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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
WOMEN’S BUREAU
Bulletin No. 178
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS
IN NEBRASKA
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary
WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director
+
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS
IN NEBRASKA
Mi
Bulletin
of the
Women’s Bureau, No. 178
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1940
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.
Price 10 cents
r-
CONTENTS
Page
Letter of transmittal_________________
Introduction_________
____________
Manufacturing______________________
Week’s earnings__
Meat packing_______
__
Eggs, poultry, and creameries
Other industries__ __________
Hours of work________
____
Scheduled hours_________
Hours worked________ _____
Hourly earnings______
Retail stores_____________ ____ _______
Regular employees_____ _________
Week’s earnings. - ....
Scheduled hours of work
__
Hours worked___
Hourly earnings.. _________
Part-time workers ............
.
Hours worked... __
....
Week’s earnings___________
Hourly earnings___
...
Other store workers__
_______
Laundries and dry cleaners___
Week’s earnings_______________ _
Hours worked___ _ _____________
Hourly earnings
Institutional laundries___
__
Hotels and restaurants.
Week’s earnings__
__ ________
Tips____________________________
Hours of work_________ _ _____
Beauty parlors__________________ ____
Hours of work_____
___________
Week’s earnings__________________
Wage supplements_______________
Uniforms________________________
Office employment____ _____________
Week’s earnings__________________
Hours worked...
Hourly earnings__________
Year’s earnings of women in 1937_____
Year’s earnings of all women..___
Time worked and year’s earnings..
Year’s earnings and locality______
v
1
2
4
6
C6
8
9
9
11
14
15
15
18
18
19
20
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
26
27
28
29
33
34
36
37
37
38
38
40
41
45
46
47
51
TABLES
MANUFACTURING
1. Number of manufacturing firms visited and number of men and women
they employed, by industry—the State and Omaha________________
2. Week’s earnings of women in manufacturing, by industry_____________
3. Week’s earnings and hours worked, women in manufacturing, bv
industry______________________________________________________ ____
4. Hours worked by women in manufacturing, by industry______ _ ___
5. Hourly earnings of women in manufacturing, by industry______ _____
in
2
5
7
10
12
IV
CONTENTS
RETAIL STORES
Page
1. Number of retail stores visited and number of men and women they
employed_________________________________________________________
2. Week’s earnings of women regular employees in retail stores__________
3. Week’s earnings and hours worked, women regular employees in retail
stores
17
4. Hours worked by women regular employees in retail stores___________
5. Hourly earnings of women regular employees in retail stores__________
6. Hours worked in the week by women part-time workers in retail stores.
7. Week’s earnings of women part-time workers in retail stores___________
8. Hourly earnings of women part-time workers in retail stores__________
14
16
18
19
21
21
22
LAUNDRIES AND DRY CLEANERS
1. Number of laundries and dry cleaners visited, and number of men and
women they employed ___________________________________________
2. Week’s earnings of women in laundries and dry cleaners, by locality. _
3. Week’s earnings and hours worked, women in laundries and dry cleaners.
4. Hourly earnings of women in laundries and dry cleaners______________
24
25
26
27
HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
1. Number of hotels and restaurants visited and number of men and
women they employed __________________________________________
2. Week’s earnings of women in hotels and restaurants, by whether or not
given wage supplements
31
3. Week’s cash earnings of women receiving tips and of those not receiving
tips in hotel and restaurant dining rooms ________________________
4. Hours of work and spread of hours of women in hotels and restaurants.
29
33
35
BEAUTY PARLORS
1. Number of beauty parlors visited and number of men and women they
employed
36
2. Week’s earnings of women in beauty parlors
38
OFFICE EMPLOYMENT
1.
2.
3.
4.
Number of offices visited and number of womenthey employed________
Week’s earnings of women in office employment_1” _ _ _______________
Hours worked by women in office employment _ ___________________
Hourly earnings of wromen in office employment______________________
40
43
43
44
YEAR’S EARNINGS OF WOMEN IN 1937
1. Number of establishments supplying records for the year 1937 and num
ber of women with earnings and with weeks worked reported, by
industry
45
2. Year’s earnings of women in 1937, by industry_______________________
3. Number of weeks women worked in 1937, by industry________________
4. Weeks worked by women who had earnings in 1937 of less than $600
and $600 and over, by industry
50
47
48
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
United States Department of Labor,
Women’s Bureau,
Washington, June 11, 194-0.
I have the honor to transmit the report of a survey by the
Women s Bureau of woman-employing industries in Nebraska, made
at the request of the State Commissioner of Labor and the Nebraska
League of Women Voters. A preliminary report was sent to the
State some months ago. The data are to be used in setting up,
riSS1^1 eg1 si a ti °7i, standards for the employment of women.
The held work was conducted by Carrie W. Graves and Louise
boeste. the report has been written by Arthur T. Sutherland
Respectfully submitted.
TT
„
_
Mary Anderson, Director.
Madam:
tion. b rances Perkins,
Secretary of Labor.
v
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS IN
NEBRASKA
INTRODUCTION
At the request of the State Commissioner of Labor and the League of
Women, V oters of the State, a survey of the wages and hours of women
employed in the service, trade, and manufacturing industries of Ne
braska was made by the Women’s Bureau of the United States De
partment of Labor in 1938. Agents of the Bureau conducted the
field work m October, November, and December, and obtained data in
retail stores, laundries, dry cleaners, beauty shops, hotels, restaurants,
insurance and wholesale distributing offices, and the manufacturing
industries that were found to employ women. Though the survey
did not include every establishment in which women were employed,
it did include a large cross section of them, and the report is represen
tative of women’s employment in the State. Separate tabulations
have been prepared for each of the industry groups.
Nebraska is largely an agricultural State and nearly two-fifths of
the 507,000 gainfully occupied persons reported by the United States
Census of 1930 are engaged in agriculture. There is little concentra
tion of population, only two cities having a population of more than
20,000, and only six a population of 10,000 to 20,000. Omaha, the
largest city, has 214,006, or 16 percent of the State’s population, and
Lincoln, the second largest city, has 75,933, or 6 percent of the total.
The 35 cities with a population of 2,500 or more (including Omaha
and Lincoln) represent only 35 percent of the total for the State.
The most important occupations of women—exclusive of household
service and public service, which are omitted from the current study—
are clerical work, retail trade, and public housekeeping. Women
employed in the offices of the factories, stores, laundries, hotels, and
restaurants visited are tabulated with those in insurance, wholesale
distributing, and railroad-company offices, and the classification
“office workers” represents the clerical occupations and is considered
as a separate industry in this report.
The information collected by the field investigators includes the
following: The total number of employees in each establishment; the
number of learners and the policy in regard to their employment;
the earnings of all women employed in 1937, for few or many weeks,
by the firms that had such data; and a record of each woman’s earn
ings and the number of hours worked in a pay period regarded by the
management as representative of normal operation in the latter part
of 1938. The information concerning the women’s earnings and hours
worked constitutes the major part of the study. When both week’s
earnings and the hours worked were reported, the earnings have been
reduced to an hourly basis by dividing the total earnings of each
employee by the number of hours worked in the period.
l
MANUFACTURING
Comparatively few women are employed in the manufacturing
establishments of Nebraska, and more than two-fifths of the total are
centered in Omaha. An attempt was made by the field investigators
to visit every factory that was reported to employ a substantial
number of women, and data were obtained in factories in Columbus,
Crete, Fremont, Hastings, and Grand Island in addition to the larger
cities, Lincoln and Omaha.
According to the Census of Manufactures for 1935 there were 1,154
establishments, employing 20,052 workers, in the State. These figures
include all industries, and many, such as flour and other grain-mill
products and planing-mill products, employ few or no women, so the
proportion that would come within the scope of the Women’s Bureau
survey is much less. On the basis of number of employees, the most
important industries reported by the census were meat packing (4,896)
and poultry dressing and packing (465); bakeries (1,673); printing
and publishing, newspaper and periodical (1,238) and book, music,
and job (672); butter (799); and flour and other grain-mill products
(663).
Table 1.—Number
of manufacturing firms visited and number of men and women
they employed, by industry—the State and Omaha
Omaha
State
Number of employees
Number of employees
Industry
Total
Meat packing
Eggs, poultry, creameries
Bakeries____
________
Crackers and biscuits
Men’s clothing 4_____ _____
Paper products
Miscellaneous {......... ................
Num
ber
of
estab
lish Total
ments
Num
ber
of
estab
lish Total
ments
Women
Men
Num
ber
Per
cent
of
total
Women
Men
Num
ber
Per
cent
of
total
i 47
7,848
5,740
2,108
26.9
i 36
7,383
5,489
1,894
25.7
5
7
6
3
5
7
4
11
4, 794
628
496
255
508
271
300
596
4.080
2 284
355
138
375
30
178
300
714
344
141
117
133
241
122
296
14.9
(!)
28.4
45.9
26.2
88.9
40.7
49.7
5
3
4
3
2
7
4
9
4,794
460
435
255
315
271
300
553
4,080
239
311
138
233
30
178
280
714
221
124
117
82
241
122
273
14.9
48.0
28.5
45.9
26.0
88.9
40.7
49.4
1 Details aggregate more than total, as one firm reports in two industries.
2 Men in three plants not reported.
3 Includes firms making macaroni and cereals and packaged flour, and a wholesale grocer and coffee-packmg uixu.
<
_
* Includes firms making neckwear, cotton clothing, caps, dress shirts, and academic costumes,
s Includes printing and publishing, drug manufacturing, drug wholesaling, camping goods, bags, and
brushes.
The Women’s Bureau survey covered 47 establishments and, with
the exception of 3 plants that did not report the number of men, these
employed a total of 7,848 workers—5,740 men and 2,108 women.
Over three-fifths of the workers were employed in the meat-packing
plants, and from 3 to 8 percent each were in other industry groups.
Only in the men’s-clothing factories were more women than men
2
3
MANUFACTURING
employed; in this case nearly nine-tenths of the workers were women.
In meat packing, the largest of the industries included, women com
prised only one-seventh of the workers, but this group of women in
meat packing formed one-third of all women reported. In the other
industries from about one-fourth to one-half of the workers were
women.
Of the total number of women reported, the largest group (34 per
cent) were in meat packing, followed by 16 percent in egg, poultry,
and creamery plants, 14 percent in the miscellaneous group, and 11
percent in men’s-clothing factories. Each of the other classes—
bakeries, cracker and biscuit plants, other food products, and paper
products—employed approximately 6 percent of the women.
Thirty-six of the 47 plants (including all meat packing, crackers
and biscuits, men’s clothing, and paper products) were in Omaha.
Over nine-tenths (94 percent) of all workers were employed in these
plants.
The number of employees in the various factories differed con
siderably, the plants ranging in size from fewer than 10 to 1,545
workers. All but 1 of the meat-packing plants were larger than those
of any other industry; 3 of them employed over 1,200 workers each
and 1 had just over 500. No other plant had so many as 300 em
ployees, though 1 egg, poultry, and creamery plant and 1 in “other
food” had over 200 but under 225. Two plants, a men’s-clothing
factory and 1 in the miscellaneous group, employed over 150 workers,
and 10 plants, including 2 egg, poultry, and creamery plants, 2 baker
ies, 2 cracker and biscuit factories, 1 cereal plant, 2 paper products
plants, and 1 in miscellaneous, each had 100 but fewer than 150
workers. Fifteen establishments, 2 egg, poultry, and creamery, 1
bakery, 5 men’s clothing, 1 paper products, and 6 miscellaneous, had
less than 30 workers.
To show the scope of the survey, men employees and women in
office work are included in table 1. In the analysis of wage and hour
data, however, men are excluded, as the survey was confined to
women's employment conditions. Because of the differences between
the wages and hours of office women and those of factory operatives,
the 388 women in office work are considered in another section of the
report; also, 21 saleswomen employed in 3 bakeries and a miscellaneous
manufacturing plant have been transferred to the section of the
report that deals with retail stores. Consequently, the number of
women with earnings and hours reported, and shown in the following
summary, is somewhat less than the figures given in table 1.
N umber of women with earn Number of women with hours
ings reported
worked reported
Industry
State
Total
Eggs, poultry, creameries. _.
Bakeries
__________
Other food________ _____ _____ ___ _____
Men’s clothing...________ _____________
Miscellaneous
248344°—40----- 2
Omaha
1,695
1,524
554
286
95
93
94
228
88
257
554
179
82
93
58
228
88
242
Other
places
171
107
13
36
15
State
Omaha
1,460
1,377
554
135
92
93
92
193
85
216
554
100
80
93
58
193
85
214
Other
places
83
35
12
34
4
WOMEN'S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
The great majority of women with records reported, nine-tenths,
were employed in Omaha; by industry the proportion in Omaha varied
from 62 percent in “other food” and 63 percent in eggs, poultry, and
creameries, to 86 percent in bakeries, 94 percent in miscellaneous
manufacturing, and 100 percent in meat packing, crackers and bis
cuits, men’s clothing, and paper products. Because of this heavy
concentration in Omaha, tabulations of the data have been prepared
to show that city separately.
The wages and hours reported in the survey were for a pay period
in October 1938, or one as near that time as possible. In only eight
plants were the records for a period in a month other than October; in
one plant the period was in July, in six it was in September, and in
one it was in November. In each case where a pay period was longer
than a week the earnings and hours have been reduced to a weekly
basis in order to show comparable data.
There was no agreement among the firms in regard to policies of
employing learners, and both the learners’ rate and the learning period
varied widely. Concerning the beginning rate of pay, 13 firms either
stated that they employed no learners at the time of interview or did
not report a definite policy; 6 reported that beginners were paid
regular piece rates; and 28 reported a definite rate. Of the group last
named, 20 reported hourly rates for beginners, and these ranged from
15 cents to 49 cents; in 6 the rate was 27K cents or less, and in 9 it was
from 30 to 40 cents. Weekly rates, reported by 5 firms, varied from
$7 to $17; in 3 of these the rate was $10 to $12. One other reported
a beginning rate of $40 a month, and 2 reported $52 a month. The
highest rates for learners were in meat packing, bakeries, and crackers
and biscuits.
In regard to the length of the learning period, 14 firms reporting
had no definite policy and 7 did not employ learners. Of the 24
firms that reported a definite time, the length of the period was
1 week in 1, 2 to 4 weeks in 9, 4 to 8 weeks in 11, 1 to 2 months in 2,
and 3 months in 1.
Though the majority of the firms reported on a policy concerning
learners, only 7 plants (3 meat packing, 1 men’s clothing, 1 “other
food,” and 2 of the miscellaneous group) actually employed learners
at the time of the survey. These reported a total of 20 learners,
15 of whom were in Omaha. Of the group in Omaha, 3 worked
3 hours and were paid $1.40, and 7 worked 30 to 40 hours and earned
from $6.60 to $18.60, 4 of them, in meat-packing plants, earning
$13.50 or more. The other 5 in Omaha worked over 40 to 48 hours
and had earnings ranging from $7 to $17. Four of the 5 in other
places worked over 51 hours and had earnings of $7 and under $8,
and 1 worked 35 hours and earned $5.25. As the learners formed
such a small proportion of the total group they are included in the
following analysis.
WEEK’S EARNINGS
1
The actual week’s earnings were reported for 1,695 women opera
tives, including the learners, in the 47 firms. The average week’s
earnings, regardless of the number of hours worked, amounted to
$14.90, half the women earning more and half earning less than this
1 For year’s earnings see separate section of report, pp. 15 to 51.
Table 2.— Week’s earnings of women in manufacturing, by industry
Percent of women who earned—
age
ber of week’s
women earn Under
ings 12 3
$4
Industry 1
Total
.
Miscellaneous _
Omaha-
_
...
_____ _
__
____ _
___
$14. 90
3.6
554
286
95
93
94
228
88
257
19. 30
8. 20
15.10
13. 45
14. 00
12.20
14. 50
13.00
2.0
13.3
2.1
1.1
3.2
2. 2
1.1
1, 524
171
15. 55
10. 30
3.5
4. 1
$6,
under
$8
$8,
under
$10
$10,
under
$12
$12,
under
$14
$14,
under
$16
3.8
6.3
6.0
9.9
15.0
13.6
10.3
14.8
6.8
4.8
5. 2
42.0
1.1
6.6
11. 6
31. 2
30. 9
29.4
12. 5
31.9
7.6
5.6
3 54.8
12.9
18.1
8.8
33.0
15.9
13. 0
2. 4
12. 6
8. 6
7. 5
9. 2
21.6
11.2
11. 4
11.8
6. 5
17. 0
1.8
3. 4
7.8
2.1
3. 2
2.1
3. 1
3.4
4.3
2.1
1.2
1.1
20.3
3. 2
6.4
7. 4
11.0
20. 5
17.5
15. 9
1. 2
0. 2
15.0
5.3
11.9
1.1
11.8
2.3
4.2
35. 9
1.0
2. 2
4.4
0. 2
18. 5
3. 2
4.3
5.3
16. 2
.9
1. 1
3.1
2.1
8.6
5.3
1. 3
1. 1
1.6
87.9
3.4
19.0
32.3
31.9
16.2
30.6
28.0
2.3
17. 5
5.0
17. 5
5.7
8. 2
8.3
24. 0
14. 5
19. 9
14. 4
5. 8
11.3
2. 4
16. 4
.6
7.6
5.3
5.8
17.1
1.1
1 All in meat packing, crackers and biscuits, men’s clothing, and paper products were in Omaha.
2 The median or midpoint—half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
3 34 percent earned $15 and under $16.
