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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 VI 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 1 2 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, 1919.12 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. 3 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. 4 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: 5 WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES, Table 1.—Number of men, women, and children employed in the establishments studied, by industry. Industry. * 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 total Number of estab employees in each lishments. industry. Per cent of women in each 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 2 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 1,227 271 735 604 151 100.0 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 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 5 0.6 1 0.1 8 30 3 1 .4 2.9 .5 1 1 .1 .1 4 .2 15 6 2 .6 3 .1 .2 8 .7 .4 3 .3 6 1.0 4 .6 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 .2 1,280 6.4 54 .3 66 .3 6 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. 7 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. 8 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. 9 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 byl ,„ J 197.4. per cent. of, the negro women. 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. 10 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. 11 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 12 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. 14 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. V f 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 2 492 258 325 5-and-10-cent stores.............................................. Laundries.............................................................. 6 14 11 15 9 17 881 2,112 350 866 236 522 Total............................................................ Per cent distribution........................................... * 136 100.0 9,469 100.0 Cuttxiu mid wooleu goods.- -- -- -- -- -- - Tobacco— Miscellaneous................................................ 1 1 0.7 41 41 0.4 21 417 1 5 1 37 1 5 1 22 637 32 2 4 52 84 1 47 1 32 1 131 2 7 5 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 • 2 2 4 55 88 156 2 2 29 293 5 531 1 41 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 1 13 1 20 2 2 234 253 3 1 2 170 5 325 3 4 1 414 245 37 1 6 3 304 698 114 1 34 9 225 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. Cn 1 16 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. 17 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. oo 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 84 551 7 492 258 42 2 5 417 1 37 1 1 1 21 147 41 1 3 91 47 490 2 2 52 1 154 4 84 i 58 4 18 2 55 2 1 2 109 32 29 3 1 1 1 1 19 220 39 338 i 135 41 1 2 47 253 1 3 881 6 14 2,112 11 350 5 15 866 9 236 17 522 1 30 Total....................... 6 135 9,330 Per cent distribution....... 100.0 100.0 1 0.7 30 0.3 5 3.7 417 4.5 2 163 2 1 79 5 1 1 28 368 1 30 1 11 8.1 541 5.8 31 1 1 2 2 9 6 24 47 5 1,346 2 ' 75 5 301 161 3 4 148 1 216 13 1,053 9.6 11.3 13 9.6 436 4.7 30 2,635 22.2 28.2 1 15 24 i,2a5 17.8 13.8 2 1.5 231 2.5 3 I I i 20 2 1 109 5 2 325 3 4 688 470 114 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 14i 1 61 1 51 3 2.2 253 2.7 270 2 56 •p 13 30 245 45 134 30 88 2 5 2 1 5 325 1 4 84 89 2 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. 19 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. Printing and publishing................................................................... 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 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. 20 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 21 52 13 6.0 5 5.9 3.6 1.9 2, 702 28.5 20 Cotton and woolen goods manufacturing, with all of the women scheduled for more than 54 hours, had the worst record. This was 21 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— 6 14 11 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 41 22 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 23 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. Under 44.......................................................... 44 ............................................................. Over 44 and under 48...................................... Over 48 and under 54...................................... 54...................................................................... Over 54 and under 60...................................... 60...................................................................... Number. Per cent. Number. 1,179 21.4 71 24.1 699 550 2,059 178 618 107 3 12.7 36 5 133 9 39 12.2 (i) 5, 504 100.0 111 2.0 10.0 37.4 3.2 11.2 1.9 Per cent. 1 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. tc 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 * 6 56 20 8 144 I 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 6.2 23.0 6.4 6.2 1.8 10.0 12.1 9.3 8.2 12.1 7.0 3.2 6.3 5.8 8.3 4.0 13.7 5.7 10.9 30.4 8.0 14.0 WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES. White. Ne 25 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. 26 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. 