The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
WOMEN'S BUREAU
Bulletin No. 126
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
HOURS, WAGES, WORKING CONDITIONS,
AND HOME WORK
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary
WOMEN'S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director
+
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
HOURS, WAGES, WORKING CONDITIONS,
AND HOME WORK
By
MARY LORETTA SULLIVAN
and
BERTHA BLAIR
BuLLETIN oF THE WoMEN's BuREAu, No.
126
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON , 1936
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. - -
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- - - - - - -
-
Price 15 cents
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
CONTENTS
Page
Letter of t ransmittaL----- ----------------- - - ----- ---------- - ---- ---Part !.- Introduction ____ ______ ____ ___________________ ____ __ ______ ___ __
Scope and purpose of survey ___ ____ ___ __ _____ __ ___ _______ __ ______ _
Summary _______ ____ ________ ______ ___ ____ ______ __ ______________ __ _
Part IL-Factories, stores, and laundries ____ __ ____ _____ _____ ___ ______ __
Scheduled hours ___ __ ____ ____ __ __ ____ __ __ _______ ___ _________ ____ _
Daily hours _______ ___ ____ ____ __ _____ ___ __ _______ ___ ________ _
Weekly
- ----- ------------- -- - -____
----_
Saturdayhours
hours----__ _____
____- --___ -__-----___ ___- -____
__ __ ___ ___ _____
Lunch
-------------- - - - ---------- - ------------Wages
____period
_____ ______
_____ __ ______
___ ___ _______
____- __
__ ___ ___--__
Median earnings ____ _____ _______ ____ _____ __________ ___ ___ __ __
Distribution of earnings ___ ____ ___ _______ _____ __________ _____ _
Earnings
by occupation
- - ----- -White women
__________ -------------___ _____ _______
_____--------__ ___ _____
__ -----____ __
Earnings dist1ibution ______ ______ ___ ___ __ __ __ ____ ____ ___ __
E arnings and time worked ___ ______ ______ ___ __ ___ _________
Comparison of late and early pay-roll data ____ ____ ____ ___ _
Mexican women _______ __ _____ __ _________ ___ ___ __ __ ___ __ ____ _
Earnings distribution _______ _________ ___ _______ ____ ____ __
E arnings and time worked ______________ ____ ____ __ ____ ___ _
Compa rison of late and ea rly pay-roll data __ ______ ___ ____ _
Negro women _____ _________________________ ___ ________ ______ _
Earnings distribution ___________ ___ __ ____ __ ____ __ ____ __ __
Earnings and time worked ____ ______ ______ _______ __ __ __ __
Compa rison of late and early pay-roll data ____ __ __ ____ ___ _
E a rnings and personal information ____ ________ __ ___ _______ .,. __
E a rnings by age __ ____ _____ ___ _________ __ ____ _______ _____ ___ _
Earnings by marital status _______ ____ _______________________ _
Earnings by time with the firm - -------------~--- --- - --- ------Part UL-Hotels and restaura nts ___ _____ _____ __ _______ _____ __ __ ___ ___ _
Length of employee-days __ ________ __ __ __ ___ ___ _____ ______ ________
Spread of hours ____ ________________ ___ __ ____ _______ ________ ___ ___
Uniform schedule and unbroken shifts _____ _______ _____ ___ ______ ___ _
Time worked in week __ __ __ __ ____ ____ ____ ___ ____________ ____ __ __ __
Earnings ____ ______ __________ __ __ __ _______ _________ ______ ___ ___ __
Meals and ~,ages _____ _____________ ___ __ _____ __ ____ __________ ____ _
Earnings and personal information ___ ____ _________ ______ ______ ___ _
Part IV.-Telephones - ----------------- ------ - ---- ----- ----·---- -----!!~~ings ____ _________________ __ ___ __________________ _____
Split shifts----- - - ---------- ------- ---- - · - -------- - --- -- - ------Day
- - ------ - - --- - - --- -- --------------_
Nightshiftsshifts- -------------___ ___ __________________________
___---_________
________
Relief operators_________________________ ___ _____ ____ _____ __ _____ _
Earnings and personal information _____ ____ _____ __ ______ _____ ____ _
Part V.-The workers- ---- - - ------- - - ------------- - ----- -------------
~:::!~
A ge _________ ___ __ ____ ___ ___ __________ · ---------- --- -- --- -- - - - ---
Marital
status
- -------------------------- ---___
--------- - --- ---_
Time with
the -firn1
__ __ ________
___ ___ ____ __ ____
______
__ _______
Part VI.-Working conditions ______ __ ___ _____ __ ____ _____________ ____ _
Garment factories --- ------ - --- - --- ------- - -- - -- - - - ---------- - --Cottonpacking
tex tile _______
mills ---------- - -_____
- --- --·-- -____
------- ---Meat
__ ___ ___ ___
______
__ ___- -------___________
___--_
Butter,
eggs, ________________
a nd poultry- - - - ----- --- -__----- - -___
- - -___
---·----------Nut
shelling
____ _____
______
_________
__ __ -_
Candy __ _______ _____ ___ _______ ___ __ __ __ ______ __ _____ _____ ____ ____
Miscellaneous food ___ __ ____________ ____ ____ __ __ ______ ____ ___ __ ___
Service facilities-all food industries __ _____________ __ ___ __ ____ ____
Bag fPctories __ ___ ___ ____ __ ______ _____ __________ ____ __ ____ ____ __ _
Wooden-box factories ______________ ___ __ ___ __ __ _______ ___________ _
Hat factories __________ __ __ __ ___ _____ ______ ____ ___ ___ _____ ____ ___ _
Paper factories ---------------- - --- ------ - -- - - ---------- - -------Miscellaneous manufacturing ------ - ------- -- - - ------- - ----------I II
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
V
1
1
7
9
9
9
11
13
13
13
14
16
17
19
19
19
21
24
24
24
25
'l:7
27
27
27
28
28
30
31
33
33
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
41
41
43
43
43
44
44
46
46
48
49
53
53
56
57
57
58
59
59
60
61
62
62
63
64
I
IV
·
CONTENTS
Part VI.-Working conditions-Conitinued.
Toilet facilities-all factories____________ ___ ___ _________ _________ _
Laundries____________________ ___________ __ ___ ___ __ ___ _____ ______
Stores ___________________________ ______ _______ _____ ______ __ __ l ___
Part VIL-Industrial home work in Texas _____ __ _____ ____ ____ _____ .:____
Type of \VOrk________ ______________ __ ____ ____ ___ ______ __ ______ __ _
Age of women------------------ ------------ - -------------------Marital status--------------------------- - - ------ ---------------Average hourly earnings_______ ___ __ ______ __ ____ _____ ______ ______
Make-up of larger families______ __ _____ ________________ _______ ___
Contract work on pecan shelling__ __ __ ___ ______ _____________ ______
TEXT TABLES
1. Number of establishments visited and number of men and women they
employed, by industry-3 racial groups_____ _______ _______________
2. Number of establishments and number of women, by industry and
by section of State-all races_______ _______ ___ ________ ___________
3. Scheduled daily hours in factories, stores, and laundr ies, by industry_
4. Schl.'-duled weekly hours in factori es, stores, and laundries, by industry__ ______ _____________________ __ __________ ____________ ____
5. Median \Yeek's earnings of white, Mexican, and Negro women, by industry-late pay rolL__ ____ __ _____________ _______________________
6. Percent of the women in factories, stores, and laundries with week's
earnings of less than $6 and of $12 and over, by race-19i32______
7. Median week's earnings of white women in the various industrial
groups, by time worked-1932__ _______________ _______ __ _________
8. Number of white women and their median week's earnings in factories, stores and laundries, by section of State-1932 and 193L___
9. Proportions of white women in factories whose earnings were less
than $5 and $14 and over-1932 and 193L_______ __ _________ __ ____
10. Number of Mexican women and their median week's earnings in factories, stores, and laundries-1932 and 193L_____________________
11. Number of Mexican women a nd their median ,veek's earnings in factories, -stores, and laundries, by section of State-1932 and 193L__
12. Number of Negro women and their median week's earnings in factories and laundries, by section of State-1932 and 193L____________
13. Median week's earnings of white women in factories, stores, and laundries, by age-1932_____________________ __________ ___ ___________
14. Median week's earnings of white women in factories, stores, and laundries, by marital status and industry-1932____ __ __________ _____ __
15. Median week's earnings of white women in factories, stores, and laundries, by time with the firm-1932__________ ________ _____________
16. Length of employee~days of 909 women in hotels and restaurants, by
race of women___ _______ ______ __ __ ____ __ __ _____ _______ _________
17. Time off duty, by spread of hours_ __ __________________ _____________
18. Hours worked during week, by occupation a nd shift____ __ __________
19. Week's earnings of women in the telephone industry-1932 and 193L_
20. Age, by race_ _________ __ __ ___ ___ ____ _____________________________
21. Marital status, by race _____ ___ ___ ____ ______________ ___________ ,__ __ ·
22. Experience, by race_______________ _____ __________ . .:. ______ __ ________ ·
23. Time with the firm, by race________ _______ _______ __________________
24. Age of women employed on industrial home work___________ _________
25. Estimated hourly earnings of home workers on infants' and children's
garments and on handkerchiefs_______________ ___________ __ _____ _
26. Number and status of wage-earners and number and age group of
non-wage-earners, by size of family_____ ___ ___ ___ ____ ___ ____ ____
Page
64
65
69
71
72
73
74
74
77
79
2
4
10
12
14
16
20
22
23
25
26
28
29
30
31
33
37
38
42
46
48
49
50
74
76
77
APPENDIX TABLES
I . Week's earnings of women in factories, stores, and laundries, by
race-1932 ------------- ----------------------- ------- ---------80
II. Week's earnings of women in hotels and restaurants and in telephone
exchanges, by race--1932__ _____ _____ _______ __________________ ___
81
ILLUSTRATIONS
Exterior
of one-room house
of a Mexican home
worker
and her
six
dren _______________
____________________
________
_________
____
__ chilFacing 71
Mexican industrial home worker making infants' fine garments ____ Facing 74
Mexican
family _____________
of industrial
smocking
infants'
dresses ________
__ ___home
_____ __workers
____ ____________
______
_ Facing 75
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,
w OMEN'S BUREAU,
Washington, S eptemher 17, 1935.
MAD.AM: I have the honor to transmit a report of the. hours, wages,
and working conditions of women-almost one-fifth of them Mexican-born or of Mexican descent, referred to throughout as Mexicans-in Texas industries. Besides manufacturing, the. inquiry
covered stores, laundries, hotels and restaurants, telephone exchanges,
and industrial home work on children's garments and the. shelling
of nuts.
The field work was conducted by Caroline. Manning, industrial
supervisor, who also wrote the preliminary report of the chief findings that was sent to the State. The complete report has been written
by Mary Loretta Sullivan and Bertha Blair of the editorial staff.
I extend my thanks to the employers, employees, and other groups
whose courteous cooperation made this study possible.
Respectfully submitted.
MARY ANDERSON, Direetor.
Hon. FRANCES PERKINS,
Secretary of L abor.
V
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
Part 1.-INTRODUCTION
The Commissioner of Labor of Texas, in January 1932, at the request of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, asked the Women's
Bureau of the United States Department of Labor to make a survey
of women employed in Texas industries. Accordingly the survey was
undertaken, and, though it was not all-inclusive, it r epresented a
cross section of the chief woman-employing industries in the State.
Texas, the largest State in the Union, in 1930 ranked fifth in population. Only the four industrial States of New York, Pennsylvania,
Illinois, and Ohio outranked it in number of inhabitants. Females
comprised about one-half ( 49.1 percent) of the total population and
approximately one-fifth ( 19.1 percent) of the persons- 10 years of age
and over gainfully employed. 1
SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF SURVEY
The chief purpose of the State surveys of the Women's Bureau is
to secure and disseminate statistical data on the wages and hours of
women workers. In Texas five woman-employing groups were
covered-factories, stores, laundries, hotels and restaurants, and telephone exchanges. In addition, important data were obtained on
rndustrial home work in two industries-garments, chiefly infants'
and children's, and the selling of pecans.
· Cooperation of employers in the furnishing of pay-roll data was
most generous. Records of wages and of time worked, where available, for a week considered by the management as representative of
the industry, and as near the middle of February 1932 as possible,,
were copied from the books of 369 establishments. Many of these
firms had similar records available for a week in 1931, and, where possible, this earlier pay roll also was copied. Women's Bureau agents
themselves took these facts from the pay books of the firm for individual women employees. Scheduled hours of the establishment were
reported by the manager, superintendent, or other officer interviewed.
An inspection of working conditions in each establishment visited was
an important phase of the investigation. Special attention was directed to seating as well as to the sanitary and service facilities provided for women employees.
Because many firms did not keep a record of the time worked in
hours, their books showing only the days on which work was done,
tabulations of days worked, as well as hours, are presented.
1 U. S. Bureau of the Census.
IV, p. 1559; vol. V, pp. 51-53.
Fifteenth Census, 1930 : P opulation, Occupations, vol.
1
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
2
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
Information as to age, nativity, marital status, and length of service with the firm also was obtained in the survey. In addition, facts
about home work were secured.
The survey covered 43 cities and towns in which pay-roll records
were reported for one or more establishments. The mdustries included in the survey, the number of establishments visited,- and the
number of their employees are given in the following table.
TABLE
1.-Number of establishments visite<t and number of men and wornen
they employed, by indJustry-3 racial groups
Industry
Number Number
Number of women employed
of estab- of men
lisbemments
ployed All races White Mexican Negro
--------------1--- ------ --- --- --Total-all industries _______________
(2)
1 369
Percent distribution __ _________ __________ ---------- -- -- --- --Factories __ ___ -- ______ -- - --- - --- ---- ---- -Bags, cloth _________ ----- - -----------Boxes and crates, wooden ____ ________
Clothmg. __________ ___ ________ ______ _
Men's work clothing 6____________
Women's.. _____ --- --------------Infants' and children's ___________
Cotton textiles. __ ___ _________________
Food ____________ ____ __ _____ __ _____ __
Butter, eggs, and poultry ________
Candy_-- --------------- ------Nut
shelling
_____________________
315,343
100. 0
11,251
73. 3
2,857
18. 6
1,235
8.0
1137
4, 031
8,037
5,850
1,932
255
8
48
53
32
17
4
13
35
4
612
372
4137
3,818
2,276
1,168
374
941
1,756
164
e 344
7 728
520
299
8 714
201
127
2,903
1,879
1,024
90
2
17
4
13
924
1,219
163
328
345
383
247
229
81
8
898
393
131
374
17
391
1
16
237
137
52
485
2,718
268
36
1,996
722
171
97
34
2
- - - ----- - - -
814
197
447
365
271
78
16
1,468
1,121
121
195
58
747
80
353
Stores. ____ _____ ___ ___ __ _ · ________________
77
1,099
3,022
Department and ready-to-wear ______
Limited-price. _______________________
45
32
967'
132
2,201
821
666
2,385
1,053
o 846
Other ______ ------------------ - --H
ats. ________ -----------------------Miscellaneous
_________ _______ __ ______
Laundries .. ______________________________
Hotels and restaurants. ____ _____ _________
Telephone exchanges _____________________
17
14
8
9
52
75
51
(2)
(2)
146
146
- - -- - - ---1,173
611
46
664
846 - ------- --
601
343
----------
1 Details aggregate more than total, because some establishments appear in more than 1 industry group .
2 Records for all men employed not available.
th~s~:S~fe~ers (13), foreladies (204), service workers (84), and extras or part-time workers (425) are included in
Includes 8 women making wooden boxes in a cigar establishment tabulated as "miscellaneous."
Includes a few firms making miscellaneous garments for men and boys.
Includes 59 women making candy in a bakery est ablishment tabulated as "other food ."
7 Includes 1 woman shelling nuts in a candy establishment.
s Includes 5 women making candy boxes in a candy establishment.
D Includes 64 women in 23 exchanges in stores and hotels.
4
8
6
The size of the plaices visited ranged :from 1,500 inhabitants tQ
a population of nearly 300,000.
The great majority of the women in the survey were in the five
largest cities, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth, and El
P aso.
150,000 or more: Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, a nd San Antonio.
40,000, less than 150,000: Austin, Beaumont, El Paso, Galveston, Waco, and
Wichita Falls..
3,000, less than 40,000: Bonham, Brenham, Brownsville, Brownwood, Coleman,
Corpus Christi, Cuero, Denison, Hillsboro, Jacksonville, Laredo, Lubbock,
Marshall, McKinney, New Braunfels, Paris, San Angelo, Sherman, Sweetwater, Texarkana, Tyler, and Waxahachie.
Less than 3,000: Grand P rairie, Itasca, K aufman, Kenedy, Mort, McGregor,
Plano, Post, Sinton, Whitesboro, and Yorktown.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART I.-INTRODUCTION
3
In the presentation of the da,t a secured in the survey, the Stato
has been divided into five sections in accordance with. the plan used
by the Texas Bureau of Labor Statistics in its investigations. The
43 cities and towns included are located as shown in footnotes 1 to 5
on table 2. In 14 places telephone establishments only were covered
in the investigation. Most of these .we,re small towns. Table 2
shows the number of plants and of women of all races combined
for each of the 17 industrial classes included in the survey.