$16,
under
$18
$18,
under
$20
$20,
under
$22
$22,
under
$24
$24 and
over
$16 and
over
46.4
2.9
MANUFACTURING
Men’s clothiner___ __________________________ _
1,695
$4,
under
$6
6
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
figure. The average for the 1,524 women in Omaha was $15.55, or
65 cents more than the general average and $5.25 more than the
average for the small group (171) in other places.
The range in earnings was very wide, from less than $1 to $35 and
under $40. There was considerable concentration at $12 and under
$20, with 54 percent of the women in these wage classes. One-fifth
of the women had earnings of less than $10. When hours and earn
ings were correlated it was found that of 830 women who worked
40 hours or more in the week, 7 percent earned less than $10, 40
percent earned $10 and under $15, and 23 percent earned $20 or
more. Of the 764 women in this group who were employed in Omaha,
only 15 percent had earnings of less than $12 and as many as 24
percent earned at least $20. Of the 66 women in other places, 36
percent were paid less than $12 and none earned so much as $20.
The percent distribution of the women according to their week’s
earnings, and the average for the group, are given by industry in
table 2.
Meat packing.
The wage standards in meat packing were considerably higher than
those found in any other industry. The average week’s earnings of
women in meat packing were $19.30, and less than 5 percent of the
group were paid below $14. The largest group in any $2 interval
was the 36 percent with earnings of $18 and under $20. As many as
39 percent were paid $20 or more.
Hours worked were reported for all women in this industry, so it
was possible to correlate earnings and hours for all. Seven-tenths of
the women (397) had a workweek of less than 40 hours. Only 5 per
cent of this group had earnings below $12; 12 percent earned $12 and
under $16; and as many as 23 percent earned $20 or more. Of the
group of 157 who worked 40 hours or more, only 2 earned so little as
$17 and under $18, and only one-fifth earned less than $20. Nearly
three-tenths earned as much as $25.
Eggs, poultry, and creameries.
This industry, employing the second largest number of women, had
a very low wage scale. The average week’s earnings of women were
only $8.20, and as many as 64 percent of the women earned less than
$10; in fact, 30 percent earned less than $6. Only 9 percent were
paid as much as $14 and none had earnings so high as $20.
Hours worked were reported for less than half (135) the women.
The low earnings of women in the industry probably are due in part
to the fact that a smaller proportion than in any other industry but
meat packing worked as much as 40 hours, but this does not explain
why two-fifths of those who did work 40 or more hours earned less
than $12. The week’s earnings of the women for whom hours worked
were not reported were considerably lower than the earnings of those
whose hours were obtainable. The number of women with hours not
reported (151) comprised 53 percent of the total for the industry. Of
the 151 women, 30 percent earned less than $5, 60 percent earned $5
and under $10, and only about 10 percent had earnings of $10 or more.
Other industries.
The remaining industry groups are in an intermediate position,
with average week’s earnings varying from $12.20 in men’s clothing,
Table 3.—Week’s earnings and hours worked, women in manufacturing, by industry
Industry
Women who worked less than 40 hours
Number
of women
with
Percent who earned—
hours
worked Number
reported
Under
Under
Under
Under
$8
$12
$16
$20
Women who worked 40 hours or more
Percent who earned—
Number
Under
$10
1,460
630
10.8
28.6
45.9
85.6
830
554
135
92
93
92
193
85
216
397
76
i 28
i 36
i 15
i 25
i 28
i 25
3.0
30.3
4.8
97.4
16.9
100.0
77.3
157
59
64
57
77
168
57
191
i Earnings groups not computed; base too small.
7.0
6.3
5.2
24.4
4.7
16.6
39.0
7.8
6.5
36.9
28. 1
14.1
Under
$14
40.0
64.4
12.5
28.1
41.6
72.0
42.1
48.7
Under
$16
Under
$18
Under
$20
57.2
68.6
77.5
88.1
76.6
47. 4
62.3
79.8
66. 7
66.5
1.3
96.6
93.7
61.4
71.4
92.3
91.2
80.1
19.7
100.0
93.7
71.9
90.9
94.0
93.0
89.5
MANUFACTURING
Total_____________
Meat packing ________
Eggs, poultry, creameries.
Bakeries_______________
Crackers and biscuits___
Other food_____________
Men’s clothing_________
Paper products _ _
___
Miscellaneous__________
Under
$12
•<1
8
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
and $13 to $14 in miscellaneous manufacturing, crackers and biscuits,
and other food products, to $14.50 in paper products and $15.10 in
bakeries. However, there were important variations in the distri
bution by earnings. The largest groups in bakeries (55 percent)
and in paper products (33 percent) had earnings of $14 and under
$16, and as many as 19 percent and 31 percent, respectively, had
earnings of $16 or more. The proportions with earnings in the lowerwage intervals, less than $10, were 12 percent in bakeries and 3 per
cent in paper products.
In men’s clothing, crackers and biscuits, other food products, and
miscellaneous manufacturing the heaviest concentration was at $12
and under $14; from 29 to 32 percent were paid such amounts, but
substantial proportions, varying from 16 percent in men’s clothing
to 32 percent in crackers and biscuits and in other food, had earnings
of $16 or more. From 7 percent to 17 percent in miscellaneous
manufacturing, other food, and crackers and biscuits, but as large a
group as 35 percent in men’s clothing, had earnings below $10.
In these industries the proportions of women working a full week
of 40 hours or more who earned as much as $16 varied from 20 percent
in men’s clothing to 53 percent in cracker-and-biscuit plants. In
crackers and biscuits nearly three-tenths (28 percent) of those who.
worked 40 hours or more had earnings of at least $20, but in the
other industries only from 6 to 10 percent had such high earnings.
None of the women who worked as long as 40 hours in cracker-andbiscuit plants earned less than $12, but from 7 percent in other food
plants and 8 percent in bakeries to 28 percent in paper products and
37 percent in men’s clothing earned less than $12. In fact, practi
cally one-fourth of the women in men’s clothing who worked 40
hours or longer were paid less than $10.
HOURS OF WORK
The State of Nebraska was relatively early in enacting legislation
concerning the maximum number of hours that women should be
allowed to work, but has made little progress in more recent years.
The first law, enacted in 1899, established maximum hours for women
of 10 a day and 60 a week. The legal limit was reduced to 9 hours a
day and 54 a week in 1913, and though this law has remained in effect
ever since, some recent amendments and a court decision have re
duced, in a large measure, the coverage of the law. Cities of less than
5,000 were exempted from the provisions of the law in 1915, and in
1931 the hours in which women were allowed to work were changed
from between 6 in the morning and 10 at night to between 6 in the
morning and 12:30 at night. The scope of the law was restricted
further by a court decision which declared that certain occupations
were not covered by the law.
That the present law is not adequate is shown by the following
statements contained in a bulletin issued by the Nebraska Workmen’s
Compensation Court:
As the law now stands, it applies only to cities of more than 5,000 population.
* * * if it is harmful for a woman to work long hours at a certain occupation
in a city, it is just as harmful for her to work the same hours at the same occu
pation in a small place.
MANUFACTURING
9
• The Nebraska law is limited not only to cities of over 5,000 population, but
also to certain types of employment. The law applies to manufacturing, me
chanical, or mercantile establishments, laundries, hotels, restaurants, offices, and
public service corporations. This enumeration would seem sufficiently inclusive
if it were broadly construed by the courts. However, the only case involving the
scope of the law points in the opposite direction. In that case the State Supreme
Court held that women employed in the mailing room of a newspaper plant were
not employed in a manufacturing or mechanical establishment. The court held
that “a newspaper is the product of intellectual effort, not mechanical skill.”
The Nebraska law needs amending in two essential respects. It should apply to
all working women regardless of the size of the city, and to all occupations in
which real abuses exist-2
Among the various State laws, that of Nebraska does not occupy
a favorable position in the limiting of women’s hours of work. Twentyone States and the District of Columbia limit weekly hours in certain
manufacturing industries to 48 or less; 11 States, including Nebraska,
permit a workweek of 54 hours; and 13 States permit a workweek
of more than 54 hours or have not limited weekly hours in factories.
Scheduled hours.
In actual practice the scheduled hours, or the number of hours that
employees are expected to work, are much below the maximum per
mitted by the law, and no plant visited reported a regular schedule
so long as 9 hours a day or 54 a week. The most unfavorable situa
tion in regard to scheduled hours was in the seven egg, poultry, and
creamery plants and the three bakeries, which reported that they
were operating on irregular schedules with hours varying from day to
day and week to week.
A definite work schedule was reported by 37 plants employing
1,360 women, and the vast majority of these, 32 plants with 87 per
cent of the workers, had an 8-hour daily schedule; 11 percent of the
workers had a day of 7 and under 8 hours; and the remaining small
percent had one of over 8 but under 9 hours.
There was more variation in scheduled weekly hours, which ranged
from 40 to 50 inclusive, but the largest proportion, 14 plants with
68 percent of the 1,360 women, were on a 40-hour schedule. Only
4 “other food” plants, 1 plant in miscellaneous manufacturing, and
1 paper-products plant, together employing only 6 percent of the
women, had a weekly schedule of more than 45 hours.
The most favorable hour standards were found in meat packing;
4 of the 5 plants, employing about 97 percent of the women in this
industry, were on a schedule of 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week,
and the fifth plant was on a 6-day 42-hour schedule. In addition,
4 of the plants guaranteed workers at least 32 hours of work if called
in early in the week, and the other guaranteed a full week’s pay unless
the employee was absent for personal reasons.
Hours worked.
Due to time lost through personal reasons or slack periods of busi
ness, or to overtime resulting from busy periods, it is most unusual for
all employees in a plant to work the scheduled hours. On the pay
rolls covered, the hours worked were recorded for 1,460 women in 37
plants, or for 86 percent of the women whose week’s earnings were
reported. They were recorded for all the women in meat-packing
and cracker-and-biscuit plants and for all but 2 or 3 in bakeries, other
3 Nebraska Workmen’s Compensation Court. Bull. No. 4. The Administration of Nebraska’s Labor
Laws, by E. Glenn Callen, 1937, p. 9.
WOMEN'S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
10
food plants, and paper-products plants. In miscellaneous manu
facturing and men’s-clothing plants, hours worked were reported for
about 84 percent of the women, but in egg, poultry, and creamery
plants the proportion was only 47 percent.
Though no plant reported a work schedule of less than 40 hours,
the time actually worked was less than 40 hours for two-fifths (43
percent) of the women, nearly one-tenth working less than 32 hours;
one-fourth (25 percent) worked 40 hours even; and nearly as many
(22 percent) worked 44 hours and over.
Table 4.—Hours worked by women in manufacturing, by industry
Percent of women who worked—
Number
of women
with
Under
hours
32
worked
reported hours
32,
under
40
hours
40
hours
1,460
8.9
34.2
24.6
Meat packing-. ------- -
Eggs, poultry, creameries.
Bakeries- -------------------Crackers and biscuits----Other food-------------------Men’s clothing-------------Paper products-------------Miscellaneous
654
135
92
93
92
193
85
216
9.7
23.0
7.6
17.2
6.5
4.7
3.5
1.9
61.9
33.3
22.8
21.5
9.8
8.3
29.4
9.7
Omaha_____ ________ Other places--- -
h377
83
9.0
7.2
35.5
13.3
Industry 1
Total
40
hours
and
over
Over
44,
40,
under
under
48
44 hours hours
48,
under
54
hours
54
hours
and
over
10.4
11.1
10.1
0.6
8.1
6.7
2.2
1.1
6.5
70.5
23.5
64.8
6.0
16.3
57.6
17.2
4.3
2.1
11.8
4.6
5.7
6.7
8.6
21.5
18.5
14.6
12.9
17.2
8.5
14.1
1.1
21.5
53.3
1.1
10.6
1.4
8.3
.5
28.3
43.8
69.5
61.4
83.7
87.2
67.1
88.5
25.6
7.2
9.8
20.6
11.3
8.4
8.3
42.1
.6
1.2
55.6
79.4
56.8
i All in meat packing, crackers and biscuits, men’s clothing, and paper products were in Omaha.
It is apparent from table 4 that the shortest hours of work were in
meat-packing plants, where over six-tenths (62 percent) of the women
worked 32 and under 40 hours, and only one-seventh worked as long
as 44 hours. Women in men’s clothing and in the miscellaneous
group also had a favorable workweek, as the large majority, 71 percent
in the former and 65 percent in the latter, worked 40 hours even.
Over half (53 percent) of the women in paper products worked 32 to
40 hours, but nearly one-fifth worked 48 hours or more.
A relatively long workweek was found in other food plants, where 54
percent of the women worked 48 hours or longer and 23 percent
worked over 40 and under 48 hours. The large majority in bakeries,
58 percent, worked over 40 and under 44 hours, but as many as 30
percent worked less than 40 hours.
The unfavorable situation of large groups of women working less
than a full week and others working an over-long week was found in
cracker-and-biscuit factories and in egg, poultry, and creamery plants.
Nearly two-fifths of the women in cracker-and-biscuit plants worked
less than 40 hours, though none had a scheduled week shorter than 44
hours; but over two-fifths (43 percent) worked 44 hours or more, half
of these working at least 48. Short time was more prevalent in the
egg, poultry, and creamery plants, as 23 percent worked less than 32
hours and 33 percent worked 32 and under 40 hours; but even with
this large proportion working less than 40 hours, as many as 21 percent
worked 44 hours or longer. All these plants reported an irregular
schedule.
MANUFACTURING
11
HOURLY EARNINGS
Hourly earnings were computed for the . 1,460 women for whom
hours worked were reported; 1,377 of the women were in Omaha.
The average earnings of the whole group were 39 cents, but the range
was very wide, from 9 cents to over 80 cents. Because of the various
wage standards that existed in the industries, there was very little
concentration at any point when all women were considered as a
group. The largest proportion in any 5-cent interval was the 21
percent with earnings of 45 and under 50 cents (the great majority
at 49 cents), though almost as large a group, 20 percent, had earnings
of 30 and under 35 cents. Only a small group, 6 percent, had earnings
below 25 cents; at the other extreme of the wage scale, with hourly
earnings of 50 cents or more, the proportion was much larger, 21
percent.
Hourly earnings were very much higher in Omaha than in other
places. The Omaha average of 40.9 cents was half as large again as
the average in other cities (27.4 cents). None of the women in other
cities, but as many as 45 percent in Omaha, earned 45 cents or more.
Almost two-thirds (65 percent) in other cities had earnings of 25 and
under 30 cents, and 13 percent earned less than 25 cents. In Omaha
only 6 percent had earnings below 25 cents.
The variation in wage standards in the different industries is even
more pronounced in the case of hourly earnings than of week’s earnings.
In table 5 the superior standards in meat packing are striking. The
average hourly earnings of women in meat-packing plants were 49.9
cents, or 12.3 cents above the second highest average, in bakeries, and
22 cents above the lowest average, in egg, poultry, and creamery plants.
When meat packing is eliminated from the total of all industries the
average hourly earnings decline from 39 cents to 30.9 cents. Prac
tically half the women in meat packing had earnings of 45 and under
50 cents (40 percent earned 49 cents), and only 3 percent were paid
less than 45 cents, none below 35. Twelve percent had earnings as
high as 60 cents.
There was a heavy concentration of earnings in egg, poultry, and
creamery plants, where average earnings were lowest, as the entire
group of women had earnings in the range of 25 cents to 41 cents;
93 percent earned 25 and under 35 cents.
In the other industry groups average hourly earnings varied from
30.3 cents to 37.6 cents, being 34.5 cents or more in other food, paper
products, and bakeries. The concentration of earnings was very
pronounced in bakeries and in cracker-and-biscuit plants. Seventy
percent of the women in bakeries earned 35 and under 40 cents, and
almost equal numbers had earnings of at least 40 cents and below 35
cents. In cracker-and-biscuit plants 62 percent of the women earned
30 and under 35 cents and the remainder earned 35 cents or more;
only 3 percent earned as much as 50 cents.
