 11.3

13
9.6

436
4.7

30 2,635
22.2 28.2

24 i,2a5
17.8 13.8

2
1.5

231
2.5

2
1

109
5

3
2.2

253
2.7

325
688
470
114
52
21
133

3
3

1 Includes an establishment with 3 women working 494 hours and 19 working 51 hours.
* Includes an establishment with 41 women working 45 hours and 32 working 50 hours.
8 Excludes an establishment with 139 women working 50,51J, or 54 hours.
•
4 Includes an establishment with 125 women working 51£ hours and 5 working 55| hours.
8 Includes an establishment with 5 women working 47J hours and 76 working 50 hours.
8 Details aggregate more than total because of 4 establishments which appear in more than one hour group. Telephones not included in hour tables.I

3
4

30
245
45
134
30
88

2
5
2

14i

270
2
56
•p 13

325
1
4

881
6
14 2,112
11
350
5 15
866
9
236
17
522

84
89

37 2,449
27.4 26.2

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES,

Estab Wo Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
lish
lish Wo lish Wo lish Wo lish Wo lish Wo lish Wo lish Wo lish Wo lish Wo lish Wo
ments. men. ments. men. ments. men. ments. men. ments. men. ments. men. ments. men. ments. men. ments. men. ments. men. ments. men.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Using the 48-hour week as a standard of the maximum number of
hours a week which women in industry should be required to work,
we find from the table that of 136 establishments only 30, or less than
one-fourth, had adopted such a schedule or a shorter one for some or
all of the women employed therein, whereas 108 establishments, or
over three-fourths of the total number, employing almost four-fifths
of the women (78.4 per cent), showed longer hours. Accordingly,
only slightly more than one-fifth of the women (21.6 per cent) had a
weekly schedule of 48 hours or less. It is interesting in this respect to
compare Kentucky with Maryland, where a 60-hour law for women also
is found on the statute books and where a few months prior to the
Kentucky investigation a similar survey was made of the hours of
labor of 13,304 women employed in 208 establishments.2 It was
found that one-half of the Maryland plants, employing more than
one-half of the women in that survey, had a weekly schedule of 48
hours or less—a much better record than that disclosed in Kentucky.
Nevertheless, certain Kentucky industries had forged ahead in the
adoption of the 48-hour week, in substantiation of which stands the
following statement of the percentages of women in each industry
with a weekly schedule of 48 hours or less:

Industry.

Women with a weekly
schedule of 48 hours
or less.
Number.

Per cent.

84
1, 054
373
107
37
163
91
52
41
21
18

100.0
73.7
43.1
30.6
30. 6
18.5
17.4
14. 5
10.7
7.7
3.7

2, 041

Printing and publishing...................................................................

21.6

First place is given in this list to the printing and publishing
establishments. Despite their day of between 8 and 9 hours, the
practice of Saturday half holiday kept their weekly total down, so
that although they employed but few women (84 in all) they
exhibited a 100 per cent record for a 48-hour week—unique in this
respect. Of more importance, however, in connection with women
wage earners in Kentucky is the record of the clothing industry, a
* U. S. Department of Labor. Women’s Bureau. Women in Maryland Industries- Bui. 24, 1922,
pp. 52-53.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

large employer of women. It shows the next highest percentage of
women with a weekly schedule of 48 hours or under (73.7 per cent),
but this percentage represents over a thousand women. The general
mercantile establishments, with 43.1 per cent of the women having
such weekly schedules, make a fair showing but one not quite com
mensurate with their daily hour record. The 5-and-10-cent stores,
however, despite the prevalence of the 8-hour day, so lengthened
their weekly hours by a long Saturday that no women in the stores
visited in the State had a 48-hour week. For the women in these
stores, Table 3 shows the hours for the largest group in any hour
classification to be 50 a week.
When all industries are considered together, the largest group
of establishments, that is 37, employing one-fourth of the women
(25.9 per cent), had between 54 and 60 hours a week for some or all
of their women employees. The number of women having hours
longer than these was comparatively small, since only 3 establish
ments, employing 253 women, reported a 60-hour week. Neverthe
less, this is significant as representative of the element in the State
taking advantage of the unduly long hours permitted by law.
Weekly schedules of more than 54 hours were not confined to any
one group, but were found in the various industries, a fact shown by
the following statement, which gives the proportions of women in
each industry with a working week of more than 54 hours :

Industry.

Women with a weekly
schedule of more than
54 hours.
Number.

Cotton and woolen goods manufacturing...................
Cigar manufacturing..............................“........
Food manufacturing.........................
Paper-box manufacturing...........................................
Furniture manufacturing..........................
Wooden-box manufacturing................................
Candy manufacturing.......................................
Cordage and thread manufacturing............................
Miscellaneous manufacturing................................
Laundries.......................................................
Tobacco, other than cigar manufacturing.....................
5-and-10-cent stores................................\ . .
General mercantile.........................................................
Metal products manufacturing..........................................
Shoe manufacturing.............................................
Knit-goods manufacturing...............................
Total..................... ..... .................

Per cent.

325

100.0

270
84
56
89
141
170
114
133
521

78.1
70.7
69.4
65.9
61.8
51.8
34.6
32.6
25.5
24.7
8.9

688

52
13

6.0

5.9
3.6
1.9

2, 702

28.5

Cotton and woolen goods manufacturing, with all of the women
scheduled for more than 54 hours, had the worst record. This was

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

fallowed by cigar manufacturing, which reported such long hours for
more than three-fourths of its women employees.
That long hours are not necessarily inherent in the occupations of
the various industries in the foregoing list is revealed by the fact that
in all of the industries except the manufacture of cotton and woolen
and knit goods some women were scheduled for 50 hours or less a week.
Clothing manufacturing and printing and publishing were the only
two industries which reported no women working more than 54
hours; in fact, neither of these two industries had so long a schedule as
54 hours.
For all industries, the 28.5 per cent of the Kentucky women work
ing more than 54 hours a week stands in striking contrast to the 5.3
per cent of the Maryland women reported as having such hours.
Saturday hours.

As has been suggested, one way of guarding against overlong weekly
hours is a Saturday half holiday. This custom is becoming more and
more prevalent in industrial circles as a result of the realization that
women need some time for rest, recreation, and the pursuit of per
sonal activities.
Of the 136 establishments surveyed in Kentucky, 7 had no work on
Saturday and 89 had a working schedule of from 3 to 6 hours, in
clusive, enabling the workers to have a part holiday. (Table I in
the appendix.) The industries having one or more establishments
which had failed to provide for a Saturday part holiday are listed in
the following summary:

Industry.

Manufacturing:

Number
of estab
lishments
reporting.

5
5
7
5
6

7
Tobacco—

15
9
17
107
i For this tabulation, one of 7 or more hours.

Number
of estab
lishments
with long
Saturday.1

i
3

2
1
2
2
1
1

3
15
9
1

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Altogether 41 establishments, employing over one-fifth of the
women, had a Saturday of from 7 to 11 hours. With the exception
of candy, all the manufacturing industries listed above showed a long
Saturday to be the exception rather than the rule. Since a half
holiday was feasible for most plants in a particular industry it would
seem possible for all. Stores, on the whole, had longer hours on
Saturday than on other days, all of the 5-and-10-cent stores and all
except one of the general mercantile establishments included in the
survey following this custom.
Night workers’ hours.

It is generally agreed by those interested in protective legislation
for women that night work is detrimental to the health of women
engaging therein, and should be prohibited by law. Night work for
women was rare in the Kentucky establishments included in the sur
vey, since only 40 women in all were reported as working on night
shifts. These were found in two establishments, 32 in a cordage and
thread mill and 8 in a food factory. The latter group had a weekly
schedule of 45 hours; that is, 71 hours a night for 6 nights; the former
had a weekly schedule of 50 hours, or 10 hours nightly for 5 nights.
Lunch periods.

An analysis of the lunch periods in the 136 plants as recorded in
Table II in the appendix shows that 56 plants allowed a half hour
for lunch, 17 three-quarters of an hour, and 59 one hour; 2 plants
had an interval of between one-half and three-quarters of an hour,
and 3 an interval of between three-quarters of an hour and one hour.
No establishment had less than a half hour and none had more than
an hour except 5 establishments, which allowed 2 hours for meal
periods on Saturday, and 4 establishments which allowed 3 hours,
because of a longer schedule on that day than on others. The length
of the lunch period is a matter to be decided by individual establish
ments, the needs and desires of the workers being taken into account,
but every establishment should allow an interval of sufficient length
to enable employees to obtain a satisfactory lunch.
HOURS ACTUALLY WORKED.

In many cases the scheduled weekly hours of the plants and the
hours actually worked by the women during the week for which the
pay-roll data were taken did not agree, on account of time lost and
overtime.
It was not possible to ascertain the number of hours actually
worked by all of the women for whom wage figures were gathered,
since no records were available for the hours of many of the piece
workers. Nevertheless, Table IV in the appendix shows that such
information was obtained for two-thirds of all the women of the
survey (66.8 per cent); that is, for 74.1 per cent of the white women

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

and for 23.5 per cent of the negro women.3 The small proportion
of the latter is due largely to the fact that three-fourths of the negro
women were piece workers.
The actual hours worked during the week by the women with hour
records may be seen in the following statement, which gives the num
bers and percentages of women who worked certain hours:
White women.

Negro women.

Actual hours.
Number.

Over 48 and under 54......................................
54......................................................................
Over 54 and under 60......................................
60......................................................................

Number.

1,179

21.4

24.1

699
550
2,059
178
618
107
3

12.7

36
5
133
9
39

12.2

(i)

5, 504

Under 44..........................................................
44
.............................................................
Over 44 and under 48......................................

Per cent.

100.0

111

2.0

10.0

37.4
3.2
11.2

1.9

Per cent.

1.7
45.2
3.1
13.3
.3

294

100.0

1 Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent.

Of the women with records of hours actually worked, 53.9 per cent
of the white women and 61.9 per cent of the negroes worked more
than 48 hours. As has been shown, 78.4 per cent of all the women
of the survey, white and negro combined, had scheduled hours in
excess of 48 a week.
It is interesting to note that the same proportion of white and of
negro women (63.9 and 63.6 per cent, respectively) actually worked
48 hours or over, which, generally speaking, may be considered a full
week’s work.
Lost time.

From a comparison of hours actually worked with scheduled hours
it is evident that there was, on the whole, considerable time lost by
the women during the week recorded. Although a certain amount
of this can be explained by the absence of the workers for personal
reasons, a goodly portion could doubtless be traced to slackened
production.
An idea of the amount of time lost can be gained from the table fol
lowing, which gives not only the number and percentage of women with
hour records who lost some time during the week selected, but the pro
portions of women who lost certain specified amounts according to
the weekly schedules under which they worked:
3 Since the white and negro women in the same establishment had the same scheduled hours it seemed
unnecessary to tabulate them separately in the discussion of scheduled hours, but because the personal
element is an important factor in the consideration of hours actually worked a separate tabulation for
white and negro women in this respect has appeared advisable.

Table 4.—Hours worked less titan scheduled, hy scheduled weekly hours.

Number of
women re
ported.

Per cent of women who worked less than scheduled hours to the extent of—
Number and per cent of
women who worked
less than scheduled
hours.

Under 5
hours.

Scheduled weekly hours.
White.

5 and under 10 and under 15 and under 20 and under 25 and under 30 hours and
10 hours.
15 hours.
20 hours.
25 hours.
30 hours.
and over.

Negro.

Ne
Ne
Ne
Ne
Ne
Ne
Ne
gro. Num Per Num Per White. gro. White. gro. White. gro. White. gro. White, gro. White. gro. White.
gro.
ber. cent. ber. cent.

Under 44......................
44...................................
Over 44 and under 48..
48................. ................
Over 48 and under 50.
50............................. ...
Over 50 and under 54.
54..................................
Over 54 and under 60.
60..................................

Total .

24
326
139
803
390
1,213
775
319
1,277
233

7
3
109
18

265
118
388
373
126
823
137

25.0
17.2
14.4
33.0
30.3
32.0
48. 1
39. 5
64.4
58.8

5,499

296 2,312

42.0

56
20

144

100.0

28.'6'
21.1

27.8
25.0
66.7
129

43.6

16.7
64.3
40.0
41.9
47.5
28.6
35. 1
31.7

21.7

10.1

33.3

21.7

52.6
23.3

26.0

16.7
3.6

1.8

22.8

1. 5
25.0

33.3
25.0
35.0
18.9
20.3
28.9
26.3
27.0

20.2

5.0
6.4
13.6
11.9
10.5
4.8
31.5
14.6
17.5

17.4
35.' 4'
29.5

5.0
3.8
4.2
6.2

6.7
6.3
9.1

4.3
5.2
4.7

5.0
15. 5
2.5
4.1

1.5
2.5

1.8
10.0
12.1

9.3

8.2

23.0
6.4
6.2

12.1

7.0
3.2
6.3
5.8

6.2

8.3
4.0
13.7

5.7

10.9

30.4

8.0

14.0

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

White. Ne

WOMEN" IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

The foregoing table shows that a little over two-fifths of both the
white and the negro women whose hour records were secured lost
some time during the week. In a number of cases this amounted to
only an hour or two. Nevertheless, of the women who worked less
than full time, almost one-half of the white women (49 per cent)
and over one-half of the negroes (56.7 per cent) showed a loss of 10
hours or more from the weekly schedule. Moreover, in round num
bers, 16 per cent of both the white and the negro women with a
record of undertime lost 25 hours or more—that is, virtually one-half
of the working week. In fact, the table permits of a more definite
statement, since it shows, for instance, that the largest proportion
of both white and negro women who lost time were scheduled for
between 54 and 60 hours a week. Two-thirds of the negro and
almost two-thirds of the white women in this classification lost some
time, one-fifth of the white and 14.6 per cent of the negro women
losing as much as 25 hours or more. It is significant to note that, on
the whole, the longer the scheduled hours, the greater the amount
of time lost.
Detailed figures show that the amount of lost time varied in the
several industries. Since stores, laundries, and printing establish
ments showed smaller percentages of women with lost time than did
any of the manufacturing industries, it would appear that the indus
trial depression with its accompanying curtailment of production was
responsible for some of the lost time, a theory supported by the
following figures:4

Industry,

General mercantile.. *.......................................................................

Cotton and woolen goods manufacturing........................................

Per cent of women with
hour records who
worked—
Ten hours
Under
or more
scheduled
under
scheduled
hours.
hours.

17.6
20.9
25.0
28.5
31.6
35.2
37.1
40.6
42.1
43.6
43.9
58.5
61.2
67.6
69.7
83.8
87.0

100.0

6.5

11.2

7.1
9.5

11.1

13.7
19.2
19.7
17.1
16.5
22.5
41.1
19.3
49.3
41.3
37.4
56.0

88.0

General mercantile establishments—which, however, do not always
keep account of small amounts of lost time—showed the least pro
portion of women working less than scheduled hours (17.6 per cent),
4

Negro women are not included here because of the small number employed in most of the industries.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

followed by 5-and-10-cent stores with 20.9 per cent, printing estab
lishments with 25 per cent, and laundries with 28.5 per cent. In all
of these four industries the proportion of women who lost 10 hours
or more during the week was small, varying from 6.5 per cent in the
general mercantile establishments to 11.2 per cent in the 5-and-10cent stores.
, In the manufacturing group, clothing factories showed a smaller
percentage of women who lost time than did any of the other manu
facturing enterprises. On the other hand, the cotton and woolen
mills, with 100 per cent of the women working undertime, had the
worst record, especially as a much larger proportion in this industry
than in any other (88 per cent of the total number with hour records)
had lost 10 hours or more during the week. Wooden and paper
boxes, food, furniture, and tobacco other than cigars, in all of which
manufactures conspicuously large proportions of women lost some
time, showed that in each more than one-third of the women with
hour records had lost 10 hours or more.
Overtime.

Since during the week recorded so many women were operating
less than their scheduled hours, partly on account of the industrial
depression, one would expect to find but little overtime, or time worked
in excess of the scheduled hours. Table III in the appendix shows
that sueh was the case, since for only 6.5 per cent of the white women
and 4.4 per cent of the negro women with hour records was any
overtime reported. By far the largest group of white women who
worked longer than the regular hours—more than one-half—had a
weekly schedule of only 44 hours a week. Altogether, only 151
white women worked as much as 5 hours, and only 48 worked 10 or
more hours, in excess of the regular time. Of the 151, 90.7 per cent
had scheduled hours of 48 or less a week.
The 355 white women with a record for overtime were distributed
according to industry as follows:
Industry.

Manufacturing:
Boxes, paper. .
Boxes, wooden
Clothing..........................
Pood................................
Furniture........................
Metal products...............
Printing and publishing.
Shoes...............................
Cordage and thread........
Tobacco other than cigar
Miscellaneous.................
General mercantile................
Laundries...............................
Total

Number of
women
reported.

99
100

271
737
271
71
304
84
431
460
530
266
800
347
4, 771

Women working over
time.
Number.

5
1

3
213
4
10

46
18
21
10
11
6

4
3
355

Per cent.

5.1
1.0
1.1

28.9
1.5
14.1
15.1
21.4
4.9
2.2
2.1

2.3
.5
.9
7.4

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Clothing manufacturing showed the largest proportion of women
with hour records who worked overtime, 28.9 per cent of all the
women employed; this was followed by printing and publishing
establishments, with 21.4 per cent. None of the women in the latter
industry and only three in the former with a record for overtime had
scheduled hours of more than 48 a week. In clothing factories 89
women worked between 5 and 10 hours and 48 women between 10
and 20 in excess of the scheduled weekly hours, which were 48 or less
for all in these two overtime classifications.
The only industries showing no overtime for women were 5-and-10cent stores, cigar establishments, knitting mills, and cotton and woolen
mills. Several of the other industries had negligible amounts.
For only 13 negro women was any overtime reported. Of these,
9 were employed in tobacco factories, 3 in food establishments, and 1
in a paper-box plant. This last woman was the only one of the 13
who showed as much as 5 hours worked in excess of the regular weekly
schedule, which for her was 55 hours.
On the whole, overtime work for women was not a serious menace
in Kentucky. There was, however, a sufficient amount to indicate a
tendency to prolong the working hours of a few women beyond the
regular schedule. Furthermore, in industries such as clothing manu
facturing and printing and publishing, in which the 48-hour week had
been rather generally adopted, overtime among women was prevalent
enough to serve as a detrimental influence on this standard schedule.
CONCLUSION.

The foregoing analysis is conclusive evidence that Kentucky indus
tries are characterized by great variety in the daily and weekly
hours of women wage earners. In this variety lies the promise of a
more equitable adjustment of hours for all women. What has been
found satisfactory in one case can surely be attained in another, if
the will.and understanding of all concerned are brought to bear on
the matter.
In any discussion of the hours of labor of women, it is necessary
to bear in mind that women wage earners frequently are home makers
as well; that many of them look after families and perform home
duties before and after the hours spent in industrial plants. Accord
ingly, an 8-hour industrial day is the standard advocated by those
authorities interested in the safeguarding of women workers.
The Kentucky investigation showed some progress in this respect,
since 15.4 per cent of the women included had a day of 8 hours or less.
However, the fact that over one-fourth of all the women had a 10hour day, that 6 industries showed 10 hours to be the daily schedule
for more than one-half of their women employees, and that 13 of the
31601°—23-----3

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

18 industries investigated reported such a day for some women, points
to the urgent need for greater progress.
The record for weekly hours was somewhat better, since despite the
60-hour maximum allowed by law for women in Kentucky, only 2.7
per cent of the women of the survey had such long hours. Onefourth of the women had a week of between 54 and 60 hours, and over
three-fourths had a week of more than 48.
A collation of this data for the various industries shows that, on the
whole, when both daily and weekly hours are taken into account,
general mercantile establishments and clothing and miscellaneous
manufacturing have the best records. Five-and-10-cent stores make
an admirable showing in the matter of the 8-hour day, but because of
long Saturday hours fall noticeably below the standard for weekly
hours. Also, although printing and publishing establishments had
100 per cent of the women scheduled for a 48-hour week, they still
adhered to the 9-hour day. Metal shops occupied a middle ground,
for although the 8-hour day was not found in any of them, neither
was there a weekly schedule of more than 54 hours.
As a contrast to these industries were those with unnecessarily long
hours. Cotton and woolen goods, paper and wooden boxes, candy,
food, and furniture manufacturing, in each case with more than onehalf of the women working 10 hours a day and over 54 hours a week,
fall most conspicuously below the standard. Cigar manufacturing,
with one-third of its women employees scheduled for a 10-liour day
and over three-fourths scheduled for more than a 54-hour week, is in
almost the same category.
From the foregoing it is apparent that despite those progressive
firms and industries which voluntarily had adopted satisfactory hours
for women, a number had unduly long hours, and a few even kept
their schedules stretched to the limit of the law. A necessary step
in industrial progress is to guarantee women against overlong work
ing hours, to prevent that undue fatigue resulting from long hours of
labor, a fatigue which acts as a poison to the system, decreasing
output and increasing accidents during working hours, sapping ener
gies and destroying ambition for activities after working hours.
Consequently, in the final analysis, the individual women of Kentucky,
the industries, and the community at large would share in the benefits
of improved hour standards throughout the State.

PART III.
WAGES.
The subject of wages is much more complicated than that of hours.
Whereas the eight-hour day is the standard set by those States with
the most advanced labor legislation for women and by those indus
tries most progressive in their employment of women, there is no such
single standard for wages even where a minimum wage for women
exists. The amount decreed by various State laws as the sum
below which no wages for women shall fall varies greatly in different
parts of the country where definite action has been taken. It varies
for the different localities in the same State, as well as for the differ
ent industries in the same locality. It varies for the experienced
and the inexperienced in any one industry.
Accordingly, in a consideration of wages paid to women in a
State, account must be taken of the many influential elements which
enter in and cause wide variations in the earnings of a group of wage
earning women at any one time.
In Kentucky, as in other States where similar studies have been
made by the Women’s Bureau, it has seemed advisable to analyze
the question from two main angles—what women wage earners
received for a current week and what they received for the year
immediately preceding the investigation. As has been pointed out
in the introduction, a representative week in the fall of 1921 was
selected. It should be borne in mind that by that time both wages
and the cost of living had undergone some reduction from the 1920
peak. No specific figures for Kentucky or any city in this State are
available, but figures for the country as a whole show the general
cost of living to have dropped 18.1 per cent from June, 1920, to
September, 1921. Despite this general decline, several important
items had suffered a noticeable increase instead of a decrease during
this period. Housing, for example, had gone up 18.6 per cent in
cost, and fuel and light 5.1 per cent, during this period.
WEEK’S EARNINGS.

Even in a normal year fluctuations are found in the earnings of
an individual worker week by week in the year and also in the
earnings of a number of women for any one week in the year. Great
differences in the weekly earnings of women workers in any one
locality are to be expected, because of the many industries and the
many occupations requiring various degrees of skill and because of
seasonal activities. Furthermore, fluctuations are encountered in
any one occupation because of such modifying factors as the time and
piece work system, number of hours worked, policies of the estab
lishments, demand and output, and the length of time in the trade.
An analysis of the earnings of a large group of women for one week
is possible from the table following, which gives the number of women
in the various industries who received certain amounts during the
pay-roll period selected.
29

Table 5.—Week's earnings, by industry.

WHITE WOMEN.
Number of white women earning each specified amount in—
The manufacture of—
Week’s earnings.

*5 and under *6...................................
$6 and under $7....................................
$7 and under $8....................................
$8 and under $9.................................
89 and under 810..................................
*10 and under *11................................
811 and under $12................................
*12 and under *13................................
$13 and under $14................................
$14 and under $15................................
$15 and under $16................................
$16 and under $17................................

$21 and under $22................................
$23 and under $24................................
$24 and under $25................................
$25 and under $30................................
$30 and under $35................................
*33 and under *40................................
*40 and over.........................................