In addition to the regular workers on the day and the night
force, the 15,343 women on the pay rolls for the selected week in
1932 include 726 special workers. Of these, 425 were either extras
or part-time workers in stores, laundries, and hotels and restaurants,
204 were fore.ladies., 84 were service workers, and 13 were designers.
(See table 1.) Tabulated with the day force-except for scheduled
hours-are the 242 women on night work. These we,r e found in
four industries-cotton mills, a meat-packing plant (shown in the
tables as "other food"), hotels and restaurants, and telephone exchanges. In no case were as many as 100 night workers reported in
any one industry.
Analysis of the data of the 137 manufacturing plants shows that
practically twice as many women as men were employed-8,037 in
contrarst to 4,031. (See table 1.) In stores the proportion of women
employees was about three-fourths; in laundries, four-fifths. In
only 3 of the 12 manufacturing classes shown in table, 1 did the
number of men employees outnumber the women in that specific
branch of industry. These are. wooden boxes and crates, cotton
textiles, and the group designated as "other food", which includes
six meat-packing plants, an industry in which male workers are
known to predominate.
Since it is a generally accepted fact that women are among the
first to suffer when forces are reduced, the number of Texas women
who had employment in 1930, the year the Federal census was taken,
prob.ably was higher than at any time within the 2 succeeding years.
The depression had hit industry before the Women's Bureau survey
was made, so, in order to ascertain to what extent women's employment and wages had declined within the year in the industries covered, each firm was asked for employment and pay-roll data for a
representative week a year before the study as well as the one for
1932.
Because conditions prevailing in the hotel and restaurant and
telephone industries differ so radically :from those existing in factories, stores, and laundries, the groups first mentioned are discussed separately in the hour and wage sections of this report. The
fluctuating and irregular hours and wages of many of the workers
in these industries create problems that require special treatment
and emphasis. The wide spread. of hours entailing breaks of both
long and short duration and the frequent change of the workers'
schedules constitute the main points of difference in the hour data
reported. Tips are taken into consideration by employers in setting the wage rates of certain occupations in the hotel and restaurant business, and meals furnished by the establishment to the workers tend to make the money wage proportionately fower than that
prevailing in other industries.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TABLE
2.-Number of establishments and number of women, by industry and by section of State-all races
Cantrall
All sections
Industry
Eastern 2
Northern a
Establishments
Women
101
5,077
742
2,702
Establishments
Women
7 369
14,617
7137
7,900
8
8
366
136
32
17
4
13
2, 250
1, 130
368
941
Stores:
Department and ready-to-wear ____ _
Limited-price ________ _____________ _
4
12
7
14
8
14
162
330
721
509
280
707
5
4
9
5
8
7
8
45
32
1,987
523
2
4
83
56
7
6
72
40
14
12
8'/5
250
17
Laundries _____ _____ _____ ______ _________
Hotels and restaurants __ __ ______ __ __ __ _
Telephone exchanges __ ________ ___ _____ _
52
75
51
2, 347
1,014
846
6
7
6
187
100
46
8
10
6
157
101
68
16
33
16
698
482
187
15
16
13
Total-all industries e______ _____ _
Factories ________ _____ ________ _____ ____ _
Bags, cloth _______ _________________ _
Boxes and crates, wooden __ ______ __
Clothing:
Men's work clothing __ _____ ___ _
Women's ________ ______ __ ______ _
Infants' and children's __ ____ __ _
Cotton textiles ___ ___ __ ____ _____ ____
Food:
Butter, eggs, and poultry __ ____
Candy __ _____ ___ __________ ___ __
Nut shelling __ ______ ____ ____ ___
Other __ ____ __ _________ __ ____ __ _
Hats
__ - -- --- - -__- ______
-- - -- - ----_____
- -- ---Miscellaneous
____
___ -__-
1 lncludes
Establishments
4
2
2
Women
Establishments
637
165
71
Women
Establishments
143
677
7 154
6,750
9
239
7 72
4,258
5
76
3
1
117
31
5
2
249
29
2
155
14
8
1,352
605
9
9
569
4
2
414
525
368
184
94 - - -------- - --- --- - ---3
------ ----- -----·-----
Women
7
Establishments
7
Women
44
1,476
10
536
5
258
2
94
162
278
2
49 ---- - - - - - - - - ---------485
1
149
1
87
262
6
247 - - - - ---- -- - ----------230 -- -- ------- - ---- - --- - 1
50
167
4
488
1
47
4
Austin, Brenham, Brownwood, Hillsboro, Mart, McGregor, and Waco.
2rncludesJacksonville, Kaufman, Marshall, Texarkana, and Tyler.
arncludes Bonham, Dallas, Denison, Fort Worth1 Grand Prairie, Itasca, McKinney, Paris, Plano, Sherman, Waxahachie, and ·w hitesboro.
•Includes Beaumont, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Cuero, Galveston, Houston, Kenedy, New Braunfels, San Antonio, Sinton, and Yorktown.
• Includes Coleman, El Paso, Laredo, Lubbock, Post, San Angelo, Sweetwater, and Wichita Falls.
• This table excludes the 726 extras and part-time workers, foreladies, etc., who Corm part of the larger total on table 1.
7 Details aggregate more than total, because some establishments appear in more than 1 industry group.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Western a
Southern•
808
51
5
6
149
1,020
240
7
9
256
10
285
91
289
126
....
z
g
I
rn
PART !.-INTRODUCTION
5
Many 0£ the telephone exchanges included in the investigation
were in small towns; in fact, this was the sole industry studied in
14 0£ the 43 localities visited. Figures 0£ the Bureau of the Census
indicate that in 1930 only 1 of these 14 localities had a population
as high as 20,000, the next highest being a little more than 6,000 ; 6
were reported as having fewer than 2,000 inhabitants. 2 Telephone
exchanges were studied also in the larger citioo of Texas, places
where data were secured for women in several other industries.
Manufacturing plants comprised 37 percent of the establishments
visited and they employed the majority ( 52.4 percent) of the workers for whom wage data were reported. The number of hotels and
restaurants visited was· about the same as the number of stores ( each
about one-fifth of all establishments) though the number of women
employed in the latter group was almost three times that in the
former. Laundries and telephone exchanges had respectively 15.5
and 5.5 percent of the employees covered by this survey; the latter
include, however, exchanges in the stores and hotels and restaurants
visited.
Most of the women were white; in fact, 8 of every 11 included
in the study. were white and 2 of every 11 were Mexican. There
were more than twice as many Mexicans as Negroes.
.
Texas ranks first of the States in the number of Mexicans living
within its borders. There were 683,681 persons of this· racial group
in the State in 1930; in fact, 2 of every 17 inhabitants in that year
were Mexican. About the same proportion of this group as of the
total population-48.6 and 49.1 percent-were females:.3 About onesixth of the female Mexicans 10 years of age and over were gainfully
occupied. 4
Because of the significance of this group in the industries of Texas
and because the survey disclosed that Mexican women were recei ving very much lower wages than white women, even when working
side by side in the same occupation and establishment, statistical
data, excepting only those given by the managers or superintendents,
have been tabulated by racial group-white, Mexican, and Negro.
Thus the tables reveal to what extent hours and wages varied according to race.
Clothing plants, largely making men's work clothing, reported on
more women than did any other mdustry, and most of the clothing
workers (76 percent) were white. Stores and laundries came next
in employment figures. They •a lso re-ported large proportions of
white women, in the former case 89.9 percent, in the latter 49.2 percent. The department and ready-to-wear stores and the men's-workclothing plants employed more than one-third of all white women
reported, and in each of these white women constituted an overwhelming majority of the workers.
One-fourth (25.8 percent) of the white women and over threetenths (31.4 percent) of the Mexicans were employed as clothing
workers. All these white women were making men's work clothing
or women's clothing, while over two-fifths ( 41.6 peroent) of the
11
U . S. Burea u of the Census.
pp. 1080, 1081.
U. S. Bureau of the Cen su s.
a nd 101.
'U. S. Bureau of the Census.
p. 87.
3
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
l!..,ifteen t h Cen su s, 1930:
P opulation, vol. III, pt. 2,
F_ifteenth Census, 1930: Population , vol. II, pp. 35, 99,
F ifteenth Census, 1930 : P opula t ion , vol. V, Occupations,
6
WOMEN IN ·TEXAS INDUSTRIES
Mexican clothmg workers were engaged in plants making infants'
and children's garments. Only Mexican women were employed in
the four establishments producing children's wear. In fact, almost as
many Mexicans were engaged on children's wear as on men's work
clothing-374 and 393, respectively. Infants' and children'Sl wear
:alone, -of the 17 industries, had no white women employed in the
week for which the pay roll was taken, though a few white women
reporting personal information were in establishments making
infants' and children's dresses.
There were no Mexicans nor Negroes in the telephone exchanges,
and 5 of the remaining 16 industrial groups· had fewer than 50 Mexican women. Negro workers were reported in 9 industries and the
number ranged from 2 to 601. Four of the 9 groups had fewer than
35 women. The largest proportions of Negro women workers in any
industry were in laundries and in hotels and restaurants, 48.7 percent and 27.8 peroont, respectively. About one-third (32.6 percent)
of all hotel and restaurant women workers and one-fourth (25.2
percent) of the laundry workers were Negroes. They formed 24.2
percent of the women engaged in the manufacture of cloth bags and
20.l percent of those in nut shelling. ·
·
The 726 special workers referred· to are included in the industrial
groupings of table 1, and in the tables on scheduled hours of work,
but they have not been included elsewhere- in this report.
The following is a comparison of the number of women recorded as
on the pay rolls of the va.r ious establishments by agents of the
Women's Bureau and the number reported by the Census of Occupations of 1930 for the principal industrial groups:
Industry and occupation
with 1932 payWomen in Women
roll data reported
the Texas
industries ,- - - - - - surveyed 1 N umber
Percent
Total. ....... ------ --- ------------- --- -- ---- -- --- -- --- - -- -- - Manufacturing and mechanical industries:
Ope~ ~;:n~nd laborers 2 ___ -- _________ . . . . . . ___________ _ • _____ _
1
Cotton textiles.---------------------- ___ ... ______ .. ___ ____ _
Food ..... -------- --- - -- -------- -- -- - --- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- --Stores-saleswomen .. ---- ___ --------------- ___ _.. __ .. ________ -- ___ _
Laundries-operatives and laborers _______ .. ___ .... _____ .. __.. .. _.. __
Telephones-operators. __ __ __________________ __ _____ _____________ __
Hotels and restaurants-servants and waitresses ...... __ __ ...... _.. _
1
3
74,746
15,343
20. 5
17,325
6, 469
1,400
4,298
22, 421
7,958
8, 308
18, 734
8,037
3,818
941
1,756
3,022
2, 385
846
1, 053
. 46. 4
59. 0
67. 2
40. 9
13. 5
30.0
10. 2
5. 6
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census, 1930: vol. I V, Occupation statistics, Texa~, 1930, p.
1563.
2
3
Includes a number of industries not shown separately.
Exclusive of operatives and laborers in building industry.
It will be seen that the women included in this study formed onefifth of all the gainfully occupied women in these industries in 1930.
About 7 in every 15 ( 46.4 percent) of the operatives and laborers
employed in manufacturing and mechanical mdustries in that year
are included in the present study. Approximately three-fifths of
the women reported by the census as clothing workers, two-fifths
of those in food manufacture, and two-thirds of the cotton-mill employees were included, as were three-tenths of the laundry operatives
and laborers and more than one-eighth of the saleswomen. Workers
in the hotels and restaurants and telephone establishments visited
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART i.-
INTRODUCTION
7
represented, respectively, one-twentieth and one-tenth of the total
numbers in these industries in 1930.
Slightly more than 3,000 wom.e_n weJ·e em.ployed in the, stores
visited, and approximately three-fourths (72.8 percent) o:f this number were in those classified as department and ready-to-wear stores.
It is not surprising to find that nine-tenths o:f the women in this
jndustry were white. As· a matter of :fact, half of the white women
(50.3 percent) in factories, stores, and,laundries were at work in this
type of store and in plants making men's work clothing and worn.en's
clothing. Well.over half (53.7 percent) of the Mexican women were
em.ployed in the three types of clothing establishments visited and
in laundry plants. Two-thirds (67.4 pe;rcent) o:f the Negro women
were in one industry-laundries:. The manufacture o:f clothing ranks
high in manufacturing as a woman-em.ploying industry in Texas.
The records of the 53 clothing establishments cover dose to half of
the women in the manufacturmg groups included in this study. No
white nor Negro woman was on the pay rolls of the plants making
children's clothing, only·Mexicans bemg em.ployed in this branch of
the work. Negro women were reported in only 8 of the 17 industrial
classes shown in table 1.
·
Because of the time and the expense involved, the investigation was
not meant to be all-inclusive, but the data presented in the following
pages are a true indication of women's ·employment in the State in
1932. The sample method used by the Bureau in its investigations
gives a picture of conditions prevailing in industry, and it has been
the practice to include both large -and small .establishments in the
various sections, special attention being directed to woman-employing
industries concentrated in the area.
SUMMARY
Date of survey: Spring of 1932.
Extent of survey: 15,343 women in q6 establishments, in 43 cities and towns.
PAY-ROLL DATA
Race (15,343 ,vomen reported) : White, 11,~51; Mexican, 2,857; Negro, 1,235.
Industry (15,343 women reported) :
Clothing manufacture, 24.9 percent ; food manufacture, 11.4 percent;
other manufacture, 16.1 percent.
·
Department and ready-to-wear stores, 14.3 percent; limited-price stores,
5.4 percent.
Laundries, 15.5 percent.
Hotels and restaurants, 6.9 percent.
· Telephone exchanges, 5.5 percent.
Scheduled daily hours
A day of over 8 and including 9 hours was reported for three-fourths of
the women in factories, stores, and laundries. About one-tenth of all women
had a schedule of more than 9 hours, but almost two-tbirds of these were cottontextile workers, an industry allowed 10 hours daily, 60 hours weekly, if double
time is paid for all bours over 9 daily.
Scheduled weekly hours
A scheduled week of more than 50 hours was· reported for over half the
women in factories, stores, and laundries, about 30 percent of the total having a
week of at least 54 hours. Two-thirds of those .·whose week exceeded 54
hours were in cotton mills; where 60 hours may be worked if overtime is paid
double. The others with so long a schedule were in nut~shelling establishments.
The great majority--85 percent-of the telephone operators bad a schedule
of 48 hours.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
8
'WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
Saturday hours
Not far from one-half of the factory, store, and laundry workers had a
Saturday of 8 to 9 hours; for almost as many ( 45 percent) the day did not
exceed 5 hours, about one-sixth of these having no work at all on Saturday.
No store worker had a schedule of less than 8 hour·.
Lunch period
A 30-minute lunch period was reported for about 47 percent of the women
workers. Four-fifths of those in stores had 1 hour, as had roughly one-third
of the women in work-clothing, cotton-textile, nut-shelling, and laundry
establishments.
Time worked
In facto1ies, stores, and laundries almost three-fifths (57 percent) of the
women whose hours worked were reported had worked at least 48 hours.
About three-fourths (73 percent) whose time was recorded in days had worked
on at least 5 days.
Earnings for a week in 1932
For the industries employing the largest numbers of women the medians
were-Men's work clothing: White women, $7.15: Mexican, $5.50.
Women's clothing: White women, $5.20; Mexican, $5.45.
Cotton textiles: White women, $7.80.
Nut shelling: White women, $4.15; Mexican and Negro, $2.65 each.
Laundries: White women, $8.55; Mexican, $6.35; Negro, $7.25.
Department and ready-to-wear stores: White women, $12.90; Mexican.
women, $9.
Limited-price stores: White women, $9.70; Mexican, $9.25.
Telephone: White women, $15.10.
Of all ·women, 20.9 percent had earnings of less than $5, 67.5 percent had
earnings of less than $10. Only 10.6 percent received a s much as $15 for their
week's work, and 28.2 percent of these were telephone workers. In practically
all cases the proportio,ns earning $15 or more were much larger in 1931. than
in -1932.
PERSONAL HISTORY
Age (9,605 women reporting):
Under 40 years, 81.2 percent; under 25 years, 37.2 percent.
Fifty years and over, only 5.4 percent.
Marital status (9,661 women reporting) :
Single, 38.5 percent; married, 35.9 percent; widowed, 16.1 percent; and separated or divorced, 9.4 percent.
Time with the firm (9,607 women reporting):
-~ss than 5 years, 67.3 percent; less than 3 years, 46.2 percent; less than 1
year, 19.2 percent.
Ten ~ears and over, 10.3 percent.
WORKING CONDITIONS
Visits were made to 268 establishments-79 stores, 52 laundries, and 137
factories-to ascertain the conditions under which women were working. Information was obtained concerning ventilatipµ; lighting, space and order, conditions of floors and stairways, seating, hazards and strains, drinking facilities,
washing and toilet fa<;ilities, cloak and lunch rooms.
HOME WORK IN TEXAS
Much. of the fine needlework on handkerchiefs and infants' and children's
garments is done in the homes of the workers. The agents visited 119 of these
homes and obtained facts concerning the worker's earnings, family, and conditions under which the work was done. Practically all the home workers were
Mexicans. Earnings were extremely low, average hourly earnings ranging
from less than 1 cent to 1.2 cents.
Pecan shelling in the homes and contract shops also was inquired into. In
most cases c;oµditioµ l? wer~ f~:r fr<,>m good. .