There was less concentration of earnings in the four other industry
groups. The largest proportion in any 5-cent interval in paper products
was 28 percent with earnings of 35 and under 40 cents, but 32 percent
had earnings below 30 cents. In miscellaneous manufacturing and in
men’s clothing the largest groups of women, 38 percent and 34 percent,
respectively, had earnings of 30 and under 35 cents. Nearly threetenths (29 percent) in men’s clothing were paid less than 25 cents an
248344°—40----- 3
Table 5.—Hourly earnings of women in manufacturing, by industry
Percent of women who earned—
Number Average
hourly
of
earnings 12 3Under
* * 6 7 20
8 20. under 25, under 30, under 35, under 40, under 45, under 50, under 55, under 60 cents
women
(cents)
25 cents 30 cents 35 cents 40 cents 45 cents 50 cents 55 cents HO cents and over
cents
Industry 1
Miscellaneous
- .
Omaha... .. . __________ ______
...
1,460
39.0
554
135
92
93
92
193
85
216
49.9
27.9
37.6
33.7
34.5
30.3
36.4
32.8
1,377
83
40.9
27.4
2.9
3.2
4.3
17.1
2.3
2.8
6.0
2.2
11.4
11.8
3.7
Z9~
7.2
13.6
7.2
3 21. 0
11.2
4.9
5.2
49.5
24.7
11.4
12.3
27.2
13.5
20.0
8.8
0.5
5.2
• 69. 6
16.1
27.2
10.9
28.2
18.1
» 49.1
8 40. 7
2.2
8 62.4
16.3
34. 2
10.6
«38.0
2.0
2.2
10.9
11.8
10.9
7.8
20.0
13.0
3.3
6.5
3.3
2.1
3.5
6.9
2.2
1.1
6.5
1.6
3.5
5.1
1.1
1.1
.5
1.2
2.3
1.0
1.2
1.9
99.5
2.2
16.4
21.6
21.8
13.0
y29. 1
29.2
8.0
65.1
20.1
12.0
13.9
8.4
7.6
1.2
22.2
11. 8
5.2
5.5
11.2
» 51.9
7.6
19.7
1 All in meat packing, crackers and biscuits, men’s clothing, and paper products were in Omaha.
2 The median or midpoint—half the women earning less, half earning more, than the figure shown.
315 percent earned 49 cents.
* 40 percent earned 49 cents.
6 30 percent earned 27 K’ cents and 22 percent earned 25 cents.
6 36 percent earned 30 cents.
7 63 percent earned 37 cents.
3 33 percent earned 33 cents and 22 percent earned 30 cents.
8 32 percent earned 30 cents.
10 37 percent earned 27}(> cents.
.
1.1
52.3
1.2
W OM EN ’S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
Total------- --------------- ---------------
40 cents
and over
MANUFACTURING
13
hour. A considerable number in “other food” also had low hourly
wages, 35 percent of the women earning below 30 cents.
The w'ide differences in wage levels are emphasized further by a
comparison of the proportions of women who were paid 40 cents or
more. Only 2 percent in egg, poultry, and creamery plants, 13 per
cent in men’s clothing, 16 percent in bakeries, and from 20 to 30 per
cent in cracker-and-biscuit plants, other food, miscellaneous manu
facturing, and paper products, earned as much as 40 cents an hour.
In meat packing, however, only 3 of the 554 women earned less than
40 cents.
RETAIL STORES 1
The Women’s Bureau survey, made in the fall of 1938, included
women employed in retail trade, one of the major woman-employing
industries. Retail stores are extremely important, not only because
they employ large numbers of women but because they are in all
localities, regardless of size, and in places with no manufacturing es
tablishments they constitute one of the few fields of employment for
women.
Though there are many types of retail stores in Nebraska, the most
important in the employment of women are department stores,
limited-price or variety stores, women’s apparel or ready-to-wear
stores, and drug stores. This section of the report is based on data ob
tained in the first, three types mentioned, drug stores having been
classed with restaurants because the women in such establishments
were employed at the lunch counter.
According to the Census of Business for 1935, Nebraska had 58
department stores, with 4,541 employees, 149 limited-price or variety
stores, with 1,706 employees, and 192 women’s ready-to-wear stores,
with 920 employees. Twenty-seven percent of the workers in limitedprice stores, 43 percent of those in department stores, and 54 percent
of those in ready-to-wear stores were in Omaha.
In the Women’s Bureau survey wage and hour data were obtained
for a pay period in September or October 1938, in 66 stores with
3,387 employees. In several stores the employees were paid on a
monthly or semimonthly basis, but such records have been reduced
to a weekly basis. Of the total number of stores, 20 were department
stoi'es employing 686 men and 1,519 women, 19 were limited-price
stores with 109 men and 694 women, and 27 were ready-to-wear stores
with 56 men and 323 women. These figures show that the vast
majority of employees in these types of stores arc women.
Table 1 gives the number of establishments visited and the number
of men and women they employed.
Table 1.-—Number
of retail stores visited and number of men and women they
employed
Type of store
Total
Department
Limited-price
Ready-to-wear
Number
of estab
lish
ments
Number of
employees
Men
Other places
Omaha
State
Number
of estab
lish
Women ments
Number of
employees
Men
Number
of estab
lish
Women ments
Women
i 851
2,536
21
656
1,650
46
i 195
886
20
19
27
3 686
a 109
56
1, 519
694
323
4
8
9
551
57
48
1,007
407
236
16
11
18
3135
»62
8
512
287
87
i For year's earnings see separate section of report, pp. 45 to 61.
Men
66
1 1 department store and 1 limited-price store did not report number of men.
3 1 store did not report number of men.
14
Number of
employees
RETAIL STORES
15
More than two-thirds of the employees were in Omaha, the pro
portion varying, by type of store, from 58 percent in limited-price
stores to 71 percent in department stores and 75 percent in ready-towear stores. The other employees were in the following places, ar
ranged according to population: Lincoln, Grand Island, Hastings,
North Platte, Fremont, Kearney, Scottsbluff, Columbus, Cozad,
Ogallala, and Chappell.
In general the stores were small, particularly so in the case of readyto-wear stores. Twenty stores, 14 of them ready-to-wear, each em
ployed fewer than 10 workers, and 18, including 10 ready-to-wear,
had 10 but fewer than 30 employees. Four department stores (3
were in Omaha) employed as many as 200, the largest nearly 850, and
2 Omaha stores (a department store and a limited-price store) em
ployed 100 but less than 150. This indicates that the larger stores
were in Omaha; in fact, of 12 stores that employed 50 or more workers,
10 were in Omaha.
Pay-roll data were secured for 2,175 women, exclusive of office
workers. These were classified as regular workers (those working on
a, full-time schedule) and part-time or extra workers (those who work
during rush periods, on Saturdays, or as substitutes). In department
stores there were 1,046 regular and 237 part-time women, in limitedprice there were 355 regular and 261 part-time women, and in readyto-wear there were 215 regular and 61 part-time women. Because the
two groups have very different conditions, particularly in regard to
hours, separate tabulations have been prepared and the data for each
group will be considered separately. About two-thirds of the regular
and one-half of the part-time workers were in Omaha.
The most important occupation in retail stores is selling, and sales
women comprised from 74 percent of the regular force in ready-towear stores and 79 percent in department stores to over 99 percent
in limited-price stores. The other regular employees in ready-towear and department stores were in alteration work (19 percent in
ready-to-wear stores and 9 percent in department stores) or were
bundle and cash girls, wrappers, exchange clerks, elevator operators,
and so forth (7 percent in ready-to-wear stores and 12 percent in
department stores). More than nine-tenths of the part-time workers
were saleswomen.
REGULAR EMPLOYEES
Week’s earnings.
The average week’s earnings of regular women workers varied only
from a low of $13.85 in limited-price stores to $14.80 in department
stores and $14.90 in ready-to-wear stores. Saleswomen, the largest
of the occupational groups, had average earnings somewhat higher
than the others in department and ready-to-wear stores, but in limit
ed-price stores, where practically all were saleswomen, the average
was the same as for the total.
The week’s earnings of women, regardless of the number of hours
worked, are shown by type of store in table 2. The earnings of women
in Omaha were on a higher level than earnings in other places. The
average earnings of women in Omaha exceeded the average of those
in other places by 80 cents in department stores, by $1.70 in limitedprice stores, and by $2.80 in ready-to-wear stores. Lincoln also paid
16
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOUES IN NEBRASKA
more than average amounts. When Lincoln is omitted from the
group “other places,” the average for department stores drops from
$14.15 to $12.60 and the average for limited-price stores from $12.30
to $11.25.
The work of regular employees in retail stores usually is steady, so
the number who received earnings of less than $10 was not large.
Only about 5 percent in department and ready-to-wear stores were
paid so little. In limited-price stores the proportion was slightly
higher, 9 percent—6 percent in Omaha and 14 percent in other places.
Table 2.— Week’s earnings of women regular employees in retail stores
Type of store
Percent of women who earned—
Number Average
week's
of
$10,
$12,
$14,
$16,
$18,
$20
women earnings1 Under under under under under under and
$10
$12
$14
$16
$18
$20
over
1,046
$14.80
4.7
4.7
11.4
2 51.1
11.5
6.6
10.1
Omaha
Other places
722
324
14.95
14.15
4.0
6.2
2.6
9.3
2.2
31.8
3 60.4
30.2
12.9
8.3
7.1
5.6
10.8
8.6
Limited price—State
355
13.85
9.0
13.8
29.6
39.7
4.8
2.3
.8
Omaha
Other places
210
145
14.00
12.30
5.7
13.8
3.8
28.3
23.8
37.9
* 59.5
11.0
4.8
4.8
1.9
2.8
.5
1.4
Ready-to-wear—State
215
14.90
4.7
9.3
16.7
34.4
16.3
3.7
14.9
152
63
15.45
12.65
4.6
4.8
3.3
23.8
6.6
41.3
44.1
11.1
16.4
15.9
4.6
1.6
20.4
1.6
Department—State....... .............
Omaha
Other places..........................
1 The median or midpoint—half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
2 35.9 percent earned $14 and under $15.j|
3 43.6 percent earned $14 and under $15.
* 48.6 percent earned $14 and under $15.
The large majority of the women in department and ready-to-wear
stores in Omaha, 73 and 61 percent, respectively, had earnings of
$14 and under $18, and 11 and 20 percent, respectively, had earnings
as high as $20.
More than four-fifths (83 percent) of the women in Omaha limitedprice stores had earnings of $12 and under $16, but in other places
the heavy concentration occurred at $10 and under $14, two-thirds
of the women having such earnings. Less than 1 percent of the
women in limited-price stores were paid as much as $20.
Hours worked were reported for 1,568 women, or 97 percent of the
number for whom week’s earnings were reported; by type of store the
proportion with hours worked reported varied from 87 percent in
ready-to-wear stores to 98 percent in department stores and 100
percent in limited-price stores.
In department stores the largest group, 628 women, worked 40 and
under 44 hours and their average earnings were $15, or 20 cents above
the general average. The women who worked 44 hours or longer had
lower average earnings, these being $14.55 for the group who worked
44 and under 48 hours and only $13.20 for those who worked longer
than 48 hours. Of 634 women in Omaha who worked 40 hours or
more, 32 percent earned $16 or over, 67 percent earned $14 and under
$16; in contrast the proportions in other places who had such earn
ings were respectively 23 percent and 31 percent.
RETAIL STORES
17
Table 3.—Week’s earnings and hours worked, women regular employees in retail
stores
Women with
hours worked
reported
Number of women with earnings as specified
who worked—
Week’s earnings
Num
ber
Per
cent
Under 32, un- 40, un- I 44, un32
der 40 der 44 der 48
hours i hours hours ; hours
48
hours
Over
48
hours
DEPARTMENT STORES
Total......... ........
Percent distribution... .
Average earnings V. _
Under $10_______
$10, under $12___
$12, under $14_____ _
$14, under $16____
$16, under $18___
$18, under $20____
$20 and over............................
1,025
100.0
$14.80
48
49
119
525
119
65
100
100.0
34
3.3
40
3.9
4.7
32
4.8
1
11.6
1
51.2
11.6
6.3 ..............
9.8
3
18
9
3
3
1
3
628
61.3
$15.00
227
22.1
$14. 55
9
0.9
1
7
420
88
44
68
7
13
64
84
21
15
23
2
2
3
2
87
8.5
$13.20
5
15
36
15
5
5
6
LIMITED-PRICE STORES
Total.
____
Percent distribution______
Average earnings 1__
Under $10________
$10, under $12...........
$12, under $14________
$14, under $16 .
$16, under $18_________ _
$18, under $20___________
$20 and over...... ....................
355
100.0
$13.85
100.0
18
5.1
12
3.4
83
23.4
$13.80
110
31.0
$14.35
94
26.5
$13.90
32
49
105
141
17
8
3
9.0
13.8
29.6
39.7
4.8
2.3
.8
17
1
2
7
2
2
6
41
30
4
5
5
24
66
6
3
1
22
26
42
3
1
6
8
12
3
4
4
1
8
4.3
15
8.0
44
23.4
1
38
10.7
READY-TO-WEAR STORES
Total______ ______
Percent distribution ...
Average earnings 1 .
Under $10__________
$10, under $12_________
$12, under $14. .
$14, under $16____ _______
$16, under $18___________
$18, under $20 ..
$20 and over.__________
........ ....... -
188
100.0
$14.90
100.0
3
1.6
8
19
31
65
33
7
25
4.3
10.1
16. 5
34. 6
3
3.7
13.3
19
10.1
99
52.7
$15. 95
5
25
-
-------
■ l no mouiaii ui mmpoim.—nail l
computed where base less than 50.
In limited-price stores average earnings increased from $13.80 for
the women who worked 40 and under 44 hours to $14.35 for those
who worked 44 and under 48 hours, but they decreased to $13.90
for the group who worked 48 hours even. Nearly two-fifths of the
136 women in other places who worked 40 hours or longer, compared
with only 1 percent of the 189 women in Omaha with such hours,
were paid less than $12.
The average week’s earnings for the 99 women in ready-to-wear
stores who worked 40 and under 44 hours (all in Omaha) were $15.95,
$1.05 above the general average for all women with hours reported
and $3.25 more than the average of $12.70 for the 59 women (53 of
18
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
thorn in other places) who worked 48 hours or more. Only 30 per
cent of the 57 women in other places who worked 40 hours or longer
earned as much as $14, none so much as $19, but in Omaha 97 percent
of 109 women who worked 40 hours or more earned at least $14, 23
percent earning as much as $20.
Scheduled hours of work.
Scheduled weekly hours of work ranged from 42 to over 54, though
the large majority of women were on a schedule of over 42 and under
48 hours. The shortest schedules were in ready-to-wear stores, with
66 percent of the women on a schedule of 42 and under 48 hours, and
in department stores, where 69 percent of the women had a schedule
of over 42 and under 48 hours. Over two-thirds of the women in
limited-price stores were on a schedule of over 44 to 48 hours.
Weekly hours were much shorter in Omaha than in other places,
and all the department stores, 6 of the 9 ready-to-wear stores, and 3
of the 8 limited-price stores had a schedule of 42 to 44 hours. Five
limited-price stores worked 45 to 48 hours. However, 1 ready-towear store in Omaha had a schedule of over 54 hours.
In other places the most usual schedule of work was 48 or 49 hours;
10 department stores, 6 limited-price stores, and 13 ready-to-wear
stores had such hours. But 2 department stores, 3 limited-price
stores, and 2 ready-to-wear stores had schedules of more than 50
hours.
Hours worked.
Because of the regularity of business hours in retail stores the
number of hours actually worked by regular employees corresponds
quite closely to the scheduled hours. In department stores about
Tabi.e 4.—Hours worked by women regular employees in retail stores
Type of store
Percent of women who worked—
Number
of women
with
Over 48,
40,
44,
32,
hours
Over
Under under
under under 48 hours under 54 hours 54 hours
worked
54 hours
reported 32 hours 40 hours 44 hours 48 hours
STATE
Deportment
Limited-price.............. —
Ready-to-wear---------------
1,025
355
188
3.3
5.1
1.6
3.9
3.4
10.1
1 61.3
23.4
52.7
2
22.1
31.0
4.3
0.9
26.5
8.0
1.1
37.1
3.1
16.2
3 67.6
22. 1
6.7
. 2.8
41.4
25.0
8.0
9.6
19.7
0.4
1.1
2.1
0.1
2. 3
2.3
1.2
2.8
1.7
0.3
1.6
OMAHA
Department........ ..............
Limited-price
Ready-to-wear
701
210
128
4.3
5.2
1.6
5.3
4.8
13.3
3 89.3
36.7
* 77.3
OTHER PLACES
Department----------- -----Limited-price----------------Ready-to-wear......... ..........