39
112
102
116
181
233
432
519
625
742
796
706
599
385
351
358
238
166
167
97
118
57
61
42
23
106
37
6
12

3
5
4
6
3
4
11
24
15
16
7
4
3
3
6
2
1
1

1
|
120
$9. 00

2
5
2
8
5
14
28
18
35
31
27
21
26
26
7
6
5
3
1
1

Total........................................... 7,426
Median earnings.................................. *10.75

5
4
1
7
28
12
27
12
19
18
2
3
1
1.
1
1

142
$7.50

6
28
21
22
38
44
49
68
86
84
96
82
80
69
50
74
55
44
42
37
38
24
22
7
16
55
10
3
4

271 1,254
$9.60 $12.05

5
11
5
11
12
17
21
20
31
47
26
22
17
12
12
6
4
1
1

Textiles.
Tobacco.
Print
ing
Metal and
Mis
prod pub Shoes. Cord Knit Cotton
cella
and
age
ucts. lish
and goods. woolen Cigars. Other. neous.
ing.
thread.
goods.
3
4
6
8
15
12
26
50
58
50
60
30
45
26
30
36
21
12

1
2

4
3
8
3
6
9
10
12
5
3
5
4
1

4
4
5
7
17
20
16
17
31
31
34
27
17
22

1
1
2
7
6
8
4
9
2
5
10
8
4

8
12

3
8
2
4
1

1
1

10
7
9
10
5

1
1

10
4

1
6
3

11
9
18
40
38
63
74
55
55
29
29
18
7

3
15
13
34
20
28
23
43
23
12
11
6
3

6
2

Gen 5-anderal 0-cent
Laun
mer stores. dries.
can
tile.

1
3
3
16
13
5
3
8
8
2
6

12
46
59
61
82
89
51
83
33
38
48

8
19
25
56
27
21
12
9
7
6
7

4
9
23
38
57
69
51
51
16
9
15

215
$8.75

385
*10.77

27
104
53
40
54
67
61
55
48
55
35

25
53
48
60
89
141
192
64
33
35
29

6
12
23
21
46
34
36
38
23
14
26

5
2
1

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

281
78
310
84
550
486
$9.15 $10.30 $14.05 *13.20 $10.70 $10.60

10
1
7
255
967
114
771
341
800
$9.90 *13. SO $10.90 $10.60 $11.30 $11.65

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Under $1...............................................
$1 and under $2....................................
$2 and under $3....................................

AH
in
Fur
dus Boxes, Boxes,
Cloth
tries. paper. wood Candy. ing. Food. ni
ture.
en.

NEGRO WOMEN.
Number of negro women earning each specified amount in—
The manufacture of—
Week’s earnings.

Boxes,
paper.

Food.

Tex
tiles—
Cordage
and
thread.

1
2

23
34
44
46
68
92
130
130
176
130
118
94
78
30
27
12
10
11
1,253
18.35

Boxes,
wooden. Clothing.

Furni
ture.

1
1

1
1
1

([)

1
1
1
3
1
3
7
3
2

2
2

27
$9.05

C1)

To
bacco—
Other.

Miscella
neous.

Laun
dries.

2
2

20
30
44
43
62
84
105
117
154
108
98
91
76
27
26
12
9
11
1,117
$8.35

General 5-and-10cent
mercan
tile.
stores.

1
2
2
2

1
1
2
1

2
2
6
14
8
14
12
13
1

76
$8,15

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES,

All
indus
tries.

Not computed, owing to small number involved.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

According to the table the earnings of 7,426 white women and of
1,253 negro women ranged from less than $1 to $40 for the week’s
work. Obviously those in the lowest classification in the table did
not work a full week, for one reason or another, but they are included
in order to give a picture of the actual earnings of all the women
of the survey in the week selected. Experience teaches that the
standard of living must be based on actual or probable earnings and
not possible earnings. A week could never be found in which all
women in all establishments in all industries of a State worked full
time. Consequently, lost time—whether due to personal or to plant
reasons—is an inevitable factor in the lowering of wages of a certain
proportion of women in a given week, and hence the women who
lost time can not be eliminated in any attempt to secure a general
index of the earnings of a large group of women. Earnings in con
junction with hours worked will be discussed at a later point.
The median week’s earnings, irrespective of any qualifica
tions, of the white women included in Kentucky are found to be
$10.75, and those of the negro women $8.35; that is, in each case
one-half of the women earned more than and one-half less than this
amount. It is impossible to compute the median for all those women
who did a full week’s work, since, as will be brought out in a later
discussion, hour records were not available for all women. Neverthe
less, an arbitrary elimination of all white women earning less than $5
a week will exclude some of those with lost time, although there is
the possibility of dropping out by this method some of the full-time
workers. Excluding the women who received under $5 for the
week’s work we find the median for the remainder of the white women
to be $11.15; excluding the women who received under $7, we find
the median for the remainder to be $11.60. Even in the latter case
the variation from the $10.75 median for all women is less than a
dollar.
To return to a consideration of all the women, we find that in
some industries the massing comes a little higher up the scale and in
some a little lower down, but in most cases the variation from the
general median of $10.75 is not very great. The following figures
give the median weekly earnings of white women in each industry
arranged in descending scale, and the median weekly earnings of
negro women wherever the number employed in an industry was
large enough to permit of a computation:

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

White women.

Industry.

Number
reported.

Median
earnings.

Metal products manufacturing.........................................................
Cotton and woolen goods manufacturing........................................
Printing and publishing...................................................................
Clothing manufacturing....................................................................
General mercantile...........................................................................
Miscellaneous manufacturing....................................................
Cigar manufacturing..................................................................
Laundries...........................................................................................
Shoe manufacturing..........................................................................
Cordage and thread manufacturing.................................................
Tobacco other than cigar manufacturing........................................
Furniture manufacturing..................................................................
Knit-goods manufacturing................................................................
Candy manufacturing.... .................................................................
Food manufacturing......................... ...............................................
Paper-box manufacturing.................................................................
5-and-10 cent stores.........................................................................
Wooden-box manufacturing.............................................................

310
114
84
1,254
800
341
771
387
550
486
967
78
255
271
281
215
142

$14.05
13.50
13. 20
12.05
11.65
11.30
10.90
10. 75
10. 70
10. 60
10.60
10.30
9.90
9.00
9.15
9.00
8.75
7.50

All industries...............................................................

7,426

10.75

120

Negro women.

Food manufacturing..........................................................................
Tobacco other than cigar manufacturing.........................................
Laundries................................................

27
1,117
76

89.05
8.35
8.15

For the white women, metal shops show the highest median ($14.05)
and wooden-box manufacturing the lowest ($7.50). The clothing
industry—one of the most important so far as women are concerned
in the State and in the survey, since the largest group of white women
(1,254) in any one industry was found employed therein—shows a
median of $12.05. The manufacture of tobacco other than cigars,
which has the next largest group of white women (967), shows a
considerably lower median, or $10.60. Only slightly higher than
this is the median for 771 women in cigar manufacturing ($10.90).
The medians for the several types of textile mills show a much greater
divergence, since one-half of the women employed in the cotton and
woolen mills earned less than $13.50, one-half of those in cordage
and thread mills earned less than $10.60, and one-half of those in
knitting mills earned less than $9.90. Although cotton and woolen
mills have the second highest median of all the industries, they

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

represent a small group of women. Also, printing and publishing
establishments, which stand third on the foregoing list, with a median
of $13.20, show an even smaller number of women employees, only
84. With the exception of the miscellaneous establishments, with a
median of $11.30, all the other manufacturing industries not yet
discussed—that is, shoes, furniture, candy, food, and paper boxes—
show medians below $10.75, the figure for all industries taken
together. The middle wage point for white women in the laundries
coincides with that amount, but the negro women in laundries show
a much lower median ($8.15). In only two other industries were
there enough negro women employed for the computation of a
median. In food manufacturing the median for the 27 negro women
is $9.05, only 10 cents lower than that for the white women. The
largest group of negro women, 1,117, were found in tobacco manu
facture other than cigars. They show a median of $8.35, which is
$2.25 lower than the median for the white women in this industry.
Earnings of women night workers.

The pay-roll data show only a very small group of women employed
on night work during the week scheduled, 35 white women in all.
Of these, 32 were in cordage and thread mills and 3 in food factories.
The median for this small group was $12.15. None of these women
received as much as $16 for the week’s work.
TIME WORK AND PIECE WORK.

It is generally supposed that piece workers, those paid by the amount
of work done, earn more than time workers, or those receiving a
definite hourly, daily, or weekly rate. On the whole this is apt to
be true. Nevertheless, the earnings of the former are sometimes
reduced by contingencies which do not affect the earnings of the
latter, such as delays in the arrival of work, or time lost on account
of a poor run of material or of disorders in machinery. Women on
piece work need, as a rule, to be highly experienced in order to earn
more than do time workers in the same occupations. The proportion
of piece workers in the majority of industries in this study is smaller
than that of time workers, although in a few the former overbalance
the latter. Table 6 shows the earnings of these two classes of women
employees in the various industries in Kentucky.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES,
Table 6.—Week's earnings of time workers and of piece workers, by industry.
Number of white women earning each specified amount in—
All industries.1
Week’s earnings.

Boxes,
Boxes,
Candy.
Clothing.
Food.
wooden.
paper.
Time Piece
work work
ers.
ers. Time Piece Time Piece Time Piece Time Piece Time Piece
work work work work work work work work work work
ers. ers.
ers. ers. ers. ers.
ers.
ers.
ers. ers.
16
57
46
56
84
117
221
254
295
417
474
413
283
168
146
145
85
68
80
38
41
17
24
11
11
53
11
2
2

82 and under S3.........
S3 and under $4.........
84 and under $5.........
85 and under 86.........
S6 and under $7.........
$7 and under S3.........
S3 and under 89.........
$9 and under 810.......
S10 and under 811___
Sll and under $12___
812 and under $13___
S13 and under $14___
$14 and under $15___
$15 and under $16___
$16 and under $17___
$17 and under $18___
$18 and under $19___
$19 and under $20___
$20 and under $21___
$21 and under $22___
$22 and under $23___
$23 and under $24___
and under $30___
$30 and under $35___

$25

Total................
Median earnings........

The manufacture of—

22
47
48
52
76
83
137
169
203
201
199
214
207
167
155
154
123
71
61
52
59
31
28
27
8
24
9
1
3

3
5
4
6
3
3
9
23
11
14
6
2
1
2
3
1
1

3
3

1
2
1
4
2
1
2
2
1
3
1
1

5
20
6
19
1
12
12
1
1

1
1

1
1
1
2
3
3
5
7
4
6
1
2
1
1
1

2
4
2
8
4
12
23
11
24
23
23
15
22
15
2
4
1

1
3
6
10
5
1
4
3
7
1
3
2

3
12
5
5
10
8
19
28
46
52
60
47
50
42
32
50
31
36
28
26
23
11
17
6
10
44
7
2
1

28
36
30
40

12
17
21
19
31
46
25
21
16
12
7
5
4
1
1

32
36
35
30
27
18
24
24
8
14
11
15
13
5
1

5
1

11
3
1
3

3,635 2,631
21
99
83
39
195
48
711
543
267
$10. 55 $11.35 $8. 70 $11. 50 $7.25 $8.50 $9.35 $9.60 $13. 25 $10. 40 $9.10

1 Excludes stores whose employees are all time workers.
2 Not computed, owing to small number involved.

1
1
1
1

WOMEN" IN" KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES,

Table 6.—Week’s earnings of time workers and of piece workers, by industry—Contd.
Number of white women earning each specified amount in—
The manufacture of—
Textiles.
Week's earnings.

Printing
and
publishing.

Metal
products.

Furniture,

Shoes.

Cordage and
thread.

Knit goods.

Time Piece Time Piece Time Piece Time Piece Time Piece Time Piece
work work work work work work work work work work work work
ers.
ers.
ers.
ers. ers. ers.
ers.
ers.
ers.
ers.
ers. ers.

$8 and under SO.......
$9 and under $10___
$10 and under $11...
$11 and under $12...
$14 and under $15...
$15 and under $16...

1
1
2
1
4
7
8
9
4
3
6
4
1

1
1
3
2
6
2
2
2
2
3

1
1
1
2
6
14
15
10
12
19
29
29
23
13
17
17
3
9
2
2
1
2
1

1
2
2
5
2
3
4
2
5
4
4
5
2
5
3
1
6
I
2

1
1
1
2
6
6
7
4
9
2
5
9
6
4
3
5
1

1
1

1
2
2

1
1
1
1

i
4
6
10
8
15
34
27
30
37
11
17
2
11
8
2
3
1
1
3

3
3
2
2
5■
4
11
16
29
20
23
19
28
24
19
28
19
12
6
9
6
6
10
5

9
3
3
7
9
15
37
34
53
67
38
33
11
13
5
1
2
1
1

1
1
1
2
4
8
4
15
20
18
16
13
6
9
1
4
2
1

2
3
4
5
14
1
3
6
13
a
i
l
2
]
1

1
4
3
5
3
10
8
20
19
25
17
30
20
11
10
4
2
2

5
2

1
77
Total..............
228
60
24
51
Median earnings.... $11. 05 $6.35 *14.15 $15.75 *12. 75
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.

C1)

232
316
342
126
60
194
$9.35 *12,75 $10.00 *13.10 $9.35 *9.95

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Table 6.—Week's earnings of time workers and of 'piece workers, by industry—Oontd.

Number of white women earning each specified amount in—

Number of
negro
women
earning
each
specified
amount in
the manu
facture of
tobacco
other than
cigars.1

The manufacture of—
Tobacco.
Week’s earnings.

Cotton and —
woolen
goods.
Cigars.

Laundries.
Miscella
neous.

Other.

Time Piece Time Piece Time Piece Time Piece Time Piece Time Piece
work work work work work work work work work work work work
ers.
ers. ers. ers.
ers. ers. ers. ers.
ers. ers.
ers. ers.
Under $1
1

19 and under $10.......
$10 and under $11---*11 and under *12---$12 and under $13---$13 and under $14----

1
2
1
9
4
1
1
2
4

1
2
7
9
4
2
6
4
2
6
1
3
3
2
3
7
10
2

1
4
9
5
6
15
73
9
1
4
9
0
2
4
3
1
1
1
1
2

1
3
5
5
6
8
31
40
38
50
57
55
53
44
51
34
41
19
23
8
6
4
1
3
2

2
2
14
6
9
7
17
20
23
62
109
151
35
10
17
5
7
2
9
2

11
17
18
18
24
18
36
27
37
26
32
37
28
21
18
22
18
10
3
8
9
2
1
2
2

2
4
5
6
7
17
13
32
23
23
25
13
6
15
7
6
10
2
1
1

1
2

1
4

2
7
4
9
23
38
56
66
51
50
16
9
13
11
1
3
4
2
1
2

5
6
7
8
9
8
9
6
7
11
3
1
6
3
2
1

1
2
1
2
i

19
26
42
42
61
77
92
96
110
100
88
73
54
25
17
7
3
2

2
2

2
1

219
99
374
Total.................
158
599
509
445
30
84
Median earnings........ $9.50 *15.65 $6. 55 $12.00 $10. 85 $9.65 $11.00 *11.95 *10. 70

1
4
2
1
1
5
11
21
44
8
10
18
21
2
9
5
6
9

......

178
934
$9.00 *8.10

1 Negro piece workers were reported in only one other industry, viz, clothing manufacturing, which
reported 3.
2 Not computed, owing to small number involved.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Time workers constituted over three-fifths (62.7 per cent) of the
total number of white women in the survey and about one-fourth
(24.5 per cent) of the negro women. The much larger proportion of
negroes who were piece workers, 75 per cent as opposed to the 35.5
per cent of the white women who were paid by the piece, is due to
the fact that 934 women in tobacco manufacturing, or three-fourths
of all the negro women included in the survey, were paid for output
and not according to time worked.
Although the median for the white piece workers ($11.35) is a little
higher than that for the white time workers ($10.55), the median for
the negro piece workers ($8.10) falls slightly below that of the negro
time workers ($8.75).
The proportions of white women reported as exclusively time or
piece workers during the week in question varied considerably for the
individual industries, as is shown in the following statement:

Industry.

Per cent of all women
reported as engaged
exclusively on—

Timework. Piece work.

Manufacturing:
. Boxes, paper.........................
Boxes, wooden.....................
Candy.....................................
Clothing..................................
Food.......................................
Furniture................................
Metal products.......................
Printing and publishing.......
Shoes......................................
Textiles—
Cordage and thread........
Knit goods.......................
Cotton and woolen goods
Tobacco—■
Cigars...............................
Other...............................
Miscellaneous.........................
General mercantile.......................
5-and-10-cent stores.......................
Laundries.......................................

82.5
59.7
72.0
56. 7
95. 0
65.4
73.5
91.7
42.2

17.5
28.1
17.7
43.3
4.6
30.8
19.4
8.3
57.5

70.4
23.5
26.3

25.9
76.1
73.7

20.5
53.1
64.2
100.0
100.0
96.6

77.7
46.4
29.0
3.4

Cigars, knit goods, and cotton and woolen goods manufacturing
show the largest proportions of white piece workers, more than 70
per cent of the white women in each industry falling into this category.
These industries are followed by the manufacture of shoes, tobacco
other than cigar, and clothing, with piece workers constituting 57.5
per cent, 46.4 per cent, and 43.3 per cent, respectively, of the women
employees. Most of the other industries had comparatively small
percentages of piece workers, less than one-third of the women workers
in every case. The stores were the only industry in which all the
women were on the time basis.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

For most industries the median for piece workers is higher than that
for time workers, in some less than a dollar in excess, in others several
dollars higher. Cotton and woolen mills show the greatest discrep
ancy between piece and time work, the median for the former being
$6.15 more than that for the latter. For the following industries,
however, the time workers show a higher median than do the piece
workers:
Median week’s earnings.
Industry.

Time

workers.

$13. 25
11.05
10. 85

Piece
workers.

$10.40
6. 85
9. 65

It would seem probable that in these industries a slackening of
production acted as a handicap to piece workers in checking their
opportunities and in lowering their wages below the amount which
they could earn under normal circumstances, whereas time workers
paid by the day or week did not suffer a curtailment of wages in like
proportion. Also, it is probable that in the several plants in any
one industry a difference in the occupations or grades of work of the
time and piece workers would account for the discrepancy in their
earnings.
EARNINGS AND HOURS.

The earnings discussed in the foregoing sections were tabulated
without reference to the hours worked during the week. For this
survey, made during a period of industrial depression, when produc
tion was being curtailed, it is especially significant to correlate
earnings and number of hours worked during the week.
Wages do not necessarily vary in direct proportion to the number
of hours worked. In any one establishment wages fluctuate in such
a way for the time workers but not for the piece workers. For the
latter, wide variations in earnings are usual among those in any one
plant who are working the same number of hours. Since it is fre
quently the custom not to record on pay rolls the hours of piece
workers, it was not possible to secure the hour data for all the women
for whom wage figures were taken. However, hour records were
obtained for 74.2 per cent of the white women and for 23.5 per cent
of the negro women. The small proportion of negro women with
hours reported is largely due to the fact that three-fourths of the
negro women were piece workers whose hours were not given. A
correlation of hours and earnings is given in Table IV in the appendix.
The table shows the women to be in many hour classifications,
from the two who worked less than 3 hours to the three who worked
more than 60. The great bulk of the women with hour records
revealed a full or fairly full week’s labor; that is, 81.9 per cent of the

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

white and 84 per cent of the negro women had worked 42 hours or
more during the week recorded.
The following summary of Table IV in the appendix gives the
median earnings for women who worked certain classified hours:
Table 7.—Median week’s earnings, by hours worked.
Per cent of women.

Median week’s earnings.

Hours worked.
White.

Under 42.......................................................
42 and under 44................
44...........................
Over 44 and under 48..................................
48...........................................
Over 48 and under 50.........................
50...........................
Over 50 and under 54.........................
54..............................
Over 54 and under 60......................
60................................
Over 60..............................
48 and over......................................
1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.

Negro.

18.1
3.4
2. 0
12.7
10.0
7.3
16. 6
13.5
3.2
11.2
1.9

12.2
1. '
2.0
28.6
14.6
3.1
13.3
.3

63.9

63.6

16.0
8.2

White.

Negro.

$6.00
10. 55
14 05
10.55
12.65
12.10
11.05
11.80
12.15
11. 35
11.45
m

11. 60

10.15

$5.05
8. 75
8.20
0)
10. 85
8.40
(‘)
10.90

» Less than 0.05 per cent.

It is evident that.a longer week did not necessarily mean higher
wages, since according to the table the increase in hours worked is
not accompanied by a consistent increase in median week’s earnings
of the women operating those specified hours. In fact, the highest
median for white women (814.05) is for the 2 per cent of the women
who actually worked 44 hours a week, and the next highest ($12.65)
is for the women with a record of 48 hours of employment during the
week. To be sure, the highest median for the negro women is $10.90
for the group working between 54 and 60 hours, but in the other hour
groups there is an occasional drop in the median with an increase
in hours.
In order to minimize the element of lost time in a computation of
the median earnings of the women showing a fair week’s work, the
standard of 48 hours may be used as a measure. In all, 63.9 per
cent of the white women and 63.6 per cent of the negro women
worked 48 hours or over during the week, showing median earnings
of $11.60 and $10.15, respectively. A little less than two-thirds of
the women with hour records, therefore, did what might be termed
a normally full week’s work. Hence the medians for this group are
indicative of wage opportunities for women in industry in Kentucky,
when the element of lost time is largely eliminated. It is of interest
to compare these medians with those for all women irrespective of
hours worked. The latter medians, which we have shown to be
$10.75 for white women and $8.35 for negroes, fall 85 cents and $1.80,
respectively, below the medians for the women with a record of
48 hours or more of labor during the week scheduled. The median

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

for white women working a full week would probably be raised a
little if the wages of all the women on the piece basis who worked 48
hours or more could be included. As has already been explained,
hours of piece workers were not always recorded, but the median
earnings for all the white piece workers ($11.35) were only 80 cents
higher than the median for all white time workers ($10.55) and the
median for the negro piece workers ($8.10) was 65 cents less than that
for the negro time workers ($8.75).
.
It is apparent that the limitations of the data for which the irregu
larities of the pay rolls are responsible prevent the obtaining of a
median of the earnings of all the time workers and all the piece work
ers combined who worked 48 hours or more. However, the several
medians discussed in the foregoing paragraph indicate very strongly
that if such a figure were obtainable it would fall around the $12
mark for the white women and somewhere between $9 and $10 for
the negroes.
Since it is significant to give an approximate index of the financial
opportunities for women in the various industries, the median
earnings of the women in each industry reported as working 48 hours
or over have been computed. Moreover, since there is a general
tendency to pay larger salaries in cities than in towns and rural
communities where the cost of living is apt to be a little below the
city level, it has seemed advisable to give the medians for Louisville
separate from those for the rest of the State. The following state
ment prepared from Table IV presents figures based on these con
siderations :
Table 8.—Median

week's earnings of white v>omen 1 with hour records, who worked
48 hours or more, by industry.
Per cent working 48
hours or more.

Industry.

Manufacturing:

Textiles—

Tobacco—

Laundries............................................................................

State
State
exclu
exclu
Louis sive of Entire Louis sive of Entire
State. ville. Louis State.
ville. Louis
ville.
ville.
48.5
28.9
72.4
49.7
52.4
69.0
■ 61.3
68.3
61.1

61.8
50.0
76.9
38.1
28.6
73.9
91.7
65.4

47.0
69.7
52.6
48.0
43.6
70.1
75.0
64.9

$9.40
(!>
10. 90
15.30
10.65
13.00
17.40
13.50
12.90

79.5

64.9
71.7

73.1

12.15

70.3
42.4
62.9
86.2
82.7
68.0
69.1

65.6
52.9
56.0
82.8
79.5
65.7
63.9

(!>

10.2
15.4
53.6
52.5
80.3
77.9
62.7
60.3

_____
1 Negro women not included, because of the small number in most industries.
2 Not computed, owing to small number involved.

Median week’s earnings.