·
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
LL
C LLE
Part 11.-FACTORIES, STORES, AND LAUNDRIES
SCHEDULED HOURS
The Texas hour law fixes the number of hours that a female may
work, at 9 a day and 54 a week, but the statute exempts mercantile
establishments and telephone and telegraph companies in rural districts and in towns of less than 3,000 inhabitants. Overtime is permitted in cases of extraordinary emergency, for which longer hours
may be worked with the consent of the employee, but for such hours
double time must be paid. Overtime is permitted in laundries also,
provided that the day does not exceed 11 hours nor the week exceed
54, and that double pay is given for all time over 9 hours a day.
Women employed in factories that make cotton, woolen, or worsted
goods, or articles of merchandise manufactured from cotton goods,
are permitted to work 10 hours a day and 60 hours a week provided
that double pay is given for all time over 9 hours in any day.
Figures of this study show that 92.7 percent of the women reported in the cotton mills were expected to work more than 54 hours
a week, and most of these textile workers were in plants that had a
scheduled week of 55 hours.
Scheduled daily and weekly hours of work were reported by 258
factories, stores, and laundnes, employing close to 13,000 women.
With the exception of one laundry whose scheduled day was 3 or 3½
hours, operating time in these establishments ranged from 6 or
6½ hours to 10 hours a day. Weekly hours ranged from 38 ( again
excluding the laundry, whose schedule was reported as 18 or 21
hours a week) to 56.
Of the 12,725 women in establishments that had definite schedules
reported, slightly over two-fifths had a day of less than 9 hours and
a week of less than 50 hours ( 42.4 percent and 41.1 percent,
respectively).
Ninety-three women working at night in 3 of the textile mills
and in 1 meat-packing plant, 389 extras and part-time workers in
stores and laundries, and 13 designers in 2 manufacturing industries are not included in the tables and discussion of scheduled
hours.
Daily hours
Not far from one-half (47.7 percent) of the women whose daily
hours were reported had a schedule of 9 hours, the legal maximum
for all but exempted classes.
Another large group ( 40.7 percent) had schedules of 8 and under
9 hours, only about three-tenths of them at 8 hours even. The remaining groups were, respectively, 9.9 percent with schedules longer
than 9 hours and 1.7 percent with schedules below 8 hours.
9
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TABLE
3.-Scheduled daily hours in factories, stores, and laundries , by industry
Number with scheduled daily hours ofNumber
reported
Estab•
lishments
Women
Estab·
lish•
ments
Total.. ..........•. _................ . .
1258 212,725
11
Percent distribution of women ...• . . . __ ... .. ··· ···- · ·
100. 0 .... ••••.
Factories:
Bags, cloth ___·-···-···-· -· · ·--· ·-·-·· ··
Boxes and crates, wooden. ·- · · ·· --·-·-··
Clothing. Men's work clothing .. ·-·-· -· · · ·-··Women's __ -- · -·-· . .. ···-······ ··-··
Infants' and children's ... . . . ....... .
Cotton textiles .......... . ..... . . ....... .
FoodButter, eggs, and poultry·· ·· -···· ··
Candy ........... ········-··········
Nut shelling·-·······-·-···········Other............ _. ....•. _.. _...... .
Hats .. _. __ ........... . _. __ . ......... _.. .
Miscellaneous .... ······ · ·······•- · . ... .
Stores:
Department and ready•to•wear .... .... .
Limited price ..... . ......... ·--· ··- . ... .
Laundries .... ·- . .. _.... . _.. ... ... ......... .
1
t
Over 9 and less
than 10
Over 8 and less
than 9
Less than 8
Industry
Women
Estab•
lish•
ments
213
27
1. 7 .....•. ..
Women
Estab•
lish•
ments
1,602
I 65
12. 6 ··· · · ·•· ·
Women
Estab•
lishments
3, 577
I 142
28.1 ···•·•···
Women
Estab•
lish•
ments
6, 075
3
Women
Estab•
lish•
ments
Women
79
13
1,179
0. 6 ·-··-· - --
9. 3
-· - ·- ··· · ·-· · · ·--·
- ---·····
47. 7 ·--·····- .
.
8
7
32
16
4
I
13
4
112
5
2, 274
1,149
374
7
11
2
744
119
855
164.
344
648
8
513
290
14
714
45
2,113
14
I
372 ····· · ··- - --··· · -1
25 -------·- ·---· ---121
2
44 -----·--- - - -- ·· · -31
8
32
529
48
2,265
44 ····-·- ··· -- --· - -- -
111
1
150
7
1
2
173
28
2
2
262
2
14
16
71
12
4
4
698
123
1
2
2
34
13
llO
1
6
2
3
19
12
7
4
69 --·- - · -
832 -- .. . _. -· _-- ... ~':~ -- . -· ____ -···· · ·-·
9
896 -·-· - ··· ' ·····- ... --- -· ·· -- -·-······
46
2
4
~
13
374
67
486
347
10
61
6
5
17
12
792
86
329
2 ·····---- --·-····1 ---· -·-·· -- ··- -- ··
1
387
334
195
58
152
1,229
255
24
18
619
203
174
37
1,966
60 · · -···· · · -- ·······
a This firm appears also in miscellaneous manufacturing (cigars).
'Includes 1 firm that appears also in other food (bakery).
1 Includes 1 firm that appears also in candy.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
z
00
~
tzj
00
.
Details aggregate more than total, as some firms reported more than 1 schedule of hours and some firms are entered in 2 industry groups.
··
Includes foreladies, service workers, and designers, but excludes night workers, extra or part-time workers, and 223 women in 10 establishments for whom schedul1:1d weekly
hours were not reported.
1-4
g
PART IL-FACTORIES, STORES, AND LAUNDRIES
11
The 9-hour group included almost 2,000 laundry workers and more
than 1,700 clothing workers. Among the women with schedules o:f 8
and under 9 hours were more than 2,000 clothing workers and more
than 1,800 store employees. The longest hours were those of rubout
800 cotton-mill workers and practically 400 employees of nut-picking
plants. And more than half the workers with hours below 8 were
laundry employees.
Nearly one-third of t he women in the men's work clothing establishments were on an 8-hour schedule, and plants making boxes and
crates had approximately three-eighths ( 36.4 percent) of their
workers on a day not exceeding 7¾ hours.
Of those with a schedule of 9 hours, laundries had a larger proportion ( 32.4 percent) than had any other type of industry. In
:fact, 7 of every 8 of the laundry workers whose daily schedule was
reported had a day of 9 hours.
Sixteen firms, employing 1,258 women, reported a day of over 9
hours; 13 of these were cotton mills, an industry that is permitted
by law t o work overtime provided the hourly rate is doubled for
time in excess of 9 hours a day. About 95 percent of the cotton
textile workers had a day longer than 9 hours and most of them
were scheduled to work 10 hours. In fact, 11 of the mills had a
10-hour day :for all workers.
The nut -shelling industry showed a schedule of over 9 hours for
three-fifths of the -women so employed.
Weekly hours
In as many as three-fifths of the establishments in the three industrial groups under discussion- factories, stores, and laundries-the
scheduled week was one of more than 50 hours for some or all of the
women. The majority of the 157 firms so reporting had a work
week as long as 54 hours. More than half ( 52.6 percent) of all the
women employees were in establishments that had a weekly schedule
of over 50 h ours, and :for approximately three-tenths (29.4 percent )
of the women t he work week was at least 54 hours.
Cott on factories and nut-shelling establishments had the longest
scheduled week as well as the longest scheduled day. All but 1 of the
13 cotton mills reported a schedule of more than 54 hours £or some
or all of the workers. In fact, 93 percent (1,180) of the women in
cotton plants had such a weekly schedule. Three-fifths of the women
in nut-shelling had a schedule of more than 54 hours. No worker
had a schedule of more than 56 hours? though the State law allows
textile mills 60 a week provided overtime is paid :for all hours over
9 a day. It is apparent, however, that a week o:f more than 54 hours
was r equired o:f nearly 800 (793) o:f the textile workers.
Just over one-fifth {21.4 percent) of the women in the :factories,
stores, and laundries surveyed in this State had a scheduled week of
less than 48 hours in 1932. Nearly three-fifths of the women with a
schedule below 48 hours are in the group o:f clothing industries,
traditionally one o:f the 5- or 5½-day week. Between 5,000 and
6,000 women, employed in well over · one-half of the establishments,
were expected to work a week of over 50 and including 54 hours.
23891 ° -35 - 2
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
4.-Scheduled weekly hours in factories, stores, and laundries, by industry
TABLE
Number with scheduled weekly hours ofNumber re·
ported
Industry
"'"'
s
fa;l
a,(I)
tl
Total. ... ·-·--- ···-- 1 258
Percent distribution of
women. · - ····· -- --····· - -··-··
Factories:
8
Bags, cloth_ .. ··· - -···
Boxes and crates,
wooden ...........•.
7
ClothingMen's work cloth•
32
ing .... ·········
Women's ...•.....
16
Infants' and chil•
4
dren's_ . __ ·-····
Cotton textiles ....... _ 113
FoodButter, eggs, and
pountry .••.. . ..
4
I 12
Candy•....•......
Nut shelling ..... .
5
14
Other.... -···-····
Hats ____ . _·--·- ·-·-···
8
Miscellaneous .... ___ ._
14
Stores:
Department and
ready•to-wear.....
145
32
Limited·price--- · ··-··
Laundries ... ·-···-- ------
.d
.d
:=l.0 Cl
1
48
Less than 44
Cl
(I)
s
"'"'
:§i
0
~
~s
fa;l
212,726
1
12
100. 0 · ·····-
.d
'."'"'
a&
h
fa;l
c:l
(I)
s
0
~
807
More than 44,
less than 48
44
11
6. 3 ---- ---
372
.d
Cl
E~
(I)
s
.0
(I)
~s
fa;l
0
~
568
32
4. 5 ------·
Cl
(I)
s
0
~
1,343
32
2,274
1,150
3
39 --- ---- -- ·--- ·
~
11
Cl
(I)
s
0
~
664
~ti}
Z&
~s
fa;l
132
5. 2
248
11
491
23
374
855
2
104
164
1
1
1
5
1
54
1
5
1
Cl
(I)
s
0
~
1,854
160
32
96
11
4
679
126
2
270
More than 50,
less than 54
50
.6cncn
Z&
h
~
13
14. 6
13 · ------ --- ··- - ··--·- - ·---- --
609
79
Cl
(I)
s
0
~
704
.6
"'"'
~i
~s
fa;l
I
67
6. 2 ------2
146
3
52
23
501
2
344
6
2
434
16
44
53
23
223
28
73
3 ··- · · ·- ------- -- - ---- - ·· ··--
72
94
---···--·-·-·
1
3
· ·-·- ··
----···
---··-1
34 ··-----·--· -4
79 ---···150
~1
1 -- -·--51 ·---- - · ·--·-·- -·----··-·· · ·
1
11 ·· -·-·· ·· ····
2
49
2
2
262
1
57
2
16
--·····
·-·--··
--··--·
----···
--·-···
27
385
14
46 -- -·· - - -- --- ·-
Cl
(I)
s
0
~
2, 951
More than 54
54
.Clcncn
:i5&
~s
fa;l
77
23. 2 --- ---·
Cl
(I)
s
0
~
2, 565
.d
~~
.0
(I)
~s
p;l
13
20. 2 ·---·· -
Cl
(I)
s
0
~
1,180
9. 3
41 --·-·-- ·--· - -- - ------ - - --·-17 ·--··-- ·----·- ····- -- --·----
3
3
45
648
513
2,264
~s
10. 6 · --····
8
2
2,114
529
.d
"'"'
:a]
25 ·- -- --- -·--- -· -- · -·- - ··- ·---
121
290
714
More than 48,
less than 50
48
192
314
17 ----- -· ··-··--
2
•5
1
3
2
2
12
793
86
93
3
119 - - -·-·- · ----·87 ----- - - ·-·---1
387
173
60
67
184
47
68
18
12
865
255
24
18
599
203
13
676
25
1,353
Details aggregate more than total, as some firms reported more than 1 schedule of hours and some firms are entered in 2 industry groups.
Includes foreladies, service workers, and designers, but excludes night workers, extras, and part·time workers and 223 women in 10 establishments for whom scheduled weekly
hours were not reported.
a This firm appears also in miscellaneous manufacturing (cigar).
• Includes 1 firm that appears also in .. other food" (bakery).
5 Includes 1 firm that appears also in candy.
1
i
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
l>AltT II.-FACTOR.tES, STORES, AND LAUNDRIES
13
Saturday hours
Saturday hours as reported by 258 firms were varied. Definite
information on this subject was obtainable for over 13',000 women
(including extra and part-time workers, foreladies, designers, and
service employees), 47.6 percent of whom had Saturday schedules of
from 8 to 9 hours. Slightly less than the proportion of women work•
ing a whole day on Saturday-at least 8 hours-is the proportion
who had no Saturday hours scheduled or whose Saturday did not
exceed 5 hours. There were 45.1 percent of the women in this class,
just over two-fifths of whom put in a Saturday of exactly 5 hours.
Even though only 18.1 percent of the women in all industries were
employed in cotton mills and in women's and infants' and children's
clothing factories, two-thirds of the women with a 5-hour Saturday
schedule were in these industrial groups. In accordance with the
more liberal economic standards prevailing in industry in the last
few years, no Saturday work was required in the case of about 1
in every 14 women. In addition, 8.8 percent of the number reported
had a Saturday of from 3 to 4 hours. Thus the Saturday hours of
approximately one-sixth (15.9 percent) of the workers in these
establishments in 1932 did not exceed 4. Well over half ( 55.8 percent) of the women on this short schedule were employees of men's
work clothing plants, though this industrial group employed only
about 17 percent of all reporting.
About 7 of every 8 of the approximately 3,000 women whose Saturday schedule was 9 hours were in laundries or in stores. No store
worker had a Saturday of less than 8 hours, though in the laundry
group some workers appear in each hour class from 3 to 9 and a very
small percent (2.9) did no work on Saturday.
Lunch period
A 30-minute lunch period was customary :for almost one-half
(46.5 percent) . of the 13,207 women reported. With the exception
of stores and the making of infants' and children's garments, each
industry had some workers with this lunch period.
The 14 industries having a 30-minute lunch period in some of
their establishments show from 9.7 percent to 100 percent of their
women with such an interval, and all hut 3 of the 12 had at least
50 percent of their workers with a recess of this length.
One hour was allowed :for lunch for nearly two-fifths (38.9 percent) of the women. There were 134 establishments in this class;
over half ( 55.2 percent) were stores, all but 3 of which had a lunch
period of 1 hour. A number of manufacturing industries had from
30 to 50 percent of their employees in this class.
On the, whole, a 45-minute lunch period was not common, though
one-half of the cotton textile plants and 2 of the 4 infants' and
children's clothing estahlishments had this schedule. Fewer than
one-tenth of all establishments, and about one-seventh of the total
employees, had such provision.
WAGES
As many as 13,444 women were on the pay rolls of the 266 factories, stores, and laundries for the selected week in 1932. This
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
14
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
number includes the 687 special workers referred to before, who for
various reasons cannot be compared with the others and are omitted
from_the tables showing distribution of earnings.
In the twelfth biennial report (1931-32) of the Texas Bureau
of Labor Statistics, the commission, in stressing the need of a minimum-wage law for women and children, stated: "Wages being paid
to women and children workers in this State are beyond dispute
shamelessly inadequate and therefore against the public welfare.
Happily, there are abundant indications that the public conscience
is being aroused in behalf of the women and children workers, arid
it is felt that the legislature can no longer neglect the duty of enacting a minimum-wage law."
The minimum-wage law of 1919 was repealed in 1921 before any
of its decrees had gone into effect. A weekly minimum of $12 in
•all occupations was set by the wage commission at that time, but
the re.peal of the law made any such authorization invalid.
Median earnings
The distribution of women in the various industries and the
medians of their week's earnings-half the women receiving more
and half receiving less,-appear in the following table, which presents such information according to racial group.
TABLE
5.-Med;ia;n w eek's earnings of white, Memican, an d N egr o w omen, by
ind;ustry-late pay roll
[Median not computed where base less than 50]
Indus try
Number of
establishmen ts
Number
266
TotaL ______________________ ___ _
F actories ________________ ________ _____
Bags, cloth ___________________ ___ _
Boxes and crates (wood) __ _______ _
White women
Mexican women
Negro women
Median
earnings
Number
Median
earnings
umber
9, 159
$8. 75
2, 748
$5. 85
850
$5. 95
198
81
6. 90
87
7. 00
Median
earnings
==
=5,736
= =7.=
=1,916
= =5.=
==
===
137
45
40
248
3. 75
1
8
127
9. 95
8. 20
Clothing ____ ____ _______________ __
53
2,845
6. 50
Men's work clothing __ ______ _
Women's __ ___ ______________ __
Infants' and children's ____ ____
. 32
17
4
1,856
989
7.15
5. 20
Cot ton textiles ______________ ___ __
13
924
7. 80
Food _- - ----- - ------------ - - - --- --
135
l, 191
7. 95
387
Butter, eggs, and poultry ____ _
Candy __________ __ __________ _
Nut shelling ____ _____________ _
Other ___________ _______ ___ __ _
4
12
7
14
161
314
341
375
8. 40
8.10
4. 15
10. 75
1
16
236
134
Hats _____________ -------------- __
Miscellaneous ___ ____ ___ _________ _
8
14
228
223
10. 25
11. 45
52
484
3. 85
6. 25
.Stores ___ ____ __ ______ ____ ____________ _
77
2,281
12. 35
226
9. 15
3 ---------
Department and ready- to-wear __ _
Limited-price ___________________ _
45
32
1,826
455
12. 90
9. 70
158
68
9. 00
9. 25
3 --- ------
L aundries __________ _________ . _______ _
52
1, 142
8. 55
606
6. 35
1
8
--- ------ ---- --- - -
8 --- ---- --
·1 --- -- --- -
887
5. GO
16 --- ------
391
128
368
5. 50
3 ----- - -- 5. 45
13 --- -----5. 70 --------- ----- ----
17 _-- - ---- - ----- - -- - --- --- _-3. 80
144
2. 65
2. 65
144
2. 65
5. 25
599
7. 25
Details aggregate more than total because some establishments appear in more than 1 industry group .