324
145
60
1.2
4.8
1.7
I 59.fi percent worked 43Yi hours.
> 39.4 percent worked 43J4 hours.
*87.2 percent worked 43Jd hours.
0.9
1.4
3.3
0.6
4.1
......
25.3
23.4
01. 7
‘ 57.8 percent worked 43J.5 hours.
s 60.5 percent worked 46 hours.
6 55.0 percent worked 49 hours.
19
RETAIL STORES
one-fourteenth of the women worked less than 40 hours, but sixtenths worked 40 and under 44 hours. That working hours were
shorter in Omaha is evidenced by the fact that nearly nine-tenths
of the women in Omaha worked 40 and under 44 hours and about
one-tenth worked less than 40 hours, in contrast to just over twothirds in other places who worked 44 and under 48 hours and as
many as three-tenths who worked 48 hours or longer.
A comparison of the hours worked in ready-to-wear stores shows
that over three-fourths of the Omaha women worked 40 and under 44
hours, but in other places one-fourth worked 48 hours and over sixtenths worked more than 48. The same situation is found in limitedprice stores; about three-fourths of the women in Omaha worked 40
and under 48 hours, in contrast to over two-fifths working 48 hours
and more than one-fourth exceeding 48 hours in other places.
Considering the women in all three types of stores combined, less
than 1 percent of the women in Omaha, but 31 percent of those in
other places, actually worked more than 48 hours.
Hourly earnings.
On the basis of hourly earnings, the averages in department stores
and ready-to-wear stores were practically the same, 33 and 33.3 cents.
In limited-price stores dhe average was 30.5 cents.
Table 5 gives the distribution of women according to their hourly
earnings and the average for each of the three types of store.
Table 5.—Hourly earnings of women regular employees in retail stores
Percent of women with earnings as specified in—
Hourly earnings (cents)
Department stores
State
Number of women.
Average earnings1
(cents)
Under 20
30,
32,
34,
36,
___________
under 32.
under 34___
under 36---under 38
—
_
-----
—
____
----
Omaha
Limited-price stores
Other
places
State
Omaha
Other
places
Ready to-wear stores
State
Omaha
Other
places
1,025
701
324
355
210
145
188
128
60
33.0
34.1
30.7
30.5
31.1
26.0
33.3
35.8
26.1
1.6
6.4
5.3
5.3
7.4
2.7
4.3
20.2
12.8
6.9
5. 9
5.3
5.3
3.2
2.1
5.3
1.6
2.3
.8
1. 7
15.0
15.0
16.7
20.0
6.7
6.7
8.3
6.7
3.3
0.5
1.6
2.0
2.3
2.6
6.3
5.1
34.8
14.4
8.7
3.3
8.1
4.5
1.6
2. 2
2.0
0.3
48.1
16.8
9.7
4.1
9.3
5.6
.9
2.4
2.9
Percent of women
2.0
4.8
18.6
7.6
10.3
4.2
6.8
0.5
15.9
10. 1
2.4
21.4
14.1
13. 8
14. 5
34.9
56.2
4.1
16.2
11.3
4.1
3.9
5.7
1.4
1.0
2.8
1.7
1.7
.7
2.4
1.4
.8
.5
.7
.6
.7
.3
1.5
4.9
6.2
7.4
8.3
20.1
15.4
6.2
9.3
6. 5
1.5
5.6
2.2
3.1
1.9
1
1.6
.8
3.1
25.8
15.6
8.6
8. 6
7.8
7.8
4.7
3.1
7.8
i The median or midpoint—half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
From the table it is evident that average earnings of the women
were materially higher in Omaha than in other places, the difference
in favor of Omaha being 3.4 cents an hour in department stores, 5.1
cents in limited-price stores, and 9.7 in ready-to-wear stores.
248344°—40---- 4
20
WOMEN'S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
Also, the concentration of hourly earnings was much heavier in
Omaha and only about 4 percent of the women had earnings below 30
cents. Sixty-five percent of the women in Omaha department stores
and 41 percent of those in ready-to-wear stores had hourly earnings of
32 and under 36 cents, but in limited-price stores the majority, 56
percent, earned 30 and under 32 cents. The proportion with earnings
below 30 cents varied from none in department stores to 7 percent in
ready-to-wear stores, and to 17 percent in limited-price stores. Women
with earnings of 40 cents or more were 31 percent of the total in
ready-to-wear stores, 21 percent of the total in department stores,
but only 2 percent of all in limited-price stores.
In other places the concentration of earnings was at lower levels,
and in each type of store a significant number of the women were paid
less than 24 cents an hour; the proportion with such low earnings was
13 percent in department stores, 32 percent in ready-to-wear stores,
and 34 percent in limited-price stores. From 48~ percent of the
women in department stores to 75 percent in ready-to-wear stores
and 86 percent in limited-price stores were paid less than 30 cents an
hour. Thirteen percent of the women in department stores, but only
1 percent of those in limited-price stores and none in ready-to-wear
stores earned 40 cents or more. When the city ol Lincoln is excluded
from the figures of “other places” the average earnings in department
stores decrease from 30.7 cents to 25.9 cents and those in limited-price
stores from 26 cents to 22.3 cents.
PART-TIME WORKERS
Due to the fact that business fluctuates greatly throughout the week
in retail stores, with rush periods in the afternoons, on Saturdays, and
when special sales are held, it is the custom in most stores to employ
extra or part-time workers. Some of these may work only 1 or 2 days
each week, others may work a. few hours each day, and it is not
unusual for a considerable number to be employed for 30 to 40 or
more hours a week. In the stores visited the proportion of women
who were considered part-time or extra workers varied from 18 percent
in department stores and 22 percent in ready-to-wear stores to 42
percent in limited-price stores. The part-time workers comprised a
much smaller proportion of the work force in Omaha stores, particu
larly in department stores, than in those in other places.2
Hours worked.
The workweek for part-time workers in Nebraska was extremely
short, the large majority, 63 percent, working 20 hours or less in the
week reported. In fact, from 44 percent of the part-tmie women in
department and limited-price stores to 63 percent of those in readyto-wear stores worked 9 hours or less, indicating that these large
proportions of women had worked for only one full day or for a few
hours on 2 or more days in the week. The part-time women who
were so fortunate as to secure a week’s work—40 hours or more—
comprised only 4 percent in ready-to-wear stores but were 14 percent
in department stores and 15 percent in limited-price stores.
2 In this connection, .see text on credit students, p. 23.
21
RETAIL STORES
Table 6.—Hours worked in the week by women part-time workers in retail stores
Type of store
Percent of women who worked—
Num
ber of
women
Over Over Over Over
with
8,
10,
20,
30,
hours Under 7,
40,
Over
under under 9
10
in
in
in
in
worked
7
44
8
9
hours
hours
clud
clud clud clud
report hours hours hours
ing 20 ing 30 ing 40 ing 44 hours
ed
hours hours hours hours
Department—State..
Omaha
-
Limited-price—State___
Omaha__
Ready-to-wear—State___
Omaha ______
Other places ..
177
10.2
16.9
6.2
10.2
2.8
19.8
9.6
11.3
10.7
2.3
96
81
8.6
26.0
6.2
1.0
12.3
22. 2
2.1
3.7
14.6
25.9
13.5
4.9
10.4
12.3
19.8
1.0
261
15.3
8.4
10.3
10.0
1.5
13.0
5.7
22.2
8.4
5.0
136
16.9
11.7
4.8
2.2
19.2
8.1
12.0
1.5
1.6
11.8
14.4
5.9
5. 6
33.8
9. 6
8.1
8.8
10.4
56
23.2
17.9
5.4
16.1
3.6
7. 1
10.7
12.5
3.6
1 37
i 19
1 Distribution not computed: base too small.
Week’s earnings.
With such a large proportion of the part-time women working only
a few hours in the week, it was to be expected that they would have
very low earnings. This is found to be true by an examination of
table 7, which shows that the average week’s earnings varied only
from $2.76 in ready-to-wear stores to $3.35 in department stores and
$3.50 in limited-price stores. Average earnings were considerably
higher in Omaha than in other places, the difference being $1.90 in
department stores and $2.20 in limited-price stores.
Only 16 percent of the part-time women in ready-to-wear stores,
21 percent of those in department stores, and 25 percent of those in
limited-price stores earned as much as $10 in the week reported.
Table 7.— Week’s earnings of women part-time workers in retail stores
Percent of women with earnings as specified in—
Week’s earnings
Department stores
State
Number of women___
Average earnings 12___
Under $2_______________
$2, under $4__________
$4, under $6___
$6, under $8____________
$8, under $10_____ .
$10, under $12__________
$12, under $14
$14, under $16________
$16 and over____
Omaha Other
places
237
$3. 35
111
$4. 80
126
$2.90
14.8
41.8
9.7
9.3
3.8
7.6
5.1
7.2
.8
7.2
36.9
9.0
13.5
4.5
9.9
6.3
11.7
.9
21.4
46.0
10.3
5.6
3.2
5.6
4.0
3.2
.8
Limited-price stores
State
261
$3. 50
Other
Omaha places
136
$4. 85
125
$2. 65
Percent of women
32.6
22.1
44.0
21.1
23.5
18.4
8.0
8.0
8.0
4.9
3.7
6.4
8.8
10.3
7.2
14.2
15.5
12.8
10.0
16. 1
3.2
.4
.7
Ready-to-wear stores
State
61
$2. 75
Omaha Other
places
1 41
19.7
44.3
8.2
8. 2
3.3
8.2
4.9
1.6
1.6
1 Average and distribution not computed; base too small.
2 The median or midpoint-half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
1 20
22
WOMEN'S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
Hourly earnings.
An examination of hourly earnings in table 8 indicates that the low
earnings of part-time women are due chiefly to their short workweek,
as their hourly earnings compare favorably with those of regular
workers.
The part-time women in ready-to-wear stores and department
stores had practically the same average hourly earnings, 32.3 cents
and 32.2 cents, respectively, but for those in limited-price stores the
average dropped to 26.8 cents.
Due to the small number of women reported in ready-to-wear
stores, average earnings have not been computed for Omaha and
other places. In other types of store the Omaha average was con
siderably higher than that in other places. For the women in depart
ment stores the Omaha average was 32.3 cents, or 9.3 cents above the
average in other places, and for those in limited-price stores the
Omaha average of 30 cents exceeded that in other places by 7.9 cents.
Table 8.—Hourly
earnings of women 'part-time workers in retail stores
Percent of women with earnings as specified in—
Hourly earnings (cents)
State
Number of women___
Average
earnings 3
Limited-price stores
Department stores
Omaha
Other
places
State
Omaha
Other
places
Ready-to-wear stores
State
Omaha
i 37
177
96
81
261
136
125
56
32.2
32. 3
23.0
26.8
30.0
22.1
32. 3
Percent of women
1.5
3.2
21.1
44.0
.4
.8
2.2
15.2
8.4
2.4
1.1
5.4
1.0
1.2
9.9
9. 9
9.9
23.6
8.6
24.7
8.1
21.6
7.2
3.2
17.9
1.6
1.8
1.8
3.6
37.5
5.4
5.4
5.4
8.9
0.6
4. 5
4. 5
4. 5
10. 7
4.0
11.9
1.7
3.7
.6
.6
1.1
48.6
.6
2.3
3.4
.6
1.2
1.2
2.1
87. 5
1.0
4.2
4.2
14.6
3.4
15.3
28.5
7.3
10. 7
15.3
12.5
20.6
29.4
.4
.4
.7
2.6
2.6
1.2
.8
Other
places
119
1.8
6.4
i Average and distribution not computed; base too small.
a The median or midpoint—half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
Almost nine-tenths (88 percent) of the women in Omaha department
stores had hourly earnings of 32 and under 33 cents, and almost
one-tenth earned more. In contrast to this, 57 percent of those in
other places had earnings of 23 and under 26 cents and 31 percent
earned less than 23 cents.
The difference in hourly earnings of women in limited-price stores
was almost as striking. Half of those in Omaha earned 30 and under
32 cents, though more than one-fourth (27 percent) earned 27 and
under 28 cents. In other places more than two-fifths (44 percent)
earned 20 and under 21 cents, and two-fiftlis earned 21 and under
26 cents.
RETAIL, STORES
23
OTHER STORE WORKERS
In addition to the regular and part-time women discussed in the
foregoing paragraphs, data were obtained for two small groups for
whom it has been necessary to make separate tabulations. Both
groups were employed in Omaha.
The first group consisted of 22 regular and 7 part-time saleswomen
employed in 5 establishments, comprising 3 bakeries, 1 printing
establishment, and the bakery department of a department store.
Week’s earnings of the 22 regular workers ranged from $9 to $27;
more than half earned $15 and under $18, and more than a fourth
earned $18 or more. Hours worked were reported for 14 of these
women; 12 of them worked 44 to 50 hours, 9 of these working 48
hours. Only 2 of the 14 were paid less than 30 cents an hour, 7
earned 31 and under 36 cents, and the others earned 37 and under
55 cents.
For 5 of the 7 part-tune women the week’s earnings amounted to $2
and under $4; for the other 2 they were almost $10 and $12.25.
Hours worked were 10 or less for 5 women and 28 and 35 for the other 2.
Six of the 7 were paid 35 cents an hour and one was paid 40 cents.
The second group consisted of 60 credit students in 14 stores (3
department, 8 limited-price, and 3 ready-to-wear). It has been nec
essary to consider these students separately because of their different
employment status. In cooperation with the superintendent of
schools in Omaha, stores may hire students from the technical high
school with the understanding that they receive no pay for work done
at certain hours of the day, usually from 1 to 3 or 4 o’clock when school
is in session. If these students work after 4 o’clock or on Saturdays,
they receive pay from the store for such hours. Several employers
reported that credit students were regarded more or less as learners
and would become regular employees after completing school.
All the 60 credit students worked both free and paid hours in the
week reported. Their week’s earnings were low, the range being from
less than $1 to $4.90.
Percent of
students
Week’s earnings
Total_____
Under $1
$1, under$2 2R
$2, under$3 io‘
$3, under $4----------------------------------------------------------------$4, under $5_
100.0
_
10. 0
3
3
2T 3
20. 0
LAUNDRIES AND DRY CLEANERS
The United States Census of Manufactures for 1935 reported 55
power laundries employing 1,520 wage earners, and 89 cleaning and
dyeing plants with 581 workers, in Nebraska. Establishments that
had both laundry and dry-cleaning departments were counted in both
classifications, so the total number of establishments was not avadable; however, the number of wage earners in the two industries
totaled 2,101. Half the employees (52 percent) were in Omaha plants.
In the Women’s Bureau survey, data were obtained in 23 laundry
and dry-cleaning plants in the following cities, arranged here accord
ing to population: Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Hastings, North
Platte, Fremont, Kearney, Scottsbluff, Columbus, and Central City.
Eleven of the plants were laundries, 9 were laundry and dry-cleaning
plants combined, and 3 did dry cleaning only. At the time of the
survey these plants employed 839 workers, of whom 239 were men
and 600 were women. Approximately two-thirds of the employees
were in Omaha. The scope of the survey is shown in the following
summary.
Table 1.—Number of laundries and dry cleaners visited, and number of men and
women they employed
Number of employees
Locality
Number of
establish
ments
Women
Total
Men
Number
State______________ ____ -.................... ..........
23
10
13
Percent
of total
839
239
600
71.5
553
286
175
64
378
222
68.4
77.6
Wage-and-hour data were secured for a pay period in October 1938
in all plants but 1 where it was necessary to take a week in September
as more representative of normal operation. In the plants visited
women comprised over seven-tenths of the force. Of the 600 women
reported, 40 were office workers and will be considered in the officeemployment section of the report; the other women were operatives
employed as markers, sorters, ironers, pressers, assemblers, folders,
wrappers, and so forth, and data relating to these women 348 in
Omaha and 212 in other places—form the basis of this report.
At the time of the survey, a very small group (11 women) were
learners, including 1 reported as an apprentice; these were employed
in 5 plants. Two plants gave the beginning rate as 15 cents an hour,
1 gave 23 cents an hour, 1 $10 a week, and 1 did not report.
The hourly earnings of learners in other firms varied from 15 to 25
cents, 9 plants paying 20 cents or less. All the plants stated that
24
LAUNDRIES AND DRY CLEANERS
25
there was no definite learning period, but said it probably would be
from 2 to 4 weeks, or even as much as 2 or 3 months. As the num
ber of learners was so small they have been included with the regular
operatives in the following analysis.
The plants generally were small establishments. Of the 23 visited,
more than half employed fewer than 20 workers and just over onefourth employed 20 and under 50. Only 2 plants had as many as
100 workers; the largest, 179. All but 1 of the plants with 50 or more
workers were in Omaha.