(*>
11.70
12.05
11.70
9.55
12.30
11.95

$7.80
7.50
10.25
9.35
m

14.90
14.80
10.65

$9.20
10.65
14.30
10.35
12.00
15.30
14.30
10.85

10.40
11.10

11.35

6.60
(!>
10.60
12.55
8.80
10.85
10.90

6.60
11.75
11.65
12.25
9.15
11.30
11.60

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

The table shows that the majority of the women with hour records,
both in Louisville and in the rest of the State, were reported as hav
ing worked 48 hours or over. This condition was true also of many
of the individual industries. Conspicuous for having small propor
tions of women in this hour classification are the cotton and woolen
mills and the wooden-box and cigar factories of Louisville and the
furniture factories and food establishments in the rest of the State.
The median earnings for the Louisville industries are generally
higher than those for the same industrial groups outside Louisville,
except for printing and publishing and general mercantile establish
ments. The median for the women who worked 48 hours or more in
printing establishments outside Louisville is $14.80, or $1.30 above
the corresponding median for Louisville. The median for the women
in Louisville general mercantile establishments ($11.70) is 85 cents
below that for such stores throughout the State ($12.55). The lower
wage level for Louisville department stores is surprising, since stores
in large cities usually pay higher wages than do those in small towns.
In fact, the 5-and-10-cent stores in Louisville show a median of $9.55
as against $8.80 for such stores in the rest of the State.
Of the various industries, metal manufacturing shows the highest
median both for Louisville and the State exclusive of this city, $17.40
and $14.90, respectively. The chance to earn such wages was open
to very few women, since only 310 women included in the survey
worked in metal shops. Apart from the general mercantile, printing,
and metal establishments none of the industries outside Louisville
show median week’s earnings of over $12.50. Even in Louisville,
clothing, furniture, and shoe manufacturing, with medians of $15.30,
$13, and $12.90, respectively, are the only industries besides print
ing and publishing and the manufacture of metal products, already
referred to, with a median rising above the $12.50 mark.
EARNINGS AND RATES.

A more definite means of comparing what the women actually
earned with what they might have earned is by a comparison of the
week’s earnings of time workers with their weekly rates. The rate—
or the amount of wages which the employer contracts to pay for the
services of an employee for a definite time—may be quoted for the
hour, day, week, or month, the unit varying in different establish
ments, but for the sake of uniformity all rates obtained in the Ken
tucky survey have been expressed in weekly terms. Once again it is
impossible to include piece workers in the discussion, because of the
dissimilarity in piece work rates. The following summary of Table V
in the appendix, gives the median weekly rates and. the median
week’s earnings of the white time workers in the various industries:

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.
Table 9.—Median

weekly rates and median week's earnings of white time workers,1 by
industry.

Industry.

Number
of women
reported.

Median
weekly
rates.

Median
week’s
earnings.

Per cent
that
earnings
exceed (+)
or fall
below (—)
rates.

Manufacturing:

Tobacco—

$9. 95
8.35
9. 85
13.95
10. 80
11.70
14. 80
13.10
8.20

$8.70
7.25
9.35
13.25
9.10
11.05
14.15
12. 75
9.35

12.6
13.2
-5.1
—5.0
15.7
—5.6
—4_4
—2.7
+14.0

339
60
30

10.40
9.75
13.00

10.00
9.35
9.50

—3.8
—4.1
26.9

150
507
218
800
215
359
4,619

Shoes._ .................T...............................................
_
Textiles—

99
83
195
709
267
51
228
77
232

6.75
11.55
11.70
11.25
8.95

6.50
10.85
11.05
11.65
8. 75
10. 80
10. 55

-3.7
—6.1
—5.6
+3.6
—2.2
— 1.8
-5.8

11.00

11.20

1 Negro women not included, because of the small number in most industries.

The median rate for the 4,619 women time workers in all the indus
tries was $11.20; that is, one-half of these women had weekly rates
above this amount, and one-half had weekly rates below.
According to the medians for the individual industries, those
industries which paid the best rates to women time workers were
metal manufacturing with a median of $14.80, clothing manufactur
ing with a median of $13.95, printing and publishing with a median
of $13.10, and cotton and woolen goods manufacturing with a
median of $13. None of the other industries show a median rate as
high as $12.
A compai'ison of median rates with median earnings shows that in
all industries except general mercantile establishments and shoe
factories, earnings fell below rates. However, the majority of the
industries reveal no more than a 6 per cent decrease in the median
earnings as compared with the median rate. This decrease is
traceable to lost time and slackened production. The cotton and
woolen mills reveal by far the greatest discrepancy, since the median
earnings are 26.9 per cent less than the median rate. It has been
pointed out that all of the women in these mills worked less than the
scheduled hours, the industry having been greatly crippled by the
industrial depression.
The general mercantile establishments show a 3.6 per cent increase
of median earnings over median rate, a fact explainable by the system
31601°—23------ 4

WOMEK IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

found in many stores of paying a bonus or commission on sales in
addition to the rate. Also, in this industry, as was pointed out in
the section on hours, there was less lost time reported than in any
other. In shoe manufacturing, the only other industry with higher
median earnings than median rate, the 14 per cent increase is doubt
less due to the production bonus paid in two large shoe factories.
Rates and Hours.
One argument used against shortening hours for women wage
earners has been that such a reduction will cut wages. Experience
has proved that this is not necessarily true. Of the four industries
with the record for the highest rates, two—clothing manufacturing
and printing and publishing—are among those industries with the
best records for scheduled hours, from which it would appear that
high rates are not a sign of long hours nor low rates of short hours.
Too often long hours and low rates go together. Firms progressive
enough to prevent overlong schedules for women employees are more
likely to install a higher wage scale than are those plants permitting
unduly long hours. That such a deduction also is possible for the
Kentucky industries included in the survey is seen from the following
summary of Table VI in the appendix:

Table 10.—Median

weekly rates of white time workers,1 by scheduled weekly hours and by industry .
Number of women and median rates where scheduled hours were—

44.

Over 44 and
under 48.

Num Me
ber of dian
wom rate.
en.

Manufacturing:
322 $16.25

16 $15.30
15 11.25

Num Me Num Me
ber of dian ber of dian
wom rate.' wom rate.
en.
en.

302 $12.95
20

Textiles—Cordage
Tobacco—

15.45

and

48
9

$8.40
«

154
40

11.25

322

16.25

54.

Over 54 and
under 60.

60.

Num Me
ber of dian
wom rate.
en.

15.15
10.95

19
47
29

$6.60
10.40
11.15

14.85
12.25

$8.80
12.55
10.65

122

7.35

12.55
(0

24 $11.25

Over 50 and
under 54.

29
37
21

10.75

7.90
(■)
14.30
10.15
14.45
8. 70
11.50

12.00

9. 50

5
6
21
40

139

12.10

772

12.40

323

C2)

10.85

191

11.75

9.15

c2)
e>
9.35
10.45

215
31
296
140
144

li.70
11.10
10.40
9.20
10.70

2
42
37
125
31
18

12.40

1,107

10.80

497

10.50
31
321

50.

Over 48 and
under 50.

48.

51 $14.10
126

10.85

S9.80

201
30
3
20

9.75
12.25
(2)
9.40

113

$10.10

9.50

129
221
58
47
23
88

6.65
IE 15
11.75
12.15
7.65
12.45

2
29

<a)
12.55

1,067

10.50

176

10.40

77 10.90

1 Negro women not included, because of the small number in most industries.
8 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
8 Excludes wooden-box, knit-goods, and cotton and woolen goods manufacturing, and printing and publishing, in each of which the median for only one hour group could be
computed.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Under 44.
Industry.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

For all industries the highest median rate is $16.25, which is that
for the women with a 44-hour week, the working schedule which is
recommended as the most satisfactory for women. This median is
that for 322 women in clothing manufacturing, since this is the only
industry showing women in the 44-hour classification.
The next highest median is $12.40 for the women with a 48-hour
week and for those with between 48 and 50 hours a week. The lowest
median rate of all, or $10.40, is for the 176 women who had the longest
weekly schedule, that of 60 hours, and the next lowest median, or
$10.50, is for the 1,067 women with the next longest schedule, that of
between 54 and 60 hours.
The 5-and-10-cent stores and the paper-box, food, metal, and cigar
factories in this table show a striking decrease in the median rate
with the increase in scheduled hours. For the other industries there
are fluctuations with the increases in hours, but in general there is a
tendency toward lower rates with longer hours. Laundries and fur
niture manufacturing are the only industries in the table where the
highest median rate coincides with the longest hour schedule, but in
laundries the highest median, for the women with the longest week,
$12.45 for between 54 and 60 hours, is only 45 cents higher than that
for the employees with 44 and 48 hours a week. It is significant that
5-and-10-cent stores, and paper-box, candy, clothing, food, metal,
shoe, and cigar factories show the highest median rates for the shortest
hour schedules.
EARNINGS AND EXPERIENCE.

One factor which naturally is expected to be a strong determinant
in wage variations is experience, or the length of time which workers
have spent in a trade. In practically every industry the employee’s
experience in that industry is of value to the employer, and conse
quently should mean an increase in pay as a reward for increase in
ability. Even in occupations requiring practically no skill, greater
length of service should mean higher wages, since the permanence,
speed, steadiness, and trustworthiness of many employees with a good
experience record are a decided asset to the employer.
A general idea of the steadiness of women as industrial workers can
be gained from Table VII in the appendix from which it is apparent
that of 4,657 white women, one-fourth had worked in the trade for
less than a year. It must be remembered that this group includes
all the new workers in these industries. Over two-fifths (43.5 per
cent) had a record of between 1 and 5 years of experience, 30.8 per
cent had a record of 5 years and over, and 5.6 per cent a record of 20
years and over.
The record for length of service is even more striking for the negro
women, although the number reported is much smaller. Of 561
women, over one-half (54.4 per cent) had worked in the industry for
5 years or more. The great bulk (91.3 per cent) of the negro women
reporting on this subject were employed in one industry—the manu

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

facture of tobacco other than cigars. The only other industry with a
sufficient number of negro women reporting on the subject to justify
discussion was the laundries, which employed 7.1 per cent of the 561
women. In the manufacture of tobacco other than cigars, 55.5 per
cent of the negro women as against 47.1 per cent of the white women,
and in laundries one-half of the negro women as contrasted with onethird of the white women, had been 5 or more years in the trade. It
is more than probable that negro women had but few industrial oppor
tunities as compared with the white women, and therefore were much
more likely to remain in any industry which they had entered. For
the negroes in Kentucky it was a choice between domestic service or
one or two industries, whereas white women had many industrial
openings. Moreover, for comparatively few negro women does mar
riage mean withdrawal from the wage-earning class, and the low
wages generally prevailing for them offer little chance of anything but
a hand-to-mouth existence, so that on the whole the small propor
tion entering industry may continue therein for most of their lives.
More detailed figures than those given in this report show that of
the white women reporting on experience, practically two-thirds of
those in cotton and woolen mills, over two-fifths of those in tobacco
other than cigars, in cordage and thread, and in clothing manufactur
ing, approximately one-third of those in general mercantile establish
ments and in laundries, and somewhat over one-fourth of those in
cigar manufacturing, in printing establishments, and in metal shops,
had a record of five years or longer in the industry.
Some idea of the value of experience can be gained from the follow
ing summary of Table VII in the appendix. The median weekly
earnings are given here for women in each group of years in the trade,
also the per cent of increase in each median over the median for
beginners or those with less than six months’ experience.
Table 11.—Median

week's earnings, by time in the trade.

Time in the trade.* 1

Median week’s
earnings.
White.

Under 6 months.................
6 months and under 1 year
1 and under 2 years...........
2 and under 3 years...........
3 and under 4 years...........
4 and under 5 years...........
5 and under 10 years..........
10 and under 15 years........
15 and under 20 years........
20 years and over...............

$8.55
9.85
10.45
11. 35
11.65
12.25
13.15
14.50
14. 65
15. 45

Negro.
$7.20
8.15
7.85
8. 25
8.90
8.10
9.65
10.10
9. 65
10.40

Per cent of increase
over median for
under-6-months
group.
White.
15.2
22.2
32.7
36.3
43.3
53.8
69.6
71.3
80.7

Negro.
13.2
9.0
14.6
23.6
12.5
34.0
40.3
34.0
44.4

The medians for the white women show a steady increase for
added experience, but those for negro women are not so consistent
in their advancement, nor is the per cent of variation from the
initial median so great for negro women in each group as is that for
the white women.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

The most significant revelation, however, is that white women
with an experience record of 20 years and over show only an 80.7
per cent rise in median earnings over the median of the beginners in
the industries. A practical interpretation of this fact would be the
outlook of a typical worker, a 16-year-old girl entering industry
in Kentucky at $8.55 a week. She could not expect even to double
her initial salary though she worked steadily in one industry until
she were 36 or 40 years old. At this time she would probably be at
the peak of her earning capacity in that industry, receiving what
might be termed a bare living wage. To reach this point she would
have to work through years of being paid below the subsistence level
and to eke out an existence as best she could. After a few years at
the peak she would face a future of declining earning capacity with a
penniless old age.
YEAR’S EARNINGS.

The wage figures thus far presented are for a given week irrespective
of the other weeks in the year. Because of fluctuations in the
activity of the industries and because of vicissitudes in the industrial
careers of the women, the wages of individual workers are apt to
suffer considerable variation from week to week. The question
of yearly income is the significant one in judging whether or not
a woman is receiving a living wage, since it is the year’s earnings
which in the final analysis must regulate the standard of living.
Accordingly, it is important to know not only what wages women
in Kentucky earned during one specific week but how much they
obtained during the year.
In the study of yearly earnings an effort was made to secure the
wage data of women who were steady, experienced workers, who
had worked with the firm for at least one year, and who had not
been absent from their post for more than a few weeks in the year.
Altogether, such figures were recorded for 667 white women and
61 negro women. These constituted 8.9 per cent and 4.9 per cent,
respectively, of the entire number of white and negro women for
whom wage data were secured.
These women belonged almost entirely to the production forces
in the establishments from which the records were secured, as the
following statement shows:
.

Occupation.

Number of women
whose year’s earnings
were recorded.
White.

Production.......................................................................
Forewomen....................................................................
Sweepers................................................................. . .
Matrons.......................... :............................................................
Laundresses (in establishments other than laundries)..................
No report...................................................................
Total!......................................................................................

641
4
2
1

Negro.

51
7
2

607

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

According to Table VIII in the appendix, the incomes of the
white women ranged from less than $200 for the year, earned by
one woman, to a yearly income of at least $2,000, earned by another.
One-half of the women received less than $618. The range for
negro women was not so great, for although four received less than
$200, none earned so much so $850 for the year. Moreover, the
median for the negro women, $442, was considerably lower than
that for the white women.
The following statement, prepared from Table VIII, gives the
proportions of women receiving certain yearly incomes:
Per cent of Per cent of
white
negro
women.
women.

Year’s earnings.

25.3
46.5
80.2
93.9
97.6
99.3

65.6
75.4
96.7
100.0

If we take as a measure a yearly income of $800—approximately
$15.40 a week, which in many places might be considered a fair
minimum wage rate—we find that four-fifths of the white women and
all but two of the negro women received less than this amount. None
of the negroes earned so much as $1,000, and only 6.1 per cent of the
white women earned so much as this. It should be remembered that
these yearly figures represent the earnings of a picked group of steady
workers and not of the rank and file.
The median year’s earnings for the women in the several industries
are arranged in descending scale as follows:
White women.
Industry.

All industries................................................
Cigar manufacturing......................................
Metal products manufacturing.....................
General mercantile........................................
Cordage and thread manufacturing..............
Miscellaneous manufacturing.......................
Clothing manufacturing................................
Pood manufacturing......................................
Laundries......................................................
5-and-10-cent stores.......................................
Candy manufacturing...................................
Shoe manufacturing......................................
Tobacco other than cigar manufacturing. ..
Wooden-box manufacturing.........................

Negro women.

N umber
reported.

Median
earnings.

Number
reported.

667
53
29
65
45
41
119
28
37
23
36
50
79
15

$618
735
692

Median
earnings.

$442

688

663
646
641
620
575
565
560
544
514
492

0)
0)

430

1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.

Of the various industries, cigar manufacturing, showing the median
year’s earnings for 53 white women to be $735, heads the list; metal

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

manufacturing with, a median of $692 comes second, followed by
general mercantile with a median of $688. Laundries, 5-and-10-cent
stores, and candy, shoe, tobacco, and wooden-box manufacturing all
show the median year’s earnings to be under $600. The wooden-box
industry, with a median of $492 for 15 women, has the poorest record.
The degree of steadiness of the women whose annual earnings were
recorded is ascertainable from Table IX in the appendix, which shows
that about one-fourth of the white women reported (24.4 per cent)
worked 52 weeks in the year, 57.1 per cent worked 50 weeks or more,
71.1 per cent worked at least 48 weeks, and 80.7 per cent worked at
least 46 weeks. Although these figures may be taken as an index of
the steadiness of employment of the women with yearly records, they
do not give a picture of the exact amount of time spent at work, since
in some cases the workers lost hours and even days from work in the
various weeks for which wages were recorded. The picture given,
however, is probably typical, since a certain amount of lost time,
attributable to various causes, may be considered an invariable
ieature of industrial employment. A correlation of year’s earnings
with weeks worked also is presented in Table IX. Four-fifths of the
white women with year’s records (80.7 per cent) worked at least 46
weeks, or what might be considered a fairly full year. The median
for this group is $651, only $33 more than the median for all women
irrespective of the number of weeks worked. The 163 women who
worked 52 weeks show a median of $649, whereas the 218 women in
the 50-and-under-52-week classification had the somewhat larger
median of $689, this being the highest for any group.
Year’s earnings and weeks lost.

To turn from the weeks worked to the weeks lost, we find that of
the 667 women with year records, 504, or three-fourths, lost some
weeks. The following summary of Table XI in the appendix gives
the number and per cent of women losing certain specified numbers of
weeks:
Number of Per cent of
women.
women.

Weeks lost.

163
117
101
51
42
43
21
20
25
17
17

2............................................................................
3..............................................................................................

4.....................................................................

5................................................................................................
6..............................................................................................

7..............................................................
8.............................................................................
9.......................................................

10........................................................
'
11............................................................................................
12........................................................................................
i3............................................................................................ ::::
14................................................................................................
15 or more.................................................................

Total...............................................................

94 4

i...........................................................

1 3
1 6

11
4
5
21
667

17 5
15 1
7
6 3

fi 4
3 1

2 0
3 7
9. 5

9 ft
6

7
3 1
100.0

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Although nearly one-half the women lost a few weeks—46.6 per
cent being out for from one to four weeks—only a small proportion
lost a considerable amount of time, that is, only 12.6 per cent missed
more than 8 weeks. Some idea of the weeks lost by these women
in the various industries can be obtained from the following table:
Table 12.—Actual

and average number of weeks lost by white women1 for whom 52-week
records were secured, by industry.

Industry.

Manufacturing:
Boxes, wooden..............................................
Candy.............................................................
Clothing.........................................................
Food..............................................................
Metal products..............................................
Shoes..............................~..............................
Textiles—
Cordage and thread...............................

Num
ber of
wo
men
re
ported.

14
15
-36
119
28
11
29
10
50

Number
and per
cent of
women
losing 1
or more
weeks.

Number and per cent of
women losing time
whose lost time
amounted to—
1 to 6
weeks.

Over 6
weeks.

Average
number of
weeks lost
according
to number
of —

Wo
Num Per Num Per Num Per men
re
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. port
ed.

10 71.4
13 86.7
26 72.2
101 84.9
15 53.6
11 100.0
7 24.1
5 50. 0
30 60.0

10 100.0
9 69.2
21 80.8
59 58.4
14 93.3
11 100. 0
5 71.4
5 100. 0
23 76.7

4
5
42
1

30.8
19.2
41.6
6.7

28.6

23.3

Wo
men
who
lost
time.

1.07
4.87
3.69
5.66
2. 04
2.91
.97
1. 60
1.08

1.50
5.62
5.12
6- 67
3. SO
2. 91
4.00
3. 20
1.63

45
12

42
8

93.3
66.7

29 69.0
8 100.0

31.0

4. 56
1.08

4.88
1.63

51 96.2
77 97.5
34 82.9
49 75.4
8 34.8
17 45.9

39 76.5
44 57.1
27 79.4
47 95.9
8 100. 0
16 94.1

12
33
7
2

23.5
42.9
20.6
4. 1

Laundries.............................................................

53
79
41
65
23
37

4.12
5.87
5.32
2. 27
2.50
2.94

All industries 3..........................................

667

4.72

Tobacco—
Cigars......................................................
Other.......................................................
Miscellaneous................................................
General mercantile..............................................

504

75.6

375

74.4

5.9

3.96
5. 72
4. 41
1.71
.87
1.35

129

25.6

3.58

1 Negro women not included, because of the small numbers in most industries.
2 Not computed, owing to small number involved.
2 Excludes knit-goods manufacturing, for which no 52-week records were obtained.

Although three-fourths of the women lost some weeks during the
year, about three-fourths of those who lost time were away not more
than six weeks. Of the various industries with enough women re
ported to justify computations, metal manufacturing showed the best
record, followed by shoe establishments. In the former about threefourths of the women with a year’s record, and in the latter approxi
mately one-half, had lost no weeks. The manufacture of tobacco
other than cigars, with only 2.5 per cent of the women reported as
working the full 52 weeks, is at the bottom of the scale. However,
in a consideration of the number of weeks lost the clothing industry
made almost as bad a showing, since 41.6 per cent of the women who
missed some time from work in this industry were out more than six
weeks, as compared with 42.9 per cent in the tobacco industry re

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

ferred to. The average time lost by these women was 6.67 weeks in
clothing manufacturing and 5.87 weeks in tobacco manufacturing.
Candy, wooden-box, and miscellaneous manufacturing also had high
averages in this respect, something over five weeks per woman in
each case.
One important factor to be studied in an analysis of lost time is
the amount traceable to the firm. To do this exhaustively is not
possible, owing to the lack of information about the number of hours
or days lost by women in weeks during which they were at work.
Whenever a worker was out for a whole week on account of the closing
of the plant, such was noted for the women whose yearly records were
obtained. Table XII in the appendix shows that of the 504 women
who lost some weeks, 278, or 55.2 per cent, were out of employment
for some of this time because the plant had shut down.
The importance of correlating year’s earnings and weeks lost is
obvious. In the first place it is of interest to know how much the
women for whom year’s earnings were obtained averaged each week.
This can be discussed in two ways: First, average weekly earnings
for the 52 weeks, and second, the average weekly earnings for the
weeks worked. Since expenses continue week by week, the worker’s
budget must be made for each week in the year, and not only for the
weeks when she is at work with wages coming in. Consequently, in
order to ascertain whether she has earned enough to meet her budget,
week by week, the year’s earnings must be divided by 52. This shows
what the earnings actually mean to the worker. If, on the other
hand, the question of wage be considered from the point of view of
the industry, or what is the average amount a week paid out to the
employee, what remuneration is given for weekly service, the year’s
earnings must be divided by the number of weeks actually worked.
The following summary gives the median in each industry of the
weekly average for 52 weeks and of the weekly average for the weeks
worked, of the women for whom year’s earnings were recorded, to
gether with the median in each industry of the week’s earnings of
all women for whom the current pay-roll data were gathered:

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.
Table 1?>.—Comparison

of medians, actual earnings of white women awing late pay
roll period and average earnings of white women for whom 52-week records were
secured, by industry.
Medians of—

Industry.

Manufacturing:
Boxes, wooden........................................
Candy....... ........................... ....................
Clothing....................................................
Food.........................................................
Metal products..................... ..................
Shoes.........................................................
Textiles—Cordage and thread...............
TobaccoCigars. ...............................................
Other..................... ...........................
Miscellaneous.................................... ......
General mercantile...................................... .
5-and-10-cent stores.........- -...........................
All industries2................. ..............................

Average
■week’s
Week’s
earnings
earnings
for 52
during
weeks—
late
women
pay-roll
period— for whom
52-week
all
records
women.
were
(Column 1.) secured.
(Column 2.)