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART II.-FACTORIES, STORES, AND LAUNDRIES
15
The low wages paid to women in most Texas industries in the
depression year 0£ 1932 are indicated by the medians of their earnings in this table. The reader is reminded that in each case half
the women received even less than the amount specified, and how they
managed to live on such earnings is not easy to understand.
As is almost always the case, there were wide variation in the
wage standards 0£ the reporting firms, and naturally there, are great
·differences in the medians of the various industries. In · fact, the
latter have a rang-e in the case of white women 0£ from $4.15 in nut
shelling to $12.90 in department and ready-to-wear , stores. The
white women's median £or all factories-$7.45-appears to be largely
the result 0£ the wage levels in clothing, where practically half the
white women were employed.
The three races differed greatly in numbers, industries, and earnings. Three-fifths 0£ the white women were in factories, one-fourth
were in stores, and the smallest group-one-eighth-were in laundries.
Seven-tenths 0£ the Mexican women were in factories, only onetwelfth were in stores, and more than one-fifth were in laundries.
Seven-tenths 0£ the Negroes were in laundries-still their chief
industrial employment-and about three-tenths were in factories.
Only 3 Negro women of the 850 reported were employed in store .
As race plays so large a part in the great variety of numbers employed and wages paid, it is of interest to note the few cases in the
table that stand out as exceptional:
Median earnings of the total Mexicans and the total Negroes were practically alike.
Cloth bags employed about equal numbers of Mexicans and Negroes, and
they had about the same median; laundries employed about equal numbers
but paid Negroes more.
Mexicans and Negroes in nut shelling had the same median.
Only Mexicans were employed on infants' and children's clothing. Mexicans on women's clothing had a slightly higher median than white
women.
White women in miscellaneous manufacturing were outnumbered more than
2 to 1 by Mexicans.
In only four of the industri~s f?r which whtte_women's med~ans are
reported were there too few :JMex1cans for a s1m1lar computat10n. · In
women's clothing the Mexican median was the higher by 25 cents ; in
all other cases it was lower, generally much lower. The differences
ranged from 45 cents, in limited-price stores, to $6.40 in the manufacture of hats of various types.
·
Negro women had as many as 50 of their race employed in only
3 cases-the making of cloth bags, the shelling 0£ nuts, and laundry
work. In the first named their wage level was practically the same
as that of Mexican women, and both were greatly below that 0£ white
women. In laundries the Negro women had a median substantially
above that of Mexicans but well below the figure for white women.
The following summary shows the medians £or all workers in the
three chief classifications as well as several of th!3ir important subordinate groups.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
16
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
Number Median
of women earnings
Industry
Total __ ______ __ ___ --- __
Factories __ __________ __ _______
Clothing _________ _______ _
Men's work clothing _
Women's ____ __ ______ _
Cotton textiles ________ ___
Food _________ __---- - - -- -Nutshelli~g __ _____ __
12, 757
$7. 65
7,900
3,748
2,250
1,130
941
1,722
721
6. 70
6. 25
6. 80
5. 25
7. 75
6. 15
3. 30
Number Median
of women earnings
Industry
Stores __ ____ ___ ____ ______ _____
Department and readyto-wear ___ ______ ______ __
Limited-price __ _____ _____
Laundries ______ _____________ _
2,510
$12.10
1, 987
523
2,347
12. 75
9. 65
7. 25
Distribution of earnings
To make clearer the wage status of these women, they are grouped
in the following table according to race, industry, and the percents
who were paid less than $6 and $12 or more for the 1932 pay-roll
week reported on.
TABLE
6.-Percent of the iv,J-1ne11, in factories, stores, a:iid la.undries wit h week's
earni ngs of less than $6 and of $1 2 and over, by race-1932
Number of women and percent with earnings as
specified
Week's earnings
T otal re-1
ported
White
I M°"""n I
Negro
FACTORIES, STORES, AND LAUNDRIES
Number of women __ -- - -- --- - --- - - --- -- -- -- --- __
Less than $6 ________ ________ __________ _____ _____ ___ __ __
$12 and over ______ __________ ___ ______ ____ ___________ __ _
12, 757
9,159
2, 748
850
31. 6
19. 0
25. 2
25. 2
52. 4
3. 7
32. 6
2. 7
7,900
5,736
1,916
248
42. 6
35. 8
15. 4
59. 7
2. 8
66. 5
2. 4
3
FACTORIES
Number of women __ ----- --- --- -- --------- -----Less than $6 _____ _____ ____ __ __ ____ _____ ___ ____ __ ____ ___
$12 and over ______ _____ ___ ___________________ ____ ____ __
11. 9
DEPARTMENT AND READY-TO-WEAR STORES
N umber of women __ ____ _______ ________________ _
1,987
1,826
158
Less t han $6 ___ _____ ____ _____ ___ __ ____________________ _
$12 and over __________ ______________ ______ ___ __ __ ___ __ _
4. 7
. 3. 5
60. 0
63. 3
19. 0
23. 4
LIMITED-PRICE STORES
455
68 - - -- - -------
7. 5
17. 8
8. 8 - --- --- ----8. 8 - ---- - --- ---
LAUNDRIES
TotaL __ ___________ ___ __ ___ ____ ___ _____ ____ _____ _
2,347
1, 142
606
599
Less than $6 __ _____ ________ ______ ________ ___ ______ _____
$12 and over ____ __ ______________ ___ __ _____ _____ ___ ___ _.
22. 5
8. 7
13. 8
15. 9
42. 7
1.0
18. 7
2. 8
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART II.~FACTORIES, STOR.ES, AND LAUNDRIES
17
Table I in the appendix shows in detail the week's earnings of
women in each of the three racial groups found at work in Texas,
and in these groups combined. More than half of the white and of
the Mexican women were in factories, and in both cases manufacturing has the lowest earnings of all. The majority of the Negro
workers were in laundries, and these workers had very much higher
earnings than had the Negro women in factories.
Earnings by occupation
From unpublished tables correlating wages, occupation, and race,
interesting facts may be gathered. As already stated, the chief
manufacturing group-dothing plants-employed very few Negro
women, and one branch of this industry-infants' and children's
clothing-reported earnings only for Mexican workers. More than
half of these Mexican women were machine operators and the
medians for this kind of work were $5.60 for the week taken in 1932
and $7.25 for that in 1931. It is surprising to see the low median
of hand workers in these plants ; half the women doing hand sewing
in 1932 received less than $2.90, just about half the amount of the
median of machine operators. Week's earnings of hand sewers ranged
from less than $1 to the $11-and-less-than-$12 class; only 1 woman,
however, received the highest amount, the next being in the $7-andless-than-$8 class. Nearly three-fifths of the 75 workers had week's
earnings of $1 and less than $4.
The two other types of this industry-men's work clothing and
women's clothing-employed the great majority of their workers,
Mexican as well as white, as machine operators. The medians in
1932 for machine operators in men's work clothing plants were lower
than those in 1931 by 23.2 :percent for white women and 12.7 percent
for Mexican women.
Most of the employees reported in cotton mills were white, and in
1932 all but about one-sixth of them, in 1931 all but about one-fifth,
were in the spinning and weaving departments. The spinners and
the spoolers and winders comprised close to half ( 48.4 percent) of
the women reported in 1932, and these two groups had the lowest
medians in the industry in that year. In 1931, with a sma.ller :proportion ( 42.4 percent) of the women in these occupations, the medians
of earnings were not far from three-fifths (57.7 percent and 56.3
percent, respectively) higher than in 1932.
Though the spinning department as a whole showed a decrease
in the employment of women, it is interesting to see that the number
of actual spinners increased considerably. The roportion of spinners increased :from 37 percent to 49 percent o all in the depM'tment. Spoolers and winders remained about as they were in 1931.
The large decrease was :for the varied group o:f oreelers, warpers,
doffers, spares, and occupation not reported, which declined from 24
percent to 13 percent of all in the department. The weaving department showed a slight increase. In both years workers in the
cloth department had the highest median of earnings.
Hat manufacture in 1932 had the highest median :for white women
in any one manufacturing industry studied. The majority of the
women were white, and most of them were hand workers. In 1932
the median of the earnings of hand workers, like that of all white
workers, was $10.25. In the week taken in 1932 only about one-
f
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
18
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
eighth of the women in machine operating and in hand work earned
$15 or more, though 28.6 percent of the hand workers and 19.3 percent of the machine operators. had such earnings in the week in 1931.
In the making of bags, power-machine sewers:' earnings decreased
appreciably. There were 85 women in this occupation in each year
and their median earnings ·were $13.95 in 1931 but only $10.70 in
1932.
In laundries·, white women eniaged as sorters and bundlers or as
markers had medians of over ~10. These two occupation groups
comprised one-fourth of the women in the industry. Flat work,
which occupied nearly three-eighths of the white women, had the
lowest median, $7.45. Similar proportions were in these occupations
in 1931, but the median was higher then in each case, 10 percent
higher for sorters and bundlers and approximately 16 percent higher
for markers and for those on flat work.
The median of earnings of white saleswomen in department and
ready-to-wear stores for the week in 1932 ($13.40) was 50 cents
higher than the median of all white women in this industry. Saleswomen had a wider r ange of earnings than had other occupations,
though not the highest median. The highest wage reported in the
study ($41) was in this occupation. In contrast to other branches
of this industry, in which more than one-third (35.6 percent) of the
women-when considered together-received less than $10, only
about one-seventh (14.1 percent) of the saleswomen had earnings as
low as that. A further contrast is found in the proportions who
received $15 or more a week, almost two-fifths of the saleswomen
but only one-fifth of the women engaged otherwise in department
stores.
In 1932, 3.9 percent of the white women in department and readyto-wear stores were extras or part-time workers, the numbers being
as follows :
Regular \vo rkers ____ __ ________ ___ ___ ___ ____ ________ ___ ___ 1, 826
Extras and pa rt-time workers__ _____ ___ ____ ____ _________ _
72
The corresponding figures £or 1931 areRegular ~rorkers-------- - ----~- -------~- ------ --- -------- 1,989
Extras
and part-time
Number
___ ___ ___ workers___ ___ __ ___ ___ ____ ____ ___ _______ ____
145
Percent of total_______ __ ____ ___ ________ __________ __ __
7.3
In 1932, 32.9 percent of the white women in limited-price stores
·
were not on the full-time roll. The figures wereRegular workers----- ---------- - ------ - ~-- ----- --- ------ Extras and part-time wor kers__ ________ ___ ___ ____ __ _____ __
455
223
The corresponding figures for 1931 areRegular workers__ __ ___ __________ _____ __ __________ __ ___ __ 368
Extras and part-time workersNumber ------------- ------ --- ------------------- 29.8
156
Percent
of total ___ __- -_____________________
____________
Median earnings of extras were the same, or practically the same,
in both years in each type of store :
1932
Department and ready-to-wear stores_____________ $2. 55
Limited-price stores______________________________ 1: 60
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1931
$2. 55
1. 65
19
PART II.-FACTORIES, STORES, AND LAUNDRIES
The medians of the wage figures in certain occupations · in department and ready-to-wear stores for 1932 and ·1931, respectively,
a.re as follows: Sales, $13.40 and $15.40; cashier, $11.10 and $12.20;
alteration and pressing, $13.70 and $15.95; and stock, wrap, pack,
and label, $10.15 and $10.20.
•Sales employed more than three-fifths (62.7 percent) of the Mexi.cans in department and ready-to-wear stores in 1932, and the median
of their earnings was $10.35. Their median in 1931 was about $2
higher than this.
In limited-price stores in 1932 the median for white saleswomen
was $9.60 and only 22 of the 424 white employees received as much
as $15. In 1931 there were fewer white saleswomen in these stores
and their median was $10.20. Mexican saleswomen show medians
of $9.25 in 1932 and $9.60 in 1931.
·
WHITE WOMEN
Earnings distribution
In the factories, stores, and laundries visited in Texas earnings
were recorded for more than 9,000 white women.
·Well over half ( 55.6 percent) of the 5,736 white women in factories
in 1932 received $4 and under $10 as their week's earnings. Of
the 5 percent who received as much as $15, half were in only two
groups-other food (largely meat packini) and men's work clothing.
The 1932 figures are distributed in :t,6 groups in the summary
following. Only in department stores did as many as 18 percent
of the women earn $12 or more. No group but department stores
had as many as 3 percent earning $18 or more. For more detailed
wage figures see table I in the appendix.
White women, 1932
Stores
Week's earnings
Three industrial groups
Factories
Department
and ready-to- Limited-price
Laundries
wear
Number
Percent
Number
Percent
Number
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Percent
Number
Percent
-- - - -- - - - - - - - - -- -100. 0 5,736 100'. o 1,826 100.0
455 100. 0 1, 142
100.0
- - - - -25.-7.- - -35.-8 - 64- - 3.-5 - Less than $6 ___ ____ __________ 2,310
2 2,054
34
5
158
13. 8
Total ___ _------- - ___ ___
i),
159
$6, less than $12 ________ _____ _ 4,545
$12, less t han $18 __ ____ _____ . _ 1,914
$18 and more ____ _____ ______ _
390
M edian ________________ _____
49. 6
20. 9
4. 3
$8. 75
2,797
810
75
48. 8
14. 1
1. 3
$7. 45
606
873
283
33. 2
47. 8
15. 5
$12. 90
340
75
6
74. 7
16. 5
1. 3
$9. 70
802
156
26
70. 2
13. 7
2. 3
$8. 55
Earnings and time worked
Time worked was recorded :for slightly more than 6,500 white
women, the great majority of whom (77.8 percent) had their employed time recorded in hours. Of the 5,073 women to whom this
applies, three-fifths ( 59.4 percent) had worked a week of at least 48
hours, and about one-eleventh of these, practically all of them facto•r y
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
20
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
workers, had put in more than 54 hours of work in the week considered representative.
The proportion of store workers with a week of 48 hours or more is
:far greater than the proportion in either factories or laundries. In
department stores about 7 of every 8 women, and in limited-price
stores 9 of every 10, had a week of this length, though none worked
more than 54 hours. The laundry figures show that half the women
worked as much as 48 hours a week, while in factories the proportion
was two-fifths.
It is equally important· to know, in relation to the depression and
to the later development of the N. R. A. and code control of industry,
what proportions of the women worked less than 40 hours on the payroll records in 1932. These comprised about one-fourth of the laundry workers and just over one-third of those in factories, but, as
might be expected, less than .5 percent of the women in stores.
Of the 1,450 women for whom time worked was reported in days,
4 of every 5 (79.4 percent) worked on 5 or more days of the week, the
proportions varying from 70 percent in limited-price stores to 89
percent in laundries.
TABLE
7.-Medm n week's earnings· of white wom..en, in the oor i ous i ndu strial
grou ps, by time w orked--1932
[Median not computed where base less than 50]
White women employed inStores
'rime worked
Factories
Depart ment
and ready•to•
wear
Laundries
Limited•price
Num-1M,dUW
Num- 1M•d;ao Num-1Modiao ber of earn•
earn· ber of earn· ber of earn• Num-1M•dU,o
ber of
women
ings lwomen
ings
women
ings
women
ings
A.- W OMEN WHOSE TIME WORKED WAS REPORTED IN HOUR S
Total reported ...... ·---- · -- --
2, 386
$8. 30
Less
than
30 35
hours
.. ---·· -- ----··
30,
less
than
hours
_____ _______
___-·_
35, less than 40 hours----· ----- -·- -- 40, less than 44 hours _____ __________ _
44, less t han 48 hours ______ _________ _
48 hours ___-- --- -------------------More than 48, less than 54 hours __ __
54 hours __ _-- -- -- -- ·-- - --- --- -------
423
4. 00
6. 25
7. 10
•8. 50
9. 50
More than 54 hours _____ ____ _______ _
190
191
294
312
30
586
92
268
1,510
$12. 90
360
$10. 00
34
8
21
5
14
7
86
11.40
7
46
5
199
13. 20
47
9. 70
772
13. 20
120
9. 85
12. 15
338
13. 60
161
9. 85
10. 65 -------- - ------- - - ------ ----- ---
81 7
$8. 70
73
40
95
83
125
9
176
212
4
4. 15
6. 80
7.60
9. 25
9. 85
9. 80
B.-WOMEN WHOSE TIME WORKED W AS REPORTED IN D AYS
Total reported _. ________ ______
1 day. · --- -- --··- -- - -·--· · · --- -- -- - 2 days_.· -···-· · ·····--------- - ----3 days __ -- -····-·------- ---·-·····-4 days._· ·---·····---- ----- -- ---- -- 5 days __ - - -- --- - --- ---- ---·- --- --- -5½ days __ --- - --- -- -------- - ---- ---6 days __ ·--------- --- -- ----- - -- -- -·7 days_. -------- - -·- --- ·- --- -- - -- ---
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
787
$7. 90
279
$12. 85
96
$7. 75
-----------1--8
8
29
8
66
4. 75
14
88
6. 70
27
303
10. 25
18
250
7. 70
26
52
8. 60
178
1 · - -- - --- ---·----
1
3
8
17
19
289
$8.40
4
5
11
12
74
7. 60
12
9
171
13. 95
38
9. 05
·-·---·· --······ - - - -·--- · · · -·--· ------ · -
21
PAR,T 11.-FACTOR.IES, STOR,E S, AND LAUNDRIES
In general, the industrial groups show constant increases in the
medians of earnings with increased hours until the excessive week
of over 54 hours is reached, when the factory median declines by
$1.50. The two medians shown for limited-price stores are alike.