Week’s earnings.1
The average week’s earnings of all women, regardless of the num
ber of hours worked, were $10.65; one-half the women had earnings
below and one-half had earnings above this amount. The average
was $11.45 for the women in Omaha and $9.35 for those in other
places.
There was little concentration of week’s earnings at any point in
the wage scale, though 45 percent of the women earned $8 and under
$12. In Omaha most of the remainder—41 percent of the total—had
earnings of $12 and over; in other places the opposite was true, the
large group—40 percent—having earnings below $8 and 1 in every 6
women earning less than $6.
Table 2.- -Week’s earnings of women in laundries and dry cleaners, by locality
Week’s earnings
Percent of women with earnings as
specified in—
State
Number of women
Average earnings'
Under $4______ _______ _
$4, under $6____________
$6, under $8___________
$8. under $10___________
$10, under $12__________
$12, under $14__________
$14, under $16__________
$16, under $18__________
$18, under $20 _______
$20 and over, -_________
e 560
$10.65
Omaha
Other places
348
$11. 45
Percent, of women
3.1
0.9
5.5
2.9
14.8
9.5
17.7
17.5
27.2
27.8
13.6
17.5
12.7
17.0
2.6
3.4
1.6
2.0
1.3
1.4
212
$9.35
6.6
9.9
23.6
17.9
26.0
7.1
6.6
1.4
.9
.9
1 The median or midpoint— half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
Hours worked were reported for all but three of the women for
whom week’s earnings were reported. When earnings are correlated
with hours worked, the average increased from $6.45 for the women
who worked under 32 hours to $14.15 for those who worked 48 hours
or more. The largest group, 167 women, worked 32 and under 40
hours, and their average earnings were $9.45, or $1.15 below the gen
eral average. Though relatively few (one-tenth) of the 293 women
who worked a week of 40 hours or more had earnings of less than $10,
it is interesting to note that the average of the group who worked
40 and under 44 hours was only $10.75.i
i For year’s earnings see separate section of report, pp. 45 to 51.
26
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
Table 3.— Week’s earnings and hours worked, women in laundries and dry cleaners
Women with hours
worked reported
Number of women with earnings as specified
who worked—
Week’s earnings
Total
Percent distribution
Average earnings1
_.
Under.$4
_ ... ........ _
$4, under $6___________ _____
$6, under $8
$8, under $10........ ........ ...... .......
$10, under $12
$12, under $14
$14, under $16 _
$16, under $18________________
$18, under $20
$20 and over..
Number
Percent
557
100. 0
$10. 60
100.0
17
31
83
3.1
5.6
14.9
17. 8
27.3
13. 6
12. 7
2. 5
1.6
.9
99
152
76
71
14
9
5
Under 32 32, under 40, under 44, under 48 hours
hours
40 hours 44 hours 48 hours and over
97
17. 4
$6. 45
167
88
140
65
$9. 45
$11. 00
$12. 40
$14.15
17
28
40
10
2
3
40
63
38
15
53
56
1
6
1 The median or midpoint—half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
Hours worked.
Because of tlie irregularity of laundry business, practically all the
laundries reported that they had no regular schedule of working hours
and that the hours worked by the employees varied from day to day
and week to week.
However, all the plants kept hour records, and it was possible to
obtain the number of hours worked in the pay period for approxi
mately all the women. Almost half of the women (47 percent) worked
less than 40 hours and just over two-fifths worked 40 and under
48 hours. The workweek was longer in Omaha than elsewhere;
54 percent of the women in other places, but only 44 percent of those
in Omaha, worked less than 40 hours, 26 percent in other places
working less then 32 hours. Only 24 percent in other places, com
pared to 45 percent in Omaha, worked 44 hours or more.
Locality
State-- __ _______
Omaha... ______
Other places. ................
Number of
Percent of women who worked—
women
with horns
worked re Under 32 32, under 40, under 44, under 48, under 54 hours
ported
hours
40 hours 44 hours 48 hours 54 hours and over
557
17.4
30.0
15.8
25.1
10.1
1.7
346
211
12.1
26.1
31.5
27.5
11. 5
22.7
31.8
14.2
11 6
7.6
1.8
Hourly earnings.
Table 4 show's the details in regard to hourly earnings of women in
laundries and dry-cleaning plants. The average hourly earnings of
the 557 women amounted to 25 cents, with 29 percent of the total
earning 24 and under 26 cents. Twenty-five percent earned 30 cents
or more, and 6 percent earned less than 20 cents.
Both in Omaha and in other places the concentration was heaviest
at 24 and under 26 cents, earned by 27 percent of the women in
Omaha and 32 percent of those in other places. At the levels above
this, however, Omaha women had the advantage, with 25 percent
LAUNDRIES AND DRY CLEANERS
27
earning 26 and under 30 cents and 34 percent earning 30 cents and
over, the corresponding figures for other places being 13 percent and
10 percent. Average hourly earnings were 27 cents in Omaha and
25 cents in other places.
Tabi-i: 4.—Hourly earnings of women in laundries and dry cleaners
Percent of women with earnings as
specified in—
Hourly earnings (cents)
State
Number of women
Average earnings 1 (cents)
Under 16___
16, under 18-.
18, under 20_.
20, under 22
22, under 24-.
24, under 26
26, under 28..
28, under 30_
30, under 35 _
35, under 40-.
40 and over-1 * * * 5
557
25.0
Omaha
Other
places
346
27.0
P itcent of worn en
0.9
1. 2
3. 1
1.2
2.1
2.3
7. 2
3.5
12.0
5. 2
29.3
27.4
11.6
13.6
8.6
11. 2
15.4
20. 5
7. 2
10. 1
2.5
3.8
211
25.0
0.5
6.2
1.8
13.3
23.2
32.2
8.5
4.3
7.1
2.4
.5
1 The median or midpoint—half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
Institutional laundries.
\\age data were obtained also for 13 women employed in two insti
tutional laundries one hotel and one store laundry.
The week’s earnings of the 13 women ranged from $7 to about $15
5 of them earn ed less than $ 10 and 5 earned $ 12 or more. Th e number
of hours worked in the week was reported for only 4 women, all of
whom worked 48 hours. The hourly earnings of the 4 women aver
aged 29.2 cents.
HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
The Women’s Bureau survey of wages and hours of women in Ne
braska industries, made in the late months of 1938, covered hotels
and restaurants, as these are of major importance in the employment
of women. Establishments were visited in 10 cities and towns,1 and
the group is representative of a large cross-section.
According to the latest available census reports, the 1935 Census of
Business, there were 364 hotels, with 2,821 employees, and 1,453
restaurants, cafeterias, and lunchrooms or counters, with 3,953 em
ployees, in Nebraska. On the basis of these figures the establishments
generally were small, the average number of employees being about 8
in hotels and only about 3 in the restaurant group. Approximately
45 percent! of the hotel employees reported for the State were in the
city of Omaha.
In the Women’s Bureau survey, data were obtained from 62 estab
lishments and, with the exception of men in one store restaurant that
failed to report their n umber, these employed 1,614 workers. Twentyfour of the firms, with 893 workers, were hotels; 15 firms, with 382
workers, were restaurants operated in connection with stores; and 23
firms, with 339 workers, were restaurants operated as separate estab
lishments. Fifteen of the hotels also operated restaurant depart
ments, and the number of women workers reported here (data for men
not secured by department), and included in the 893 for hotels as a
whole, was 216.
The size of these establishments, according to number of employees,
ranged from 3 to 189, but only 2, a hotel and a store restaurant, em
ployed as many as 100. Ten of the 24 hotels, 10 of the 15 store res
taurants, and 17 of the 23 other restaurants each employed fewer than
20 workers, and only 6 hotels, 2 store restaurants, and 1 other res
taurant had as many as 50.
One-half of the establishments, with 918 employees, were in Omaha.
By type of establishment the proportions of workers that were in
Omaha were as follows: 13 hotels with 457 workers, or 51 percent of
the hotel total; 9 store restaurants with 245 workers, or 64 percent;
and 9 other restaurants with 216 workers, also 64 percent of that total.
Table 1 shows the scope of the study.
Women comprised the larger part of the work force, especially in
restaurants. A small number of women, 45 in lodging departments
and 5 in kitchen departments, were Negroes. These are included in
the earnings and hours tabulations because too few were reported to
show separately.
The pay rolls copied were for a pay period in October 1938 in all
but two firms; in these the pay periods were in September and Decem
ber, respectively. As this study relates only to women’s employ
ment, wage data for men were not obtained. The information re-i
i Central City, Columbus, Fremont,, Grand Island, Hastings, Kearney, Lincoln, North Platte, Omaha,
and ScottsblufT.
28
HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
Table 1.
29
Number of hotels and restaurants visited and number of men and women
they employed
Number of employees
Type of establishment
Number of
establish
ments
Women
Total
Men i
Number
Percent
of total
STATE
Total__
Hotels______
Store restaurants 1
Other restaurants
62
1,614
587
1, 027
M
24
15
23
893
382
339
419
59
109
474
323
230
0)
581
63.3
13
457
220
56
61
237
189
155
51.9
77. 1
71.8
31
696
250
446
(>)
11
6
14
436
137
123
199
3
48
237
134
75
54. 4
(l)
01. 0
53.1
67.8
--------------------------OMAHA
Total_____
Store restaurants
Other restaurants
---------------------- -----------------------------------------OTHER PLACES
Total
Hotels___________
Store restaurants 1_
Other restaurants..
1 1 restaurant did not report number of men.
corded includes week’s earnings; supplements to cash earnings, such
as meals lodging, or tips; the number of hours worked in the period;
and the length of split or broken shifts.
Week’s earnings.*2 1
In hotels and restaurants employees generally have their cash wages
supplemented by meals, and some have lodging also, but the practice
vanes widely. Because of the many variations in charging for meals
and lodging and also because the cash equivalent of such supplements
was not reported, their money value is not included in the earnings
figures shown here. However, to indicate the extent of the practice
of iurmshmg meals to employees and the degree to which this practice
ajlects the cash wages paid, tabulations have been prepared for em
ployees receiving and those not receiving meals. Tips also have been
excluded from the earnings figures, as the amounts received as tips
were not reported. The earnings figures given in this report are
therefore, the net cash earnings paid to the employees in the pay
period taken.
H J
Earnings data were reported for 1,025 women; 474 were in hotels
323 m store restaurants, and 228 in other restaurants. Of the women
m hotels, 258 were in lodging departments, 167 in dining-room de
partments, and 49 m kitchen departments. All the kitchen workers
and all but 12 of the dining-room workers received some addition to
2 For year’s earnings see separate section of report, pp. 15 to 61.
30
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
their cash earnings, but only 30 women in lodging departments had
any wage supplements.
In store restaurants 250 women, or 77 percent of the total, were
dining-room workers and 73 were in kitchen departments. Only
one-fourth of the entire group (52 dining-room and 31 kitchen workers)
received meals. Of the 228 women in other restaurants, 166 were
employed in dining rooms and 62 were in kitchens, and the large
majority of both groups—143 dining-room and 60 kitchen workers—
were given meals.
The average cash earnings, without considering number of hours
worked during the week, were $8.80 in hotels, $9.55 in store restaur
ants, and $8.90 in other restaurants, but, as shown in table 2, women’s
earnings varied widely according to department in which employed
and also according to whether or not they had additions to cash earn
ings The extremes of the average cash earnings of women who re
ceived additions (chiefly meals) were the $12.35 averaged by kitchen
workers in other restaurants and the $6.35 and $6.25, respectively,
averaged by store and hotel dining-room workers. The women em
ployed in hotel kitchens and who received wage supplements averaged
$3.25 less than those in other restaurant kitchens, or $9.10; and the
hotel dining-room workers averaged $6.25, or 10 cents less than those
in store-restaurant dining rooms and $1.20 less than those in otherrestaurant dining rooms. In each type of establishment the average
cash earnings of kitchen workers exceeded those of women in the
dining rooms, presumably because of the custom ot paying a lower
wage where tips may be expected.
Earnings were somewhat higher for women who did not receive
meals or lodging than for those who did, but average earnings could
be computed in only a few cases because of the small numbers. The
workers in hotel lodging departments who did not receive additions,
more than 200 in number, averaged $9.60; in store restaurants the
198 dining-room workers and 42 kitchen workers who were not given
meals averaged respectively $9.35 and $12.60, the latter the highest
average of any group.
In practically all departments more than half the women had earn
ings below $10. Considering first the women who received wage
supplements, 66 percent in hotel dining rooms earned $4 and under
$8; 44 percent in store-restaurant dining rooms earned less than $4
(though a large proportion, 29 percent, had earnings of $14 and over);
and nearly three-fifths (56 percent) in other restaurant dining rooms
earned $4 and under $10.
There was less concentration of earnings among women m kitchen
departments wrho received additions. "I he most usual earnings in
hotel kitchens, reported for 45 percent of the group, were $6 and under
$10, and the next, 24 percent, were $10 and under $14. Women m
other-restaurant kitchens had somewhat higher earnings; 48 percent
earned $10 and under $16 and only 20 percent earned $6 and under
$10
Almost nine-tenths of the women in hotel lodging departments
had no additions to their cash earnings; of these the largest group
(42 percent) had earnings of $8 and under $10, and the next group
(24 percent) earned $10 and under $12.
Table 2.—Week’s
earnings of women in hotels and restaurants, by whether or not given vjage supplements
Percent of women who earned—
Under $4
474
323
228
$8.80
9. 55
8.90
8.9
12.9
13.6
234
155
49
$6. 80
6. 25
9. 10
7. 2
7.7
8.2
83
52
9. 65
6. 35
28.9
44. 2
2.4
3.8
12.0
7.7
8.4
5.8
12. 0
9.6
_____ -
203
143
60
8.40
7. 45
12.35
14. 3
16. 1
10.0
10.3
13.3
3.4
21.7
26. 6
10.0
14.3
16. 1
10.0
12. 8
11.9
15.0
____ .
______________ _ .
_____ -.
____ ___________
240
228
$9. 50
9.60
10.4
8.8
7.9
6. 1
240
198
42
9. 35
12.60
7. 5
8.5
2.4
20. 0
23.8
2. 4
Hotels—Total-Store restaurants—Total__ _____
Other restaurants—Total
Hotels—Total_____ ___ _ ___
Kitchen
___ -
__________
__
_
...
___....
Store restaurants—Total. _
Other restaurants—Total____
_____________
Kitchen ______________________
Hotels—Total___
Lodging. ____
Diningroom. ___
___
_
______
-
____
$4,
under
$6
16.7
15. 5
9.2
$6,
under
$8
$8,
under
$10
$10,
under
$12
$12,
under
$14
All women with earninqs reported
15. 4 1
28. 7 !
16. 4 !
S. 4
20. 2
9.0
19. 7
11.8
14. 0
5. 9
13. 9
14. 5
7.1
6.5
9.5
24. 2
24.7
21. 4
7. 9
8.0
7. 1
$16,
under
$18
$18,
under
$20
$20,
and
over
3.2
14.5
9.6
2. 5
1.8
3. 1
0.8
.6
2.2
3.4
3.2
2.0
2.6
.6
6. 1
l. 3
1.3
2.0
6.1
2.4
21. 7
21. 2
2. 4
1.9
2.4
7. 2
5.8
10.8
7. 7
18.3
7.4
4. 2
15.0
3.5
2. 1
6. 7
2.5
8.3
2.5
2. 1
3.3
6.3
6. 6
2.9
3. 1
2.5
2.6
0.4
.4
1.7
1.8
17. 9
16. 2
26. 2
12. 1
9.6
23.8
1. 7
1.0
4.8
Womer with wage additions meals, lodq inq. or both )
9. 4‘
25. 7
17.5
26.0
5.6
7. 7
36. 8
29. 7
11.0
3. 2
20.4
24.5
12. 2
6.1
12.2
Women with no wo qe addition s
23.4
5.0
39.6 ‘
41. 7
4.8
24. 1
$14,
under
$16
1.5
3.1
2.2
1.7
1.5
2.4
HOTELS AND BESTAUHANTS
Average
cash
earnings 2
Number
of women
Service department1
1 Service departments with fewer than 40 employees arc included in total but not shown separately.
2 The median or midpoint—half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
CC
32
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
There was a wider distribution of the earnings of women in store
restaurants who did not receive additions. Of those in dining-room
work, 32 percent earned less than $6, but 25 percent earned $8 and
under $10 and 16 percent earned $12 and under $14. In kitchen
departments 50 percent of the women earned $12 and under $16 and
21 percent earned $8 and under $10.
Relatively few of all the women reported earned as much as $16
in the week recorded, the proportions with such earnings varying
only from 5 percent in hotels and 6 percent in store restaurants to
8 percent in other restaurants.