27 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 28 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. CO O 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 A 2 5 2 8 5 14 28 18 35 31 27 21 26 26 7 6 5 3 1 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 1 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 2 8 12 1 3 8 2 4 1 1 1 10 7 9 10 5 1 1 6 2 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 1 3 3 16 13 5 3 8 8 2 6 Gen 5-anderal 0-cent Laun mer stores. dries. can tile. 2 1 16 2 3 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. 1 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 0) 1 0) 1 ([) 5 1 1 1 3 1 3 7 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 27 $9.05 C1) 4 0) 4 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 1 1 2 1 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 2 2 6 14 8 14 12 13 1 1 0) 1 0) 9 (0 8 76 $8,15 WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES, All indus tries. Not computed, owing to small number involved. CO 32 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: 33 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 34 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. 35 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 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 16 5 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 13 36 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. 1 $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 1 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) 7 232 316 342 126 60 194 $9.35 *12,75 $10.00 *13.10 $9.35 *9.95 37 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 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 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 ...... 1 13 m 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. 38 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. 39 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 40 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 H 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 o 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 41 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 Entire Louis exclu Entire Louis sive sive of State. of ville. State. ville. Louis 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 42 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 43 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: Shoes.__ .................T............................................... Textiles— Tobacco— 99 83 195 709 267 51 228 77 232 $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 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 44 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: * It 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. Num Me ber of dian wom rate. en. Num Me ber of dian wom rate. en. Manufacturing: 322 $16.25 Textiles—Cordage 16 $15.30 15 11.25 and Tobacco— 24 $11.25 24 11.25 322 16.25 17 10.50 Num Me Num Me ber of dian ber of dian wom rate.' wom rate. en. en. 302 $12.95 20 15.45 1 (o 31 321 50. Over 50 and under 54. 54. Over 54 and under 60. 60. Num Me ber of dian wom rate. en. Num Me ber of dian wom rate. en. Num Me ber of dian wom rate. en. Num Me ber of dian wom rate. en. Num Me ber of dian wom rate. en. Over 48 and under 50. 48. 15.15 10.95 48 9 $8.40 « 154 40 5 12.55 (0 30 12.00 20 9. 50 5 6 21 40 139 12.10 772 12.40 323 19 47 29 $6.60 10.40 11.15 14.85 12.25 29 37 21 $8.80 12.55 10.65 122 7.35 « 61 10.75 42 7.90 (■) 14.30 10.15 14.45 8. 70 11.50 14 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 51 $14.10 126 10.85 83 S9.80 201 30 3 20 9.75 12.25 (2) 9.40 113 $10.10 32 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. Cm 46 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 47 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. 48 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 19 1 607 61 49 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 61 Median earnings. $442 688 663 646 641 620 575 565 560 544 514 492 2 9 50 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 50 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. i........................................................... 2............................................................................ 3.............................................................................................. 4..................................................................... 5................................................................................................ 6.............................................................................................. 7.............................................................. 8............................................................................. 9....................................................... 10........................................................ ' 11............................................................................................ 12........................................................................................ i3............................................................................................ :::: 14................................................................................................ 