Days worked.-Seven-tenths of the women in factories whose days
worked were recorded had worked on 5 or 5½ days. The peak of
earnings is reached in the 5-day group, this median ($10.25) being
influenced, no doubt, by the higher wages paid in one branch of the
food industry. Medians of the groups working a 5½- and a 6-day
week were respectively one-fourth and one-sixth lower than $10.25.
Nearly three-fifths of the workers in laundries, more than threefifths of those in the department-store group, and two-fifths of those
in limited-price stores had worked on 6 days.
Comparison of late and early pay-roll data
It is common knowledge that in 1932 wage levels were far below
what they had been. To see to what extent earnings in Texas had
shrunk within the year preceding the survey, pay-roll data for a
week in 1931 were requested. The earnings of white women show
declines between 1931 and 1932 ranging from 70 cents (6.7 percent)
in limited-price stores to $2.15 (14.3 percent) in the other store group.
The factory median declined by $1.95 (20.7 percent) and that in
laundries by $1.10 (11.4 percent).
The accompanying summary gives for both early and late pay
rolls the number of women and the medians of earnings (half the
women receiving more, half receiving less) in each of the industry
groups covered in this section of the report.
1932
Industrial group
Factories ___ _________ ____ _________ ___ __ ___ ______ ______ ___ -Department and ready-to-wear stores___ ______ _____ ______ __
Limited-price stores_______ ____ _____ ____ _____ __ ____ ________
Laundries ____ _________ ____ ______ __________ _____ _____ __ ___ _
Number
of white
women
reported
5, 736
1,826
455
1, 142
1931
Median
earnings
Number
of white
women
reported
$7. 45
4,995
1,994
9. 70
8. 55
368
1,223
12. 90
Median
earnings
$9. 40
15. 05
10. 40
9. 65
The percent of white women earning as much as $15 in 1932 and in
1931 in each of the industrial groups under consideration appears in
the summary following. The figures are indicative of the great drop
in wages during the year.
Number of white
women reported
Percent earning $15
or more
Industrial group
1932
Factories _____ __ __ __--- ----- -- --- ---- _. --- - --- - -- -- ----- - -Department and ready-to-wear stores ____ ______ ____ ______ __
Limited-price stores _____ ____ ___ ______ ___ ______ ___ ....... __
Laundries ____ . ___ . ___ __ _. ________ _______ ___ . _._._. ____ .• ..
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1931
5,736
4,995
1,142
1,994
368
1, 223
l, 826
455
1932
5. 0
34. 6
6.2
6. 7
1931
15.1
50. 6
12. 0
12. 3
22
WOMEN I N TEXAS I N DUSTRIES
In 1931 hal£ the women in department and ready-to-wear stores
received $15 or more, but in 1932 the proportion was only a little
over one-third. In the earlier year as much as $15 was paid to 12
percent of the workers in the limited-price stores and in the laundries; in 1932, only between 6 and 7 percent of the workers got as
much as this.
Section of the State.-The table next presented gives in summary
form, according to section of State, wage data for 1931 aJ1d 1932
for the white wome!l in the factories, stores, and laundries visited.
8.-Number of white women and thefr m edi an w ,eek 's ear nings in
f actories, stores , and lwundries, by sect i on of State-1932 and 1931
T A BLE
N umber of white women and their median earnings in-
Section of State
Stores
Factories
Women
I
Median
earnings
Women
I
Laundries
M edian
earnings
Women
I
M edian
earnings
1932
T otal ___ - -------- -- --- --- -- - -
5,736
$7.45
2,281
$12. 35
1,142
CentraL _----- ---- -- ----------- - -- _
E astern ______ _-- __---- -- - -- __ __ _- _Northern _____ __ ______ _______ ___ __ __
Southern _____ __ ____ ____ __ ___ _____ __
Western ______ _________ _____ ____ ____
165
239
4,084
1, 124
124
5.10
7.15
139
11.80
112
1,124
13. 00
12. 50
126
83
455
760
146
11.65
408
70
7. 15
8. 90
8. 70
6.45
7.55
7. 10
12.10
12. 25
$8. 55
8. 35
1931
TotaL _____ _____ ______ _____ __
4,995
$9.40 .
2,362
$13. 60
1,223
$9. 65
CentraL___
_--__- ___
-- --_____
-- - ------ ----Eastern
__ _____
__ ___--_____
Northern ____ ___ ____ _____ ____ _______
Southern ____ __ _____ __ ________ ___ __ _
Western ___ __ _____ _____ __ ________ ___
186
92
3,598
1,024
95
10.45
7. 25
9. 25
9. 55
13. 05
129
110
1, 129
845
149
12. 85
13. 40
13. 90
13. 25
13. 70
124
58
480
474
87
9. 40
8. 85
10. 50
9. 25
8. 10
In both 1932 and 1931 by far the highest median of earnings of
white women in factories appears for the western section of the
State-$12.10 in the late pay roll and $13.05 in the early. The
former is from 60 percent to 137 per~ent higher and the latter is
from 25 percent to 80 percent higher than the medians for the other
sections in these respective years. Medians were higher in each case
in 1931 than in 1932; as a mat ter of fact, the year's decline in the
amount of the median ranged from 51.2 percent in the central
section to 1.4 percent in the eastern.
In 2 of the 9 :factories in the eastern section of the State, pay-roll
data for 1931 were not available, a fact that accounts for the great
difference in the number of women reported in t he 2 years. In
1932 the employees of these two firms comprised somewhat over
three-fifths of the women with pay-roll data reported by factories
in the eastern section. The medians of a week's earnings for thi"'
section in 1932 and 1931 were $7.15 and $7.25, respectively.
The central section alone shows fewer white women employed in
manufacturing in 1932 than in the preceding year. The median of
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
23
I>ART 11.-'.P ACTOR.I'.ES, S'l' ORES, AND LA UNDR.IES
earnings here dropped from $10.45 to $5.10, a decline o:f more than
50 percent in the year.
Over seven-tenths o:f the white :factory workers were in the northern section o:f the State and the medians o:f week's earnings were
$7.55 in 1932 and $9.25 in 1931. The southern section ranked -second in numbers employed, with one-fifth o:f all the women in the
survey in each year. The median of earnings :for 1932 was only
three-fourths of the median :for 1931.
Because of their large numbers, the proportions of the white
women in factories whose week's earnings were less than $5 and
as much as $14 are shown for the two pay-roll periods in the table
:following.
TABLE
9.-Proportions of white wo-men in factor,ies whose earrllings were l ess
than $5 and $14 a-n d over-193.2 and 1931
Number of white
women reported in
factories
P ercent of women earning-
Section of State
$14 and over
Less than $5
1932
1931
1932
Cen t ral ___ ___ _________ ____________ _
Eastern 1__ ________ ________________ _
Northern ____ ____ ______ ____________ _
Southern ______________ ___________ __
Western ____ ___ __________ ________ __ _
1
165
239
4,084
1, 124
124
186
92
3,598
1,024
95
47. 9
23. 8
24. 8
29. 5
2. 4
1931
15. 6
30.4
14. 8
16. 4
5. 3
1932
0. 0
3.8
8. 0
6. 9
2. 4
1931
21. 5
3. 3
18. 0
20. 1
29. 5
Not strictly comparable, as 2 firms reported in 1932 bad no pay-roll figures for 1931.
A slight examination of table 9 makes it clear that between the payroll week taken in 1931 and that taken in 1932 women's earnings in
:factories declined drastically in 4 of the 5 sections o:f the State. The
one exception is the eastern, and there a comparison is invalidated
by the :fact that two establishments reported for 1932 did not provide
figures £or 1931. The other sections show that from about one-fifth
to three-tenths of the women were paid at least $14 in 1931, but that
the corresponding range in 1932 was from zero to about one-twelfth.
Further, the proportions paid less than $5 increased greatly in three
sections o:f the State, trebling in the central section, where almost
one-hal:f o:f the women received less than $5 in the week reported
for 1932.
Due to the higher wages in department stores it is usual for the
mercantile industry to have a higher median of earnings than others
have. In the present study this is true for each of the five sections.
The medians of earnings of the white store workers for the different
sections do not show the wide divergence within the year that is
evidenced in the manufacturing group ; on the contrary, the medians
are fairly regular for each o:f the geographic divisions. The range
in 1932 extended from $11.65 £or the western section to $13 for the
eastern, a difference of $1.35. The western section of the State-the
section having by far the highest median in the manufacturing
industry-in 1932 had the lowest median for workers in stores.
In laundries medians for white workers were fairly consistent in
the five sections of the State, the difference between the maximum
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
24
WOMEN 1N TEXAS INDUSTRIES
and minimum amounts being $2.45 in 1932 and $2.40 in 1931. The
northern section h ad the highest median in both years; the western
section the lowest.
MEXICAN WOMEN
Earnings distribution
In 1932 the median of earnings of the 1,916 Mexican women employed in the factories visited was $5.40. In no branch of manufacturing was the median for the week more than $6.90. Nut shelling
was the occupation most poorly paid, the median on this work being
only $2.65. Close to 600 Mexican women (30.4 percent ) received less
than $4 as their week's earnings; more than 1,100-three-fifths of the
total-received less than $6. At the other extreme, only 17 women
received as much as $15, most of these women being in plants making
infants' and children's clothing. Only 111 women- less than 6 percent-earned as much as $10.
In the next summary the week's earnings are shown in groups of
irregular size so that $6 classes may be compared with the summary
for white women. For more detailed figures see table I in the
appendix.
l'viexican women, 1932
Stores
·week's earnings
Three industrial groups
Number
Per•
cent
Factories
Number
Percent
Department
and ready-towear
Limitedprice
Laundries
Number
Percent
Number
Percent
N umber
22
37
54
13. 9
23.4
34. 2
4
13
43
6
5. 9
19. 1
63. 2
8.8
202
233
108
5
1
Percen t
-- - - -- -- - - - - -- -1, 916 100.0
158 100.0
606
100. 0
68 100.0
- -23.-6 -582
- -30.-4 - --- - -2 - 2.-9 - Less t han $4_________________ -649
8
5. 1
9. 4
57
--
T otal.. __ ________ ______ 2,748
$4, less than $6 __ _______ ____ ___
$6, less than $8 _____ ___ ____ __ _
$8, less than $12___________ . __
$12, less than $18 _____________
$18 and more..... _____ _______
Median . ___ __ ________ ___ ____
790
737
470
89
13
100. 0
28. 7
26.8
17.1
3. 2
.5
$5.85
562
454
265
49
4
29. 3
23. 7
13. 8
2.6
•2
$5.40
29
8
18.4
5. 1
$9.00
------- ------$9.25
33. 3
38. 4
17. 8
.8
.2
$6.35
Half of the Mexican laundry workers received less than $6.35 in the
pay-roll week selected as representative. The individual earnings
r anged from less than $1 to $18 and under $19. More than four-fifths
of the women were paid less than $8.
Wages of Mexican women in department and ready-to-wear stores
ranged from $2 to $20 and more, one woman receiving $26. The
median of the week's earnings was $9. Slightly over one-tenth of the
women in such stores were earning $15 or more. In no other industry·
did an appreciable number of Mexicans earn so much.
Limited-price stores had a somewhat higher median and paid a
larger proportion of their workers at least $8, but only two of the
women exceeded $12.
Earnings and time worked
For almost half ( 46.9 percent) of the Mexican factory employees
time worked was report€d in days; less than one-seventh (13.2 per-
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
25
PART IL-FACTORIES, STORES, AND LAUNDRIES
cent) had the hours worked recorded, and the remaining two-fifths,
practically all of them clothing workers, had no entry as to time
worked on the books of the establishment. As a matter of fact, for
about 85 percent of the almost 900 Mexican clothing workers reported,
no record of time worked was available.
From unpublished data it appears that even if a week meant 48
hours or more or as much as 5 or 6 days, half the nut shellers working
this full time received less than $4. Only 1 of the 150 women with a
week of such length received as much as $8 for the week reported.
For well over half ( 55.3 percent) of the 253 Mexican women in factories whose hours worked were reported, the week was at least 48
hours long, but no Mexican woman had exceeded the 54-hour maximum of the State law. The median of earnings of workers with a
week of from 48 to 54 hours was $5.75.
Hours worked were reported for somewhat over three-fifths of the
606 women laundry workers; for slightly over one-sixth the record
was in days. The 65 women whose week was between 25 and 40 hours
had a median of $4.90. As the hours of work increased the median
likewise increased; for Mexicans working a 54-hour week in laundries
it was three-eighths higher than the median for those employed 40
and under 44 ho-µrs. The group whose week was reported as 6 days,
however, had a median of earnmgs ($6.30) only slightly higher than
the amount shown :for those reporting in the 40-and-under-44-hour
group ($6.15).
Hours worked were recorded for well over four-fifths of the 158
women in department and ready-to-wear stores and almost 3 in 5 of
this group had a 54-hour week. The median of earnings of these
54-hour workers was $10.55.
The week's median of workers in limited-price stores for whom
hours were recorded is the same as that of women with hours reported
in the department-store group-$9.70. In both, the majority of the
women had their time worked reported in hours.
Comparison of late and early pay-roll data
The proportion of the Mexican women at work in factories, stores,
and laundries whose week's earnings were $10 or more was higher in
1931 than in 1932, the .percents being 13.9 and 8.1, respectively. On
neither pay roll had the limited-price stores any Mexican women
earning as much as $15.
In the accompanying table the year's decline in earnings is shown.
The medians in 1932 are from 35 cents to $1 below the medians of
1.931.
TABLE
10.- Number of Me(J)ican worn.en a,nd their media,n week's earninvs in,
factories, stores, and. lawndries--1932 and 1931
1932
Industrial group
Factories. · . .. ........ . ...... ....... . ........ . . .. . .... . .. . .
Department and ready•to•wear stores...... .. . ........... . .
Limited-price stores ........ ... .. . ......... . . . . ... -·· ··· · ··
Laundries .. . . ... . ... . . •. ... . . . . _.. . . .... . .. . . . . .......... .
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1931
Number of
Number of
Mexican Median Mexican Median
women
earnings
women
earnings
reparted
reported
1, 916
158
68
606
$5. 40
9. 00
1,550
162
$6. 05
10_ 00
9_ 25
6_35
70
682
9. 60
7. 35
WOMEN IN ·· TEXAS INDUSTRIES
Section <4 the State.-Mexican women were employed in factories
in appreciable numbers in the southern and western sections of the ·
State, -but only 24 in this racial group were in factories in the,
northern section. Over ·three-fourths of the Mexicans were in the
southern section, and the medians of th~ week's earnings in this section were $6.10 for 1931 and $5.45 for 1932, a decrease of -10.7 percent
within the year.
·
The decrease in wage from· 1931 -to 1932 is emphasized in the proportion of Mexican women earning under $5. In 1931 the factory
data showed about 1 of every 3 Mexican women in the western
section to be receiving less than $5; in 1932 the, proportion had
become almost 1 of every 2 women.
The following table gives in summary form, according to section
of State, wage data for 1931 and 1932 for the Mexican women in
the factories, stores, and laundries visited.
TABLE
11.-Nwmoor of Me(J)ioon wornen a,nd thevr median week's earnvn,gs iw
factories, stores, and laundries, by section of Sta-te-193<2 and 1931
Number of Mexican women and their median earnings inSection of State
Factories
Women ,
Stores
I earnmgs
Mcqian
Laundries
Median
earnings
Women
w omen I earnings
Median
I
1932
Total ____ ---- -------------- --
1,916
$5.40
226
$9. 15
Central- - -·----· · --····~·-·· · · · ···· ···- ······· --· ·-- ·-·- - -·--·-- -- -- ------·--- Nortbern.-·---- -······· ········· ·· 24
(1)
----------· ·-------·- Soutbern ... . ....... -•. --·-· · ·····-1,480
5. 45
97
7. 75
Western __________ ···-·--·---·-- --412
5. 20
129
9. 75
606
25
56
310
215
$6. 35
(1)
7. 50
6. 35
5.85
1931
Total_ - - ----·----- -· ---- -----
1,550
$6.05
232
$9. 80
CentraL ..... _. . ---·· ····- -·-··---· -· · · - ··-·-- ··--· -- -· -- --- ····- -·- · · ---·- -- ·Eastern __ . ......•.. _•.... ·-·-·-· -·· ---·-· .. __ ---------· - · ······---- __________ _
Nortbern·-· --··-···--· ··········-··
13
(1)
- ·--·-· -- - · ····-···--Soutbern_. ___ ___ .... _.. _._ .... . ·· -1,171
6. 10
86
8. 60
Western·-·· · --···-----·- --- -·-- -· ·
366
5. 95
146
10.15
1
682
24
1
67
352
238
$7.35
(1)
(1)
9. 20
7. 45
6. 75
Not computed; base less than 50.