Where a sufficient number of women were reported, a comparison of
earnings of those employed in Omaha with those in other places
reveals that earnings were substantially higher in Omaha. Among
women in Omaha who received wage supplements, the average cash
earnings were higher than those in other communities by $2.85 in
hotels ($1.15 in dining-room departments) and $3.15 in other res
taurants (65 cents in dining-room departments).
Among those who did not receive additions, hotel women in Omaha
averaged 60 cents more than those in other places and store-restaurant
women averaged $4.30 more. The lowest average earnings in any
service department were the $5.10 of women in the dining rooms of
store restaurants in other places than Omaha, and the highest average
was the $13.40 of kitchen workers of other restaurants in Omaha.
The summary following shows for Omaha and other places the aver
age earnings of women in each service department in which 40 or
more women were reported.
Women receiving additions to wages
Omaha
Other places
Women not receiving additions to
wages
Omaha
Other places
Service department
Num
ber of
women
Hotels—Total._____________
Other restaurants—Total___
Dining room _.................
Kitchen...
Average Num
cash
ber of
earn
women
ings 1
87
5
64
18
$9.30
49
34
15
11.65
128
78
50
10.60
8.00
13. 40
7.00
147
25
91
31
Average Num
cash
ber of
earn
women
ings 1
$6. 45
5. 85
34
18
16
75
65
10
7.45
7.35
Average Num
cash
ber of
earn
women
ings i
Average
cash
earn
ings 1
150
139
11
$9.65
9. 75
90
89
1
$9. 05
9.10
140
121
19
10.15
9.90
100
77
23
5.10
25
23
2
1 The median or midpoint—half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown. Not
computed where base less than 40.
The differences in the women’s earnings are even more striking
when a comparison is made of the proportions of women earning
certain amounts in Omaha and in other places. In each type of
establishment the proportion of women with earnings in the lowwage intervals was larger, usually much larger, in other places than
in Omaha, and a much greater proportion of women in Omaha than
HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
33
in other places had earnings at the higher wage levels. The figures
are as follows:
Percent of women who earned—
Type of establishment
Under
$6
Omaha:
Hotels__________
Store restaurants.
Other restaurants.
Other places:
Hotels__________
Store restaurants.
Other restaurants
Under
$8
$12 and
over
$14 and
over
21.1
17.6
22.3
30.0
21.9
33.4
18.5
42.9
45.9
10.9
26.5
25.6
30.0
43.9
24.0
51.9
58.1
61.3
9.2
21.5
2.7
4.9
11.1
Tips.
In the dining-room departments of hotels and restaurants most of
the workers, and practically all the waiters and waitresses, serve the
public directly and are in a position to receive tips. These gratuities
are an uncertain source of income, as they vary in different classes
of establishments and from day to day in the same establishment.
Nevertheless, employers generally expect tips to form a proportion,
often the greater proportion, of the week’s wages. The amount of
the tips received by the women covered in the survey was not reported,
but an indication of the importance of tips in the minds of employers
is gained by a comparison of the cash wages paid by employers to
dining-room workers who were expected to receive tips and those
paid to workers said not to receive tips.
Table 3.—Week’s cash earnings of women receiving tips and of those not receiving
tips in hotel and restaurant dining rooms
Percent of women in dining rooms with earnings as specified
Week’s cash earnings
Hotels
Receiving
tips
Number of women____
Average earnings 1
Under $4.
$4, under $6_______ ______ _
$6, under $8_________ _____
$8, under $10
_____ ___
$10, under $12_______
$12, under $14_______ ____
$14, under $16_________ ____ _
$16, under $18- ___________
$18, under $20______________
$20 and over________________
127
$5. 45
13.4
45.7
35.4
3.1
2. 4
Store restaurants
Not receiv Receiving
ing tips
tips
40
$10.25
47
$4.80
Other restaurants
Not receiv Receiving
ing tips
tips
203
$9.80
101
$7.35
Not receiv
ing tips
65
$12. 25
Percent of women
10.0
5.0
32.5
25. 0
12. 5
12. 5
2.5
89.3
6.4
4.3
3.4
6.9
24.6
14 8
1.5
29.2
34.7
24.8
6.2
1. 5
3.0
3.0
4.6
4.6
1 The median or midpoint—half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
The proportions of women in dining rooms who were reported to
receive tips varied from only 19 percent in store restaurants to 61
percent in other restaurants and to 76 percent in hotels. The average
cash earnings of women who received tips were $4.80 in store res
34
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
taurants, $5.45 in hotel restaurants, and $7.35 in other restaurants;
but for those who did not receive tips the respective averages were
$9.80, $10.25, and $12.25; in other words, average cash earnings of
women who did not receive tips exceeded the cash earnings of those
who did receive tips by $4.80 in hotel restaurants, $4.90 in other
restaurants, and $5 in store restaurants.
No one in Omaha store restaurants received tips, but in the case
of hotel and other restaurants it appears that tips were depended on
as a form of wage to a greater extent in Omaha than in other places.
In Omaha the women in hotels who received tips had average cash
earnings of $5, compared to $5.55 for such women in other cities;
and in other restaurants the women in Omaha who received tips
averaged $6.85, compared to $7.60 in other cities.
From table 3 it is apparent that the large majority of women who
had cash earnings of less than $10 were expected to receive tips.
No woman in store restaurants who received tips had cash earnings
so high as $10, and only 2 percent of those receiving tips in hotels
and 16 percent in other restaurants had cash earnings of $10 or more,
none so high as $14. Of the women who did not receive tips, the
proportion with earnings of $10 and over was 45 percent in store
restaurants, 53 percent in hotel restaurants, and 63 percent in other
restaurants.
Hours of work.
As the demands for hotel and restaurant service cover all hours of
the day and night, with rush periods occurring at various intervals
throughout the day, the hours of work show a great deal of variation.
Some employees, particularly in lodging departments, are required
to work on all 7 days of the week, and others work very long hours
but not on every day. In restaurants the increase in business at
meal times requires the employment of extra workers for such periods,
though a small force is adequate for the hours between. As a result,
many employees work for these meal periods and have time off,
without pay, between meals, thus having an over-all of 12 to 14 or
more hours though actually working only 8 or 9. Other workers
may be employed for only one meal period. Further, it is not un
usual for one person to have two or three different shifts of hours,
long and short days alternating, in one week.
Because of this irregularity of working hours, the actual condition
in regard to working time is shown by the use of “employee-days.”
These are obtained by multiplying each daily work shift, of whatever
duration, by the number of times such shift was worked by any
employee in the week covered. As a rule the number of employeedays for the week is 5/ or 6 times the number of workers, though in
hotel lodging departments, where the 7-day week is not unusual,
the number of employee-days may be not far from 7 times the number
of workers.
Many women in the study had one or two periods of free time
between work periods, as already described, so employee-days have
been tabulated according to the spread of hours, that is, the number
of hours from beginning to eud of the workday. Table 4 shows
how greatly the day’s spread of hours may exceed the number of hours
actually worked. In hotel lodging departments, for example, only
35
HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
24 percent of the women worked more than 8 hours a day, but the
women whose over-all from beginning to end of the day was more
than 8 hours were 61 percent of the total; only 7 percent of all worked
9 or 10 hours (none worked more than 10) , but 35 percent had a spread
of 9 to 14 or more hours between beginning and ending work.
Store restaurants, as would be expected, had the fewest women
working long hours. About 22 percent worked 8 or more hours
(19 percent, 8 hours) but 47 percent had a spread of 8 or more hours,
though none reached 14. In the store restaurants, one-half of the
employee-days had 7 to 8 hours of actual work and on nearly as
large a proportion (44 percent) the spread was 8 to 9 hours, indicating
a break of an hour for lunch. Apparently some of the workers had
a short shift, probably employed for only one meal period a day, as
on 32 percent of the employee-days the spread was less than 6 hours.
Table 4.—Hours of work and spread of hours of women in hotels and restaurants
Hours
Number of women.
Number of employee-days.
5 and under_____
Over 5, under 6..
6Over
________
6, under 7..
7 _____________
Over 7, under 8..
8Over
____
8, under 9..
9 and over 1_____
Under 7 . ...
7 ____________
Over 7, under 8_.
________
8
Over 8, under 9..
9______________
Over 9, under 10.
10, under 12____
12, under 14____
14 and over____
Hotel lodg Hotel res
ing depart taurant de
ments
partments
198
1, 306
150
966
Store res
taurants
191
1,075
Other res
taurants
192
1,190
Percent of employee-days with hours of work
as specified
4.9
3.4
19.3
13.5
7.2
.7
18.5
2.2
6.4
7.1
.4
4.5
1.5
2.4
9.6
2.5
7.5
8.9
6.0
14.6
26.3
9.7
24.7
7.3
22. 4
35. 3
19.2
29.6
16. 6
13.6
22.4
7.3
18.8
2.3
3.3
Percent of employee-days with spread of hours
as specified
18.9
5.6
2 43. 3
10.4
2. 5
2.9
3.9
3.8
1. 1
.6
5.7
1.3
L6. 5
10.0
24.6
11.5
26.3
5.4
12.6
16.8
21.2
15.5
7.1
11.2
3.3
1.8
1.1
14.3
2.2
15.3
1.4
10.3
3.2
34.9
.5
18.6
6.3
6.5
1.8
i The longest reported was 10 hours in hotel lodging departments and in other restaurants, and 11 hours
in hotel restaurants and store restaurants.
1 31.5 percent under 6 hours.
BEAUTY PARLORS
Beauty parlors are, for the most part, small establishments and many
of them have no paid employees. Figures for Nebraska reported
by the United States Census of Business for 1935 show that in that
year there were 996 beauty parlors, with 1,014 active proprietors and
only 576 employees, indicating that a considerable number of estab
lishments were operated solely by the proprietors. The Women’s
Bureau survey covered 22 establishments employing 147 workers—
22 men and 125 women. Establishments in which the proprietors
were the only operators were not covered by the Bureau’s survey.
On the basis of number of employees, the size of the beauty parlors
ranged from 1 employee to 46, though 15 of the total employed fewer
than 5 workers and 6 employed 5 and under 20.
Six of the shops, with 100 employees, were operated as departments
or concessions in stores. Four of the store beauty parlors with 75
workers, and 5 independent shops with 20 workers, were in Omaha;
the remainder were in the following places: Lincoln, Grand Island,
Hastings, North Platte, Fremont, Kearney, and Columbus.
Table
1.-—Number of beauty parlors visited and number of men and women they
employed
Omaha
State
Type of establishment
Number of
establishinents
Number of
employees
Number of
establishTotal Men Women ments
Other places
Number of
employees
Total Men Women
Number of
establishments
Number of
employees
Total Men Women
Total.-.
22
147
22
125
9
95
20
76
13
52
2
50
Store. _____
Independent..
6
16
100
47
19
3
81
44
4
5
75
20
17
3
58
17
2
11
i 25
27
2
23
3 27
1 Number of men not reported by 1 firm.
3 Includes 5 apprentices.
The records obtained in the shops visited cover a pay period in
October 1938. The period was 1 week where it was possible to obtain
such a record, and in shops that paid on a monthly or semimonthly
basis the amounts have been reduced to a weekly basis. In 7 shops,
employing 20 women (including 4 apprentices who received no wages),
the method of pay was a straight time rate; in all others the women
were paid on a commission basis, though in a few shops they were
guaranteed a certain amount.
Of the 125 women reported, data for 15 have been omitted from the
wage discussion; 10 were clerical workers and will be considered in
36
BEAUTY PARLORS
37
the section of the report dealing with office workers, and 5 were
apprentices not on a wage basis. According to a State regulation,
women desiring to become beauty operators must acquire 1,000 hours
of professional training in a 6-month training period and then pass a
State examination.
The great majority of the women (104) were regular operators—hair
dressers, manicurists, shampooers, and so forth; the others include
5 Negro maids and a learner. The learner had completed the appren
ticeship requirement and passed the State examination, but was not
yet paid on the same basis as the other operators in the shop.
Hours of work.
Hour records were very inadequate in the beauty shops visited.
Only 14 of the 22 shops, employing 65 women, reported a definite
daily and weekly schedule of hours; only 7 firms, with 20 employees,
were able to furnish records of the number of hours the women actually
worked in the pay period.
Approximately two-thirds of the 65 women with scheduled hours
reported had a day of 7 to 8 hours; the others had a schedule of over
8 to 9 hours.
There was a wider variation in the weekly hours, the range being
from 43 to 54 hours. The largest groups of women were scheduled
to work 49K hours (26 percent), 48 hours (20 percent), 45 hours (19
percent), and 46)) hours (15 percent). In general, the independent
beauty parlors had a longer work schedule than those in stores.
A record of hours actually worked during the pay period was avail
able for only 20 women, too small a sample for the computation of
hourly earnings.
Week’s earnings.1
The week’s earnings, regardless of the number of hours worked, were
reported for 110 women—67 in Omaha and 43 in other places. The
average earnings of all women amounted to $15.45. The women
in Omaha had average earnings of $15.80, or 35 cents above the general
average, and $1.30 above the average earnings of the women in other
places ($14.50).
Store beauty parlors paid somewhat higher wages than the inde
pendent shops, as average week’s earnings in store shops were $16.80,
or $1.35 above the general average.
Considering all women as a group, the range of their week’s earnings
was very wide, from less than $5 to $32. There was little concen
tration at any point in the wage scale, the largest group in any
1-dollar interval being the 13 percent with earnings of $15 and under
$16. On the basis of larger intervals, the most common earnings
were $10 and under $20, earned by 55 percent of the women.
A comparison of earnings of women in Omaha with those in other
places shows that wages in Omaha were better. The majority in
both groups, 54 percent of the women in Omaha and 58 percent of
those in other places, earned $10 and under $20, but 31 percent of the
Omaha women in contrast to only 19 percent of those elsewhere had
earnings of $20 or more.
1 For year’s earnings see separate section of report, pp. 45 to 51.
38
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
Table 2.—Week’s earnings of women in beauty parlors
Percent of women 1 with earnings as specified in—
State
Other
places
Omaha
Week's earnings
Total
Store
beauty
shops
Total
Store
beauty
shops
Number of women ______
Average earnings 2__________________ _______
110
$15. 45
Under $10____ ______________ ____________________
$10, under $15
$15, under $20
...
$20, under $25._____ _________________ ____ ________
$25, under $30
...................... .....................
...
$30 and over___________ _____ ____________________
18.2
26.4
29. 1
11.8
11.8
2.7
Percent
12.2
21.6
32.4
16.2
14.9
2.7
Under $8
Under $10_____________________________________
Under $12
Under $14
Under $16
Under $18_____ ______ ___ ______
___________
8.1
18.1
30.9
40.0
57.2
65.5
Cumulative percents
9.5
9.0
12.2
15.0
20.3
25. 5
29. 7
34.5
44.6
52.4
55.4
64.2
$18 and over___
$20 and over
$22 and over_____
$24 and over
34.5
26.2
18.1
16.3
44.6
33.8
23.0
20.3
. —
.
... ----------------
74
$16. 80
67
$15. 80
53
$16. 70
of women
14.9
25.4
28.4
16.5
11.9
3.0
35.8
31.4
19.4
17.9
Total
43
$14. 50
13.2
18.9
32. 1
18.9
13.2
3.8
23.3
28.0
30.2
4.6
11.6
2.3
9.4
13.2
20.8
28.3
43.4
58.5
7.0
23.3
39. 6
49.0
65.3
67.6
41.5
35.8
22.6
20.8
32.4
18.5
16.2
13.9
i Computed only for groups of 40 or more women.
1 The median or midpoint—half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
Wage supplements.
Due to the nature of the work in beauty parlors, where the operators
give personal service to the customers, they are in a position to receive
tips. Though tips may form a substantial part of an employee’s
earnings, they are an extremely uncertain source of income and
fluctuate from day to day and vary by establishment. Of the 22
firms surveyed in Nebraska, 2 made no report on tips and 18 stated
that they amounted to little or nothing. In 1 shop tips were estimated
to average about $1 a week; in another, a “very high-class shop,”
they were estimated to amount to $2.50 to $4.50 for manicurists, and
from nothing to $14, with an average of $1.25 a day, for beauty
operators.
Uniforms.
In all but 1 of the 21 shops reporting on this, employees were
required to wear uniforms while on duty, and in each case the cost of
furnishing and laundering them was borne by the employees.
BEAUTY PARLORS
39
The most usual practice was that the employees bought 3 or 4 uni
forms and laundered them themselves. In 18 shops the cost of
uniforms was reported to be from $1 to $3. In these shops the women
usually changed uniforms 3 times a week. When the uniforms were
sent out to laundries, the most common charge was 20 cents each, or
60 cents a week. In 1 shop the employees were required to change
uniforms daily; the cost of the uniforms was reported to be $3 or $4,
and because of the frequent change it was necessary for the women to
buy 5 or 6. Weekly laundry charges amounted to $1.20. In another
shop the women rented uniforms at 25 cents each, or 75 cents a week
as they changed every other day. These figures indicate that the
cost of buying and laundering uniforms is an important item of
expense to the beauty-parlor employee.