15 or more................................................................. Total............................................................... : 163 117 101 51 42 43 21 20 25 17 17 94 4 9 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 51 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 2 28.6 7 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 13 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 1 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 52 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: 53 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 whom period— for 52-week all records women. were (Column 1.) secured. (Column 2.) Average Per cent earnings which for weeks by 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 54 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. 55 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, 56 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. 57 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 37 80 1 87 6 37 4 7 Total................. 295 37 81 93 41 37 2 4 2 1 New York State Department of Labor, Bureau of Women in Industry. The telephone industry Special Bui. 100, 1920, p. 17-18. 58 WOMEN" IN" KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES. 59 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 60 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. 61 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 62 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. 63 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. 65 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, 66 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. 67 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 68 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. 69 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. VO 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. 71 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. 72 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. 73 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 74 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. 75 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 76 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,*10 where the industrial commission has 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. 77 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. 78 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. 79 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. 80 WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES. 81 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, 82 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. 83 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. 84 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. 85 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. * J 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. 6 7 and under 8. and under 7. 8 and under 9. 9 and under 10. 10 and under 11. 11. Manufacturing: 27 Cotton and woolen 6 2 12 88 1,101 4 84 551 1 84 58 4 90 3 3 4 329 94 85 2 2 183 1 1 41 1 32 1 13 1 135 1 47 338 3 474 2 325 1 & 13 1 935 714 9 855 236 419 127 100.0 9,021 100.0 2 2 257 258 2 325 3 2 109 1 32 37 5 564 1,884 '249 3 76 3 136 5 174 28 1,781 19.7 48 37.8 4,730 52.4 12 9.4 543 2 9 22.0 131 12 2 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. . 1 2 8 1 24 54 19 1 32 1 20 1 141 1 61 * Tobacco— Total......................... Per cent distribution......... 272 ;382 219 Pointing and publishShoes Textiles— Cordage and 121 2 45 1 1 2 1 33 6 105 6.0 4.7 7 8 9 10 5 1.2 1 15 2 2 17 374 11 8.7 845 9.4 i 51 401 1 24 9 7 9 142 19 15.0 866 1 0.8 0.1 2 2 66 6 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. 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. 9 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 10 307 All industries....................... 1 136 9,469 56 4,712 1 2 121 5 5 15 7 4 5 4 144 272 1,430 382 85 358 84 551 4 7 492 258 325 2 1 1 6 2 2 6 14 11 881 1 2 3 8 2 1 1 1 3 2,112 11 350 5 866 84 35 229 782 305 56 30 11 Establishments. Women. Women. lishments. 1 hour. lishments. 37 2 1 1 39 1 22 60 5 2 1 6 315 23 4 385 253 1 230 35 76 2 1 2 121 589 1,922 118 132 3 58 1 1 2 1 1 23 13 28 2 61 i 13 17 1,468 47 1 15 Details aggregate more than total because of one establishment which appears in more than one hour group. Establishments. 1 3 78 156 6 202 59 3,150 WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES, Establishments. Over 45 minutes and under 1 hour. 45 minutes. ► V' 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. 1 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 4 17 8 33 27 36 14 28 12 6 2 21 S 5 3 3 9 22 4 355 13 4 10 1 8 39 ' 18 "'37 14' 9" 7 8 3 1 1 9 3 2 2 20 2 4 40 59 2 8 31 5 1 35 3 9 103 1 39 9 WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES. White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro White. Negro oo to Table IV.