Average
Per cent
earnings
for weeks by which
column 2
worked— exceeds (+)
women
or falls
for whom below (—)
52-week
column 1.
records
were
secured.
(Column 3.)

Per cent of
increase,
column 3
over
column 2.

$7.50
9.60
12.05
9.15
14.05
10.70
10.60

$9.75
10.50
11.95
11.65
13.15
10.50
13.05

$10.50
II. 25
14.00
12.30
13.75
10. 85
13.50

+30.0
+9.4
-.8
+27.3
• -6.4
—1.9
+23.1

7.7
7.1
7.2
5.6
4.6
3.3
3.4

10.90
10.60
11.30
11.65
8.75
10.75
10.7S

14.20
9.65
12.10
13.40
10.50
10.75
11.70

15.25
10.75
13. 05
13.90
10.60
11.05
12.45

+30.3
-9.0
+ 7.1
+ 15.0
+20.0

7.4
11.4
7.9
3.7
1.0
2.8
6.4

+8.8

1 No difference.
.
3 Excludes paper box, furniture, knit goods, and cotton and woolen goods manufacturing, and printing
and publishing, in which medians could not be computed or no 52-week records were obtained.

The first column in the table may be taken as an index of what
the rank and file of women in Kentucky earned for a week in the fall
of 1921, the various industrial and personal contingencies which
inevitably arise being recognized as an influential factor in lowering
earnings. The second column represents the weekly average of
steady and experienced women for a year, contingencies again enter
ing into the calculation. The third column represents more nearly
what steady, experienced women could earn per week, or the financial
opportunities for women in industry when the weeks missed for one
reason or another have been excluded from the computation and
hence the element of lost time greatly reduced. Total elimination
of this element is not possible, because of the lack of definite informa
tion about the loss of a few hours or days in weeks when women
were reported as having been at work. In fact, an average struck
after the complete exclusion of all lost time would be neither fair,
nor representative, since the possibility of losing more or less time is
a factor inherent in industrial jobs, and one which almost inevitably
lowers wages.j
,
_
In most cases the figures in column 2 exceed those in column lk
showing an increase for the various industries of from 7-to 30 per
cent in round numbers. This is not surprising, since column 2J

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

stands for a picked group whereas column 1 represents a combina
tion of experienced and inexperienced, steady and irregular workers.
The only exceptions, that is, the only cases where column 2 falls
below column 1, are the manufacturing of clothing, metal products,
shoes, and tobacco other than cigars. Some light can be thrown on
these circumstances by a comparison of columns 2 and 3. Naturally,
the figures in the third column are all higher than the corresponding
ones in the second, since the latter represent earnings averaged for
the 52 weeks and the former earnings averaged for the weeks worked.
Clothing manufacturing, with the median in column 3 exceeding that
in column 2 by 17 per cent, shows the greatest difference between the
two columns; As already pointed out, this industry revealed the
highest average of weeks lost by the women who lost time, and next
to the highest average of weeks lost per woman by the closing of the
plant. Detailed figures show that of the group in this industry
losing time on account of the closing of the plant, about one-fifth
(21.7 per cent) lost as many as 10 weeks for this reason. These
statements explain the fact that the median week’s earnings of all
women on the current pay rolls of the clothing factory as shown in
column 1 are higher than the median of the earnings when averaged
for 52 weeks as given in column 2, since the current week has been
shown to be a rather full one for the bulk of the women in the clothing
factories. Evidently business had picked up considerably in the fall
of 1921 after much curtailment during the preceding months. The
tobacco industry, other than cigar making, which is almost parallel
with clothing manufacturing in regard to high averages for lost
time, stands next to it in the increase of the median in column 3
over that in column 2, and next to clothing in the decrease of the
figures of column 2 as contrasted with those in column 1. The
upshot of these calculations is that there was in both of these in
dustries much more time lost during the year, proportionally speak
ing, than there was during the current week, and that a large part of
this lost time was directly traceable to the industries. This theory
would probably hold true also for the metal industry, with its median
in column 2 falling 6.8 per cent below that in column 1, and even
with its median in column 3 dropping below that in column 1, the
only industry which reveals a lower median for column 3 than for
column 1. Although this industry showed a low average for weeks
lost during the year, there would seem to have been lost hours and
days or slackened production in the weeks when the women were
reported as doing some work. In the shoe industry the fact that
three of the six plants included had not been running sufficiently
long to furnish yearly records might well explain the slight increase
in the median in column 1 over that in column 2.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

When we compare the medians for the various industries in each
column separately, we find, as has been pointed out in a previous
section, that the metal industry shows the highest median when all
the women on the current pay roll are considered ($14.05), but cigar
manufacturing shows the highest median when the year's earnings
of a picked group of women are averaged for the 52 weeks ($14.20)
and also when their income is averaged for only the weeks when
they were at work ($15.25). In regard to the lowest median in each
column, whereas wooden-hox manufacturing has a median for the
current week below that of all the other industries ($7.50), it shows
a slightly higher median when the earnings of the women with a
year’s record are averaged for the 52 weeks ($9.75) than does the
manufacture of tobacco other than cigars, with a median of only
$9.65. However, when the year’s income is averaged for the weeks
worked, wooden-box manufacturing again drops to the last place,
with a median of $10.50, although 5-and-10-cent stores, the tobacco
industry other than cigar making, and shoe manufacturing have
medians only slightly higher.
CONCLUSION.

On the whole, the wage data show how limited were the financial
opportunities for wage-earning women in Kentucky. The general
level was low, since the median earnings of the 7,426 white women
were found to be $10.75, and of the 1,253 negro women, $8.35. Perhaps
even more reflective of the low wage scale prevailing is the fact that
a little over three-fifths of the white women and considerably over
four-fifths of the negro women earned less than $12 a week, and that
in round numbers four-fifths of the white women and 97 per cent of
the negro women earned less than $15 a week.
To be sure the earnings of the women who lost some time during
the week are responsible for pulling down the level somewhat;
nevertheless, the median for the white women who were reported
as working 48 hours or over during the week was seen to be only
$11.60 a week, showing less than one dollar increase over the median
for all white women reporting week’s earnings. The median for
negro women with a record of 48 hours or more of work during the
week was $10.15, revealing the greater increase of $1.80 over their
general median.
In a study of wage opportunities, naturally the experience of the
workers in a particular industry is an influential factor in a wage
analysis. The 1,433 white women who reported 5 or more years of
experience in the industry show a median of $14.10. Even the most
experienced group, the 259 white women who had worked for 20
years or more in one industry, reveal a median of only $15.45. The
figures for the experienced negro women are much less promising,

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

the median for those who had worked 5 or more years in the trade
being $9.80 and for those with a record of 20 years or over, $10.40.
Nor did a combination of experience and steadiness mean a high
wage, a fact illustrated by the earnings of the picked group whose
year’s records were secured. The median for the 667 white women
who were selected for a study of yearly earnings was $618, which is
approximately $11.90 a week. The median for the 163 women who
worked every week in the year was only $649, which in round num
bers is $12.50 a week. I1 he median for the 61 negro women with
year’s records was $442, or $8.50 a week. There is a rather striking
similarity between this picked group and the rank and file of the
women, since approximately four-fifths of the white women and 97
per cent of the negro women with year’s records received less than
$800 a year, which in round numbers is $15.40 a week, whereas, as
pointed out in a foregoing paragraph, about four-fifths and 97 per
cent, respectively, of all the white and negro women included in the
survey earned less than $15 a week.
To turn from the general to the particular is somewhat encouraging,
since the women in a few of the industries were on a higher wage
basis than the general level. On the other hand, the wage scale in
about one-half of the industries dropped below this level.
In the manufacturing group the metal shops have the best wage
record, since with a median of $14.05 they head the list of the indus
tries with their median earnings for the current week, and with a
yearly median of $692 are second in the list of medians of year’s earn
ings. Cigar manufacturing, which comes first when the earnings of
the picked group are considered, drops to seventh place for the cur
rent week’s earnings when all the workers are taken into account.
The manufacture of tobacco other than cigars, an industry in which
negro labor competed extensively with white, is considerably below
cigar manufacturing in the matter of wages, dropping below the gen
eral level of all industries both for the current week and the year.
The median week’s earnings for the negro women in this industry,
$8.35, are $2.25 less than the median for the white women. Clothing
manufacturing, which employed many women in Kentucky, occupied
on the whole a rather middle ground in regard to wages, although
when only the women who worked a week of 48 hours and over are
taken into account it shows a median of $14.30, as does printing and
publishing, and is surpassed by only one industry, metal manufac
turing. -The only branch of textiles which could be placed among
the better-paying industries from the point of view of women in
Kentucky is the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods, with a
weekly median of $13.50. Very few women were employed in these
mills. Printing and publishing, which employed even fewer women,
apparently offered rather similar financial opportunities.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Work in stores was not particularly remunerative. In fact, wages
in the 5-and-10-cent stores were conspicuously low, the median
week’s earnings of the white women, $8.75, being next to the lowest
of all the medians for the various industrial groups. The general
mercantile establishments were considerably better than this.
Although from the point of view of weekly medians they were sur
passed by the metal, cotton and woolen goods, printing and publish
ing, and clothing industries, in regard to the yearly median, probably
because of the steadiness of employment, they ranked third, sur
passed only by cigar and metal manufacturing.
Laundries, an industry in which negro women might be said to
compete to some degree with white women, show for the white
workers a wage scale that coincides with the general level for the
current week but falls below this level for the year. The weekly
median for the negro women is $2.60 below that for the white. The
only industry besides laundries and the making of tobacco other than
cigars in which there were sufficient negro women for the computa
tion of a median, is food manufacturing, which shows the somewhat
higher weekly median of $9.05, a figure almost as high as that of the
white women in this industry, $9.15.
Finally, the only remaining special industries not yet referred to in
this resume—shoe, cordage and thread, knit goods, furniture, and
candy manufacturing—must be classed as among the more poorly
paying types of work for women, since they all fall below the general
wage level of the $10.75 median for the current week.

PART IV.
HOURS AND WAGES IN THE TELEPHONE INDUSTRY.

The telephone industry in some respects differs so fundamentally
from other industries that it seems advisable to discuss these phases
of the subject separately in this report. In the first place a type of
worker with certain qualifications is desired, and a special training
must be given her before she can engage in telephone work at all.
It is significant, too, that the training and experience of telephone
operators can not be turned to account if they enter other kinds of
employment later. Because the telephone industry must furnish con
tinuous service day and night for every day in the year, including
Sundays and holidays, certain problems arise in connection with
evening, night, and Sunday work, and the need of split shifts, which
put this industry in a class apart and prevent its inclusion in the
general hour tables with other industries. Furthermore, these hour
peculiarities give rise to wage complexities which necessitate separate
handling of the wage data obtained for the industry.
THE WORKERS.

An effort is made to secure as telephone operators girls with certain
age, intelligence, and education qualifications in order to furnish the
public with efficient service. Young workers are definitely desired.
The reason for this and a possible objection to it is given in the follow
ing quotation from the report on the telephone industry made by the
Bureau of Women in Industry in New York:
Young persons are preferred by the telephone company because of the greater
facility with which they learn to work and acquire dexterity, and because their reac
tions are much quicker than the reactions of older girls, yet the years 16 to 23 are those
during which the nervous and physical system of a woman is peculiarly sensitive to
strain and susceptible to injury. Injury sustained at this time of life is apt to be more
far-reaching than would be the effects from similar causes in maturer years.1

That the policy of employing young workers was pursued in Ken
tucky is shown by the following table:
Table 14.—Age

Shift.

of telephone operators.

Number of women whose age wasNumber
of women
16 and
report
18 and
20 and
25 and
30 and
40 and
50 and
ing.
under 18 under 20 under 25 under 30 under 40 under 50 under 60
years.
years.
years.
years.
years.
years.
years.

Day operators............
Night operators.........

275
20

80
1

87
6

37
4

Total.................

295

2
4

1 New York State Department of Labor, Bureau of Women in Industry. The telephone industry
Special Bui. 100, 1920, p. 17-18.

WOMEN" IN" KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Because of the tendency to employ more mature women for night
work, the day and night operators are kept separate in the table.
The youth of the day operators is obvious. Of the 275 day operators
reporting their age, over two-fifths (42.5 per cent) were less than 20
years old, and almost three-fourths (74.2 per cent) were under 25
years. Only 4 of the day operators had reached the age of 40. The
number of ni^ht operators reporting on age is too small to permit of
comparisons. Of the 20 night workers, however, only 1 was under
20 years of age, while 7 were between 30 and 40 years.
As would be expected, the telephone operators reporting on nativity
were almost all American born. Of 292 whose country of birth was
ascertained only 2 were born outside the United States.
It is an easier matter to secure operators who measure up to the
age requirements than operators who meet the intelligence standards.
A combination of concentration, coordination, accuracy, and self
control, qualities generally conceded to be important factors for
efficient work in this industry, would seem indicative of a fairly high
degree of mentality which should have scope for development and
advancement. Lack of such opportunity is undoubtedly one signifi
cant reason for the high labor turnover in the industry. According
to the report on the telephone industry in New York already referred
to, practically three-fourths of the operators in the Manhattan and
Brooklyn divisions had been with the company less than 5 years.
The detailed figures for Kentucky show the same to be true among
the 300 operators reporting on length of time in the trade, since 77
per cent had had less than 5 years of experience. Only 11 per cent
reported as many as 10 years in the trade. Only 5 women had had
as much as 20 years of service. The New York report states: “A
telephone operator is not a real asset to the company until she has
been with it for one year”2 and “since an operator must be in
the company two years before she can efficiently carry the theoretical
load of 230 units per hour, the kind of service which the public
receives depends very considerably on the length of service of the
operators.”3 In Kentucky 29 per cent of the workers reporting on
time in the trade had had less than 1 year of experience and 51.3 per
cent less than 2 years.
It is true that among young workers a number leave the work
because of marriage and other personal reasons. Nevertheless, the
irregularities characteristic of the hours of labor and the inability
to earn a higher wage after a certain maximum is reached a're
undoubtedly significant causes for the withdrawal of some of the girls
from the work.
2 New York State Department of Labor. Bureau of Women in Industry. The telephone industry
Specialbul. 100, 1920, p. 5.
3 Ibid., p. 39.

31601°—23------5

WOMEN- IN’ KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

HOURS.

Although the schedules of individual operators in any one estab
lishment differed somewhat, there was in general a system which
prevailed in each of the 15 exchanges visited in Kentucky. Among
telephone companies there was in this State, as elsewhere, a decided
trend toward the 8-hour day. In 13 of the 15 exchanges included in
the Kentucky survey, the 8-hour shift or a shorter owe was in force
for some or all of the operators. Such daily schedules, however, did
not always mean a 48-hour week, since in some exchanges the opera
tors were required to work 7 days a week. Only 7 exchanges reported
a schedule of 48 hours or less every week for practically all employees.
In one of these the operators were on duty for 7 days a week, working
7 hours on 6 days and 6 hours on Sunday. In another exchange there
was a 48-hour week or less for 4 operators who worked on 7 days.
Six other exchanges varied a 48-hour week with a 54 or 56 hour week
for some of the employees, allowing them to be off every second or
third Sunday. There was a tendency in the exchanges in small
towns for the operators to work longer hours than in the cities, a
few employees being scheduled for more than 60 hours of duty a week.
In Kentucky, in accordance with the practice generally found in the
telephone industry, girls were permitted to rest for 15 minutes in the
morning and afternoon, no deduction from then- wages being made
for these intervals.
Although comparatively few operators were scheduled for 7 days
of employment every week, a large number worked 7 days every other
week. The failure to allow 1 day of rest in 7 is a custom to be dis
couraged in any industry and especially in one whose occupations
are so confining and arduous as are the operations in a telephone
exchange, where the continuous succession of calls necessitates con
stant alertness, accuracy, and speed on the part of the employees.
As night work is much less intense than day work, night operators
are sometimes expected to be on duty for a longer stretch of horns
than are day operators with their wearing peak load of calls. Since
a girl must be constantly alert and in a state of expectancy even
when she is not busy with calls, she can not relax or rest properly,
and as long as she is on duty she is under a nervous tension. Most
of the night operators in the exchanges visited in Kentucky did not
have unduly long hours, although in several small exchanges night
operators were on duty every night in the week. Seven or eight
hours a night for 6 nights a week was the prevailing practice. A few
night operators had longer over-all hours but had a relief period
between tricks or shifts, that is, a chance to rest for an hour or more.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

In several exchanges in small towns where the night work after the
evening hours was very light, the operators, although at their posts
for a long stretch of hours, were expected to rest most of the night,
sometimes in rest rooms, but subject to emergency calls.
The need for a careful adjustment of the hours of telephone oper
ators is a well-recognized fact, because of the nervous strain inherent
in the job. The report on the telephone industry published by the
Bureau of the Women in Industry in New York, already referred to
several times in this section, recommended that the 7-hour shift be
installed for both day and night operators and that the number of
days of employment a week be limited to six, not only for congested
centers but also in small towns where operators become fatigued
from being in a state of constant expectancy.
WAGES.

Although in most industries the rate of pay is usually higher than
the actual earnings, in the telephone industry the opposite is true.
The basic rate does not take into account such things as the time and
a half frequently paid for Sunday work and overtime, and a bonus
paid for evening shifts—practices which affect at some time most of
the employees, since they are changed from shift to shift.
Instead, therefore, of tabulating the rates quoted for the individual
telephone employees, since these rates might vary from vreek to
week according to the shift, it seems more significant to present the
scale of rates in force in certain representative exchanges. The
following is the wage scale used by one company in its city exchanges:
Authorized wage schedule for operators.

Term of service.

Day oper
ators on
shifts
between
S a. m.and
7 p. m.

Evening
operators
on shifts
ending at
or before
8 p. m.

Evening Night oper
operators ators who
on shifts
remained
ending in building
after
all night.
8 p. m.

$11.00
Beginning of—" Second month after entering school........
Fourth month after entering school........
Seventh month after entering school---Thirteenth month after entering school..
T wenty-fifth month after entering school.
Thirty-seventh month after entering
Sixty-first month after entering school..

11.50
12. 00
13.00
14.00

11.00

$12, 00
12. 50
13.00
14.00
15.00

$13.00
13. 50
14.00
15.00
16. 0Q

$13.00
13.50
14. 00
15.00
16.00

15.00
16. 00

16.00
17.00

17. 00
18.00

17.00
18.00

Local supervisor.

$17. 00
18. 00
19.00

$18. 00
19. 00
20. 00

$19. 00
20. 00

21.00

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

That such a wage scale was not in force throughout the State is
shown by the fact that this same company paid the following lower
rates in a small town:
Beginner's (paid at end of first week)................................................ $8. 00
Beginning of—
Third month................................................................................ 8. 50
Seventh month............................................................................ 9. 00
Thirteenth month....................................................................... 9. 50
Nineteenth month.........................................................................10. 00 '
Twenty-fifth month.................................... ................................10.50
Thirty-first month......................................................................... 11. 50
Thirty-sixth month.............................................................................. 12. 50

In another rather large exchange the local operators started in at
$10 and were increased $1 a week every three months up to $15,
which was the maximum; toll operators began at $11 and had a
similar system of increases with $16 as the maximum; and super
visors had an initial rate of $17 and worked up to a maximum of $20,
according to efficiency.
Some of the rates were quoted in monthly terms. In one estab
lishment the initial rate was $42.50 a month with a $2.50 raise every
three months until $52.50 was reached, then with a $2.50 raise every
six months until $63.50 was attained. In a small exchange in a
small town the monthly rate was $32.50 for the first three months
with a $2.50 increase every three months until $50 was reached.
However, one local operator in this exchange received over $50 and
one chief operator over $60 a month.
In many cases the earnings of the individual employees for the
week recorded exceeded the rate because of extra pay for unpopular
shifts, Sunday work, and overtime. Hence the following table gives
the actual earnings of 557 women for a current week:4
Table 15.— Week’s

Week’s earnings.

Sfl and under $2............................................
$4 and under $5...........................
$7 and under $8..............................
$8 and under $9............................................

$12 and under $13........................................

earnings of telephone operators.

Number
of
women.
1
2
2
1
1
7
4
18
16
16
30
26
27
75
62
62

Week’s earnings.

Number
of .
women.

18
20
5
6
12
1
2
Total.................................................

557
$14.85

4 Although not all the telephone exchanges included in the survey had a weekly pay roll, some paying
their employees monthly or semimonthly, the earnings of all operators recorded have been prorated to a
weekly basis. The system used in telephone exchanges for changing a semimonthly wage to a weekly
basis by dividing by two and one-sixth has been followed in this report.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

The median earnings of 557 telephone employees were $14.85,
which is a higher median than that of any other industry included in
the survey. Metal manufacturing, with the median of $14.05, heads
the list of the industries already considered in this report. A little
over one-fifth of the women in the telephone exchanges earned less
than $12, as compared with a little over three-fifths of the white
women in the other establishments. In round numbers, only onehalf of the telephone employees as contrasted with four-fifths of the
white women in the other industries received less than $15 a week.
From this it would appear that the telephone industry in Kentucky
was much more advantageous financially for the rank and file of the
workers than was the general run of industries. In regard to the
most highly paid women, however, those with weekly wages exceeding
$20, the telephone industry was equaled by the general mercantile,
one-tenth of the women in each having earned more than $20 during
the week recorded, but was surpassed by clothing manufacturing and
by cotton and woolen manufacturing, which showed 11.2 per cent and
21.1 per cent, respectively, of the women in this wage classification.
The figures for the telephone industry in the preceding paragraph
are not correlated with time worked. Table XV in the appendix,
which gives earnings according to hours or days worked, shows that
of the 317 telephone operators for whom were secured records of hours
actually worked during the week, about four-fifths (81.4 per cent)
had worked a week of 48 hours or more. The median earnings for
this hour group were $14.75. Of the 213 operators whose exact
hours were not obtainable but whose day records were available,
96.7 per cent had worked on 5 days or more. This group shows a
median of $16.85. The fact that almost three-fourths of the oper
ators whom this latter median represents had worked on 7 days in
the week doubtless explains the increase in this median over the
$14.75 for the women with a record of 48 hours and over. Since
only 27.8 per cent of the hour group had worked more than 48 hours,
it would seem that comparatively few had worked 7 days a week,
and they had earned somewhat less on that account than those who
had worked 7 days a week. The policy followed in some exchanges
of paying the operators time and a half for Sunday work is another
strong factor in the explanation of the considerably higher median
for the group with day records as contrasted with the group with
hour records.
In general, although the wage scale in the telephone industry was
higher than that in force in most of the other industries which
employed large numbers of women in Kentucky, the maximum wage
rate attained by efficient employees after only a few years of service
was so fixed and inelastic, and there was so little opportunity for
advancement beyond a certain restricted point, that there would not
be much incentive for ambitious women to remain in the telephone
industry beyond a few years.

PAET V.
WORKING CONDITIONS.

In any general study of the conditions surrounding working
women the question of wages and hours of work is so constantly
before the public that the physical condition of the establishments
in which the women work is apt to receive little attention unless
strikingly bad. The Kentucky survey showed very few establish
ments with the shockingly bad conditions often brought to light
through factory inspection, but on the other hand practically none
of the establishments had surrounded their workers with all of the
modern conditions advocated by factory experts. There was great
need throughout the State for the realization of the importance of
the relation of good working conditions to health and efficiency.
The means by which proper working conditions can be secured are
varied. Campaigns of education among employers, and organiza
tion and education of employees, often bring improved working con
ditions. More often, however, action by the State has been neces
sary to insure to its working citizens healthful and safe working
conditions. In many States this effort has taken the form of laws
which define carefully the conditions under which various kinds of
work can be done. In Kentucky almost no such laws have been
passed, and the few existing ones are neither broad enough to cover
many of the bad conditions brought to light by the survey nor
definite enough to enable violations to be easily determined and
prosecuted by the State factory inspectors.
General plant conditions.
For the most part, the buildings inspected were of fairly good con
struction and in passable repair. Only one building was recorded as
being actually in bad repair, but the adjective “ dingy ” frequently
was used by agents in describing both the workrooms and the build
ings. Moreover, although most of the workrooms were conveniently
located, in four plants they were on the fourth floor or above, and the
women employees were not allowed to use the elevator.
GENERAL WORKROOM CONDITIONS.