OFFICE EMPLOYMENT
In the Women’s Bureau study of women’s employment in Nebraska ,
pay-roll data were obtained not only for the office employees in each
establishment scheduled, that is, the factories, stores, laundries, and
so forth discussed in earlier sections of this report, but for several
banks and insurance firms, a railroad office, a public utility, a news
paper, and a wholesale drug firm. Generally, women comprise a very
large proportion of the workers in offices, so information covering these
employees was requested in order to show the wage and hour conditions
in clerical work.
The large majority of the clerical employees reported were called
office workers, or general office workers; they comprised the employees
in offices where specific occupations were not reported and those who
performed several types of work. In offices where the occupations of
the employees were reported, certain occupations were found in
practically all types of office and others were confined to offices of
particular types. Office women reported in beauty parlors, for
example, were employed as appointment clerks.
An incomplete list of the occupations found in many kinds of offices
includes secretaries, stenographers, typists, file clerks, time clerks, pay
clerks, bookkeepers, ledger clerks, statistical clerks, machine operators
(comptometer, calculating, multigraph, and so forth), and others.
Telephone operators, included with office workers, were found in all
types of offices. Samples of occupations reported in only one or two
types of offices are demonstrators, work-order clerks, order checkers,
rate clerks, billing clerks, mail clerks, freight-claim clerks, tracer
clerks, and others in factories; advertising clerks (copy writers), unitcontrol clerks, clerks sorting, correcting, and filing price tickets, ad
justment clerks, mail-order-department clerks, collection clerks, and
others in stores; tellers, trust-department clerks, loan-department
clerks, transit clerks, safety-box clerks and tenders, analysis clerks, and
others in banks. The other offices scheduled (insurance, railroad,
public utility, and so forth) also reported many occupations, but the
titles listed are sufficient to indicate the wide coverage of the survey.
Table
1.—Number of offices visited and number of women they employed
Industry
Number
of
offices
visited
Number of women
State
Omaha
Other
places
Total__________
Manufacturing_____ ____
Stores:
Department_____ _
Ready-to-wear.
_____
Limited-price________
Laundries and dry cleaners- .
Beauty parlors________________
Banks..................... ...........
Insurance firms____ __
Miscellaneous firms 1______
44
15
9
17
37
14
40
30
296
532
257
532
---------------1 Includes 1 newspaper, 1 public utility, 1 railroad office, and 1 wholesale drug firm.
..
40
39
OFFICE EMPLOYMENT
41
In all, a total of 118 offices were scheduled and pay-roll data covering
1,706 women were obtained.
Almost nine-tenths (88 percent) of all the women were employed in
77 offices in Omaha; by industry the proportion varied from 54 percent
of those in limited-price stores to 90 percent of those in factories and
ready-to-wear stores and to 100 percent in the miscellaneous group of
offices.
The amount of the week’s earnings in the pay period taken was
recorded for all the women, but the number of hours worked could be
secured for only about one-fourth; in other words, the earnings records
covered 1,706 women in 118 offices, but the hours-worked records
covered only 484 women in 69 offices. Hour records were not available
in the banks, insurance offices, or miscellaneous offices, nor in the small
group of beauty parlors. Hourly earnings, computed by dividing the
week’s earnings of each employee by the number of hours she worked,
obviously are confined to the 434 women for whom hours worked
were reported.
Week’s earnings.1
There was little similarity in the wage levels in the various types
of offices, and average week’s earnings,12 computed for groups of 40 or
more women, varied from $15.10 in ready-to-wear stores to $29.20
in the miscellaneous offices. Banks ranked second highest, with
average earnings of $23.05; insurance offices third, with $20.25; and
factory offices followed, with average earnings of $20.05. Office
workers in department stores and laundries and dry cleaners had
relatively low average earnings, $15.70 and $15.85.
The details of the earnings of the office women reported are given in
table 2. These show that the most pronounced concentration of
earnings was at $10 and under $20, and that few of the women doing
office work in stores and in laundries and dry cleaners earned so much
as $25. Nearly four-fifths (78 percent) in stores and not far from
two-thirds (63 percent) in laundries and dry cleaners earned $10 and
under $20, but only 18 percent in stores, in contrast to 28 percent in the
aundry group, earned $20 and more. In banks, factories, and insur
ance offices from 65 to 71 percent earned $15 and under $25; and 34,
20, and 24 percent, respectively, had earnings of $25 and over.
In the miscellaneous offices, where the largest number of women
were reported, over two-fifths (43 percent) had earnings of $30 and
over and nearly one-third (31 percent) earned $25 and under $30.
Of the 228 with earnings of at least $30, two-fifths earned $34 or
more.
Unpublished data show that one-half of the small group (10) of the
appointment clerks in beauty parlors were paid earnings of $20 or
more.
1 For year's earnings see separate section of report, pp. 45 to 51.
2 The average used throughout this report is the median or midpoint of earnings—half the women earn
ing more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
42
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS IN' NEBRASKA
Table 2.—Week’s earnings of women in office employment
Percent of office women with earnings as specified in—
Stores
Week’s earnings
Total
Number of women _ _.
Average earnings *_
Fac
tories
Laun
dries
and dry
cleaners
Banks
Insurance
offices
426
$20. 05
40
$15.85
112
$23.05
296
$20. 25
532
$29. 20
9.8
Percent of women
0.7
2.5
2.3
7.5
8.2
27.5
38.3
35.0
30.1
17.5
12.6
2.5
7.7
7.5
0.9
27.7
37.5
20.5
13.4
5.1
41.1
29.8
16.0
8.0
1.7
2.3
1.5
11.7
8.8
31.2
42.9
Cumulative percents
8.1
30.0
17.8
52.5
34.5
67.5
49.5
72.5
66.7
87.5
76.5
90.0
.9
1.8
10.8
28.6
49. 1
63.4
5.1
8.1
22.3
46.2
62.5
75.7
5.2
7.5
11.3
17.3
22.0
24.6
36.6
25.2
16.2
13.5
6.3
3.6
24.3
14.5
8.7
8.0
5.6
2.9
75.4
72.1
63.3
42.9
29.5
17.1
Depart Readyment
to-wear
41
$15.10
2 290
$15. 75
212
$15. 70
0.7
3.4
34.5
43.1
9.0
5.2
4.1
2.8
36.3
42.9
8.5
5.7
3.8
13.9
53.9
72.2
81.9
86.4
89.5
12.2
55.1
72.5
81.9
86.7
89.6
24.4
61.0
80.5
85.4
87.8
90.2
10.5
7.4
4.7
4.1
2.4
1.7
10.4
7.0
4.7
3.7
2.8
1.9
9.8
9.8
9.8
9.8
2.4
2.4
4.9
7.3
36.6
36.6
4.9
23.5
14.2
9.8
7.7
6.3
5.3
10.0
7.5
7.5
7.5
2.5
Miscellaneous
offices 1
1 Includes 1 newspaper, 1 public utility, 1 railroad office, and 1 wholesale drug firm.
2 Includes 37 women in limited-price stores, not shown separately.
3 The median or midpoint—half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
Hours worked.
The hours worked in the current week were reported for only 434
women in 69 firms—40 stores (275 women), 16 factories (130 women),
and 13 laundries and dry cleaners (29 women). The largest propor
tion of women, 33 percent, worked over 40 and under 44 hours, and
the next largest group, 20 percent, 40 hours even. However, a sub
stantial proportion, 18 percent, worked 48 horns or longer. In fac
tories only 2 percent worked as long as 48 hours, but in stores as many
as 21 percent had such a long workweek. The largest group in fac
tories, 66 percent, worked 40 hours; and in stores 51 percent worked
over 40 and under 44 hours. That the work of office employees usu
ally is steadier than that of industrial workers is indicated by the
extremely small proportion of women, 5 percent, who worked less
than 40 hours.
The women in offices in Omaha had a more favorable workweek
than those in offices in other places. The large majority of women in
Omaha, 68 percent, worked 40 and under 44 hours and only 10 percent
worked as long as 48 hours. In the other places, however, as many as
47 percent worked 48 hours or longer and 45 percent worked 44 and
under 48 hours.
OFFICE EMPLOYMENT
43
Table 3.—Hours worked by women in office employment
Percent of women who worked—
Number
of wom
en with
Over
Over
Over
32,
54
hours
Under under
40,
44,
48,
40
44
48
hours
worked
32
under hours
under
under
hours
40
hours
and
reported1 hours
44
48
54
hours
hours
hours
hours over
Industry
STATE
Stores—Total...
Department........ .
Ready-to-wear. ...
Manufacturing
_
434
3.2
1.8
20.0
33.2
8.1
15.7
7.6
7.1
3.2
275
197
41
130
3.6
3.0
7.3
2.3
2.2
3.0
0.4
51.3
56.9
61.0
5.1
7.1
16.4
19.3
7.6
4.9
9.5
10.2
2.4
2.3
4.0
.5
24.4
4.2
1.5
3.9
1.6
66.2
16.2
11.5
42.7
10.1
7.4
73.4
83.0
6.8
9.6
16.8
1.5
8.0
OMAHA
Total _____ _______
Stores—Total - _
Department_____
Manufacturing
337
2.4
2.4
192
136
125
2.6
1.5
2.4
3.1
4.4
1.6
25.5
68.8
4.7
5.2
2.4
OTHER PLACES
Total_______ ______
97
6.2
1.0
1.0
44.3
19.6
26.8
Stores—Total.....................
Department..............
83
62
6.0
6.5
1.2
1.2
1.6
44.6'
58.1
14.6
31.3
32.3
t
1 Industries with less than 40 employees reported are not shown separately, but are included in totals.
Hourly earnings.
Hourly earnings were computed for the 434 women for whom hours
worked were reported by dividing the week’s earnings by the number
of hours worked for each woman separately. As shown in table 4,
office women in factories had the highest average earnings, 47.7 cents,
and the small group in ready-to-wear stores the lowest, 32.7 cents.
Department-store women averaged 34.9 cents. Average hourly earn
ings were not computed for other groups with hours worked reported
because the base was too small.
In stores the heaviest concentration of women when grouped
according to hourly earnings fell in the intervals of 30 and under
40 cents, 62 percent of the women in department stores and 49 percent
of those in ready-to-wear stores having such earnings. In ready-towear stores, however, a large proportion, 22 percent, had earnings of
less than 25 cents. In factories the most common earnings, received
by 59 percent of the office workers, were 40 and under 55 cents, and
as many as 18 percent earned 60 cents and over.
In Omaha the majority of the store workers, 68 percent, had hourly
earnings of 30 and under 40 cents, and in factories the most usual
earnings, paid to 60 percent of the women, were 40 and under 55 cents.
44
WOMEN'S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
Very few of the women in Omaha offices (only 7 percent) had earnings
of less than 30 cents. In contrast, in other places 31 percent of the
women earned under 30 cents and 27 percent earned 30 and under
35 cents.
Table 4.—Hourly earnings of women in office employment
Industry
Percent of women who earned—
Number
of women Average
with
hourly
30,
35,
40,
45,
50,
55,
60
hourly earnings2 Under 25,
under under under under under under under cents
(cents)
earnings
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
and
reported 1
cents cents
cents cents cents cents cents cents over
STATE
Total- _____
434
37.2
4.4
7.6
28.6
15.0
11.8
9.4
9.2
4.1
9.9
Stores—Total
Department
Ready-to-wear
Manufacturing
275
197
41
130
34.8
34.9
32.7
47.7
5.1
2.0
22.0
8.4
7.1
7.3
2.3
38.9
41.6
36.6
4.7
19.3
20.3
12.2
9.3
10.9
10.7
9.8
14.6
3.7
4.1
3.6
5.1
23.1
4.4
3.6
2.4
21.6
6.2
5.8
5.6
9.8
18.4
—
OMAHA
_________
337
38.0
3.0
3.6
29.1
16.3
10.7
11.0
11.0
3.9
11.6
Stores—Total .........__
Department
Manufacturing
Total
192
135
125
34.9
35.5
48.2
4.2
2.1
44. 8
48.9
4.0
22.9
24.4
8.8
8.3
8.1
14.4
3.1
4.4
24.0
5.2
4.4
21.6
2.6
3.7
6.4
6.8
5.9
19.2
1.6
OTHER PLACES
Total
97
34.2
9.3
21.6
26.8
10.3
15.5
4.1
3.1
5.2
4.1
Stores—TotalDepartment
83
62
34.3
34.5
7.2
6.5
22.9
22.6
25.3
25.9
10.8
11.2
16.9
16.1
4.8
3.2
2.4
1.6
6.0
8.1
3.6
4.8
1 Industries with less than 40 employees reported are not shown separately, but are included in totals.
1 The median or midpoint—half the women earning more, half earning less, than the figure shown.
The earnings of women industrial workers in factories, stores, and
laundries and dry cleaners have been shown in earlier sections of this
report, and it is interesting to note that with one exception—hourly
earnings in ready-to-wear stores—office workers had higher earnings
in each industry. In factories the office workers had average hourly
earnings of 47.7 cents and week’s earnings of $20.05, compared to 39
cents and $14.90 for industrial workers. In department stores the
differences were less, the average week’s earnings being $15.70 for office
workers and $14.80 for other workers, and the average hourly earnings
respectively 34.9 cents and 33 cents. Office workers had slightly
higher week’s earnings than other workers in ready-to-wear stores,
$15.10 compared to $14.90, but their hourly earnings were a trifle
lower, 32.7 cents compared to 33.3 cents. In laundries the average
week’s earnings amounted to $15.85 for office workers and $10.65
for operatives.
YEAR’S EARNINGS OF WOMEN IN 1937
The data given in earlier sections of this report relate to a 1-week
pay period, but to give a more complete picture of women’s em
ployment in Nebraska the Women’s Bureau requested also pay-roll
data for a full year. Though some firms could not furnish complete
or adequate records for the entire period, the agents were able to
secure data m 104 establishments. Total earnings in the year
were reported for 7,201 women, including those with the firm only a
few weeks as well as those who worked practically all year. Data
were not so complete for weeks worked as for amounts earned but
records of weeks worked m 1937 were available for 5,713 women, or
four-fifths of all with year’s earnings reported. In beauty parlors
weeks worked were reported for only 29 percent of the women but
m the other industries they were reported for from 60 percent to 100
percent of all, the coverage being complete in limited-price stores
laundries, and store restaurants.
The largest group of women with 1937 records, 32 percent of all
were reported by 38 factories, and almost as many, 31 percent by 8
department stores. Ten percent of the total were office workers in
the establishments scheduled. 7 percent were in hotels, and each of
the other industries had from 2 to 5 percent of the total.
Only about one-half of the firms supplying a year’s data, but not
iar from nine-tenths of the women, were in Omaha. All in limitedprice stores and laundries were in places outside of Omaha but in the
other industries from 71 to 94 percent of the women were in that city.
lhe extent of the reporting of year’s earnings is shown in table 1
following. Records were available in some firms in each of the
industries covered by the survey.
1. Number of establishments supplying records for the year 1.937 and
number of women with earnings and with weeks worked reported, by industry
Table
1
Industry
Total.......... .............
Manufacturing ...
Stores_____
Department
Limited-price___ ..
Ready-to-wear .
Laundries ______
Beauty shops..
.
Hotels______
Lodging department
Restaurant department
Store restaurants.
Other restaurants
Office work.
Number of
establish
ments
Number of women
with—
Year’s
earnings
reported
Weeks
worked
reported
i 104
7,201
5, 713
38
25
3
2, 329
2,831
2, 259
181
10
522
1,612
2, 578
2,135
181
262
114
32
325
120
114
.............
12
3 281
3 317
454
352
----------------------------
“ “"s ss cssst sa2r>tss»assasRai!
45
46
WOMEN’S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
Year’s earnings of all women.
In earlier sections of the report it has been seen how greatly week’s
earnings varied among the women, but table 2 shows that variation
was very much greater over a longer period. The amount of short
time employment was very great: As may be seen from table 3, to be
discussed later, 22 percent of all women reported for 1937 were with the
firm less than 4 weeks. Without taking time worked into con
sideration, the total earnings reported for individual women on the
firms’ books in 1937 varied from less than $25.to more than $2,500.
Office workers had the highest earnings; their average was $792,
equivalent, on the basis of 52 weeks, to a little over $15 a week.
Nearly three-tenths of the office workers earned $1,000 or more, but
a substantial proportion, just over one-fifth, had earnings of less
than $100.
_
.
.