—Week's earnings, by hours worked. CD O 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 6 1 16 15 15 13 7 3 15 14 23 1 2 2 1 13 10 6 1 4 2 1 1 1 IS 27 14 15 3 6 5 4 13 34 16 31 35 15 15 19 31 21 21 16 12 11 2 1 1 120 61 73 33 45 34 16 90 32 5 9 5,504 20 1 8 20 2 4 1 1 1 2 2 2 1 11 22 9 15 4 4 4 3 1 4 2 1 1 1 1 1 6 3 6 6 4 9 3 8 15 26 46 63 121 148 56 46 28 20 11 21 7 4 15 1 1 3 1 1 3 12 7 5 9 14 2 3 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 22 9 6 4 2 2 1 1 11 6 2 3 17 10 2 80 119 130 224 185 111 699 550 4 17 58 102 118 148 168 94 29 27 15 26 4 4 10 404 1 8 22 77 53 74 71 86 68 41 57 41 2 4 6 27 17 28 29 18 9 13 71 27 54 53 81 70 52 35 46 38 43 63 175 205 1 3 33 13 220 8 22 293 207 136 112 112 67 10 13 17 18 12 20 58 11 36 1 8 1 3 441 2 8 6 3 4 1 911 744 150 132 188 195 148 153 74 95 85 33 35 22 62 i 618 210 207 197 100 91 98 58 17 10 1 178 16 153 213 307 393 415 441 360 18 1 38 13 110 107 3 19 81 29 8 1 9 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 and 36 and 39 and 42 and locality. wom Under under 33 44 and 48 and 50 50 and 54 Over 54 and 60 under under under under . 44 48 30 en re under hours. 60 33 36 39 42 hours. hours. under hours. hours. ported. hours. hours. 48 50 54 60 hours. hours. hours. hours. Louis Other Entire hours. hours. hours. hours. ville. places State. NEGRO WOMEN. 31601 Week’s earnings. 7 12 35 34 3 1 2 2 1 1 4 1 29 26 20 21 • 4 3 2 2 11 9 3 6 6 17 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 i 1 9 5 6 8 1 9 294 24 2 6 6 ....... 9 24 36 5 1 17 7 3 15 1 16 1 8 6 84 12 2 18 2 1 1 2 3 2 3 2 1 12 6 17 2 5 1 43 9 39 1 1 1 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. CD 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. $S and under $9........................... $9 and under $10........................ $10 and under $11...................... 233 312 416 574 624 620 497 225 229 249 130 190 98 136 286 336 405 523 584 473 373 206 188 199 112 127 32 106 45 6 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 1 5 31 3 10 58 21 18 25 16 4 3 1 1 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 26 18 1 3 $40 and over............................. 3 9 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 29 12 17 21 19 31 46 25 21 16 12 7 5 4 1 1 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 i 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 20 26 67 14 29 20 12 15 8 9 7 4 11 10 8 15 34 27 30 37 11 17 2 11 8 2 1 3 1 1 3 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 1 5 26 1 4 4 16 3 1 1 2 1 4 5 14 1 3 6 13 3 1 1 2 1 1 1 6 3 3 3 1 9 1 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 2 2 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 1 2 2 215 $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 2 1 359 $11. 00 359 $10.80 WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES Cordage and thread. 5-and-10-cent stores. Miscellaneous. O $9 <0 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. • Week- Actual Week- Actual Week- Actual Week Actual Week Actual Week Actual Actual Actual WeekActual Week Actual WeekWeekly ly ly earn earn earn ly iy earn iy earn X. earn earn earn earn 1y. earn iy ings. X ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. ings. ings. rate. ings. ings. rate. rate. ings. rate. ings. rate. $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.................... 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 16 7 12 33 34 66 29 29 20 22 4 9 5 7 302 $8.75 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 14 2 1 1 0) 1 C1) 1 C1) 1 C1) 1 (*) 2 2 0) 2 1 3 6 2 1 1 2 20 $9.50 20 $9.15 2 2 2 0) C1) 2 ....... 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 2 $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 1 i 1 3 2 2 1 2 2 2 i i 1 1 1 2 1 14 13 14 20 12 2 1 6 2 6 14 8 14 12 13 i 8 76 $8.80 76 18.15 1 2 2 1 3 1 1 $20 and over...................................................... p> 4 p) 4 178 $10.55 178 $9.00 p> 1 p) 1 pi 9 p> 9 p) 8 p> 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. CO C5 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. 44 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 1 1 4 1 1 23 4,618 302 Median rates..................... $11.20 $9.55 $11.25 1 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 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 1 Over 54 and under 60. 54 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 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 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 7 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 1 2 1 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. 50 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 9 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 2 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 1 3 2 5 6 16 24 50 72 87 106 66 62 33 36 20 14 4 6 3 3 2 3 2 8 29 800 17.2 5.2 $8. 55 $7.20 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 4 2 2 1 1 23 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 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 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 Furni prod and 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 1 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 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 2 1 5 4 1 5 5 1 2 5 3 1 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 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 1 .... 4 3 2 __ 1 i 1 667 $618 61 $442 14 (i) 15 $492 1 Not computed, owing to small number involved. 3 9 3 2 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 52 weeks. 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) (l) 0) 19 $52.5 C1) 54 $490 12 0) 45 $519 0) 64 $570 (*>’ 93 $647 C1) 218 $689 22 $600 163 $649 o> 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 11 ...... ........ 2 1 '4' .. 8 4 1 9 3 4 5 17 6 2 !.!!!.’ 12 1 ....... i’ ........ 