Cleaning.

That every place where people work all day should be clean and
as orderly as the nature of the trade allows seems a rudimentary
requirement for acceptable working conditions, yet 59 of the 151
plants included in this survey had workrooms that were not cleaned
satisfactorily or that were kept clean only through the efforts of the
64

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

employees engaged for other work. In general the unsatisfactory
plants had dirty ceilings, walls, and windows; or the materials on
which work was being done, combined with dirt, was ground into
the floors; or the floors were wet or littered with many days’ accumu
lations of dust, scraps, coal ashes, and trash. Almost without excep
tion these plants could have been made satisfactorily clean by
thorough and regular sweeping and scrubbing. The effectiveness of
such methods was shown in a tobacco factory where, in spite of the
dirty nature of the work, the floors were sliiningly clean because
they were scrubbed every night with hot water.
It should be of especial concern to the public that of the 12 food
manufacturing plants investigated, 7 were found among those estab
lishments whose cleanliness was unsatisfactory. The necessity of
having food prepared in sanitary surroundings has led the Kentucky
Legislature to give to the State board of health power to enforce a
proper standard of cleanliness in establishments preparing or han
dling food. In part, the law states that—
The floors, side walls, ceilings, furniture, receptacles, implements, and ma
chinery of every such establishment or place where such food intended for
sale is produced, prepared, manufactured, packed, stored, sold, or distrib
uted * * * shall at no time be kept or permitted to remain in an unclean,
unhealthy, or insanitary condition; and for the purpose of this act, unclean,
unhealthful, and insanitary conditions shall be deemed to exist * * * if
all trucks, trays, boxes, buckets, or other receptacles, or the chutes, platforms,
racks, tables, shelves, and knives, saws, drawers, or other utensils, or the
machinery used in moving, handling, cutting, chopping, mixing, canning, or
other processes are not thoroughly cleaned daily, or if the clothing of opera
tives, employees, clerks, or other persons therein employed is unclean.1

Such conditions are declared a nuisance and punishable as a mis
demeanor. The strict enforcement, of this law would improve the
conditions in this one group of establishments, but a similar pro
vision should apply to all places of employment and factory inspec
tors should have power to declare unclean conditions a nuisance and
a misdemeanor wherever they were found.
Heating.

It is difficult to conceive of any one thing that affects more directly
the comfort and efficiency of the workers than a proper temperature
in the workroom. Not only should workrooms be warm enough,
but they should be evenly heated. Eleven plants, however, were
heated only by stoves scattered through the buildings, and five other
establishments supplemented their heating system by coal or gas
stoves. This method of heating resulted in very uneven tempera
tures that varied greatly from workroom to workroom. The work
ers near the stoves were always overheated if the ones farther away
1 Kentucky Statutes (ed. by John D. Carroll, 6th ed.), 1922.
p. 954—956.

Sec. 2060b to 2060b-10,

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

were not cold. Too great heat is as undesirable as undue cold,
bine plants, most of which were heated by stoves, were cold on the
day when they were inspected. In one department store the women
had on coats and sweaters in an effort to keep warm,
o No attempt seems to have been made by the State of Kentucky
to see that its stores and factories were sufficiently warm so that
the workers would not suffer from exposure. An example of how
some States have established a standard of good conditions by law
is the following Connecticut statute:
When any building or part thereof is occupied as a home or place of resi
dence, or as an office or place of business, either mercantile or otherwise, a
temperature of less than 68° F. in such building or part thereof shall for the
purpose of this act be deemed injurious to the health of the occupants thereof,2

Ventilation.

As the ventilation of the plants visited was not the subject of a
scientific study, only those establishments where the ventilation was
obviously faulty were noted. Sufficient circulation of air and the
elimination, so far as possible, of injurious fumes, lint, dust, or
excessive humidity are vital to the workers’ health. Nevertheless,
32 plants were reported as not adequately ventilated, and one other
plant had some workrooms in which there was an insufficient circu
lation of air. In several telephone exchanges the high switchboards
shut off the air, and in many workrooms there was an insufficient
number of windows or the openings were too small or so located that
there was no circulation through the room.
Altogether, in 73 of the 151 plants visited some form of artificial
ventilation was found. Whenever this was the case, it was apparent
that at least an attempt had been made to have the workers employed
under healthful conditions. It is of interest to point out that in 44
plants there were special problems to be solved before the ventilation
could be considered adequate. These difficulties included thick dust
and fumes in tobacco factories, lint in textile mills, excessive heat and
humidity in laundries, and fumel from paints, varnish, and drugs
in various plants. In 21 of the plants where these special problems
were found, artificial ventilating systems had been installed. In
some plants the artificial ventilation was highly efficacious, as in one
tobacco plant, where the agent reported that “ there was a notable
absence of dust and fumes, due to a huge exhaust system,” but not
all of these artificial means produced the desired results. In one
tobacco plant the humidifiers which had been installed kept down the
dust but produced a. temperature of 82° in late November. Another
example of a ventilating system which failed to achieve its purpose
was in a laundry, where the exhausts provided were so small and had
so little force that they made practically no impression on the hot,
2

Connecticut.

Session Laws of 1921.

Ch. 130, p. 3131.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

steamy atmosphere. Moreover, in 23 plants with special ventilating
problems no attention had been paid to improving conditions. Four
textile plants, where there was a great deal of lint floating in the
air, and five tobacco plants, where the dust and fumes were reported
as “choking,” were especially in need of some means of artificial
ventilation.
*
The fact that conditions similar to the unsatisfactory ones just
discussed exist wherever employers fail to give special study to ven
tilation problems has led several States to undertake these studies,
and from the facts so obtained to form rules as to the number of
feet of air space that each worker needs in any building and the
types of industry' that must install special ventilating appliances
in order to have healthful working conditions. In some 'States these
rules have been passed as laws' by the legislature, but the most care
fully worked out and most scientific rulings are usually made by
commissions or bureaus to which the legislature delegates this power.
The rules of the New York State Industrial Commission3 and the
New Jersey Bureau of Hygiene and Sanitation* are good examples
of the means taken by a State to guarantee its workers adequate
ventilation. Industries having special problems, as, for instance,
laundries, plants having dusty processes such as shoemaking or
woodworking, and plants handling poisons such as lead in printing
or pottery manufacturing and mercury in felt making, have all
been carefully and individually studied. The resulting rules, which
have the force of laws, effectively protect the workers from the more
pronounced and special hazards in each industry.
Lighting,
Adequate light is obviously essential to all workers, but what is
adequate light for each particular job is very hard to determine ex
cept by technical studies. Light that is satisfactory for a woman
taping boxes may be ruinous to the eyesight of a woman making
clothing, and the direct light necessary for handling very small parts
may produce an unbearable glare if the workers face east or west
and so get the direct rays of the sun in their eyes. Plants that
really desire to give their workers the best possible arrangements
must study the particular needs of each job.
In 46 Kentucky plant's lighting was unsatisfactory. Establish
ments were counted as unsatisfactorily lighted if glare or reflection
were found, as well as when the natural and the artificial light were
insufficient. In 21 of the plants both the natural and the artificial
light were inadequate. Natural light was more often unsatisfactory
than was artificial. Eighty-two establishments had insufficient
natural light, but this was often corrected by excellent artificial
8 New York State Industrial Code, 1920, p. 44, 49, 119-122, 159, 214.
4 New Jersey Department of Labor. Bureau of Hygiene and Sanitation.
engineering industrial standards. 1916.

Sanitary and

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

facilities. In some cases where the natural lighting could have been
improved easily, this was not done, as in two telephone exchanges
where the curve of the boards shut out much of the natural light so
that it varied in intensity at different hours of the day, and the only
artificial arrangements were low-powered, unshaded bulbs hanging by
each operator. If indirect, strong, artificial lights could have been
substituted for these bulbs, the result would probably have been better
for the girls’ eyes than was the fluctuating natural light.
In 37 plants either glare or reflection was found. The workers
often tried to relieve the strain on their eyes by wearing shields
made of newspapers or by pinning newspapers at the’ windows to
soften the light. In most cases where glare was present only slight
changes were needed to prevent it. A little thought given to the
position of machines or worktables, to the height of artificial lights,
and to the shading both of windows and of electric bulbs, would
have eliminated a great many cases of eyestrain. That the whole
subject had not been given the proper care was shown by the vary
ing conditions which changed from floor to floor or workroom to
workroom, for often in one plant extremes of good and bad lighting
could be found.
On account of the nature of the work, eyestrain was necessarily
much greater in the garment factories than in practically any other
of the plants visited; yet 7 of the 15 garment factories inspected
were unsatisfactorily lighted. Eyestrain seemed likely in one plant
since the work of some of the girls required steady concentration in
looking at a lighted globe, and that of others compelled constant gaz
ing at lights flashing on and off. The management had made no par
ticular effort to have the best attainable lighting conditions to mini
mize as much as possible the eyestrain. The natural lighting of this
plant was inadequate, and there was reflection present from the arti
ficial lights.
In no field is there greater opportunity for State assistance than
in the regulation of lighting facilities for all workers engaged in
diverse sorts of jobs. Each industry, and in some cases each occu
pation within the industry, needs special study. Often bad lighting
is due. to lack of knowledge of the needs of the job. Improved qual
ity and quantity of production as well as vastly less strain on the
worker result from elimination of eyestrain. The same States that
have studied ventilation have studied lighting. New Jersey, for
example, has a set of rules worked out in detail from a practical
engineering viewpoint, which, if followed, insure good lighting for
any job.6
B New Jersey Department of Labor. Bureau of Electrical Equipment.
ing for mills, factories, and other work places. 1918.

Code of light

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Seating.
Good physical conditions surrounding a girl in the workroom will
not counterbalance sustained, unhealthful posture, for it' is generally
accepted to-day that continuous standing or continuous sitting, or
sitting on makeshift or badly adjusted chairs, is extremely harmful
for women workers. The following standard advocated by the
Women’s Bureau describes the conditions to be desired to insure
health and comfort to the worker:
A chair should be provided for every woman and its use encouraged. It is
possible and desirable to adjust the height of machines or worktables so that
the workers may with equal convenience and efficiency stand or sit at tlieir
work. The seats should have backs. If the chairs are high, foot rests should
be provided.6

Kentucky has also recognized the injurious effects on women work
ers of continued standing, and in 1912 the legislature passed the
following law:
Every person, firm, or corporation that employs females shall provide seats
for their use in the room where they work and shall maintain and keep them
there, and shall permit the use of such by them when not engaged in the active
duties for which they are employed. In stores and mercantile establishments
at least one seat shall be provided for every three females employed. If the
duties of the female employees, for the use of whom the seats are furnished,
are to be principally performed in front of a counter, table, desk, or fixture,
such seats shall be placed in front thereof. If such duties are to be principally
performed behind such counter, table, desk, or fixture, such seats shall be placed
behind the same. The provision of seats that fold when not in use shall not
be deemed a compliance with this section.'

This law is an illustration of the need of the greatest detail and
definiteness in laws that seek to remedy bad working conditions, for
although it stipulates that seats be supplied and maintained and their
use permitted, it does not specify the kind. It is quite possible for
factories to live up to this law and yet fail absolutely to provide
their women workers with the seating facilities necessary for their
comfort and health.
The Kentucky law does not insure the women workers such com
fortable and con venient seats as the standards of the Women’s Bureau
require, but if it were strictly observed it would improve the seat
ing arrangements which now exist in many plants. In spite of the
law, 11 establishments provided no seats whatsoever for any of
their women workers, and 43 establishments provided no seats for
those women whose jobs were so arranged that they stood at work.
It is worth noting that among the stores and mercantile establish
ments, which the law covers most specifically, there were none that
failed to supply some seats, although 2 furnished the wrong kind
and 12 an insufficient number. The way in which the existing law
• u. s. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau. Standards for the employment of
women in industry, Bui. 3, 1921, p. 5.
7 Kentucky Statutes (ed. by John D. Carroll, Gth ed.), 1922. Sec. 48661>-3, p. 2315.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

has worked out suggests that, if it is really to benefit all women
workers, it should be readjusted so that employers, employees, and
factory inspectors could know clearly just what was required, and
women in other forms of employment be given as a minimum
-•the same protection now given women in stores and mercantile
y establishments.
Of the 151 plants investigated, 87 had obviously inadequate seat
ing arrangements. Forty-sis plants had the wrong kind of seats,
and 65 plants had an insufficient number of seats. In 106 plants some
women had to stand continuously in order to perform their jobs. In
one candy plant where the packers worked at very high tables, the
manager stated that they “ preferred to stand.” Little attention had
been paid to the standard prescribed by the Women’s Bureau that
“ it is possible and desirable to adjust the height of chairs in relation
to the height of machines or worktables, so that the workers may
with equal convenience and efficiency stand or sit at their work.”
The lack of seats or the provision of uncomfortable ones was
stressed again and again by the various women workers who were
interviewed. Conditions were particularly bad in the tobacco plants.
The entire group of 14 plants manufacturing tobacco other than
cigars and four of the six cigar factories had inadequate seating.
Many tobacco plants made no effort to provide seats or workbenches.
In most cases the tobacco was piled on the floor, and the women sat
on improvised benches, boxes, or stools to sort or stem it. They often
sat astride the bench, and they rarely had any support for their
backs, although a few had nailed boards to the backs of the stools.
Moreover, most of the stools or benches had to be so low in order
that the women could reach the tobacco that the workers were forced
to sit all day with their legs stretched out straight before them.
All these women worked under great strain due to their cramped,
unnatural positions; yet this arrangement was unnecessary. One
girl described an Ohio plant, in which she had formerly worked,
as having supplied chairs with backs, adjusted to the height of the
worktables where the tobacco was piled, and as having placed boxes
beside the chairs into which the stems were dropped.
■
HAZARD AND STRAIN.

In many of the plants inspected definite hazards or strains were
encountered, due to the nature of the occupation, to the construction
of the workrooms, or to the possibility of fire. These conditions,
which are often the most actively harmful to workers, since many
of them can result in serious injury or death, are also among the
hardest to control. Each particular plant and each hazardous job
within the plant needs special study in order to eliminate as nearly
as possible all risks. States which have attempted to guard their

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

workers against accidents and injuries incident to their occupation
have usually adopted a twofold plan: By workmen’s compensation
laws, they have interested the employer in keeping down accidents
and injuries in his plant, and by specific studies, often later enacted
into law, they have established a code of standard good conditions.
The size and number of exhausts for carrying off fumes or lowering
humidity have been specified, the kind of machine guards needed
for specific jobs have been determined, chemical substances used in
various processes have been studied, and means of protecting the
workers against poisons have been worked out. Kentucky has a
workmen’s compensation law, but the State has been slow to take up
the very necessary work of studying the best means of eliminating
the causes of industrial accidents and diseases and of seeing that
only good working conditions are lawful.
Occupational hazards.

In 49 plants the women were exposed to special occupational
hazards. The land of hazard varied greatly from plant to plant.
Several women were working on unguarded presses and cutters. A
considerable number of women in laundries were working on ma
chines where there was danger of burns as well as of getting caught
in the presses. In candy factories the usual condition of dippers
working in very cold rooms was found, although one Kentucky plant
claimed this was unnecessary, and had all its dippers at work in a
room where the temperature was normal. In one factory a group
of women on painting machines stood all day directly over the heavy
fumes, as the machines had no exhausts. Moreover, all occupational
hazards can not be discerned by an inspection of the plant. A num
ber of women who worked in a box factory complained, when they
were personally interviewed, that the glue used had some ingredient
which ate into their hands until they bled. Others told of the cuts
and scratches from dry tobacco, and another group of the splinters
that they got into their hands when they polished furniture.
Workroom hazards.

In 27 plants the workroom conditions were such that the workers
were liable to suffer various injuries. Belts at about the same height
as the workers’ heads and absolutely unguarded were found in several
plants. One plant had put up many warning signs, but had made no
effort to install guards. In another factory the shafting was placed
across the aisles and inclosed in pipes, which were knee high from
the floor and which had no steps over them. In several plants ele
vator gates were seen open or only partially closed. Wet floors wTere
found in a few laundries, although this condition has been done away
with in the modern laundries throughout the country. The great
majority of the workroom hazards could have been prevented with
very little effort on the part of the management.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Workroom and occupational strain.

It is often hard to differentiate between strains and hazards inci
dent to a given occupation, since a strain, if long continued, may
constitute a hazard. The most conspicuous types of strain noted
were the physical tax from lifting heavy weights, from repeated
reaching, and from continuous pressure, as, for example, on a foot
press or treadle; eyestrain caused by constant, unvarying work at
sewing machines or on small electric-bulb filaments; the strain of re
maining in one position all day long, whether sitting or standing;
and the fatigue from tasks requiring the worker to maintain a high
speed all day. Some of these conditions were found in a consider
able number of the establishments inspected and constituted a very
real menace to the worker. Although many of these conditions might
seem inherent in the occupation, attention to them in certain estab
lishments has resulted in their correction and has proved that they
are avoidable in others. For example, the custom prevailing in many
tobacco plants of having the women stemmers carry heavy boxes of
stems to be weighed—in one plant anywhere from 40 to 60 pounds
was the common load and 104 pounds the record—is unnecessary and
could easily be eliminated by means of a truck. In another plant a
readjustment of the arrangement of the stock would have done away
with the need for the girls to reach high above their heads to pile
the boxes that they were taking off machines. The strain of constant
standing or sitting has been remedied in many plants by adjusting
the height of the worktables so that a woman can either sit or stand
at her work. The general criticism of Kentucky factories that not
enough attention had been paid to working conditions is particularly
applicable to the conditions which cause these occupational strains,
every one of which could have been reduced and many eliminated.
Fire hazards.

Ninety-nine of the establishments visited had not adequately pro
tected their employees from the danger of fire. Twenty-three of
these had failed to provide fire escapes where they were absolutely
necessary for safety, and 69 establishments had every door opening
inward. How greatly these conditions added to the risks of escap
ing from these buildings in case of fire is obvious. In addition 38
plants had some or all of the aisles too narrow for safety, while 24
had steep stairs and 28 had narrow stairs, throughout or in part.
Moreover, 8 establishments had allowed obstructions to pile up in
aisles or in front of exits, and several other plants were reported
as having winding or dark halls, winding stairs, or stairs with no
handrails. In the confusion resulting from a fire alarm all these
conditions constitute serious hazards, and similar conditions have
resulted in many fatalities in the past.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Some of these conditions could be corrected under the standards
of safety approved by the department of fire prevention and rates in
the auditor’s office. Other conditions, such as narrow, steep stair
ways and winding, dark halls will be improved only when the em
ployer’s feeling of responsibility forces him to remove these fire
hazards.
SANITATION.

In addition to surrounding its women workers with healthful
conditions in the workroom, the well-equipped, modern plant pro
vides an adequate number of conveniently located sanitary facilities.
Kentucky establishments, however, have failed to realize in most
cases how necessary it is that these arrangements should be clean,
accessible, and adequate in number. Moreover, the State has done
very little in setting up standards for the more progressive employers
to follow or in enacting laws through which backward employers
can be forced to provide proper sanitary facilities.
Drinking facilities.

Every worker should, as a matter of course, have easy access to
cool water. Also, there should be means provided so that a drink
may be obtained without exposing the worker to disease. Individual
drinking cups or sanitary bubblers fill this requirement. The best
form of individual cup is the paper one—which is destroyed after it
is used—and the only type of bubbler that is sanitary is the one hav
ing the tube inclined' at an angle of at least 15° from the vertical and
equipped with an adequate collar to prevent possible contact of the
lips with the orifice. Only six Kentucky plants of the 151 visited
had provided sanitary bubblers, although 42 had provided bubblers
of the insanitary type. Of all the plants inspected, 109 had un
satisfactory drinking facilities. The common cup which has been
so universally condemned was found in 39 establishments. Several
of the workrooms in various plants had as their only supply of
drinking water a pail which was filled with water in the morning.
Many workers had to go long distances for a drink. Thirteen of
the fourteen plants manufacturing tobacco other than cigars and five
of the six cigar factories had failed to provide proper drinking
facilities, and all of the textile plants visited fell below standard.
It is unfortunate that so many plants that have made an attempt
to furnish their workers with a sanitary water supply have chosen
the wrong type of bubblers; but it is inexcusable in this day and
age to find the tin pail and dipper or the common tin cup chained
to the sink.
Washing facilities.

One establishment visited by the bureau’s agents provided no
washing facilities whatsoever. If the women employed in this

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

plant desired to wash their hands they were compelled to make use
of the equipment in the courthouse across the street. Yet Ken
tucky has a law stating that “every person, firm, or corporation
employing females shall provide suitable and proper washrooms.”8
One hundred and thirty-one other establishments failed to provide
satisfactory washing arrangements, but it is impossible to state
whether or not they violated the law, because the law fails to define
“ suitable ” and “ proper.” A common description, however, of the
facilities furnished was an iron sink, a single cold-water faucet, and
no soap or towels. In a few plants a tin pail or basin was the
only place where washing was possible. Ninety-eight establish
ments failed to provide hot water, 78 did not furnish soap, and 41
establishments were supplying common towels in spite of the wide
spread knowledge that there are few surer ways of spreading dis
ease. Only two of the 12 food-manufacturing plants provided con
venient wash basins with hot water, soap, and individual towels,
In one food-manufacturing plant there were two dirty wash basins
for the 39 women employees. The entire 20 tobacco factories em
ployed women on unusually dirty work, but all of them had insuffi
cient washing facilities. Although a neat appearance is a most
valuable asset to girls working in mercantile establishments and
attempting to make sales, 14 of the 15 stores visited had failed to
furnish proper facilities for washing. Many employers need to
supply more washing facilities, to furnish such equipment that the
women can wash thoroughly, and remove sources of infection.
In the effort to have all Kentucky establishments provide their
workers with adequate washing facilities the State can aid by stipu
lating the number of persons who may use one wash basin—with a
water-supplied faucet'—forbidding the common towel, and requiring
that soap and hot water be provided.
Toilets.

I wo establishments visited during the Kentucky survey had no
toilets whatsoever for their employees. The women were forced to
use toilets located in a public building which was across the street.
Moreover, 44 of the establishments failed to provide a sufficient num
ber of toilets, for in a great many cases there was only one toilet for
30 or more women, and in some cases only one for 60 or more women,
while the worst condition which was found was 65 women to a toilet.
Six of the 15 stores that were visited had no special accommoda
tions for some or all of their women employees, but expected them to
use the public facilities. Four establishments did not provide sepa
rate toilets for men and women.
Keatueky Statutes (ed. by John U. Carroll, 6th ed.), 1022.