Mexican women were employed in the stores visited in two sections
only-the southern and the western. Though this industrial group
had almost as many Mexican . as white women in the stores visited
in the western sect10n, the midpoint of earnings was lower for the
Mexicans-in 1932 by one-sixth, in 1931 by one-fourth.
Mexicans in stores in the southern part of the State -had lower
medians than those in the western section.
·
In 3 sections-northern, southern, and western-Mexican laundry
operatives numbered at least 50. In both years the median was
highest in the northern and lowest in the western, but betwe~n 1931
and 1932 these medians declined 18.5 percent and 13.3 percent,
respectively.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
AL
G E
C LLE
27
PART !!.-FACTORIES, STORES, A
Earnings distribution
NEGRO WOMEN
Negro women in Texas :factories were a low-paid group; in the
pay-roll week in 1932 only 8 of the 248 reported received as much
as $10. In the next summary the earnings, like those of Mexican
women, are shown in small classes without obscuring a comparison
of $6 groups. See appendix table I for more detailed figures.
N egro women, 1932
I Dopa,tmont
and I
read y-to-wear
Factories
Laundries
stores
I
N umber! Percent INumber IPercent INumber! Percent IN u m ber! Percent
'l' hree industrial
groups
Week's earning3
Tot al ______ __ ___ ___ ___
Less than $4 ___ __ __ ____ ____ _
$4, less than $6 ____ ___ ____ ___
$6, less than $8 _______ _______
$8, less than $12___ ________ __
$12, less than $18 _______ ___ __
$18 and more _____ ______ ____
Median _________ -- -- -- __ - -- 1
850
100.0
248
100. 0
22. 5
28. 6
34. 7
12. 7
1.3
.2
132
33
47
30
4
2
53. 2
13. 3
19. 0
12. 1
1. 6
.8
(I)
3
599
100. 0
59
210
248
75
7
35.1
41.4
12. 5
1. 2
- -- - - - - -- - - - - -- - - - - -~ - --191
243
295
108
11
2
$5. 95
-- ------- ---- - -- --- -- -- -- - --- -- ---3
-- ---- - ----- - ----
$3. 75
9. 8
--------(1 )
---------- -- ----- ---------
()
---------
$7. 25
Not computed; base less t han 50.
Earnings and time worked
Hours worked were reported :for most of the laundry workers. In
1932 more than three-fifths ( 63 percent) had worked less than 48
hours, but more than one-fifth (22.6 percent) had worked at least 54.
In 1931, 45 percent had worked less than 48 hours and practically
two-fifths (39.5 percent) had worked 54.
Comparison of late and early pay-roll data
Pay-roll data of Negro women in nut-shelling plants, the in dustry
showing the majority of the Negro women in manufacturing, were
n ot available for 1931. As this industry comprised close to threefifths ( 58.1 percent) of the Negro women reported in the factories
visited in 1932, the low wages paid nut shellers must exert considerable influence on the median of the factory group. The midpoint
of earnings in manufacturing for the pay-roll week of 1931 is $6.15;
for that of 1932 it is only $3.75.
In laundries the earnings of 628 Negro women were reported in
1931 and of 599 in 1932. The median of earnings in 1932 was $7.25,
an amount less by 14.2 percent than the corresponding figure for 1931.
The summary following gives the number of Negroes reported in
:factories and laundries and the medians of earnings in 1932 and 1931.
There were too few Negroes in stores to justify a comparison of
medians.
1932
Industrial group
Factories __ -- - __ ___ ______________ -- -- _____ - __ -- ________ -- __
Laundries __ _____ _____ ___ - --- - --- --- --- - -- --- - -- --- -- . - -- --
23891 °-36---3
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1931
Number
of Negro
women
reported
M edian
earnings
umber
of Negro
women
reported
248
$3. 75
7. 25
86
628
599
M edian
earnings
$6.15
8.45
28
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
. S ection of the S t0te.-Pay-roll data. of Negro women in factories
the var10us sections were not available for 1931. · Of the two
sections in which records were reported for 1932 the northern part
of the State showed a very low median, $2.70, while in the southern
section the amount was $7.15. Though 2 of the 150 women in
the north were paid $20 or more, only 10 (6.7 percent ) were paid
as much as $5 and 29 received less than $2. Practically nine-tenths
of the Negro women in the south r eceived $5 or more, though none
got as much as $14. The table next presented gives in summary
form, according to section of State, wage data for 1931 and 1932 for
the Negro women in the factories and laundries visited.
111
TABLE
12.-Number of N egro wo men anll their med'i an week' s earnings in
factories and lwundries, by sectiOn of State-1932 and 1931
Number of Negro women and their median
earnings inSection of State
F actories
Women
I
Laundries
Median
earnings
Women
I earnings
Median
1932
'l'otaL •......................................••• . .•• •
248
$3. 75
Central. ..........................................•.....••• · ·-····-- -- ·· · ··--· -··
Eastern __ - - -· . · -·-·--· -·· --- -- · --. __...... _... -·--··-··-· · · --·-···--· ·-··-··--·.
Northern __... ... . . __ . . ____ ... . ... _. . .. - --· ... _. _-· _. ---· __
150
2. 70
Southern .. . ·---····· · ·-· · · · ·· · ···-·· · ·-· -·-· · ···--·--·····
98
7. 15
599
36
74
$7. 25
(1)
6. 55
7. 40
7. 05
187
302
1931
TotaL_.·-·-···---····-····- -· · -······· · ····- · -·-·--· -·--··-·· - - ·--· ··· --·CentraL ... ... ............ . ......... . ....... ··· -···· · .... . .
Eastern ... .. ••····· ·· ·· · ·· · ·· · ··· · · · · · · ··- ··· · · · · --· · ··-·Northern . . ....... . . . ...... . . . .. ... . . ..... . . .... . .. .. · -·--Southern ...... ................ ... ·· ·· · · ······-···· ·· ···· · ·
1
628
$8. 45
1----1----1-- - l•-····-··· ·-..•. . . .....
. . ...... .. .
··- ·- ·· ·-··
·· · ·- ··---·
···-·····-· ···--· ·-·· ····· · --··
28
78
187
335
(1)
8. 00
8. 70
8. 45
Not computed; base less than 50.
No negro laundry workers were in the plants visited by the
Women's Bureau in the western section of the State, and there were
fewer than 50 women reported in the central part. In the other
three divisions the highest medians of earnings were for those in the
northern section and the lowest were for the eastern.
EARNINGS AND PERSONAL INFORMATION
Earnings by age
White wom,en.-lt is important to ascertain whether the younger
or the older workers received the higher earnings. From table 13
it appears that white women in Texas factories had a gradual rise
in earnings up to the 35-and-under-40-year age group, then there
was a decline, and the median of the 40-and-under-50 and the 50and-under-60 groups ( these having the same amount) was only 5
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
29
PART II.-FACTOR.IES, STORES, AND LAUNDRIES
cents above the median of the workers who were 18 and under 20.
The media-n for these two older groups was 40 cents lower than that
for all in manufacturing ($8.35).
TABLE
13.-Median week's earnings of w hite women in factories, stores, and
laundries, by age-1932
Stores
Laundries
Factories
Department and
ready-to-wear
Age group (years)
Num- Median
ber of
earnwomen
ings
-- -
Total . . -- ; ···- -···· ···
Under
18. 20
.. ~----- - --_
18,
under
__ ------_____ _________
20, under 25 ______ ___ __ __ ____
25, under 30 ___ ____ __ _____ ___
30, under 35 __ ______ _________
35, under 40 ____ __ __ __ _______
40, under 50 ___ ______________
50, under 60 ___ ___ __ ______ ___
60 and over ________ _________
1
Number of
women
Median
earnings
-
-
-
Limited-price
N um- Median Num- Median
earnber of
ber of
earnings
women
women
ings
-- -- ----
3,026
$8. 35
1, 050
$13. 00
334
$9. 80
851
$8. 75
237
646
553
409
374
491
197
39
7. 90
8. 60
8. 75
56
205
198
131
175
208
57
9
9. 00
11. 35
12. 70
13. 65
15. 20
14. 60
13. 95
77
140
59
19
17
13
2
9. 00
9.60
10. 75
81
205
135
107
107
135
52
10
8. 25
8. 60
9. 00
9. 45
8. 75
8. 85
8. 80
- - -- - - - - - - - - - - 80- - -- -11- - (1)
(1)
(1)
5. 85
19
7
8. 80
8. 40
7. 95
7. 95
(1)
(1)
-- ------ -
(1)
(1 )
(1 )
(1)
---------
(1)
Not computed ; b ase less than 50.
In department and ready-to-wear stores the high point in earnings
was reached at 35 and under 40 years ($15.20). Women whose ages
fell in the groups between 18 and 30 years had medians lower by
:from 30 cents to $4 than the median for the total, and these younger
groups had amounts from $2.50 to $6.20 less than the highest median
($15.20). At 40 years and above, the medians declined, though
remaining higher than any figure but the maximum.
In limited-price stores it was possible to show a median of a
week's earnings for only three age groups, covering 18 and under
30 years. Though there was a gradual increase with age, only the
25-and-under-30 group exceeded the median ($9.80) for the total in
this type of store.
Between the medians for girls of 18 and under 20 and for women
of 30 and under 35, factory earnings advanced by only 90 cents and
laundry earnings by $1.20, in contrast to $4.65 in department and
ready-to-wear stores. In stores of these types there was a still higher
figure for women of 35 and under 40, though earnings declined for
women of 35 and over in factories and laundries. However, in
laundries the medians of women at least 40 years old remained
higher than the figures for girls under 25.
·
Almost two-thirds ( 64.1 percent) of the white women in manufacturing who were 60 years old or more received less than $9 a week,
as did well over four-fifths (85 percent) of the girls under 18. Five
of the ten women in laundries who were 60 or older were paid less
than $9, but 7 of the 9 women of this age in department and readyto-wear stores received at least $13.
Mewioan women.-Except for manufacturing, too :few Mexican
women appear in the various age classes to make the computation of
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
30
WO M E N IN TEXAS ·INDUSTRIES
a median worth while.
are as follows :
The medians :for five age groups in factories
Median
earnings
Age g r ou p
(years )
18,
20,
25,
30,
35,
under
under
under
under
under
20__ __ _______ ___ ___ __ _____ ____ _____ ____
25 _______ ____ ___ ______ __ ______ ___ _____ _
30__ __ ____ ___ ___ __ ____ ____ _______ ___ __ _
35 _______ ____ __ _______ _______ ____ __ ____
40____ __ __ ___ ____ ___________ ___________
$5.25
5.90
5.80
5.95
5.55-
N egro w01nen.-The only industry for which it is possible to show
median earnings of Negro women by age is laundries. The, figures
indicate that the older women were paid better than the younger.
Median
earnings
Age group
(years)
20,
25,
30,
35,
40,
under
under
under
under
under
25 _______ ___ __ _____ __ _____ ___ ____ _____ _
30_______ ___ ___ ________ __ __ ___ ____ __ ___
35 _____ ___ ____ __ ____ _______ _____ _______
40 __ __ __________ ___ ___ __ __ _______ ______
50 ___________ ___ __ ____ __ __ _____ ________
$6.60
7.30
7.65
7.55
7.80
Earnings by marital status
White wom. en.-Approximately one-sixth (17.6 percent) . of the
6,440 white women in factories, stores, and laundries who reported
their marital status did not appear on the firms' pay rolls for the
week selected as representative in 1932. The 5,309 for whom payroll data were obtained are classified in the following table according t o industry and marital status, with the median of the earnings
of each group for the week specified.
TAB'.LE
14.-Media.n w eek's earnings of white ilomen in factori es, stores, and
laundries, by mar Ual status and industry-1932
, v hite women who wereAll women
reporting
Single
M arried
Widowed
In dustrial group
Separated or
divorced
M eMeMeMeM eNum- dian N um- dian Num- dian Num- dian N u m - dian
ber
ber
ber
earnearnearnber
earnber
earn•
ings
ings
ings
ings
ings
-- F actories ____________ -- ______ 3, 034
Department and ready-towear st ores ______ __ __ __ __ __ 1,091
Limited-price stores ____ _____
337
Laundries ____ ___ _________ _ -847
1
-
-- -- -- -- -- -
-
--
$8. 35
889
$8.15
1, 389
$8. 55
518
$8. 45
238
$7. 70
13. 15
9. 80
8. 75
433
235
278
12. 20
9. 55
8. 60
389
66
302
13. 75
10. 55
9. 00
175
18
178
13. 90
(1)
9. 00
94
18
89
13. 65
(1)
8. 30
Not computed ; base less than 50.
A comparison of the figures for the various industries according
to the women's marital status shows that the separated or divorced
women had the lowest medians in factories -a nd laundries and next
to the lowest in the larger group of stores. To what extent they
were younger than the other women 1s not possible to decide. They
were so much smaller a group as to be hardly comparable. In general, the married and the widowed women had the highest wage levels.
The former comprised much the l,a.r gest group in factories and
somewhat the largest in laundries.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART IL-
31
FACTORIES, STORES, AND LAU NDRIES
M ewican women.-It was not possible to correlate earnings a,nd
marital status for the Mexican workers in the industry groups under
discussion. The number reporting marital sta.tus in most cases was
not large enough for the computation of median earnings. For
married women in the factory group the median was $5.45. Only
in manufacturing was mo,re than one of the marital groups large
enough to compute a median, and here the married women had the
lowest median, $5.45. Widowed women had the highest, $6.55. The
median for single women was $5.70. Single women in laundries had
a median of $6.90, and in department and ready-to-wear stores their
median was $8.10.
N egro women.-L aundries had almost seven times as many Negro
women r eporting marital status and earnings as appear in the
manufacturing group, and each of the marital classes in laundries
was sufficiently large for the computati?n of a median. Separated
or divorced women had the lowest median, $6.85. T he next lowest
was $7, that for single women. Widowed women had the highe,st
median, $7.85, and that for married women was next, $7.60.
Earnings by time with the firm
White women.-In :factories the median of earnings of the women
who had been with the firm 6 months and less than a year was a
dollar higher than the, median for service 0£ less than 6 months.
Simila.rly, there was a gain of a dollar in the median. for 2 years'
service over the median for 1 year's. F or the periods that together
make 3 and under 10 years and for 15 years and over , the medians
were $8.95 or $9. The maximum ($9.65) was for the gToup with
service of 10 and under 15 years.
TABL E
15.-Median week' s earnings of white women i n faotoir'i,es, stores, and
laitndries , by t i me with the {irm--193f
N umber of w hi te women and t heir median earnings inStores
Tlme wit h the firm
Factories
Department and
ready-to-wear
Laundries
Limited-price
M edian Women Median Women Median Women Median
Women earnings
earnings
earnings
earnings
-------------TotaL ____ -- __ - - - - - - --
3,009
$8. 35
1, 094
Less than 6 months _______ __
6 mont hs, less t han 1 year ___
1, less t han 2 years __________
2,less than 3 years __________
3, less t han 4 years _______ __ _
4, less t han 5 years __________
5, less than 10 years ____ ___ __
10, less than 15 years ________
15 years and m ore ___________
308
248
413
329
337
284
771
6. 70
7. 70
7. 55
8. 55
8. 95
9. 00
9.00
9. 65
8. 95
22
58
160
149
104
107
293
138
63
1
~g
$13. 15
339
$9. 80
847
$8. 75
(1)
49
42
88
62
37
19
33
8
(1)
(1)
9. 70
9. 70
26
61
131
145
128
99
185
49
23
(')
10.65
12. 40
12. 30
11.65
13. 10
13. 50
15. 45
16. 75
1
~l)
1)
(1~
(1
(t)
7. 65
7. 90
8. 55
8. 60
9.45
9. 55
(1)
(1)
N ot computed; base less t han 50.
For white workers in department and ready-to-wear stores the lowest median ($10.65) was for the lowest experience group with enough
women £or the computa.tion o:f a median ( 6 months and less than a
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
32
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
year) ; the second year's experience increased this median by $1.75.
Slight declines followed, but with 4 years' service the median/assed
$13; it reached the maximum ($16.75) :for the women who ha spent
15 or more years in the establishment.
Most experience groups of workers in the limited-price stores were
small; only two--respectively 1 and under 2 years and 2 and under
3-had numbers large enough to compute a median, and for these the
figure was the same, $9.70.
The medians for laundry workers show an unbroken though irregular progression. The highest median, $9.55, is for the workers (22
percent of the total ) who had been 5 and under 10 years with the
firm. No median is available for laundry workers whose experience
was as much as 10 years.
Memoatn, and Negro women.-For the Mexican women in factories the lowest median, $4.10, was for the group with less than 6
months' experience, and the maximum, $6.45, was for the women 3
and under 4 years with the firm. There was a slight decline in the
medians for longer service.