The large group of women in factories had average earnmgs of only
$244, but the amounts varied greatly by industry. Meat packing
paid relatively high wages. The average year’s earnings of women
in this industry were $747, ranking second only to office work; as
many as 22 percent earned $1,000 or more, but 26 percent earned
less than $200. The year’s earnings were very low in plants producing
other food products, the average being only $128; over three-fifths of
the women had earnings of less than $200 and only about one-tenth
earned as much as $600. Women in clothing factories averaged
$246.50; the largest group, 34 percent, earned less than $100 and
only a relatively few women, 8 percent, earned $600 or more.
Total earnings in stores also were very low, influenced by weekly
part time as well as by the few weeks of employment. The average
varied from $91.50 in department stores to $115.50 in ready-to-wear
stores. From 62 percent of the women in ready-to-wear stores to
74 percent of those in limited-price stores had earnings of less than
$300. At the other extreme of the wage scale, with earnings of $800
or more, were only 7 percent of the women in limited-price stores and
11 percent in department and in ready-to-wear stores.
Laundry workers had somewhat better total earnings than store
employees, as their average was $212.50. One-fourth of the group
earned $500 or over, none so much as $1,000, but one-third had earn
ings of less than $100.
.
Because of the practice of furnishing meals to many workers m
hotels and restaurants, earnings in these industries have been tabu
lated separately for women whose amounts as reported included,
and those whose amounts did not include, the value of meals. The
earnings in these establishments generally were very low; average earn
ings for the various groups ranged from only $17.50 to $375. The
women in store restaurants who did not receive meals or whose
earnings did not include the value of meals had the highest average,
$375, but as many as two-fifths of these earned less than $200; only
13 percent of the group earned as much as $600 and none earned so
much as $800. The women in other restaurants whose earnings as
reported included the value of meals averaged $197; 12 percent of
the group earned $800 and over and 23 percent earned $400 and under
$800. In all other cases two-thirds or more of the women had earn
ings of less than $200, and 80 women in store restaurants and 1 in
other restaurants were given meals but were paid no cash wages.
47
YEAR’S EARNINGS OF WOMEN IN 193 7
The details of the total earnings of all women reported as with the
firms in 1937 are given in this table.
Table 2.— Year’s earnings of women in 1937, by industry
Industry
Number
of wom
Average
en
with
year’s
year’s earnings12 Un
der
earnings
$100
reported 1
Percent of women who earned $100, $200, $400, $600, $800, $1,000
$1,200
un
un un un
un
un
and
der
der
der
der
der
der
$200 $400 $600 $800 $1,000 $1,200 over
All industries—Total.-
7,201
$176.50
42.0
9.8
11.4
10.6
12.0
7.6
3.7
2.8
Manufacturing—Total
Food products
Meat packing
Other food
Clothing
2,329
1, 604
417
1,187
336
244.00
183. 50
747.00
128. 00
246. 50
33.5
37.6
20. 1
43.7
34.2
12.7
14.2
6.0
17.0
11.9
16.5
15.0
11.0
16.5
19.6
16.1
10.5
7.2
11.8
26.8
9.2
8.0
7.9
7.9
4.8
7.4
8.4
25.6
2.4
2.1
3.7
5.0
18.3
.4
.6
0.9
1.3
3.8
.4
Stores—Total
Department....... ...............
Limited-price. .................
Ready-to-wear____ ____
2,831
2, 259
181
391
94.00
91.50
92. 00
115. 50
51.1
51.5
53.0
47.8
8.5
8.1
11.0
9.7
7.8
7.2
16.5
7.2
6.0
5.6
7.8
7.7
16.1
17.0
5.0
16.3
6.3
6.6
6.1
5.1
2.2
2.3
.6
3.0
1.8
1.7
3.1
Laundries
Beauty shops......................... .
114
109
212. 50
469.00
33.3
19.3
15.8
14.7
12.2
13.8
34.2
14.7
2.7
13.8
1.8
10.1
4.6
9.2
Hotels—Total
Lodging department___
Restaurant
depart
ment 3
522
188
39. 50
17. 50
64.0
68.1
7.1
9.0
12.6
13.3
7.1
7.4
6.5
1.6
1.7
.5
.6
.4
309
46.00
63.4
5.8
11.7
7.1
7.8
2.6
.9
.6
Store restaurants—Total___
Value of meals included.
Value of meals not in
cluded, or no meals__
201
121
104.00
51.00
49.8
63.6
8.5
6.6
8.0
4.9
16.9
5.0
15.9
18.1
1.0
1.7
80
375.00
28.8
11.3
12.5
35.0
12.5
Other restaurants—Total___
Value of meals included.
Valuc of meals not in
cluded, or no meals__
352
217
138. 50
197.00
44.3
37.8
11.4
12.4
15.1
15.3
10.2
9.7
11.6
12.9
5.1
8.3
1.4
2.3
.9
1.4
135
67. 50
54.8
9.6
14.8
11.1
9.6
Office work--------------------
743
792.00
20.5
5.7
7.4
7.4
9.6
20.2
13.6
15.7
1 Some totals exceed details because of the inclusion of groups too small to be shown separately.
2 The average used is the median or midpoint of earnings. 3 Value of meals is included in earnings.
From table 2 it is apparent that the proportion of women who had
year’s earnings with reporting establishments of less than $400
(equivalent to less than $35 a month) was extremely large. Only in
office work and in meat-packing plants had one-half or more of the
women total earnings equivalent to $50 monthly, and only in these
two and in beauty parlors had as many as one-fiftli total earnings that
would equal $75 a month.
Time worked and year’s earnings.
The number of weeks worked in 1937 was reported for 5,713 women,
or 79 percent of the total with year’s earnings reported. The details
in regard to weeks worked are given in table 3, and examination of this
table makes clear that the low earnings previously discussed are due
in large measure to the small amount of work the women had in these
establishments through the year. Considering 48 weeks or more as
a full year, only in office work were the majority of the women em
ployed so long, and in only two other classes—meat-packing plants
and a store-restaurant group—were as many as two-fifths employed
48 or more weeks. In fact, excepting office work and meat packing
there was no group in which half the women had work with the firm
reporting for 36 weeks in the year.
48
WOMEN'S WAGES AND HOURS IN NEBRASKA
Department stores, hotels, and store restaurants had very unfavor
able conditions, as the majority of their workers, from 51 to 64 per
cent, were employed less than 12 weeks. Conditions were particu
larly hard for a small group (80 women) in store restaurants who
were furnished meals but were not paid any cash wage; all these were
employed less than 24 weeks. In office work and meat packing,
somewhat over one-fifth of the women had less than 12 weeks’ work’
but in all other classes from just under three-tenths to over two-fifths
of the women had so little employment.
Table 3.—Number of weeks women worked in 1937, by industry
Industry
All industries—Total_______________
Manufacturing—Total - _________ ____ ____
Food products _________ ____________
Meat packing_______
___
Other food - ___ _______________
Clothing ____ _________________ ___
Stores—Total_______________ _____ _______
Department
___________________
Limited-price__________ ___
_____
Ready-to-wear___
__________
Laundries ___
_______
Hotels—Total- ............. ............ _....... ........
Lodging department_________________
Restaurant department2______
.__
Store restaurants—TotaL
_____ ____
Value of meals included in earnings___
Value of meals not included, or no meals.
Meals only (no cash wages)___ _____
Other restaurants—Total___________
__
Value of meals included in earnings____
Value of meals not included, or no meals.
Office work __
____ * 3
Percent of women who worked—
Number
of wom
I 4,
en
12,
24,
36,
with
Un
48
un
un
un
un
weeks
der
to
der
der
der
der
worked
4
52
12
24
36
48
reported 1 weeks
weeks weeks weeks weeks weeks
5,713
21.7
19.0
11.6
8.0
9.1
30.5
1,612
941
401
540
324
2, 578
2,135
181
262
114
325
106
205
281
121
80
80
3 317
181
135
454
13.7
14.6
12.7
15.9
16.7
26.5
27.1
23.2
23.7
12.3
41.8
25.5
52.2
23.8
16.5
13.8
45. 0
18.9
19.9
17.8
12.6
13.2
14.8
10.7
17.8
13.6
23. 1
23.8
17.1
21.4
17.6
20.3
28.3
17. 1
26.7
28. 1
15.0
36.3
22.4
17.2
28.9
8.8
13.3
14.1
12.1
15.6
13.0
10.0
9.7
15.4
9.6
18.4
10.5
17. 9
5.9
15.7
16. 5
11.3
18.8
17.0
17.7
16.3
5.9
XI. 3
8.3
8.9
7.6
15.1
6.3
5.9
12.7
5.0
9.7
7.1
8.5
6.3
6.8
8.3
11.3
14.9
10.6
13.7
8.3
32.1
6.8
6.2
9.4
10.7
7.9
6.2
8.4
4.9
4.6
5.8
7.5
33.5
37.8
41.7
34.8
9.6
27.1
27.2
22.1
29.8
34.2
14.2
11.3
13.7
22.4
24.8
41.3
8.5
8.9
8.1
5.9
9.8
10.0
9.6
5.9
23.3
26.5
19. 3
60.8
i Some totals exceed details because of the inclusion of groups tco small to be shown separately
3 Value of meals is included in earnings for all but 6.
* Total includes 1 woman who was given meals but no cash wages.
Unpublished figures of time worked and earnings show not only a
definite relation between weeks worked and year’s earnings but that
average weekly earnings tend to increase as the weeks worked increase.
The average earnings in the year of all women with weeks worked
reported in factories were $319; for those who worked less than 4
weeks the average was $14, for those working 24 and under 28 weeks
it was $275, for the group at 32 and under 36 weeks it was $378.50, for
those at 48 and under 50 weeks it was $680, and for those working 50
to 52 weeks it was $735. On a weekly basis the average would be over
$13 for those working 48 weeks or more but would be less than $12 for
those working under 44 weeks, and less than $11 for those working
under 16 weeks. Meat packers in Omaha paid amounts that averaged
$990.50 for the year to the women who worked as long as 50 weeks,
but other food-product firms paid amounts that averaged only $712
in Omaha and $273 in other places for 50 to 52 weeks! The largest
group in clothing firms worked 40 and under 44 weeks and these aver
aged $439.
YEAR’S EARNINGS OF WOMEN IN 19 3 7
49
Stores comprised the only other class with enough women in each
interval of weeks worked for the computation of average earnings.
The average for the entire group was extremely low, due largely to the
fact that the majority of the women had less than 24 weeks of work.
The group who worked 16 and under 20 weeks (80 women) averaged
$189.50, those who worked 24 and under 28 weeks (46 women) $241, those
at 32 and under 36 weeks (62 women) $422, those at 48 and under 50
weeks (83 women) $671.50, and those at 50 to 52 weeks (616 women)
$774.50. The women in department stores who worked as much as
50 weeks averaged $781.50, and those in ready-to-wear stores $719.
Office workers had relatively high earnings; the year’s average of
all, regardless of time worked, was $824.50; for the group who worked
a full year, 50 to 52 weeks, the average was $988.
Table 4, which gives the weeks worked in the reporting firms by
women who earned less than $600 and by women who earned $600
and over, shows that a considerable number of them received inade
quate wages though they had worked quite steadily through the year.
For example, almost one-tenth of the 4,070 women with earnings of less
than $600 had worked as long as 48 to 52 weeks, and a similar group
had worked 36 and under 48 weeks.
In factories more than three-tenths of the 1,199 women who had
earnings below $600 worked 36 weeks or more. The least unfavorable
situation was in meat-packing plants, where only 6 percent of the
low-earnings group worked as long as 36 weeks, and none so long as
48, for such amounts. In contrast, 32 percent of the women earning
less than $600 in plants making other food products and 37 percent
of those in clothing factories worked 36 weeks or longer.
The proportion of the low-earnings group in stores who worked 36
weeks or more was smaller, only 10 percent, but varied by type of
store from 7 percent in department stores to 15 percent in ready-towear stores and to 23 percent in limited-price stores. More than twothirds of the total store group with earnings below $600 worked less
than 12 weeks, probably much of this the temporary employment
before Easter and Christmas. In laundries two-fifths of the women
who earned under $600 worked 36 weeks or more, over three-tenths
working at least 48 weeks. Office workers had much better earnings
for the weeks they worked, as only 11 percent of the low-earnings
group worked as long as 36 weeks.
There was considerable variation in the weeks worked by the women
in the low-earnings group in hotels and restaurants. More than fourfifths (83 percent) of the women in hotel restaurants with earnings
below $600, including the value of the meals they received, worked
less than 12 weeks, and only 4 percent worked 36 weeks or more. In
contrast to this, of the 80 women in store restaurants who had cash
earnings below $600, 33 percent worked less than 12 weeks, 42 percent
worked as long as 36 weeks, and 33 percent as long as 48 weeks. In
the other classes from 13 to 21 percent of the women in the lowearnings group worked 36 weeks or more, and from 51 to 56 percent
worked less than 12 weeks.
.
The large majority of the women who had total earnings of $600
and over worked very steadily through the year. Just over threefourths of those in meat packing, and from 82 to 96 percent of those
in the other industries, worked 48 weeks or more.
Table 4.—Weeks worked by women who had earnings in 1937 of less than $600 and of $600 and over} by industry
Women who earned less than $600
Industry
Percent who worked —
2 Percents not computed where base less than 40.
Percent3 who worked —
Number
Under 12 12, under 24, under 36, under 48 weeks
weeks
24 weeks 36 weeks 48 weeks and over
Number
Under 36 36, under 48 weeks
weeks
48 weeks and over
5, 632
4,070
55.6
15.7
10.7
9.1
8.8
1, 562
1.6
9.7
88.7
1, 612
941
401
540
324
2, 578
2, 135
181
262
114
305
106
199
201
121
80
316
181
135
454
1.199
630
183
447
302
1,865
1,523
160
182
109
271
102
169
167
97
70
254
132
122
167
36.2
43.8
51. 4
40.7
32.5
68.6
71.4
45. 6
64.8
31. 2
72.7
55.9
82. 8
46. 1
55. 7
32.9
51. 2
50.8
51. 6
58. 1
17.8
21.0
26.2
18.8
13.9
13.8
13.5
17.5
13.7
19. 3
11. 1
18. 6
6.5
17.4
20.6
12. 9
21.3
24. 2
18. 0
15.0
14.6
11.1
16.4
8.9
16. 2
8.2
7.7
14. 4
6.0
10. 1
7.4
8.8
6.5
11.4
10.3
12.9
10.6
12.1
9. 0
15.6
15.1
8.4
6.0
9.4
31.8
6.3
5.4
10.6
9.9
8. 3
4.8
6. 9
3.5
7.8
7. 2
8. 6
9.1
8.3
9. 8
6.0
16.3
15.7
413
311
218
93
22
713
612
21
80
5
34
4
30
34
24
10
62
49
13
287
1.9
2.6
3. 2
1.1
14. 5
15.1
20.2
3.2
83.5
82.3
76. 6
95.7
1.8
1.8
8.4
8.2
89.8
90.0
2.5
12.5
85.0
12.9
14.3
87.1
85.7
5.9
93.0
1 Some totals exceed details because of the inclusion of groups too small to be shown separately.
3 Value of meals is included in earnings.
Women who earned $600 and over
22.1
5.6
3.2
2.0
11.9
5.5
31. 2
4.1
9.8
.6
17.4
6. 2
32.9
7.9
4.5
11.5
5.4
1.0
W O M E N ’S WAGES AND HOURS TN NEBRASKA
All industries—Total________________
M anufacturing—Total____________________
Food products________________________
Meat packing_____________________
Other food________________________
Clothing________ ____________________
Stores—Total____________________________
Department_________ ____ ___________
Limited-price________________________
Ready-to-wear_______________________
Laundries__________________ _____ ________
Hotels—Total__________ _____ ____________
Lodging department__________________
Restaurant department 8-_............... ..........
Store restaurants—Total__________________
Value of meals included________ _____
Value of meals not included, or no meals.
Other restaurants—Total__________________
Value of meals included_______ ____
Value of meals not included, or no meals.
Office work______________________________ 1 2 3
Women
with
earnings
and time
worked
reported 1
Oi
o
YEAR’S EARNINGS OF WOMEN IN 193 7
51
Year’s earnings and locality.
As noted previously, about nine-tenths of the women were in
Omaha establishments. In those industries where the year’s earnings
were tabulated for Omaha and for other places, it was found that the
difference in the respective earnings levels varied in the different
industries. For example, the year’s total earnings for all women in
the Omaha factories supplying 1937 records were $287, or $161 more
than the average in other places. In stores, on the other hand, women
employed elsewhere averaged $111.50 compared to $89.50 in Omaha,
and in independent restaurants the women whose earnings included
the value of meals averaged $275 in other places and $144 in Omaha.
Women averaged higher earnings in offices in Omaha than elsewhere.
o