Sec. 4866b-4, p. 2315.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

When toilets were supplied in sufficient number they were often
badly located and unsatisfactorily constructed. In 25 establish
ments some or all of the women had to use facilities inconveniently
located. The most striking example of bad arrangements was
found in one large plant where the women had to walk down an
outside flight of stairs and then go nearly a block to an outside
toilet. Faults in construction also were common. Thirty-four estab
lishments had failed to screen some or all of their toilets satisfac
torily. Often partitions did not reach the ceilings, doors were not
full length, and in 85 plants toilet doors were not designated. One
toilet room used by the women employees was so situated that the
only light and air in the room came over a 10-foot partition which
separated it from the men’s toilet. In addition many dark toilets
were found. Special note was made of two so dark that it was
impossible to judge their cleanliness.
In 51 establishments ventilation was bad in some or all of the
toilets. It was quite a common situation to find toilets ventilating
into the workroom and in a few cases they ventilated into the com
bined lunch and cloak room.
Although most of the establishments had toilets with sanitary
plumbing, five establishments had an automatic system which flushed
a group of toilets at intervals varying from 7 to 20 minutes. This
is not a desirable arrangement even when working well, and it was
brought out in personal interviews with the workers that the appa
ratus was very liable to be out of order.
In addition to the many plants that installed their toilets badly,
many establishments did not exercise the care necessary to keep
their toilets clean and in good repair. Frequently no particular
person was in charge of the facilities, and the cleaning system was
most haphazard. In 20 plants the women themselves did any clean
ing that was done. With so little system it is not surprising that
39 establishments were found with dirty toilets.
Taking into consideration all these undesirable conditions, there
were 133 of the 149 establishments visited that had unsatisfactory
toilet conditions. Some of these bad conditions would be eliminated
if there were strict enforcement of the law regulating toilets, which
was passed in 1912. This law provides that:
Every person, firm, or corporation employing females shall provide suitable
and proper wash rooms and water-closets, or privy closets where sewer con
nection is impossible, and shall keep such closets at all times clean and prop
erly screened and ventilated and free from obscene writing or marking. If
male persons also be employed in the same establishment, such employer shall
31601°—23-----6

WOMEN' IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

provide closets for the men in a room entirely separate from and having an en
trance entirely distinct and separate from that to the room containing the
women’s closet.*

This law, however, is so loosely worded that many bad conditions
could exist and the law be observed, but conditions of cleanliness,
ventilation, and screening, as well as numbers of toilets needed, fell
far below the requirements of this law.
If Kentucky is going to seek to improve the general run of toilet
facilities in its industrial and mercantile establishments, a regulation
of toilets is needed which would be much more detailed than what
is now on the statute books. In order to insure for workers decent,
adequate, and convenient toilet accommodations, bad conditions must
be forbidden, and also standards of good conditions must be declared
and defined. An example of a State law which has this double pur
pose is found in New York,* where the industrial commission has
10
issued orders requiring that toilets be designated, and giving a fixed
ratio by which a certain number of workers of each sex must be pro
vided with a toilet, stipulating that these accommodations be con
veniently located and pointing out what constitutes a convenient
location, requiring screening, and defining the kind exacted, and so
on. Every point covered by the Kentucky law is defined by these
rules in the New York law, so that laxness in that State can not
be excused on the ground of misunderstanding. In addition, cer
tain conditions not touched by the Kentucky law are described, as,
for instance, the sort of fixture permitted and the kind of heating
and illumination. This type of law provides factory inspectors with
a real measure by which to judge conditions, and if enforced insures
a great improvement, in the toilet facilities provided for all workers,
provided for all workers.
Uniforms.

In most of the Kentucky establishments visited, uniforms, while
possibly desirable, were not necessary. In every one of the 12 food
preparing plants, however, uniforms were essential for sanitation,
but only two companies furnished uniforms and required their em
ployees to wear them, and one other company furnished uniforms
but did not demand their use. Three-fourths of the food-preparing
plants had failed to make any provision whatsoever for providing
against the contamination of food products by contact with old and
soiled clothing. In none of the other establishments did sanitary
considerations make uniforms essential, and in only four plants were
they necessary for safety. Among these latter plants, three out of
the four provided the needed uniform. At the lunch counters in
8 Kentucky Statutes (ed. by John D. Carroll, 6tli ed.) 1922.
10 New York State Industrial Code. 1920. p. 38-47.

Sec. 4886b-4, p. 2315.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

5-and-10-cent stores uniforms were desirable, and four of the nine
stores furnished them. In addition, three woodworking plants, one
print shop, one metal-working plant, and one department store re
quired their women employees to wear uniforms, which in most cases
were supplied hy the firm.
SERVICE FACILITIES.

In addition to providing healthful workroom surroundings and
proper sanitary equipment, it is important for the modern establish
ment to give its workers a decent place in which to eat lunch, to rest,
to hang their street garments, and to be treated for minor injuries
or illnesses. A great many Kentucky establishments have failed to
provide any of these accommodations and a large proportion of the
sendee facilities supplied were inadequate.
Lunch rooms.
The benefit that a woman derives from the break caused by her
lunch time is largely dependent on whether she is provided with a
means of procuring good food and a decent place in which to eat it.
The possibility of her going home for lunch is contingent on so many
conditions, such as length of lunch period, distance from home,
weather, and ability to afford car fare, that it is doubtful if the
majority of women workers can avail themselves of such an arrange
ment. Moreover, the immediate neighborhood of an industrial plant
usually does not provide a place where a woman can get a whole
some lunch for a reasonable price. It is important that some room be
set aside in the plant where the women can eat their lunches in com
fort, away from their work and the dirt, dust, and confusion often
arising therefrom. It is important, too, that the lunch period be long
enough to make a real break in the day, though it is not enough to
allow a long lunch period and then provide no place in which the
workers can eat or rest during this time.
Ninety-nine Kentucky plants provided no lunch rooms whatsoever,
and in 24 plants the lunch rooms were unsatisfactory because dirty
or too close to toilets or because overcrowded and inadequately fur
nished. In tobacco plants and in laundries, where the nature of the
women’s work is such that they operate all day under unpleasant con
ditions due to fumes and dust or humidity, most of the women had to
eat lunch in the workrooms. Fewer lunch rooms were supplied here,
where they were most needed, than in any other industrial group.
Only 5 of the 20 tobacco plants had made this necessary provision.
The workers in the tobacco plants testified that since most of them
were piece workers they never left their work benches at lunch time,
but stopped only long enough to eat a sandwich.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Few of the 51 firms that provided lunch rooms had made sure that
their employees could get hot, wholesome food at noon in order to
be alert and efficient during the afternoon. Only 16 plants of the
151 visited provided a place where their employees could buy hot
food. One plant served a hot Junch free to its 51 employees.
Twenty-seven other plants served hot drinks, in some cases without
charge. Twenty-six plants provided some place where the women
could heat food or drinks, but quite a good many of these were
makeshift arrangements, such as a very small gas plate in one corner
of a cloak room or workroom. The importance of the opportunity
to eat wholesome food under pleasant surroundings, as a means of
contributing to the woman worker’s general health and efficiency,
can not be overemphasized. The number of Kentucky plants that
had met this situation was pitifully small.
Cloak rooms.

The greater part of the establishments had provided some sort of
cloak room where the women could change their clothes and hang
their wraps. But of the 125 establishments equipped with cloak
rooms, 70 had failed to supply satisfactory ones. In 21 cases some
or all of the cloak rooms in a plant were dirty. In 26 the ventilation
was bad, due in many cases to the toilets being separated from the
cloak room by partitions that did not reach the ceiling. In 30 estab
lishments the place that served as a toilet room was used also as a
cloak room. In some of the plants shelves or hangers were provided,
but in most cases a hook or a nail served as the only equipment.
Only 20 plants provided lockers for all of their women employees.
Other cloak rooms were so inconvenient that the women never used
them. In one laundry the first-floor workers changed their clothes
in a comer partially screened by a machine rather than climb three
flights of stairs twice a day. As a result of such conditions many
women preferred to keep their wraps in the workroom where they
could watch them and get them easily at closing time. Accordingly,
in many plants, the women’s garments were exposed to all the dust,
dirt, fumes, or dampness incident to the industry.
Rest rooms.

A place where women employees can rest during the noon hour,
or at any time during the day when they are ill, is a recognized part
of the modern plant. The provision of such a room in many cases
means that a woman who is not feeling well need lose only a
short time from work instead of going home and losing a large
part of the day. Also, a chance really to relax at noon gives her
added strength and energy for her afternoon’s work. Sixty-three
establishments in Kentucky had recognized this need of their em

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

ployees and had provided rest rooms, but 35 of these were not
adequate for the requirements of the plant. Some were not clean;
others had only a few benches and afforded no real opportunity
for relaxation; often the rest room was a part of the cloakroom or
lunch room and was only a place where a woman could be tem
porarily accommodated in a sudden illness. The lack of a place
in which to rest adds greatly to the fatigue of a long day’s work,
and is another example of how thoughtless most of the employers
in Kentucky have been in regard to the conservation of the health
and energy of their women employees.
First aid.
Kentucky employers had realized in most cases the value of treat
ing in the plant small injuries or illnesses, and 122 establishments had
installed first-aid service. Moreover, in all but eight of these plants
some definite person was in charge of seeing that the first aid was
effectively administered. In very few of the plants was this equip
ment more than an effort to meet very common and slight injuries,
and in 41 of the plants it was considered inadequate. Very few
plants had paid any special attention to the possibilities of medical
aid, since only one had a plant physician, two had plant nurses, and
four required physical examinations. The fact that so many es
tablishments had felt the need of providing first-aid equipment
shows how important this service is and how remiss were the ones
who failed to meet this need.
EMPLOYMENT MANAGEMENT.

The reduction of labor turnover, the placing of a man or woman
where he or she can do the most efficient wrork, the elimination of the
friction between employees and management, have been most success
fully brought about where these problems have been centralized
under one person. In only seven Kentucky establishments had this
plan been quit into effect, and in no case was there a woman in such a
position, although the majority of employees in some of these estab
lishments were women.
. In 91 plants, however, other systems of centralized “hiring and
firing” had been worked out as an aid in obtaining and keeping
efficient employees. In most cases this was done by the plant or store
manager.

PART VI.
THE WORKERS.

The human factor in industry is naturally the most important.
From the point of view of production, the workers' energies which
aid so essentially in output should not be subjected to undue wear
and tear in the industrial field. Too frequently the management is
prone to overemphasize the care and improvement of machinery as
compared to the protection of the workers who manipulate such
machinery. In consequence employers suffer the penalty of crippled
production arising from the dissatisfaction and disaffection of em
ployees whose interests have not been sufficiently considered. Apart
from the pure mechanics of the question, the nature and require
ments of the workers are of much greater significance than the
structure and care of machines, since the well-being of the workers
is imperative not only for successful industries, but for the structure
that is at the foundation of all industries, namely, a healthy society.
Analysis of industrial forces reveals the fact that women constitute
a large and important part of the wage-earning population throughout
the country and in each industrial State. To come down to the pres
ent survey, the preliminary figures of the Bureau of the Census show
that in Kentucky in 1919 there were 10,756 wage-earning women in
manufacturing enterprises alone.1 A fact admitted by progressive
and far-sighted citizens in Kentucky, as elsewhere, is that, important
though it be to protect the interests of men who are industrial work
ers, it is of even more vital importance to safeguard women, since
they so often enact the additional role of mothers and home makers.
They are producers actually and potentially of future citizens as well
as of economic goods. Moreover, the greater necessity for control of
standards affecting women workers is due to the fact that women
have been in a weaker position economically than have men; they
have not been able to control conditions for themselves.
In a consideration of the subject of women in industry inquiry
along certain definite lines is interesting and helpful. For example,
what proportion of women workers in any industry or locality are
foreign born ? In what respects does age enter into the problems of
women wage earners? Are women steady in their gainful occu
pations, and does their experience in a trade prove of value to them ?
What bearing do the conjugal and living conditions of the women
have on their work, and what influence do their jobs have on home
responsibilities ?
1 Unpublished material secured from the Bureau of the Census.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

NATIVITY.

According to Table XVI in the appendix, of the 5,580 women
reporting on nativity in the Kentucky survey, 98.9 per cent were
native bom. This figure includes the negro women, all of whom
were bom in the United States, and who constituted 11.3 per cent of
the women reporting. Accordingly, the percentage of foreign-born
women was so small as to be almost negligible. Also, although the
proportion in individual industries was slightly higher than that in
all industries, in no case was it high enough to affect in any degree
the policy or practices of the industry.
AGE.

It is of value to know the proportion of women in the different
age groups, the kinds of occupations in which women of different
ages engaged, and to discover which jobs attracted young workers
and which furnished the best opportunities for older women. In
comparing the ages of the negro and white women we find from
Table XVII, in the appendix, that 30.5 per cent of the latter were
under 20 years of age as compared with 6.4 per cent of the former.
Also, 21.4 per cent of the white women were between 20 and 25 years
as against 15.6 per eent of the negroes. For all of the age groups
over 25 years the proportion of negro women is in each case larger
than that of the white. Moreover, 60.6 per eent of the negro women
as contrasted with 35.7 per cent of the white women were 30 years of
age and over. It would seem from this that white women go into
the industrial field in Kentucky at an earlier age than do the negro
women. It is probably safe to deduce that young negro women are
drawn much more generally into domestic and personal service, but
that those who stray into industry are more apt to stay during middle
and old age than are white women. Furthermore, it is likely that
the proportion of negro women entering industry after 30 years of
age is greater than the proportion of white women. The industrial
demand for young white women is greater than for young negro
women. In those industries which employ negro women rather
extensively, such as the manufacture of tobacco other than cigars,
which requires very little skill, and laundries, which call for a type
of skill frequently developed in domestic and personal service, there
is a tendency to employ older negro women.
Of all the industries surveyed in Kentucky, knitting mills with 54
per cent of the women under' 20 years of age showed the highest
proportion of young workers. Five-and-ten-cent stores with 48.7 per
cent of the women in this age classification came next, followed closely
by printing establishments with 47.2 per cent of the women under
20 years of age. Cotton and woolen mills with 14.8 per cent showed
the smallest proportion in this young group, but this is not surprising,

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

since this industry had the largest percentage of mature women,
37 per cent of all those reporting in these mills being 40 years old or
over. Furthermore, in regard to women of 50 and over, this indus
try had the largest percentage, 16.7 per cent. The tobacco industry
other than cigar making, with 31.9 per cent of the women workers
in the 40-years-and-over classification, and clothing manufacturing,
with 30.8 per cent in this same classification, ranked next to the
cotton and woolen industry in what would appear to be opportuni
ties for mature women. The figures for the women of 50 years and
over also help to substantiate this theory. In general, the industries
in which women of 40 years and over were found to only a small
extent were 5-and-10-cent stores, printing and publishing, cigar, shoe,
and knit-goods manufacturing, each with less than 10 per cent of the
women employees in this age group.
TIME IN THE TRADE.

Of interest in view of the preceding discussion is the information
given by 4,657 white women and 561 negro women as to the length
of time they had worked in the trade, a subject already discussed in
the section on wages. There it was shown that a considerable pro
portion of both white and negro women were steady industrial work
ers, since 30.8 per cent of the former and 54.4 per cent of the latter
reporting on their experience in the trade had a record of five years
or more of employment therein. The idea that women are mere
transients in the world of industry and do not deserve to be put on
the same plane as men doing the same work is of necessity being
abandoned. Recent years have piled up evidence as to the need of
many women to support themselves and frequently dependents for
life. Recent studies have offered proof of the fact that thousands
of wage-earning women acquire a trade and stick to it as tenaciously
as do men and are consequently as much interested in industrial
training, opportunities, and advancement.
CONJUGAL CONDITION.

In connection with the preceding subject, the question inevitably
arises, "Do women remain in industry after marriage?” Table
XVIII in the appendix shows that of 4,980 white women, 60.8 per
cent were single, 19.9 per cent were married, and 19.3 per cent were
widowed, separated, or divorced. Of 597 negro women, 28.1 per
cent were single, 36.2 per cent were married, and 35.7 per cent were
widowed, separated, or divorced. In all, 39.2 per cent, that is 4 in
every 10 of the white women, were or had been married, as compared
with 71.9 per cent of the negro women, or 7 in every 10. This differ
ence between the white and negro women as to conjugal condition
is not surprising, since negro women are much more apt to continue
as wage earners after marriage than are white women.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

The industries most noteworthy for the proportion of white women
who were or had been married were the manufacture of tobacco other
than cigars, cordage and thread manufacturing, and laundries, with
61.2 per cent, 53.8 per cent, and 48.9 per cent of all their women
reporting on conjugal condition, respectively, in this combined classi
fication. The food industry with 43.7 per cent of the women in this
class and clothing manufacture with 41.9 per cent were fairly impor
tant in this respect. It is not surprising to find such large groups of
married women in these industries, which showed approximately
from 20 to 30 per cent of the women employed in each to be 40
years of age or more. Also the work in food and clothing factories
and in laundries is similar to work done at home, so that married
women compelled to become wage earners would have greater oppor
tunities of employment in such industries.
Cordage and thread manufacturing, a branch of the textile industry,
is a trade which women enter at an early age and having become
skilled therein continue at this industrial work after marriage. It
may be that another class of women remains in, or enters after mar
riage, the manufacture of tobacco other than cigars for a very different
reason, namely, because the work requires so little skill that it can
be performed without deflecting too much energy from heavy home
duties. At any rate these two industries show larger proportions of
women who had been in the trade for five years or more than do any
of the other industries.
In the matter of single women, printing and publishing establish
ments, paper-box factories, metal shops, and 5-and-10-cent stores
take the lead, in the order enumerated, each industry showing at
least three-fourths of the women reporting as unmarried. Printing
and publishing establishments and 5-and-10-cent stores, with almost
one-half of the women under 20 years of age, would naturally have a
large proportion of single workers. The fact that metal manufac
turing shows the highest median weekly earnings and is one of the
most skilled types of work in which women were engaged may par
tially explain the great predominance of single women, a type par
ticularly ambitious for financial and trade advancement. Only 3.9
per cent of the women in the metal shops were married, although 18.8
per cent were widowed, separated, or divorced, a group that would
also be attracted by wage opportunities. This industry more than
any other shows a disparity between the proportion of women who
were married and those who were widowed, separated, or divorced.
The only two industries employing a sufficient number of negro
women to make a discussion of percentages significant were laundries
and the manufacture of tobacco other than cigars. These showed
66.7 per cent and 71.7 per cent, respectively, of the women reporting
who were or had been married.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.
LIVING CONDITION.

Of the 5,044 white women reporting their living condition, 89.9
per cent were at home as compared with 10.1 per cent living inde
pendently. (Table XIX in the appendix.) Among the 584 negro
women, the proportion of those living at home was 86.8 per cent.
The theory that women who live with their families do not need such
high wages as do those living away from home is not only fallacious
but extremely vicious, since unscrupulous employers offer it as an
excuse for low pay. Obviously a working girl’s family should not be
expected to subsidize industry. Furthermore, definite proof has been
furnished that women who live at home have heavy financial respon
sibilities. They frequently must support not only themselves but
dependents as well. Consequently they may have even greater need
for high wages than have certain other women who are boarding but
who make no contribution to the maintenance of others.
The percentages of women showing certain conjugal or living con
ditions are interesting up to a certain point as an index of circum
stances, but in the final analysis they do not mean much in getting
at the actual problems of wage-earning women. Certain pet but false
theories about women, which have been carefully nurtured by tra
dition, have acquired such widespread and stubborn roots that they
have practically undermined the whole economic status of women.
In the last few years there has been scientific effort to weed out some
of these prejudices and to present the truth about wage-earning
women. One theory now found in the discard is that married women
engaged in industry are there to earn pin money. Interviews with
Kentucky women at work in stores, mills,, and factories furnished
additional evidence that women with husbands are working outside
the home to help in the actual maintenance of the family. One mar
ried woman, for example, who was employed in a food factory, and
whose husband was a constable working on commission, volunteered
the information that her family could not live on the husband’s earn
ings. Another woman’s reason for working was to help her husband
so that he could “get somewhere.”
It is a more generally recognized fact that widows who are in indus
trial jobs are forced to do such work in order to support themselves
and their children. A number of such cases were encountered. The
most noteworthy was that of a woman who had been a widow for 4
years, but whose husband had been an invalid for 5 years before his
death. She had five children, and at the time of the visit the two
oldest were too sickly to work and the two youngest were under 14
years of age; only one, a boy of 17, was able to help in the support
of the family. Such a situation is not unique, but serves as an illus
tration of the kind of home responsibilities which many wage
earning women are obliged to carry.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Married women are not the only ones with family responsibilities.
Another theory that is being riddled by scientific investigation is the
belief that single women have only themselves to support or that they
live at home and therefore do not need “ a living wage.” In the first
place, women who are not married are frequently the entire or partial
mainstay for others—invalid fathers, widowed mothers, and younger
brothers and sisters. Accordingly, instead of the family income
serving to supplement the girl’s wage, it is only the addition of the
girl’s earnings, meager though they are, that makes the family income
adequate to the family’s needs. The wage earners in such cases,
numerous enough to be typical of a large proportion of girls at work,
are between the Scylla of industrial exploitation and the Charybdis
of family needs. The following description of a girl interviewed in
her home during the Kentucky survey is illustrative of the worker’s
inevitable career when she is caught in such a maelstrom of circum
stances. The girl, who lived with her widowed mother and small
niece, earned as a packer in a candy factory from $9 to $12 a week,
never knowing exactly how much she could depend upon each week.
At best she could not earn enough to maintain the family, and the
mother, who was not strong, was able to give only a little financial
assistance by doing plain sewing. The home, consisting of three
dingy rooms with paper falling off the walls and broken window panes
stuffed with rags, was so desolate and forlorn that the hopeless,
ambitionless attitude of the girl was not surprising.
Almost as depressing was the situation of three unmarried women
keeping house together; two of them were employed in a garment
factory and the third took in work at home. The closing of the
factory for 16 weeks during the year and a 10 per cent cut in wages
had worked great hardship to them. They had been compelled to
reduce expenses to the barest essentials.
In general, so meager is the average wage-earning woman’s income,
so many the demands upon it whether she is married or single or
whether she is aiding in the support of others or not, that very careful
calculation is necessary to enable her to meet the various industrial
and personal exigencies which may arise. Home responsibilities of a
financial and domestic nature in many cases complicate her existence
beyond the possibility of individual adjustment. Accordingly, not
until there shall be guaranteed to all working women a rate
not only covering bare living expenses but allowing some margin for
dependents or savings for future emergencies, and not until shorter
working hours insure women against the expenditure of too much of
their time and energy as wage earners, will the economic status of
women in shops, mills, and factories be improved and their health
and happiness as individuals in the community be maintained.

APPENDIX A.
Table

I.—Scheduled Saturday hours, by industry.
Number of establishments and number of women whose Saturday hours were—

Number reported.
Industry.

4 and under 5.

5 and under 6.

7 and under 8.

and under 7.

and under 9.

9 and under 10.

10 and

under 11.

11.

Manufacturing:

Cotton and woolen

272
;382

88
1,101

84
551

84
58

4
3
3
4

32
13
135
47

54
19

141

127

100.0

9,021

100.0

109

325

564
1,884
'249

136

1,781
19.7

48
37.8

4,730
52.4

9.4

174
543

1 935
855
236
419

257
258

325

714
9

22.0

131

Includes an establishment with 3 women working 7 hours and 19 working 8£ hours.
Includes an establishment with 41 women working 7£ hours and 32 working 8§ hours.
Excludes an establishment with 139 women, with irregular hours.
4 Excludes an establishment with 18 women, not working on Saturday.
6 Excludes an establishment with 177 women, not working on Saturday.
6 Includes an establishment with 9 women working 6 hours and 2 women working 1\
hours.
.

338

3
2
2

474

& 13

1
2
8

183

1
1

90
329
94
85

Tobacco—

Total.........................
Per cent distribution.........

2
12

219

Pointing and publishShoes
Textiles—
Cordage and

121

1
1

105

17
374

51
401

9
7

142

19
15.0

866

1
0.8

0.1

2
2

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
Estab
lish Women lish Women lish Women lish W omen lish Women lish Women lish Women lish Women lish Women
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.
ments.

6.0

4.7
7
8
9
10

1.2

8.7

845
9.4

2
2

4.7

1.6

212

9.6

Includes an establishment with 5 women working 7 hours and 76 working 10
hours. Excludes an establishment -with 11 women alternating 8-V and 10 hours.
Excludes 5 establishments with 103 women, not working on Saturday.
Includes an establishment with 31 women working only 3 hours.
Details aggregate more than total because of 4 establishments which appear in
more than one hour group.

00
-Of

Table

II.—Length of lunch period, by industry.

00
00

Number of establishments and number of women whose daily lunch period wasNumber reported.
Over 30 and under
45 minutes.

30 minutes.

Industry.

Women.

Establishments.

Women.

Manufacturing:
Boxes, paper..........................
Boxes, wooden.......................
Candy.....................................
Clothing..................................
Food.......................................
Furniture...............................
Metal products......................
Printing and publishing.......
Shoes......................................
Textiles—
Cordage and thread.......
Knit goods......................
Cotton and woolen goods
TobaccoCigars...............................
Other................................
Miscellaneous..........................
General mercantile........................
5-and-10-cent stores........................
Laundries.......................................