A gradual increase in the earnings· o:f Negro women in laundries
according to experience with the plant is indicated by the medians,
which rose from $6.65 to $7.85 in the various experience groups.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Part 111.-HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
The irregularity of hours in hotels and restaurants requires tabulation and analysis totally different from those of other industries. It
is not uncommon for women to have both long and short days in
the same week, and waitresses are accustomed to being required only
at meal times, with periods of from 1 to 3 hours off duty between.
Because of this irregula,r ity, which makes it difficult to classify employee,g according to the daily hours worked, the workday and not
the employee is taken as the unit. To take an extreme case, the
workdays of a woman with such a schedule as Monday 6 hours, Tuesday 4, Wednesday and Thursday 6, Friday 4, and Saturday and
Sunday 9 ( a total of 44) would be tabulated as 4 hours, 2; 6 hours,
3; 9 hours, 2. Thus one woman may appear in the table 7 times,
if that is the number of days in her scheduled week, and the total
number of employee-days is likely to be 6 or 7 times the number
of women for whom scheduled hours are reported.
Length of employee-days
Length of the days on which work was done was obtained for
nine-tenths of the 1,014 hotel and restaurant employees for whom
pay-roll data were secured in the Texas survey. These 909 women
were reported to have worked 5,893 days in the week selected as representative of the industry, an average of 6½ days per employee.
According to racial group the average week of the white and Mexican women was found to be 6.3 days each, of the Negro women 6.9
days. The employee-days in the week selected were for the most
part those of white women; three-fifths of the number reported were
worked by women of that race. The table following shows for each
race and for all women the number of days of long, average, and
short duration worked in the week for which records were obtained.
TABLE
16.-Length cf employee-00/JIS' of 909 w omen in hotels anit restawrants,
by raoe of women
E mployee-days of-
Actual length of day (hours)
White women
All races
Mexican women
Negro women
Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
---- -- -- -- ---Number of women __ __
Total employee-days __
909
5, 893
100. 0
563
3,525
100.0
39
245
100. 0
307
2,123
100. 0
6, less than 7_________ _----- 7, less than s_____ ___________
8___ _____ ______ __ ___ _____ ____
than
8, less
than
___ _
9More
____ ___
_______
_____
____9_____
612
2,706
1,454
268
525
10. 4
45.9
24. 7
4. 5
8. 9
399
1,528
679
176
492
11. 3
43. 3
19. 3
5.0
14.0
45
23
115
40
15
18.4
9.4
46.9
16. 3
6.1
168
1,155
660
52
18
7.9
54. 4
31.1
2.4
.8
- --5.6- - -- -- ---Less than 6 __ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
251
328
7.1
2. 9
7
70
3. 3
33
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
34
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
Seven-tenths of the employee-days of hotel and restaurant workers
were 7 to 8 hours in length, only just over one-third of these being
8 hours. Negro women had the largest percentage of days of 7 to 8
hours, 85.5 percent in contrast to 62.6 percent for white workers.
Employee-days of less than 6 hours and of 9 hours were comparativ,ely few, comprising only 5.6 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively,
of the total number of d:1,ys worked. In both these groups white
waitresses were the predominating workers. Three-fourths of all
the women were waitresses or chambermaids. No Negro or Mexican
was reported as a waitress, these two racial groups being almost
wholly chambermaids.
White women.-Employee-days of waitresses comprised almost
two-thirds (64.3 percent) of the days worked by white women and
in 7 of every 10 cases the women were employed in hotels. Waitresses had the longest working hours, for 91.6 percent of the workdays of 9 hours for white women were reported for this occupation.
On the other hand, days of under 6 hours were in only three-fifths
of the cases ( 59.4 percent) those of waitresses, and well over half
of this number were for waitresses in stores, where as many as 51
percent of the days, in contrast to 8.8 percent of those in hotels and
12.9 percent of those in other branches, were under 7 hours in length.
Only one-fifth of the employee-days of store waitresses were 7 to 8
hours long, though roughly two-thirds of the days of waitresses in
hotels and other branches were so reported. However, stores had a
higher proportion than the average :for waitresses at over 8 hours.
The figures show that the average week worked by waitresses was
one of 6 days (6.1).
Servers and floor girls and cashiers and checkers were the two
classes ranking next to waitresses, though only about one-tenth of
the women were in each of these occupational groups. Few of their
days were longer than 8 hours; almost three-fourths were 7 to 8
hours.
Twenty-one of the twenty-six elevator operators with length of
workday reported were white, and 83 percent of the days they
worked were from 6 to 8 hours. The elevator operators show an
average week of 7 days.
N egro women.-For the 307 Negro women whose time was reported, the average week was 7 days (6.9). Well over four-fifths
of their employee-days were 7 to 8 hours, and practically all these
wer,e worked by chambermaids, the occupation of 92.5 percent of the
Negro women reported. Nine-tenths of the almost 2,000 employeedays of the chambermaids were 7 to 8 hours long. No chambermaids worked more than 8 hours and only a small proportion ( 3.2
percent) of the employee-days were less than 6 hours.
Only a :few Negro women were kitchen or pantry workers, servers
or floor girls, or elevator operators ( only 1 of the last named), and
the days they worked corresponded roughly to their proportion
among women of this race.
M emcan wornen.-Mexicans in this industry were for the most part
chambermaids, and their workdays usually were 8 and under 9 hours.
As many as 90.8 percent of the employee-days of Mexicans fell in
this group.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
35
PART III.-HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
Spread of hours
The broken days 0£ many hotel and restaurant workers, with hours
off duty between their employed periods and a total spread 0£ hours
in many cases extending from e~rly morning to late evening, constitute one o:f the worst evils o:f this rndustry.
·
One-fifth (19.3 percent) o:f the 3,422 employee-days 0£ white
women with beginning and ending hours reported had a spread of
from 12 to 21 hours, but only the two 21-hour days were as much
as 16 hours. Practically :four-fifths of these long days were those
0£ waitresses. Less than one-half ( 47.6 percent) 0£ the employeedays of white women had a spread 0£ 7 and under 9 hours, though
days with such hours actually worked constituted 67.6 percent 0£ the
total. Only about one-fifth (21.4 percent) 0£ the days had so
short a spread as less than 8 hours, though the proportion of days
with less than 8 hours actually worked was about 62 percent.
More than half the employee-days of wait resses had a spread 0£ 8
and under 10 hours and 29 percent of the days reported were· at
least 10 hours from beginning to end 0£ work, 2 of them having
the 21-hour over-all referred to.
With the exception o:f the one elevator operator, several 0£ whose
days had a spread of 15 and under 16 hours, no Negro woman had
a day with over-all hours of more than 10. In £act, practically all
the employee-days of Negro women had a spread 0£ from 6 hours
to 9 and under 10 hours, and all but a few ( 95.9 percent) 0£ their
days actually worked were 6 and under 9 hours. Only two-thirds
of the employee-days of white women had a spread of hours that
:fell in the 6-and-under-10-hour class. Such a bulking was no doubt
due to the occupation o:f the predominating group-in the case of
white women, waitresses; o:f Negro women, chambermaids.
In the summary :following are shown the number of hours actually
worked and the number o:f hours .£ro:qi beginning to ending work
£or the employee-days ( as defined on page 33) o:f all white women
reported and the white waitresses in hotels. The distributions indicate the greater spread o:f hours for waitresses than for the total
group 0£ which they are a part.
563 white women, all occupations
Hours
255 white waitresses in hotels
Employee-days
Employee-days
actual work- Em~loyee-days
with actual work- Employee-days
with spread of with
wit spread of
ing time as spec- hours
ing time as spec- hours
as specified
as
specified
ifled
ified
Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
- - - - ------ ---1,539
100. 0
100. 0
1,513
100. 0
100. 0 13,422
- - - -- - - -- - - - - -251
34
2. 2
Less than 6........ ... . ... . .
7. 1
171
5.0
7
.5
Total reported .. .... . .
3, 525
al)9
11. 3
6, less than 7. .. .........•.. .
7, less than 8.......... . .... .
1,528
43. 3
24. 3
8, less than 9........ . .......
855
492
9, less than 10... . .... . .... ..
14. 0
10, less than 12. .. .....•.... . ----- -- -- --------12, less than 14. . . ........... --------- ------ --14, less than· 16............. . ----- ---- --------More than 16 (21 hours) ..... ----- ---- --------1
2
2
158
405
1,224
487
315
385
275
2
102
4. 6
6. 6
723
47. 0
11. 8
364
23. 7
35. 8
14, 2
20.5
316
9. 2 - ---- ---- --------11. 3 --------- --------8.0 ----- --- - --------. 1 - ----- -- - -- -------
For 18 women, with 103 employee-days, spread of hours was not reported.
For 5 women, with 26 employee-days, spread of hours was not reported.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
14
123
629
221
60
278
179
2
.9
8.1
41. 6
14. 6
4.0
18. 4
11.8
.1
36
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
Uniform schedule and unbroken shifts
The irregularity of hours having been referred to, it is interesting
to find that for more than three-fifths ( 61.7 percent) of the 835
women with information reported, all days in the week had the same
hours; 35.4 percent ( about 3 in 5 of them chambermaids) had two
schedules of hours; only 2.9 percent-24 women, 22 of them
waitresses-had more than two schedules.
Another interesting thing is that almost half ( 47.5 percent) of
the women worked what is reported as "one unbroken shift", in
spite of days of 7 to 9 hours and the custom of receiving meals as
part compensation. The explanation is, of course, that in large numbers of cases the employees are not considered off duty while eating
their meals and are liable to interruption if needed.
Of the white women reported, close to two-thirds of the cashiers
and checkers, seven-tenths of the kitchen and pantry workers, and
nearly three-fifths of the waitresses (2 in 3 of them hotel employees)
had no break off duty on any day of the week.
No white woman had a day broken by more than two periods off
duty. Over one-sixth (17.7 percent) of the waitresses and more than
seven-tenths of the white servers and floor girls on a uniform
schedule had one period off duty. Altogether, one-fifth (21.1 percent) of the white women on a uniform schedule had their day
broken by one period and one-twelfth (8 percent) by two periods
off duty.
As already stated, the majority-about 62 percent-of the women
whose schedules were reported had a uniform shift throughout the
week. Approximately four-fifths of the waitresses, but less than
two-fifths of the chambermaids, had the same schedule on each day.
Of the 32 white women whose scheduled day was broken by two
periods off duty, all but 4 were waitresses.
Only 74 of the waitresses had more than 1 daily schedule, but 22
of this number had to make at least 3 adjustments in their time.
Nearly two-thirds (65.1 percent) of the Negro chambermaids were
on two different schedules; the others all had an unbroken shift.
A. correlation of spread of hours with time off duty within such
spread shows that one-fifth (20.9 percent) of the 5,263 employeedays for which spread of hours was reported had no break for meals
or rest periods, and a very small proportion of the days had intervals of less than 30 minutes. However, since seven-tenths of the
days with no time off duty had a spread of 7 and under 10 hours, it
may be taken for granted that meals were eaten during the less
busy times while the women were on duty. For 6.2 percent of the
employee-days time off duty between periods of work was as much
as 6 hours. On about three-eighths (35.7 percent) of the days there
were breaks of 30 .minutes and less than 1 hour and this probably
was the time allotted for meals.
From the table following it may be seen that the spread of
employee-days of Negro women and of Mexican women was not due
to long periods off duty as was the case with some white women.
These differences are due to the women's ·occupations.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
37
PART !IL- HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
T A BLE
17.-Time off duty, by spread of h,ours
Number
ofemployeedays
with information reported
'rime off duty
N umber o! employee-days on which spread o! hours was-
Less
t han 5
hours
5, less
than 7
hours
7, less
than 9
hours
9, less
11, less 13, less 15 hours
than 11 than 13 than 15
and
hours
hours
hours
more
DAYS W ORKED BY WHITE WOMEN
TotaL ___ _____________
3,282
None ___------- ------- -- -- -Less than 30 minutes ______ _
30 minutes, less than 1 hour_
1, less than-2 hours ______ ___ _
2, less than 3 hours ___ ____ ___
3, less than 4 hours ___ _____ __
4, less than 5 hours _________ _
5, less than 6 hours ________ __
6 hours and more ____ ____ ___
901
136
737
534
145
166
211
146
306
56
57
5
----------- ------------- - -- ----- -- --- -- - -
206
163
7
1,559
689
161
449
100
509
I 173 __ __________ ______ __ ___ ___ _
72 --- --- --- --- -- ---- --- -- -- - - ---- -----
20
629
83 - -------16
340
178 ----- ----- - ---- -8
131
6
--- ---- - 1
110
55
-- - ----- - --- - -- - -14
76
--- - ---- - - ---- -- -- --- -----24
- -- -- -- - - - --- ----- -- -- - -- -- ---------
--------- - - - ------
--- ---- -- - --- -------- -- --- - --- --- - -- - ------ --- -- ---121
122
206
100
DAYS WORKED BY MEXICAN WOMEN
Total ___ _-- -- --- -- -- __
None __ -- - - ----- ------- -- - -30 minutes, less than 1 hour_1, less than 2 hours _____ ___ __
2, less than 3 hours ___ ______ _
3, less than 4 hours _______ __ _
6 hours and more _______ ___ _
245 ---- -- ---
28
53
149 --- -- -- -- --- ---- - -
33
21
12 -- -- -- -- 67
7
20
40
117 ---- ----- - -- - --- -21
96
7 - - ----- - - - - - - - - - - - - - --- - --7
6 - - --- - -- - - ----- --- -- - - - -- --
------ - - --- -- -- ----- - - - ---- - -- - - -
--- -- - ----- ---- ---- ------ --- -----
15
---------------------------------
6 - - ---- - - - - -- - - ---- ---- - ----
15 -- - ---- -- --- --- --- -- ------- -- - -- - -- - -- ----- -- --- -- - - --
15
DAYS WORKED BY NEGRO W OM EN
Total _____ __ ________ . _
None. ___________ _____ ____ __
30 minutes, less than 1 hour_
1, less than 2 hours _____ ___ __
6 hours and more. _________ _
1
1, 736
19
123
1,362
228 - ---- - - - - -- - ------
164
19
63
82 -- ---- - -1, 076 ---- - ---46
1, 024
6
492 ~-- - ---- 14
256
222
4 --------- --------- -- - ------ -- - --- - --
--- - --- ---- --- -- ---- -- -- - - -------
4
- --- ---- - -------- --- ----- - --- ---- ---- -- -- -- --- -- -- - --- - - - -- 4
Employees probably ate on duty. Only 1 employee-day was as long as 10 hours.
Generally speaking, days of the Negro women did not have the
large amount of time off duty that appears in the case of white
women. Periods longer than the 1-and-under-2-hour interval were
relatively rare for both Mexican and Negro women, though white
women had intervals of 2 hours and over in 29.7 percent of their
employee-days. As stated before, these differences are due to the
women's occupations.
Time worked in week
In the week selected as representative, data in regard to time
,,wrked were secured for 956 workers on the day shift and 56 on the
night shift. For the great majority of these women hours of work
were reported, and a correlation of these with occupation is shown
in table 18 for 819 women on the day shift and 51 on the night
shift.
In spite of the 9-54 hour law of Texas, only 15.1 percent of the
women on the day shift had worked as much as 54 hours, 1 in 4:
of these having exceeded 54. Only 7 percent had worked 48 hours,
the others being equally divided at under 48 hours and over 48 and
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
38
WOMEN IN TEXAS
r
rDUSTRIES
under 54. In some cases the time worked in the week was extremely
shor~2, 7¼, or 12 hours; in contrast to this was the 61-hour week
o:f some o:f the women.
The number of waitresses with hours worked reported and the
number o:f chambermaids and elevator operators were practically
the same, together including approximately four-fifths o:f the women
on the day shift in this table. The two groups va.r y as to hours of
work, however, for while 52 percent of the waitresses had. worked
less than 48 hours, only 23 percent of the chambermaids and elevator operators were so reported. Close to two-thirds of the latter
group worked a week o:f 48 and under 54 hours.
TABLE
18.-Hours worked during week, by occupation and shift
Occupation
Women who workedWomen
with informa- Less 30, less 35, less 40, less 44, less
tionre- than30
than40 than44 than48 48
ported hours than35
hours hours hours hours hours_
Over
48,less
54
than54 hours
hours
Over
54
hours
DAY SHIFT
TotaL ____ ______ __ ___
Pe~cent distribution ______ __
819
67
24
70
73
85
0
8. 2
2.9
8. 5
8. 9
10.4
- -1 - -2 - -5 - -4 - -4 -100.Cashier and checker_ _______
43
Waitress __ __ ________________
Server and floor girL ___ ____
Kitchen and pantry worker_
Elevator operator and chambermaid __ ______________ __
Miscellaneous housekeeping
worker _____________ ______
323
64
44
25
19
1
15
1
1
319
20
5
26
1 ----- --
57
7. 0
-
- -11
319
38.9
----
93
11. 4
31
3. 8
72
15
16
1
47
2
4
--- ---2
39
3
8
45
7
6
2
25
8
1
14
22
19
185
1
2
20
6
11. 8
8
15. 7
46
2
5
37
10
12
------- -------
13
11
-------
2
23 _______
45.1 _______
1
2. O
1 --- - ---
1
NIGHT SHIFT
TotaL _______________
Percent distribution_ _______
Cashier and checker ______ __
Waitress _______ -- ------ ----Kitchen and pantry worker_
Elevator operator and chambermaid __ __ ______ ___ ____ _
Miscellaneous
housekeeping_
worker __________________
51
100. 0
3
14
4
7. 8
2 _______
3. 9 ___ ____
7
13. 7
1 ------- ------- ------- --- - --- - - - -- - -
1 -------
4
4
2 ------- ------- -------
1
1 -- ----- - ------ - - ----- -------
27
1
2 -- ----- -------
1 - ----- - ------- --- ---- ---- ---
4 ------- --- -- -15 ----- -- ---- --3 --- ---- -------
As would be expected in hotels and restaurants, the scheduled ·week
of practically all the women ( over 99 percent) on both the day and
the night shift was 6 or 7 days; for three-fifths of the women it was
7 days. Of the 135 women for whom the number o:f days they actually worked was reported, 95 (70.4 percent) had worked on 6 qr 7
days. Ten ( only 7.4 percent) had not exceeded 3 .days.