2 2 5 9 19 2 7 23 6 ...... 1 2 5 2 1 2 1 1 1 5 15 1 1 11 9 61 6 15 2 1 7 5 7 2 19 1 54 12 45 3 3 2 20 7 17 7 64 8 13 6 2 4 3 3 ...... 93 3 24 24 19 36 4 9 218 4 2 10 18 13 22 5 20 3 4 7 9 4 ...... 1 4 7 7 2 2 5 2 -........ 1 1 1 50 52 weeks. Ne White. Ne White. Ne White. Ne gro. gro. gro. gro. ........ 2 ........ r ....... i’ 45 12 53 79 41 65 23 37 . 17 2 2 7 2 16 15 20 ........ 3 22 163 5 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— Cloth Boxes, Boxes, wood Candy. ing. paper. en. T obacco. Text iles. Print ing and Furni Metal Cotton pub Shoes. Cord and ture. prod ucts. lish age Other. woolen Cigars. and 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. 5 13 9 4 7 2 3 1 3 2 5 1 5 3 3 1 14..................... 15 and over.................. 163 117 101 51 42 43 21 20 25 17 17 9 11 4 5 21 Total.................. 667 61 None............................. 1.................................... 2.................................... 3.................................... 4.................................... 5.................................... 2 1 2 2 2 1 1 13 2 4 2 3 18 12 11 9 10 13 4 7 5 7 4 2 1 2 5 9 36 119 28 10 5 2 5 4 3 2 1 2 1 1 1 7 14 15 1 1 3 3 1 4 3 1 2 22 2 1 1 1 5 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 20 9 11 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 11 .......... ............ 29 10 3 13 4 3 4 2 3 1 3 4 4 3 1 5 1 2 1 1 50 45 2 15 9 4 4 5 2 1 5 2 2 1 1 12 53 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 23 37 1 1 1 3 7 4 79 50 41 65 WOMEN IN KENTUCKY INDUSTRIES, Number of weeks lost. AH industries. 9 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 3 1 4 1 1 Total...................................................... 278 41 4 4 7 2 4 10 29 8 1 1 9 2 2 4 15 25 69 1 Excludes industries in which no establishment or department was closed. > 1 2 1 1 6 ............ 24 31 9 1 1 8 7 6 1 10 2 2 13 31 31 65 40 20 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. I 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 Furni prod and Shoes. Cord Cotton 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 2 4 3 3 2 1 3 3 2 3 3 1 1 i 1 2 1 6 8 3 'T 5 1 2 2 2 1 1 3 1 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 1 3 2 1 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 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. 2 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 2 1 1 2 3 6 2 2 1 2 2 10 1 2 5 1 2 1 2 3 6 13 19 7 4 9 5 3 6 2 1 4 7 7 11 29 *13.75 10 45 ou C1) *10.85 $13.50 8 3 1 8 3 .... 10 1 2 1 1 1 (d 6 3 1 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 Shoes. Cord Cotton ture. prod ucts. pub and age lish Other. and woolen Cigars. ing. thread. goods. V 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 1 2 i 3 2 1 2 2 i 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 317 13 2| 1 1 3 3 1 2 1 2 1 1 i 1 7 3 4 1 2 5 3 1 1 2 3 . 2 2 3 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 3 2 2 ....... 1 i 1 5 8 2 1 1 1 1 1 8 8 7 1 19 170 19 1 28 13 3 18 105 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 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 under under under under under hours. hours. hours. 60 hours. 55 hours. hours. hours. 48 hours. 50 42 44 36 39 ed. hours. 33 52 54 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 1 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. 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 1 2 V 1 2 2 1 6 22 27 150 107 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: Textiles— Tobacco— 31601°—23----- 8 Foreign-born. 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 4,885 1 1 2 3 2 Per cent. 97.7 100.0 99.1 97.6 98.5 100.0 97.5 98.6 99.8 Number. Per cent. 2 2.3 2 19 3 .9 2.4 1.5 5 1 1 2.5 1.4 .2 99.2 100.0 98.1 3 .8 2 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 62 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. 18 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 2 .5 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 .4 18.3 4.9 18.0 15.0 26.3 8.0 10 59 11 12 1 94 30 43 66 40 21 15 5.7 5 1.9 Total........................................... 5,099 63 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 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. f 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 2 White. 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 66.7 101 30 16 3 3 39 352 236 171 307 113 134 597 3,040 .544 Negro. 33.3 13 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 Negro. 2 3 White. Negro. White. 100.0 100.0 19.4 8 14 40 174 36 11 37 7 64 28.1 15.6 15.7 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. 1 ■ 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 2 358 170 2 17 24 1 1 103 97 6 501 593 266 446 155 264 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 S. Piece. Rate of payDays worked. Female. Hour. $0. Regular weekly hours. Hours worked this period. Country of birth. Board. At home. Week. Day. * % Began work. £ month. W. D. Month. s Overtime Undertime hours. hours. M. N. R. Additions. t $ Earnings. This period. Computed for regular time. S $ Time at work. In this trade. Deduc tions. * 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. F 10. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR. * Women’s Bureau. T 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 V. . 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.