15
9
17

236
522

1 136

9,469

4,712

Women.

307

All industries.......................

Establishments.

121

5
5
15
7
4
5
4

144
272
1,430
382
85
358
84
551

492
258
325

2
1
1

2
2
6

14
11

881

1
2

3
8
2
1
1
1

2,112

350

866

84
35
229
782
305
56
30
11

Women.

lishments.

hour.

lishments.

37
2

1
1

132
2

315
23

385
253

230
35
76

58
60
5

121

589
1,922
118

1
1
2

1
1

13
28

i
2

1,468

Details aggregate more than total because of one establishment which appears in more than one hour group.

Establishments.

156

202

3,150

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES,

Establishments.

Over 45 minutes
and under 1 hour.

45 minutes.

►

Table III.—Hours worked more than scheduled, by scheduled hours.

Scheduled weekly hours.

Number of
women
reported.

Number of
women
working
more than
scheduled
hours.

Number of women who worked more than scheduled hours to the extent of—
Under 1
hour.

and under
2 hours.

2 and

under 3 and under 4 and under 5 and under
3 hours.
4 hours.
5 hours.
10 hours.

10 and under

15 hours.

15 and under
20 hours.

Over 44 and under 48..............................
Over 48 and under 50..............................
Over 50 and under 54..............................
54...............................................................
Over 54 and under 60..............................

24
326
139
803
390
1,213
775
319
1,277
233

Total............................................... 5,499

6
1

7
3
109
18
8

144
296

195

33
27
36
14
28

6
2

S
5

3
3

355

10
1
8

"'37

14'

7
8

5
1

9
103

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro

Table

IV.—Week's earnings, by hours worked.

WHITE WOMEN.

Week’s earnings.

$7 and under $8.......................
under 89.......................

88 and

$17 and under SIS...................

$22 and under $23...................
$23 and under $24...................
$25 and under $30....................
$35 and under $40....................

Median earnings......................

19
73
58
70
116
164
326
3S9
469
613
637
551
449
279
247
254
144
123

19
73
58
61
69
49
43
28
13
13
3
4
3

16
15
15
13
7
3

15
14
23

1
2
2

10
6
1

4
2

1
1
1

IS
27
14
15
3
6

4
13
34

31
35

15
15
19
31

12
11

2
1
1

120

61
73
33
45
34
16
90
32
5
9
5,504

1
8
20

1
1
1

2
2

2
1

9
15
4
4
4
3
1

2
1
1
1

1
1
6

3
6
6

4
9
3
8

15
26
46
63

121

148
56
46
28
20

7
4

3
1
1

7
5
9
14
2

1
2

26
30
47
44
49
39
59
36
35

15
16
42
44
36
42
36
46
27

26
29

16
18

2
2
1
1

6
2

3
17

10
2

119

130

224

185

111

699

550

4
17
58

102

118
148
168
94
29
27
15
26
4

1
8
22

77
53
74
71
86
68

41
57
41

4
6

27
17
28
29
18
9
13

71
27
54
53
81
70
52
35
46
38

43
63
175
205

3
33
13

220

8
22

293
207
136
112
112

13
17

12
20

1
8
6

744

150
132
188
195
148
153
74
95
85
33
35
22

62
i

178

618

16
153
213
307
393
415
441
360
210

207
197
100

91
98
58
17

10
1

911

110

3
4
404

3
441

81
29

107

1,971

1,544

3,515
$11.60

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

S3 and under 84.......................

Number of white women earning each specified amount who worked—
Num
ber of
48 hours or more, by
white
Over
Over
Over
Over
30 and
42 and
locality.
wom Under under 33 and 36 and 39 and under
44 and
48 and 50
50 and 54
Over
54 and 60
under under under
48
30
. 44
en re
under hours.
under
60
33
36
39
42
ported. hours. hours. hours. hours. hours.
48
50 hours. 54 hours. 60 hours. hours.
hours.
Louis Other Entire
hours.
hours.
hours.
hours.
ville. places State.

NEGRO WOMEN.

31601

Week’s earnings.

7
12
35
34

2
2

29
26
20
21

•

4
3

2
2
11
9

3
6
6
17
1
2

2
1
1

2
2

i
1

9
5

.......

1
17
7
3
15
1
16
1
8
6
8

9
294

1
1
4
1

12
2
18
2

1
1
2
3
2

12
6
17
2

5
1
43

15
22
19
16
17
2
21
3
8
5
7
9

15
24
31
19
26
18
21
3
8
5
7
9

2
12
3
9
16

42
145
$9.95 $10.45

187
$10.15

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

and under $6........ ..........................

Number of negro women earning each specified amount who worked—
Num
ber of
48 hours or more, by
Over
Over
Over
Over
negro
42
33
36
39
30
locality.
54
50
44
48
wo- Under and
and
and
and
and
and
60
50
44
48
under under under under under hours. under hours. under hours. under hours. under hours.
30
re
42
44
36
39
33
Louis Other Entire
60
54
50
48
ported. hours. hours. hours. hours. hours. hours.
hours.
ville. places. State.
hours.
hours.
hours.

Table

V.—Weekly rates and actual week’s earnings, by industry.
WHITE WOMEN.

Number of white women for whom amount specified was weekly rate and number for whom it was actual week’s earnings in—
The manufacture of—
Boxes,
wooden.

Boxes,
paper.

Candy.

Clothing.

Printing and
publishing.

Metal
products.

Furniture.

Food.

Shoes.

Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual
iy
iy
iy
iy
iy
iy
iy
iy
ly
earnly
earnearnearnearnearnearnearnearnearnrate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. mgs. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings.

233
312
416
574
624
620
497
225
229
249
130
127
32

106
45

$S and under $9...........................
$9 and under $10........................
$10 and under $11......................

190
98
136
286
336
405
523
584
473
373
206
188
199
112

13
15
82
28

2
51
10
20
2
3
7
1

12
6
3
3
9
23
11
14
6
2
1
2
3
1

37
13
3
26
3

6
5
20
6
19
1
12
12
1
1

5
31
3
10
58
21
18
25
16
4
3
1

16
4
12
23
11
24
23
23
15
22
15
2
4
1

2
18
13
53
47
76
36
67
44
40
63
44
41
39
11
30
8
27
3

3
$40 and over.............................

4,619 4,619
Medians................................... $11. 20 $10.55

99
$9.35

99
$S. 70

83
$8.35

83
$7.25

195
$9.85

25
10
8
19
28
46
52
60
46
50
42
32
49
31
36
28
26
23
11
17
6
10
44
7
2
1

1
19
76
11
33
59
29
14
13
3
7
1
1

709
709
267
195
$9.35 $13.95 $13.25 $10.80

1
6
7
17
6
7
4
1
2

1
1
1
2
1
4
7
8
9
4
3
5
4
1

2
13
12
6
17
43
27
30
23
13
20
4
10
2
1
4
1
:::::::

1
1
2
6
14
15
10
12
19
29
29
23
13
17
17
3
9
2
2
1
2
1

1
6
6
5
6
11
3
5
8
8
3
4
4
2

1
1
1
2
6
6
7
4
9
2
5
9
6
4
3
5
1

3
1
1
3

1
1

11
10
8
15
34
27
30
37
11
17
2
11
8
2

1
1

2
1

20
26
67
14
29
20
12
15
8
9
7
4

29
12
17
21
19
31
46
25
21
16
12
7
5
4
1
1

77
51
228
228
77
267
51
$9.10 $11. 70 $11.05 $14.80 $14.15 $13.10 $12.75

232
$8. 20

232
$9.35

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES,

Amount.

All
industries.

Number of white women for whom amount specified was weekly rate and number for whom it was actual week’s earnings in—Continued.
The manufacture of—Continued.
Textiles.

General mer
cantile

Tobacco.

Amount.
Cotton and
woolen goods.

Knit goods.

Laundries.

Cigars.

Other.

Week- Actual W eek- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual
ly
iy
ly
ly
ly
ly
ly
ly
ly
earnearnearnearnearnearnearnearnearnings.
ings.
ings.
ings.
ings.
rate.
rate.
ings.
rate.
ings.
rate.
ings.
rate.
rate.
rate.
rate.
rate.
mgs.

$10 and under $11..............
$11 and under $12..............
$12 and under $13..............
$13 and under $14..............
$14 and under $15..............

1
3
26
34
78
69
50
34
18
12
7
1
3
1
1

15
7
9
15
37
34
53
67
37
31
11
13
5
1
•2
1
1

103
14
3
4
9
6
3
4
2
1

io
6
15
73
9
1
4
9
6
2
3
1
1

•i

26
1
4
4
16
3
1
1
2
1

4
5
14
1
3
6
13
3
1
1
2
1

6
3
3
3
1
9

1
2
1
9
4
1
1
2
4

2
1

24
9
1
11
7
99
238
82
7
34
8
7
13

17
20
23
62
109
150
35
19
17
5
7
2
9
2

2
2

1
Total.........................
339
Medians............................... $10. 40

339
$10. 00

60
$9.75

60
$9.35

2
3
12
6
45
20
29
30
19
4
16
6
4
K>
4
3

30
$13.00

30
$9. 50

....... ."
1

150
$6.75

150
$6.50

507
$11.55

507
$10.85

218
$11.70

5
5
6
7
17
13
32
23
23
25
13
6
15
7
6
10
2
1
1
..........
1
218
$11.05

2
39
42
75
116
120
25
117
15
42
69
22
16
29
4
18
4
7
22
11
3
2

9
9
12
46
59
61
82
89
51
83
33
38
48
28
25
25
7
15
9
9
4
2
29
17
3
7

soo

SOO

$11.25

$11.65

1
1
7
36
65
33
23
12
12
6
7
9

9
5
8
19
25
56
27
21
12
9
7
6
7

1
1

215
$8.95

215
$8.75

1
10
44
58
66
59
49
14
13
15
7
5
4
6
2
2
1

3
7
3
9
21
31
53
66
51
50
16
9
13
11
1
3
4
2
1
2

2
1

359
$11. 00

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES

Cordage and
thread.

5-and-10-cent
stores.

Miscellaneous.

359
$10.80

O
$9

Table V.—Weekly rates and actual week's earnings by industry—Continued.
NEGRO WOMEN.
Nuinber of negro women for whom amount specified was weekly rate and number for whom it was actual week’s earnings in—
The manufacture of—
All indus
tries.

Boxes,
wooden.

Boxes,
paper.

Candy.

Metal
products.

Furniture.

Food.

Clothing.

Printing
and pub
lishing.

Shoes.

•
Actual Week- Actual Week Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week Actual Week Actual Week Actual
Weekly
ly
ly
1y. ings.
ings.
ings.
ings.
iy earn iy earn ly earn iy earn X. earn rate. earn X earn rate. earn rate. earn rate. earn
ings.
ings.
rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings.

$13 and under $14....................
$14 and under $15....................
$15 and under $16....................
$16 and under $17....................

1
1
18
38
51
75
24
31
26
2
10
7
9

$19 and under $20....................

16
7
12
33
34
66
29
29
20
22
4
9
5
7

2
1

$4 and under $5.......................
$5'and under $6.......................
So and under$7..............
$8 and undei $9.......................
$9 and Under $10.............
$10 and under $11............
(11 and under$12............

Total..............................
302
Medians.................................... $9.55

302
$8.75

3
14

1
1

2
1
3
6
2
1

C1) 1

C1)

(*)

20
$9.50

20
$9.15

C1)

.......

WOMEN TN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Amount.

Number of negro women for whom amount specified was weekly rate and number for whom it was actual week’s earnings in—Contd.
The manufacture of—Continued.
Textiles.

Tob acco.

General mer 5-and-10-cent
cantile.
stores.

Amount
Knit goods.

Cotton and
woolen goods.

Cigars.

Other.

Week Actual Week Actual Week Actual Week Actual Week Actual Week Actual Week Actual Week Actual Week Actual
ly
ly
ly
ly
ly
ly
ly
ly
ly
earn
earn
earn
earn
earn
earn
earn
earn
earn
rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings.

2
4

$15 and under $10.............................................
$18 and under $19.............................................

3
23
21
38
7
27
24
1
10
7
8
8

8
1
5
11
21
44
8
10
18
21
2
9
5
6
9

1
3
2
2

14
13
14
20
12
2
1

6
2
6
14
8
14
12
13
i

76
$8.80

76
18.15

1
2

1
2
2
2

1
1
2
1

2
1
3
1

$20 and over......................................................
p>

178
$10.55

178
$9.00

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Cordage and
thread.

Laundries.

Miscellaneous.

1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.

<£>
SJi

Table

VI.— Weekly rates, by scheduled weekly hours.

Number of women receiving each specified rate whose scheduled weekly hours were—

Weekly rate.

Number of
women
reported.

Under 44.

Over 44 and
under 48.

Over 48 and
under 50.

' 48

3
31
233
312
416
574
624
620
497
225
228
249
130
88
127
32
63
14
42
6
28
51
16
6
3

1
1
18
38
51
75
24
31
26
2
10
7
9
8

9
11
2

1
4
1

23
4,618
302
Median rates..................... $11.20 $9.55 $11.25

1
2

1
322
6
(») $16.25

1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.

14
13
27
12
25
16
20
27
30
30
25
5
15
6
23
2
20
11

2
3
1
6
24
18
13
21
12
2
19
6
2
4
1
1
1

139
$12.10

2
26
33
82
64
99
44
88
41
50
75
31
23
26
13
25
3
8
2
5
19
8
3
2

10
1
4
1

Over 54 and
under 60.

Ne- White. Ne- White. Ne- White. Ne- White. Ne- White. Negro.
gro.
gro.
gro.
gro.
gro.

5
15
3
23
49
33
20
30
30
28
24
16
12
10
5
11

2
1

3
4
3
2

4
1

772
17
323
$12. 40 $8.85 $12.40

2
22
45
86
131
146
151
211
133
36
27
40
23
4
24
4
4
3
3

1
1
20
10
2
13
1
24
1
10
7
8
8
1

32
89
35
47
42
60
13
50
29
8
3
13

3
2
14
1
5

i
3
16
34
22
26
24
28
6
11
4
5
10

1
14
14
10
64
5
25
1
1

1
4
76
17
12
53
3
4
3
3

1
4

2
8
3

4
4

Ill
96
105
121
193
229
61
46
41
20
9
9
15
3

2
1

1,107
107
498
25
191
$10.80 $12.25 $10.85 $8.55 $11.75

135
176
8 1,067
(>) $10.50 $9.45 *10.40

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES

White. Ne- White. Ne- White. Ne- White. Ne- White. Negro.
gro.
gro.
gro.
gro.

Over 50 and
under 54.

Table YU.—Week's

earnings, by time in the trade.

Number of women earning each specified amount Who had been in the trade—

Week’s earnings.

Number of
women re
porting.

6 months
and under
1 year.

Under 6
months.

1 and
under 2
years.

3 and
under 4
years.

2 and
under 3
years.

4 and
under 5
years.

5 and
under 10
years.

10 and
under 15
years.

15 and
under 20
years.

20 years
and over.

$5 and under $6..............
$7 and under $8..............
$8 and under $9..............
$9 and under $10.............
$11 and under $12...........

7
28
31
49
75
127
312
406
502
528
442
411
236

2
4
10
15
23
28
57
69
87
56
69
50
42
14

1
13
14
21
28
54
85
111
139
133
80
55
28
10
10
9
4
1

1
1
2
3
6
8
4
3
1

1
41
15

1
1
1
6
8
8
21
43
62
56
51
50
37
15
18
8
9
1
1
1

1
1
1
2
4
2
3
4
1
2
1

1
3
2
5
6
16
24
50
72
87
106
66
62
33
36
20
14
4
6
3
3
2
3
2

1
1

2
5
4
9
10
19
26
40
83
81
74
66
43
36
31
19
14
12
11
6
4
6
2

2
2

Total..................... 4,657
561
100.0 100.0
Median earnings............. $11.15 $8.85

3
1
4
2
9
11
12
2
5
4
1
1

29
800
17.2
5.2
$8. 55 $7.20

1
5
1
3
3
10
13
4
5
3
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
3
6
13
7
22
24
48
59
64
43
36
30
23
16
15
9
7
10
3
4
1
1
3

2
3
2
3
1
6
3
10
6
8
4
7
1
1
1

1
1
4
4
4
16
8
14
30
41
36
41
34
19
24
17
8
10
4
5
9
1
2
3
1

1
4
2
6
5
5
2
5
2
4
1

4
2
1
6
11
13
24
22
34
54
47
67
51
33
56
27
29
29
21
19
4
5
6
4
12
2
2
1

1
1
5
6
12
15
17
17
24
12
12
3
4
3
1
3

3
3
1
3
5
5
16
15
15
22
19
27
28
22
33
23
14
25
10
11
5
9
7
3
12
6
1
2

1
2
1
4
8
7
9
4
5
11
6
6
3
3
2

3
3
4
4
5
10
5
21
16
22
16
18
14
17
12
11
11
8
8
8
3
3
14
3
1
2

1
1
1
1
4
3
5
10
10
12
5
6
1
4
1

2
2
1
2
2
6
7
8
11
13
15
18
14
14
32
13
15
14
4
16
6
8
9
4
12
9
1
1

I
2
1
3

4
4
4
6
4
2

259
33
71
243
65
345
337
37
586
136
57
608
450
58
631
52
398
23
7.4
5. 6
5.9
12.7
5.2 11.6
12.6 24.2
9.7 10.3
7.2
6.6
13.1
9.3
4.1
13.5 10.2
8.5
$9.85 $8.15 $10. 45 $7.85 $11.35 $8.25 $11.65 $8.90 $12.25 $8.10 $13.15 $9.65 $14.50 $10.10 $14.65 $9.65 $15.45 $10.40

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

White. Negro White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro.

VIII.— Year’s earnings of women for whom 52-week records were secured, by industry.

Table

Number of women earning each specified amount in—
The manufacture of—
Tobacco.
Textiles.
Print
ing
Metal and
Furni prod
Shoes. Cord Cotton
ture. ucts. pub
and
age
Other.
lish
and woolen Cigars.
ing.
thread. goods.

Food.

Misccllaneous.

Gen
eral 5-and
mer 10-cent
can stores.
tile.

Ne
Ne
Ne
White. Ne White. White. White. White. White. gro. White. White. White. White. White. White. White. White. gro. White. White. White. White. gro.
gro.

$200 and under $250...
$250 and under $300...
$300 and under $350...
$350 and under $400...
$400 and under $450...
$450 and under $500...
$500 and under $550...
$550 and under $600...
$600 and under $650...
$650 and under $700...
$700 and under $750...
$750 and under $800...
$800 and under $850...
$850 and under $900...
$900 and under $1,000..
$1,000 and under $1,100
$1,100 and under $1,200
SI ,200 and under $1,400
$1,400 and under $1,600
$2,000 and over............

1
3
11
29
50
70
64
77
65
65
51
44
31
29
31
14
11
11
4

2
2
3
3

8
9
4

2
1

3
5
5
1

2
2
1
1

5
9
8
8
14
14
13
4
6
10
7
6
5

1
1
1
4
5
5
3
1
2

1
1
3
1
3
1
1

1
2
5
4
3
4
3
1
2

1
1
1
1
2
1
2
1

1
2
4
4
6
9
3
4
6
2
2
1
1
3
2

1
5
4
1
5
5
1
2
5
3

2
6
3
1
1

2
1
1
2
1
4

45
$663

12
0)

1
2
3
1
1
2
6
7
5
9
4
5
3
1
1
1
1

1
4
7
9
14
16
5
5
3
4
2
2
4
2

4
1
3
6
8
5
5
2
2
5
4
2
1
2

1
1

2
1
5
9
5
2
4
6
6
8
5
4
3
1
1
1
1

41
$646

65
$688

1
1
2
5
2
3
6
6
2
4
3
2
1

1
1
5
3
5
1
3
1
2

1
5
5
4
7
7
2
3

1
1 ....

4
3
2

1
667
$618

61
$442

14
(i)

15
$492

1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.

3
9
3

36
$560

. 119
$641

28
$620

2
(>)

11
w

29
$692

10
w

50
$544

53
$735

79
$514

50
$430

23
$565

37
$575

9
0)

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES

Year’s earnings.

All
industries. Boxes, Boxes,
wood Candy. Cloth
ing.
paper. en.

Table IX.— Year’s earnings of women for whom 52-weelc records were secured, by number of weeks worked.
Number of women earning each specified amount who worked—

Year’s earmngs.

Number of
women
reported.

Under 32

and under 50 and under
32 and under 36 and under 40 and under 44 and under 46 and under 4850 weeks.
52 weeks.
48 weeks.
46 weeks.
44 weeks.
40 weeks.
36 weeks.

Under $200................
$200 and under $250.
$250 and under $300.
$300 and under $350.
$350 and under $400.
$400 and under $450.
$450 and under $500.
$500 and under $550.
$550 and under $600.
$600 and under $650.
$650 and under $700.
$700 and under $750.
$750 and under $800.
$800 and under $850.
$850 and under $900.
$900 and under $1,000.
$1,000 and under $1,100..
$1,100 and under $1,200..
$1,200 and under $1,400..
$1,400 and under $1,60Q..
$1,600 and under $1,800..
$1,800 and under $2,000..
$2,000 and over................
667
$618

61
$442

C1)

(l)

19
$52.5

C1)

54
$490

45
$519

64
$570

(*>’

93
$647

C1)

218
$689

$600

163
$649

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Negro, White. Negro. White. Negro.

White. Negro.
White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro. White. Negro.

Total..........
Median earnings.

52 weeks.

i Not computed, owing to small number involved.

Industry.

Weeks worked during the year by women Jor whom 52-week records were secured, by industry.

Number of
women
reported.

Manufacturing:
4
Boxes, paper......................................
Boxes, wooden..................................
Candy.................................................
Clothing.............................................
Food....................................
Furniture...........................................
Metal products..........................*"
Printing and publishing...................
Textiles—
Cordage and thread..............
Cotton and woolen goods..........
Tobacco—
Cigars...........................................
Otner...........................................
Miscellaneous....................................
General mercantile..................................
5-and-10-cent stores................................
Laundries....................................
All industries............ ......

TJnd er 32
wee ks.

32 and under 36 and under 40 and under 44 and under 46 and under 48 and under 50 and under
36 weeks.
40 weeks.
44 weeks.
46 weeks.
48 weeks.
50 weeks.
52 weeks.

Ne White. Ne
White. Ne White. Ne White. Ne White. Ne White
gro.
gro.
gro.
gro.
gro.
gro.

14
15
36
....... i’
119
28 *"2*
11
29
10
50

........ i
........ 3’

....... 4*

667

1
14

......

........ 2

'4'

9
3

9
19
2

23
6 ......

3
2
20
17

1
50

1
2

2
1

1
1

15
1
1

9
61

6
15
2
1

2
2

8
13
6

3
3 ......
93

24
24
19
36
4
9
218

4
2
10
18
13
22
5

20
3
4

4 ......

1
4

7
7

2 -........
1
1

........ 2
2

5
17
6
2 !.!!!.’

12
1
....... i’

52 weeks.

Ne White. Ne
White. Ne White. Ne
gro.
gro.
gro.
gro.

........ 2

........ r

....... i’

45
12
53
79
41
65
23
37

2
2

16
15
20 ........ 3
22

163

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES,

White

Number of women who worked—

100

Table X.

Table

XI.—Weeks lost during the year by women for whom 52-weeh records were secured, by industry.
Number of women who lost each specified number of weeks in—
The manufacture of—

Boxes, Boxes, Candy. Cloth
wood
ing.
paper. en.

T obacco.
Text iles.
Print
ing
Furni Metal and Shoes. Cord Cotton
ture. prod pub
and
ucts. lish
age
Other.
and woolen Cigars.
ing.
thread. goods.

Food.

Miscellaneous.

Gen
eral 5-and
mer 10-cent Laundries.
can stores.
tile.

Ne
Ne
White. White. Ne
White. Ne White. White. White. White. White. gro. White. White. White. White. White. White. White. White. gro. White. White.
gro.
gro.
4
7
2

3
1
3
2
5
1
5
3
3

Total..................

667

2
1
2
2
2
1
1

18
12
11
9
10
13
4
7
5
7
4
2
1
2
5
9

13
2
4
2

5
13
9

14.....................
15 and over..................

163
117
101
51
42
43
21
20
25
17
17
9
11
4
5
21

None.............................
1....................................
2....................................
3....................................
4....................................
5....................................

119

10
5
2
5
4
3
2
1

2
1
1

1
7
14

3
3

4
3
1
2

22
2
1
1
1

5
2
1
2

1
1

20
9
11
1
2
1
2
1
1
1

.......... ............
29
10

3
13
4
3
4
2
3
1
3

4
4
3
1

5
1
2

2
1
1

2
9
15
7
6
2
5
8
7
4
5
2
4

2
10
7
2
1
2
2
5
1
5
2
3

7
7
12
3
3
1
1
1
1
1

16
20
16
6
3
2

15
3
1
2
1
1

3
20
2
5
2
4
2
1
4 *”i
1

2
15
9
4
4
5
2
1
5
2

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES,

Number of weeks lost.

AH
industries.

h*
O

102

Table XII.— Weeks lost during the year through closing of the establishment or department, women for whom 52-week records were secured, by industry.
Number of women who lost each specified number of weeks in—
The manufacture of—

All industries.1
Boxes,
Cloth
wooden. Candy. ing.

Furni
ture.

Food.

Textiles
Tobacco.
Print
Metal ing and
prod pub Shoes. Cordage
ucts. lishing.
and Cigars.
Other.
thread.

Miscel
lane
ous.

White. Negro. White. White. White. White. Negro. White. White. White. White. White. White. White. Negro. White.
1....................................
2......................
3..................................................
4................................
5.....................
6..............................................................
7............................................
8............................................................
9...............................................................
10 and over......................................................

135
53
8
24
14
3
4
4
7
26

22
5
4

1
4
1

Total......................................................

278

29
8
1
1
9

7
2
4
10

2
4
15

1 Excludes industries in which no establishment or department was closed.

1
2

6
............

7
6

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES,

Number of weeks establishment or
department was closed.

Table XIII.—Average Week's earnings for 52 weeks, women for whom 52-week records were secured, by industry.

Number of women averaging each specified amount in—
The manufacture of—
Average week’s
earnings—52 weeks.

Gen
eral 5-andMis mer 10-cent
cella can stores.
neous. tile.

Tobacco.
Textiles.
Print
ing
Metal and
Cord Cotton
Furni prod
Shoes.
and
ture. ucts. pub
age
Other.
lish
and woolen Cigars.
ing.
thread. goods.

Food.

Ne
Ne
Ne
White. Ne White. White. White. White. White. gro. White. White. White. White. White. White. White. White. gro. White. White. Wfdte. White. gro.
gro.

$4 and under $5.......

$10 and under $11........
$12 and under $13........

mm uuuu

.....

$30 and under $35........
$40 and over.................

2
4
7
16
34
63
75
77
82
54
65
47
33
30
15
22
9
6
7
4
7
4
2
1

2
3
1
4
8
id
5
10
2
1
8
2
1
2

4
3
3
2
1

3
3
2
3
3
1

1
2
1
6
8
3 'T
5
1
2

2
2
1
1
3
1

1
4
6
3
3
4
1
3
2
1
1

1
2
1
1
2
1
2

2
2
4
5
9
6
5
1
5
4
2
3
2

i
4
3
3
6
1
5
7
3
2
1
5
1
2
1
1

2
4

1
2
1
1

2
4
8
3
12
2
7
2
2
1

2
1
2
2

1
1
1

2
6
10
9
20
8
1
2
6
2
2
3
3

2
3
1
4
7
9
2
5
2
3
7
2
1
2

1
2
1
2
5
3
6
5
3
4
1
3

i
l
3
7
4
6
4
3
9
5
8
5

.....

.
1
5
2
7
1
3
1
2
1

1
8
2
10
6
4
2
1
1

A
3
5

1
1

....

65 1
23
37
41
79
50
$9.65 $7.90 $12.10 $13.40 j$10.50 $10. 75

9
0

2
1

3
2
1
1
1

1
14
C1)

119
28
36
15
$9.75 $10.50 $11.95 $11.65

i Not computed, owing to small number Involved.

2
0

29
u
(>) $13.15

45
50
10
0) - $10.50 $13.05

12
53
(>) $14.20

103

667
61
$11.70 $8.50

1
4
10
2
4
5
7

2
1
1
1
5
10
9
12
20
11
6
6
11
5
6
2
4
1
2
1
2
1

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

AH
industries. Boxes, Boxes,
Cloth
wood Candy. ing.
paper. en;

Table XIV.—Average week’s earnings for weeks worked, women for whom 5t-week records were secured, by industry.
©
Number ol women averaging each specified amount in—
The manufacture of—
Average week’s earn
ings—weeks worked.

All
industries.

Food.

Mis
cella
neous.

Gen
eral 5-andmer- 10-cent Laundries.
can- stores.
tile.

White. Ne White. White. White White. White Ne White. White. White. White. White. White. White. White. Ne White.
White. White. White. Ne
gro.
gro.
gro.
gro.
Under $5.......................
$5 and under $6...........
$6 and under $7...........
$7 and under $8...........
$8 and under $9...........
$9 and under $10.........
*10 and under *11.......
$11 and under $12......
$12 and under $13.......
$13 and under $14.......
$14 and under $15.......
$15 and under $16.......
$16 and under $17.......
$17 and under $18.......
*18 and under *19.......
$19 and under $20.......
$20 and under *21.......
$21 and under $22........
$22 and under $23........
$23 and under $24.......
$25 and under $30.......
$30 and under $35.......
$35 and under $40.......
$40 and over................

3
7
17
43
69
80
88
62
67
54
47
31
32
19
19
10
7
3
7
5
5
1

1
3
5
6
12
9
5
3
7
5
2
1
2

667
61
$12.45 $9.40

2
5
2
3
1

1
2
4
1
3
2
1
1

1
7
7
4
5
4
2
3
1

2
4
6
8
5
11
16
8
12
8
4
13
5
6
2
2
1
3
1
2

1
5
6
7
6

3
3
4

1
i

1
3
1
3

2
1

14
15
36
119
28
<*) $10.50 $11.25 $14.00 812.30

1 Not computed, owing to small number involved.

1
1

1
4
6
2
2
4
2
2
2
2
1
1

2
1
2
3

7
4
3
5
3
2
2

1
1

2
3
6
2

2
1

10
1

2
5
1

2
3

13
19
7
4
9

5
3
6

4
7
7

29
*13.75

8
3
1

3 ....

10
1

1
1

6
3

10
45
ou
C1) *10.85 $13.50

12
79
53
50
65
41
23
37
0) $15.25 $10.75 $9.65 $13.05 $13.90 $10.60 $11.05

9
0

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Boxes, Boxes,
wood Candy Cloth
ing.
paper. en.

Textiles.
Tobacco.
Print
ing
Furni Metal and
ture. prod pub Shoes. Cord Cotton
ucts. lish
and
age
Other.
and woolen Cigars.
ing.
thread. goods.

Table XV.— Week’s

earnings of telephone operators, by time worked.

A. WOMEN WHOSE TIME WORKED WAS REPORTED IN HOURS.
Number of women earning each specified amount who worked—

Week’s earnings.

$14 and under $15.....

1
1
1
5
1
3
7
13
21
17
18
60
40
36
22
24
12
9
4
7
6
1
2
2

1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1

i
1

2
i
3
2

1
2
2
i
1
1

4
1
1
1

317

1
1
3
3
1
2
1
2
1
1

1
7
3
4
1
2
5
3
1
1

2
3

2
2

1
1
1
2

1
1
3

.......

8
2
1
1

170

105

Median earnings:
All women, $14.20.
Women working 48 hours or more, $14.75.

3
4
3
1
8
43
30
31
13
8
5
9
4
3
1
1
1
2

1
Total.................

1
3
1
2
3
4
3
1

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

$2 and under 33..........
$3 and under $4..........
$4 and under $5..........

Num
ber of
Over
Over
Over
Over
Over
Over
Over
55 and 60
54 and 55
women Under 30 and 33 and 36 and 39 and 42 and
44 and 48 48 and 50 50 and 52 52 and 54
44
under under under under under
report 30
60
under hours. under hours. under hours. under hours. under hours. under hours.
hours. 48
42
44
36
39
ed. hours. 33
hours.
60
55
52
54
50
hours. hours. hours. hours. hours.
hours.
hours.
hours.
hours.
hours.
hours.

106

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Table

XV.-Ws earnings of telephone operators, by time worked—Continued.
B. WOMEN WHOSE TIME WORKED WAS REPORTED IN DAYS.

Week’s earnings.

Under $1................................
$1 and under $2................
$2 and under $3.....................
$3 and under $4....................
$4 and under $5....................
$5 and under $6....................
$6 and under $7...............
$7 and under $8.........
$8 and under $9......... ;
*9 and under $10.......................
$10 and under $11....................
$11 and under $12...........
$12 and under *13....................
$13 and under $14................
$14 and under $15....................
$15 and under *16....................
$10 and under $17................
$17 and under $18...............
$18 and under $19................
$19 and under $20....................
$20 and under $21..................
$21 and under $22................
$22 and under $23..............
$23 and under $24.....................
$24 and under $25................
$25 and under $30..............
$30 and under $35..................
$35 and under *40.....................
$40 and over........................
Total....................................

Number of women earning each specified
Num
amount who worked on—
ber of
women
re
1
2
5
6
7
ported. day. days. days.
days. days. days. days. days. days.
1

4
3
8
9
4
• 11
7
3
6
19
24
12
6
20
25
14
13
4
4
3
10
1
1
213

Median earnings:
All women, $16.55.
Women working on 5 days or more, $16.85.

3
1

1
1
1
1

1
2

150

107

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.
Table

XVI.—Nativity

of the women employees who supplied personal information, by
industry.
N umber and per cent who were—

Industry.

Num
ber of
report
ing.

Native-born.
Number.
White. Negro.

Manufacturing:

Tobacco—

31601°—23----- 8

87
98
218
795
198
61
201
73
423

85
97
216
775
195
58
196
72
422

380
188
103

375
188
101

473
1,187
199
439
154
301

468
600
199
433
150
255

5,580

Textiles—

Foreign-born.

4,885

1
1
2
3

Per
cent.

97.7
100.0
99.1
97.6
98.5
100.0
97.5
98.6
99.8

Number.

Per
cent.

2.3

2
19
3

.9
2.4
1.5

5
1
1

2.5
1.4
.2

99.2
100.0
98.1

1.9

5
12

1.1
2.0

3
3
43

98.9
98.0
100.0
99.3
99.3
98.8

3
1
3

.7
.7
1.2

633

98.9

1.1

575

108

Table

XVII.—Age of the women employees who supplied personal information, by industry.
Number and per cent of women whose age was—

Industry.

Under 16
years.

16 and under
18 years.

and under 20 and under 25 and under 30 and under 40 and under 50 and under
20 years.
25 years.
30 years.
40 years.
50 years.
60 years.

Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.

Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.

Num Per
ber. cent.

60 years
and over.
Num Per
ber. cent.

18.5
15.5
17.6
9.7
10.6
15.5
11.2
27.8
18.1

11
21
43
97
25
13
37
13
81

13.6
19.1
18.9
12.0
12.6
22.4
18.0
18.1
18.7

27
28
55
120
50
15
55
18
105

33.3
25.5
24.2
14.9
25.3
25.9
26.8
25.0
24.3

7
14
32
92
26
7
26
6
62

8.6
12.7
14.1
11.4
13.1
12.1
12.7
8.3
14.4

12
15
24
159
38
8
25
8
57

14.8
13.6
10.6
19.8
19.2
13.8
12.2
11.1
13.2

7
11
17
136
28
5
15
3
29

8.6
10.0
7.5
16.9
14.1
8.6
7.3
4.2
6.7

1
3
10
84
8

1.2
2.7
4.4
10.4
4.0

.5
1.4
2.1

15
17
40
. 78
21
9
23
20
78

13
3
9

6.3
4.2
2.1

8
5
5

2.1
2.5
4.6

45
51
4

11.7
25.8
3.7

58
51
7

15.1
25.8
6.5

67
43
17

17.4
21.7
15.7

45
13
18

11.7
6.6
16.7

66
16
17

17.2
8.1
15.7

54
10
22

14.1
5.1
20.4

28
7
12

7.3
3.5
11.1

13
2
6

3.4
1.0
5.6

513
615
239
440
152
262

2
15

.8
3.4

96
63
46
67
34
36

18.7
10.2
19.2
15.2
22.4
13.7

146
112
53
100
39
ii

28.5
18.2
22.2
22.7
25.7
15.6

67
79
33
51
15
36

13.1
12.8
13.8
11.6
9.9
13.7

73
135
33
82
21
66

14.2
22.0
13.8
18.6
13.8
25.2

26
116
15
43
3
41

5.1
18.9
6.3
9.8
2.0
15.6

1.9
9.6
4.6
2.7

1
21
3
4

.2
3.4
1.3
.9

18.3
4.9
18.0
15.0
26.3
8.0

10
59
11
12

94
30
43
66
40
21

5.7

1.9

Total........................................... 5,099

1.2

695

13.6

799

15.7

1,091

21.4

629

12.3

855

16.8

581

11.4

285

5.6

101

2.0

Candy............................................
Clothing.........................................
Metal products..............................
Shoes.. 7....... T................................
Textiles—
Cordage and thread...............
Knit goods..............................
Cotton and woolen goods---Tobacco—
Miscellaneous................................
General mercantile..............................
Laundries.............................................

81
110
227
805
198
58
205
72
432

1
4
11

0.9
1.8
1.4

1
1
9

384
198
108

1.2

2
28
2
1
10

.9
3.5
1.0
1.7
4.9

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Manufacturing:

ber of
wom
en re
port
ing.

Table

XVIII.—Conjugal condition of the women employees who supplied personal information, hy industry.
Number and per cent of women who were—
Number of women
reporting.

Widowed, separated, or divorced.

Married.

Single.

Industry.
Number.

Manufacturing:

Textiles—

Tobacco—

86
105
225
771
197
58
197
73
418
359
192
102

Laundries......................................

505
609
256
442
147
262

All industries.....................

5,004

Other...............................
General mercantile.......................

1
2
3

White.

Negro.

White.

70
66
142
448
111
36
154
62
273

81.4
62.9
63.1
58.1
56.3
62.1
78.2
84.9
65.3

8
25
43
149
50
11
6
4
81

166
131
68

46.2
68.2
66.7

3
3
39
597

3,040

33.3

69.7
38.8
66.8
69.4
76.9
51.1

33.3

81
205
39
64
20
65

168

60.8

28.1

998

154
1

28.3

White.

100.0
100.0

8
14
40
174
36
11
37
7
64

28.1
15.6
15.7

2
3

Negro.

19.4

Negro.

101
30
16

352
236
171
307
113
134

.544

Negro.

White.

92
31
18

9.3
23.8
19.1
19.3
25.4
19.0
3.0

1
1
14

16.0
33.7
15.2
14.5
13.6
24.8

216

19.9

195

33.3
33.3
35.9

72
168
46
71
14
63

36.2

966

35.8

White.

Negro.

■
2

9.3
13.3
17.8
22.6
18.3
19.0
18.8
9.6
15.3
25.6
16.1
17.6

1
2
12

14.3
27.6
18.0
16.1
9.5
24.0

213

19.3

195

Negro.

100.0

100. 0

35.8
33.3
66.7
30.8
35.7

109

Negro.

Per cent.

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

White.

Number.

Per cent.

Number.

Per cent.

110

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.

Table

XIX.—Living condition of the women employees who supplied personal informa
tion, by industry.

Number of women who were living—
Number of women reporting.

Industry.

White.
Manufacturing:

Food..."..............................
Printing and publishing..
Textiles—
Cordage and thread...
Cotton and

woolen

Tobacco—

88
108
228
772
195
58
203
74
421
375
194

At home.
White.

Negro.

Adrift.

Negro.

White.

Negro.

2
2

78
97
195
653
178
55
191
66
386

2
2

10
11
33
119
17
3
12
8
35

358
170

17
24

103

501
593
266
446
155
264

3
1
32

435
543
244
405
142
242

3
1
30

66
50
22
41
13
22

584
100.0

4,535
89.9

507
86.8

509
10.1

5,044
100.0

541

466

75
2
77
13.2

APPENDIX B.
SCHEDULE FORMS.
Schedule

I.1

This schedule was used for the study of number of employees,
hours, and plant policies.
No. 135.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Women’s Bureau.

Washington.
Factory Schedule.
1. Name of factory.......................................... Address...................................
Person interviewed..............
2. Product......................................................... Position..................................

Bay.

3. Number employed:
White.

Negro.

Men......................................
Women.................................
Total.....................................

White.

Negro.

Total.

Boys...................................................
Girls...................................................
Total............................................ .

Night.
White.

Negro.

Men......................................
Women.................................
Total....................................

White.

Negro.

Boys...................................................
Girls...................................................
Total...................................................

4. Firms scheduled hours:
Daily: Begin— End_ Lunch period_
_ Rest period_
_ Total___
Saturday “
“
“ “
“ “
“ _
Shifts
“ ....
“ ___
“
“ ___
“
“ ___
“ ___
Regular weekly number of days................ Total weekly hours....................
Shifts, weekly number of periods............. Total shifts, weekly hours.........
Daily: Begin---- End---- Lunch period__ Rest period_
_ Total___
Saturday “ ....
“ ....
“
“ ....
“
“ ....
“ ....
Shifts
“ ....
“ ....
“
“ ....
“
“ ....
“ ....
Regular weekly number of days................ Total weekly hours....................
Shifts, weekly number of periods............. Total shifts, weekly hours.........
5. Overtime or undertimeIll
6. Seasonal
7. Employment policy: '
Employment manager. .........
Records kept...............
Labor turnover...........

Or centralized method.........

8. Subcontract shop................. ................
Date......................................

Foremen........

Home work given out...

Agent.................................................

1 The working conditions schedule used was too detailed to be included here.

Ill

112

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.
Schedule II.

All information which could be secured from the pay roll was
copied onto this card, one card being used for each woman employee.
All information was added from Schedule III.
F8

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.
Women’s Bureau.
Establishment.

Employee’s No.

Department.

Name

Male.

Address

Age.

Conjugal condition.

Occupation

Piece.

Rate of
payDays
worked.

Female.

Hour.
$0.

Regular
weekly
hours.

Hours
worked
this period.

Week.

Day.
*

£ month.

Board.

At home.

Began work.

N. R.

Additions.

Earnings.
This period.

Deduc
tions.

Computed for
regular time.

S
Country of birth.

Month.

Overtime Undertime
hours.
hours.

Time at work.

In this trade.

This firm.

Age________
Pay-roll period.
......... days ending

Schedule

III.

This schedule was distributed in the factory to be filled out by each
woman employee. The information was transferred to Schedule II.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.

Women’s Bureau.

F 10.

Establishment.

Employee’s No.

Department.

Name.............................................................................. Male or female......................
Address:
Single, married, widowed, sepa..................................................................................
rated, or divorced.....................
Country of birth...................................................................... Age.............................
How old were you when you began to work for wages....................................................
How long have you been in this trade or business..........................................................
How long have you been working for this firm................................................................
What is your regular work here.........................................................................................
Schooling—Last grade completed.......................................................
Do you live with your family........................ With other relatives
Do you board or room with persons not relatives..............................

113

WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.
Schedule IV.

This schedule was used to record earnings for each week in the year,
one sheet having been used for each woman employee whose yearly
earnings were recorded.
No. 134.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.
Women’s Bureau.

Agent.......................................................

M.........

Date.

Firm..............................................................
City...............................................................
Employee......................................................
Occupation...................................................
F......... Race......... Earnings each week from.................to..................
Rate: Piece............. Time............. Piece and time.............
Hours
or days
Wages. worked
during
week.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26

Hours
or
days
paid
for.

Slack
or
shut
down.

Date.

27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52

Total................................................................................
Av. weekly wage................ Number weeks worked
Av. weekly wage for 52 weeks......................................

Hours
or days
Wages. worked
during
week.

Hours
or
days
paid
for.

Slack
or
shut
down.

114

WOMEN" IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES.
-

Schedule

This schedule was used for the information secured during home
visits to the women employed in the establishments surveyed.
No. 93.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,
Women’s Bureau,

Washington.
Home Visit Schedule.
_
Name of worker............................................. Address_
Firm............................................................... Occupation
Hours: Regular............................................. Irregular...
Overtime..................................................................
Lost time.................................................................
Reasons....................................................................
Wages: Piece work........................................ Time work.
Increases in past year...............................................................
Decreases.....................................................................................
Variations in past year...............................................................
Fines............................................................................................
Bonuses.......................................................................................
Former job: Industry.................................
Occupation...................
Hours...........................
Daily...........................
Weekly.
How long held.................._.............. Earnings when leaving.
Reason for leaving......................................................................
Personal facts: Age left school.................... Grade completed
Reasons for leaving school...............................................
Living at home.................................................................
Boarding........................................... Amount paid__
Date............................................................... Agent..................

ADDITIONAL COPIES
OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM
THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON, D. C.
AT

15 CENTS PER COPY
PURCHASER AGREES NOT TO RESELL OR DISTRIBUTE THIS
COPY FOR PROFIT.—PUB. RES. 57, APPROVED MAY 11, 1022

PUBLICATIONS OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU.
BULLETINS.

No. 1. Proposed Employment of Women During the War in the Industries of Niagara
Falls, N. Y. 16 pp. 1918.
No. 2. Labor Laws for Women in Industry in Indiana. 29 pp. 1918.
No. 3. Standards for the Employment of Women in Industry. 7 pp. 1919.
No. 4. Wages of Candy Makers in Philadelphia in 1919. 46 pp. 1919.
No. 5. The Eight Hour Day in Federal and State Legislation. 19 pp. 1919.
No. 6. The Employment of Women in Hazardous Industries in the United States.
8 pp. 1919.
No. 7. Night-Work Laws in the United States. 4 pp. 1919.
No. 8. Women in the Government Service. 37 pp. 1920.
No. 9. Home Work in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 35 pp. 1920.
No. 10. Hours and Conditions of Work for Women in Industry in Virginia. 32 pp.
1920.
■
No. 11. Women Street Car Conductors and Ticket Agents. 90 pp. 1920.
No. 12. The New Position of Women in American Industry. 158 pp. 1920.
No. 13. Industrial Opportunities and Training for Women and Girls. 48 pp. 1920.
No. 14. A Physiological Basis for the Shorter Working Day for Women. 20 pp. 1921.
No. 15. Some Effects of Legislation Limiting Hours of Work for Women. 26 pp.
1921.
No. 16. State Laws Affecting Working Women. 1920. 104 pp. 1921.
No. 17. Women’s Wages in Kansas. 1920. 104 pp. 1921.
No. 18. Health Problems of Women in Industry. 11 pp. 1921.
No. 19. Iowa Women in Industry. 73 pp. 1921.
No. 20. Negro Women in Industry. 65 pp. 1921.
No. 21. Women in Rhode Island Industries. 73 pp. 1922.
No. 22. Women in Georgia Industries. 89 pp. 1922.
No. 23., The Family Status of Breadwinning Women. 43 pp. 1922.
No. 24. Women in Maryland Industries. 96 pp. 1922.
No. 25. Women in the Candy Industry in Chicago and St. Louis. 1922.
No. 26. Women in Arkansas Industries. 85 pp. 1922.
No. 27. The Occupational Progress of Women. 37 pp. 1922.
No. 28. Women’s Contributions in the Field of Invention. 51 pp. 1923.
No. 29. Women in Kentucky Industries. 114 pp. 1922.
No. 30. The share of Wage-earning Women in Family Support. 170 pp. 1923.
No. 31. What Industry Means to Women Workers. 1923.
First Annual Report of the Director. (Out of print.)
Second Annual Report of the Director.
Third Annual Report of the Director.
Fourth Annual Report of the Director.