Earnings
The median of the week's earnings of the 1,014 women in hotels
and restaurants was $7.35; for the 957 on the day shift it was the
same figure, slightly over three-fifths of them being in the group earning $5 and under $9. Only 10.6 percent of the women earned as
much as $12. . The highest amount reported was $28._ for the 57
women on ·the ni~ht shift the medi~n was $6.90.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART III.-HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
39
The highest median of any occupation, $12.70, was for cashiers
and checkers on the day shift, the class that had the largest proportion as well as the largest number of workers earning $12 or more.
However, only one woman in this group had earned as much as $19.
Waitresses show the lowest median of earningB, the figure for
the 394 women being $6.10. One-sixth of the women in this occupation were paid less than $3 for the pay-roll week recorded, and
practically one-half earned $4 and under $7; $18 and under $19
was the maximum of earnings, and only 3 waitresses received such
an amount. The rate of pay of waitresses generally is lower than
that of other hotel and restaurant workers, because the receipt of
tips is taken into account in setting their wages.
Earnings of the 352 chambermaids and elevator operators were
more concentrated, the range being from less than $1 to $13 and
under $14. The median of earnings was $7.60. Almost four-fifths
(79.3 percent) of the women in these two occupations earned $6
and under $9. Only 6 percent of them earned as much as $9.
Earnings of kitchen and pantry workers and of women doing rruseellaneous housekeeping work, each comprising between 40 and 50
employees, had a wider spread than appeared in the occupational
group just discussed. They ranged from a minimum of $4 and
under $5 in each case to a maximum of $22 and under $23 for the
group first mentioned and a maximum of $28 for the latter. About
three-eighths of the kitchen and pantry girls earned $4 and under
$8 and a like number earned $12 or more. One-ninth of those in
miscellaneous work earned $4 ,and under $9 and 50 peroont got $12
or more.
Half of the women reported on the night shift in hotels and restaurants were chambermaids and elevator operators' and close to
three-tenths were waitresses. No woman on the night shift received
as much as $14, and on each shift approximately one-half had
earnings of $6 and under $9.
Meals and wages
Some data in regard to meals furnished to the employees by management were reported for seven-tenths of the approximately 1,000
hotel and restaurant workers. About five-sixths of the women reported had one or more meals provided at the place of work; those
who had not were chiefly Negro chambermaids, and the me.dian of
their rates of pay was $6.90. This was also the median rate of the
408 waitresses, all white, whose meals were furnished by the establishment; in 42 of these cases the workers had to pay :for the meals
but were .a llowed a discount. In all, these 42 and 10 other white
restaurant workers were reported as receiving a discount on meals
and the median of their week's pay was $7.
For waitresses in stores the median rate was $9, higher than the
median of those in hotels by more than $2. Between 55 and 60
percent of the store workers received 1 or 2 free meals a day, but in
hotels the longer business hours undoubtedly were responsible for
the high proportion ( slightly over 90 percent) of the waitresses
who were furnished 2 or 3 meals daily without cost. Only 6 of the
42 waitresses who were charged :for meals were hotel workers.
Facts about meals were secured for fewer than 20 Mexican women,
and most of them received no free meals. For 78 of the 109 Negro
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
40
WOMEN IN TEXAS I N DUSTRIES
women with information on meals reported the management neither
provided free meals nor allowed a discount on their cost.
The median of the actual earnings of white women receiving 3 free
meals a day regularly was $6.65; this is 25 cents higher than the
median of women receiving only 2 meals. Half o:f the comparatively
few women receiving but 1 free meal earned $9 or more during the
week covered. For the women who were given no free meal but
were allowed a discount, the median of earnings was $8.
In 1931 the medians were much higher than in 1932. Median
earnings of the women given, 3 meals were $9.85, $2.50 higher than
those of women receiving only 2 meals. Five-eighths of the few
women receiving only 1 free meal received $10 or more during the
week. Too few Mexican and Negro women had meals furnished in
1932 and in 1931 to make the computation of a median possible.
Earnings and personal information
Earnings by age.-A comparison of the earnings of women in the
various age groups reveals that the older women were earning the
highest wages. .This is due, no doubt, to the fact that young women
are preferred as waitresses, and such additions as meals, lodging, or
tips are not included in cash sums reported as week~s earnings in
this industry. Tips, however, are irregular and uncertain and should
not be taken into account in the setting of wage rates.
The summary following shows the median for women of 40 and less
than 50 years of age to be $8.40, one-fifth higher than that for the
women of 20 and under 25 years.
Practically one-fourth of all the women reporting age were receiving less than $6 a week; only one-sixth, as much as $10.
Age (years)
Number of
women
Median
earnings
Total reporting _______________________ _
523
$7. 55
Under 20 __ __ ____ __ _____________________ ____ _
20,
25 ____
---____________
- -- -- ----- ----------- -- - ----_
25, under
under 30
_____ ____________
30, under 35 ___ ______ _________ ______________ _
35, under 40 _____ ___ __ ______ __ __ ____________ _
40, under 50 _____ __ _________ _________ ____ ___ _
50 and over ___ ______ _____________ ______ _____ _
35
125
140
92
59
64
(1)
1
8
7. 05
7. 20
7. 00
7. 70
8.40
(1)
N ot computed; base less than 50.
Ea;rnings by rnarital status.-The medians for the several marital
groups were very similar. The greatest difference was between
that of the single women ($8) and that of the married women
($7.40). Roughly one-fifth of the women in each case earned as
much as $10, but of the widowed women and those not living
with their husbands, only 14 percent and 9 percent, respectively,
were earning as much as $10.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Part IV.-TELEPHONES
The survey 0£ the telephone industry was not restricted to company exchanges but included a number of private branch exchanges
in stores and hotels. Of the 846 women covered, 782 were employed
in telephone exchanges, 18 were in stores, and 46 in hotels. All were
white :women.
Weekly rate
For 833 of the telephone women it was possible to correlate weekly
rate of pay and scheduled hours. The preponderance 0£ workers
in the 48-hour group is evidence of the standard set by the industry.
About 7 in every 8 of the workers had a scheduled week of 48 hours,
and the median of the weekly rates of this group is $16.65. For the
comparatively few employees (7.1 percent) on a 54-hour schedule
the median of rates was one-fourth lower than that of women on
the 48-hour schedule. Seven women were expected to be on the job
63 hours or longer.
The Texas law exempts telephone or telegraph companies in rural
districts and in towns of less than 3,000 inhabitants from compliance
with the 9-54 hour provisions. Sixty o:f the eight hundred and
:forty-six telephone workers in the present study were employed in
towns of less than 3,000 population, and these, of course, were exempt.
Week's earnings
Earnings correlated with hours worked show that only about
one-fourth of the women actually worked 48 hours, and the median
of their week's earnings was $19.05.. Considerably more than twofifths (46.5 percent) worked 40 but less than 48 hours-about onethird exactly 40 hours.
The median of the women's earnings in the small towns, $12.25, is
approximately one-fifth less than that of all women reported, $15.10.
"When contrasted with the medians in larger cities-groups showing
a gradual rise in earnings with increase in population-it is evident
that the median for the women in cities of 150,000 or over is twothirds higher than the median in places of under 3,000.
Population of city
Number of
women
Median
earnin gs
TotaL ___ ______________ _____ ____ ______ _
846
$15.10
Under 3,000------~- ______ _______ __ __________ - 3,000, under 40,000 ___ ____ _____ __ _____ __ __ ___ _
40,000, under 150,000 __, ______ ___ ___ ___ ___ __ __
150,000 and over ___ _____ _____ ____ __ _____ ___ __
60
288
351
147
12. 25
12. 85
16. 05
20. 50
Earnings were higher for women in the telephone exchanges than
in any other industry covered in Texas. : In 1932 their median was
$15.10, exceeding by $2.20 the amount shown for department stores,
41
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
42
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
the industry rankmg next. In 1931 also the telephone median was
the highest ($15.85) , but the figures may not be compared because of
the absence o:f 1931 records of many telephone workers in cities of
the largest population groups, where earnings were higher than in
smaller places. Pay data for the week in 1931 were available for
only about three-eighths as many telephone workers as were reported
in 1932.
In 1932 not far :from one-fifth (18.4 percent) of the workers. were
paid less than $12, but one-sixth of the total received as much as
$20. The proportion of women earning less than $12 is very much
smaller for telephone workers than for workers in other industries,
the figures showing that more than 80 percent of the workers in
factories, in hotels and restaurants, in laundries, and in limited-price
stores were paid less than $12 for the week, as were about 37
percent of the employees in department stores.
TABLE
19.-Week's earnings of w omen in the telephone industry-1932 wnd 1931
Number of women
Week's earnings
TotaL __ __ ____ _____ ___ ________ __ __ ___ _
Median earnings_____ ______ ______ ____ __ __ ____
1932
19311
846
$15.10
323
$15. 85
Less than $10________ __ _____ __ ___ __ ____ ______
63
24
$10, less than $12_____ ________ ___ ____________ _
93
33
$12, less than $14_____ _____ _______ ____ ____ ____
168
45
$14, less than $16_________ ________ ___ ____ __ __ _
191
65
$16, less than $18___________ ______________ ___ _
119
74
$18, less than $20__________ _______ ___ _____ ___ _
71
36
$20, less than $22_____________ ____ ________ ____
67
27
$22, less than $25_____________ __ __ ____ _____ ___
45
14
$25, less than $30_____________ ___ _____ ____ ____
23
4
$30, less than $35________ ___ ___ ___ __________ __
5
1
$35, less than $40 ____________ ____ ___ _______ _______________ --------~--$40 ___ ______ _-- ___ ___ ___ _-- _-- -- _____ ___ -- ___
1 -- --- -- _-- __
1 In a considerable number of cases the 1931 records had been sent to the head office and were n ot avail •
able at the time of survey.
Almost two-thirds ( 65 percent) of the 846 women telephone
workers were regular operators in telephone exchang·es, stores, or
hotels, and one-eighth were toll operators. 0£ the remainder, 68 were
relief operators, 47 chief operators (all but 3 in company exchanges),
73 supervisors, and 2 instructors.
The medians of earnings of supervisors and toll operators-$21.05
and $20.40, respectively-were decidedly higher than those of the
other occupations. Operators employed in stores and hotels formed
only one-ninth of the 550 regular operators. Because of this, the
regular operators in the exchanges had practically the same median
of earnings ($14.45) as that of all regular operators ($14.25). The
number reported in stores or in hotels was not large enough to make
a median representative. Relief operators had a median of $12.90.
The range of earnings :for the 68 women on relief shifts was :from
less than· $1 to $18 and under $19, while for the regular operators
the maximum was $22 and under $23. Earnings of less than $10
were reported for 20.6 percent of the relief operators, but for only
7.2 percent of the regular operators in exchanges.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART IV.-TELEPHONES
43
Seldom did a relief operator repeat her schedule even on as much
as 2 days of the week~ and this, as well as the small amount of work
in some cases, emphasizes the irregularity in schedules in this
occupation.
Split shifts
A correlation of the spread of hours and idle intervals during the
day was possible for 354 of the telephone workers on split shifts in
exchanges. Definite hours were available for the 1,235 periods off
duty in excess of 1 hour-that is, with a range of from 1½ hours
.
to 7½ hours.
Naturally the idle interval lengthened as the spread of hours
jncreased. The 8-hour day in the industry shows in the :fact that 89
percent of the actual working periods were of 8 hours' duration.
Close to 400 of the telephone workers in exchanges had some
experience with the s:plit shift. In some cases the arrangement was
a regular one, while m others it applied to only a few days of the
week. In all, 1,206 shifts were reported and the time of beginning
and ending work shows a wide variation. About three-fifths of the
days began at 7, at 8, or at 9 o'clock, and about one-sixth at 10 or
11 o'clock. All but a few of the remainder began at half past
these hours.
In the vast majority of cases the spread of hours was 12 or 13, with
4 or 5 hours off duty. The most usual hours of ending work were 8,
9, and 10 o'clock, about 60 percent of the shifts falling in these
classes. Only one-eighth of the split shifts were of less than 12 hours'
duration. The longest shift was 15½ hours, worked by a woman
who had 7½ hours off duty.
Day shifts
There were 361 women who began work on some day or days of
the week from 6 to 10 a. m. and ended it from 3 to 8 p. m. Of the
1,076 days so reported, two-thirds were in two classes-from 7 to 4
and from 8 to 5. Thus 9 hours, including the lunch recess, constituted the spread of hours of more than nine-tenths of the 1,076 days
reported for this shift.
In accordance with the requirements of the telephone industry,
shifts of operators must begin work at many different hours of the
day. There were 204 women, on 539 shifts, who began at various
hours from 11 to 2, continuing in about seven-tenths of the cases
until 10 or 11 at night. With the exception of 2 women whose
schedules show a spread of 5 hours, the spread for the operators on
these shifts was :from 8½ to 10 hours. More than half of the 539
afternoon periods with spread of hours definitely reported extended
from 1 to 10 p. m.
Night shifts
For 76 women the definite spread of hours on 345 nights was reported. Work began from 6 to 10 p. m. and ended at 7, 7: 30, or 8
in the morning. Less than one-tenth of the shifts were split. A
straight shift throughout the night was usual and 7 in every 8 of
these lasted :from 10 p. m. to 7 a. m.
23891 °- 36-4
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
44
WOMEN IN TEXAS :CNDU STRIES
Relief operators
Relief operators show great variation in the time off duty between
one day's work and the next period of employment. In the week
recorded the 68 relief operators had 345 interva.ls off duty. For 285
of these the length of time off duty was reported, and such periods
were for 1 or 2 days or ranged from only 8 to 83 hours, the latter
representing, of course, almost 3½ days. In 249 cases the time off
duty was report.eel in hours. One-eighth of these intervals were as
long as 36 hours and well over one-fifth were less than 12, hours.
Earnings and personal information
Earninqs by .age.-The following summary shows that the earnings of telephone workers were comparatively high and increased as
age increased.
N umber of
women
Age (years)
Total reporting ___________ ___ _________ _
t
Median
earnings
____,__
,
772
$15. 30
18, under 20 __ _________ ______ ______________ __
20, under 25 __ _______________________ ______ __
25, under 30 _________ __ _____________________ _
30, under 35 _______________ ________________ __
35, under 50 ________________________________ _
50 and over ____ _____ ______ __________________ _
50
360
186
96
75
5
13. 40
14. 75
15. 60
17. 25
18. 25
(1)
Not computed; base less than 50.
As would be expected, the majority of women in this industry were
young, but it is interesting to note that somewhat more than ha.If
of the women earning as much as $20 were at least 30 yea.r s of age.
No doubt this is influenced by the fact that practically all these older
employees were, chie£ or toll operators, or supervisors.
Earnings by marital status.-The single women had the lowest
median of earnings, $14.90, and the married women the highest,
$16.10. The median for the widowed, separated, or divorced women
was $15.20.
Earnings by #rne with the form.-The earnings of the women increased as the length of experience with the telephone company
increased. To what extent this is true may be seen in the following
summary.
Time with the firm (years)
1
Number of
women
Median
earnings
Total reporting __ _____________________ _
767
$15. 30
Less than L ___________ _____________________ _
1,
less than
---------2, less
than 32----------___ __ ___ ____---------_____ ________
_______--_
3, less than 4____ ___ _______________ ________ __ _
4, less than 5_______ ____ ____ _______________ __ _
1
fo~~~str~~n
k =~=____
====____
====--·-------============
==== =:_
. 15
and over _______
_______
14
56
126
134
91
219
86
41
(1 )
13. 00
14. 10
14. 30
15. 35
16. 25
18. 25
(1)
Not computed; base less than 50.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART IV.-TELEPHONES
.
45
Almost one-half of the women who earned $20 or more had been
with the firm at least 10 years. Only a few women with less than 4
years' experience earned so much.
Of the 6 women who earned as much as $30, 5 had been with the
firm at least 15 years and the other woman for at least 10 years.
The median earnings of women with 10 and under 15 years' experience
were 40 percent higher than those of the women with 1 and under
~ years' experience, and somewhat over 25 percent higher than the
median of those who had been with the firm 3 and less than 4 years.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Part V.-THE WORKERS
It is interesting and important to know something about the
workers included m a study. In Texas it is especially so, as racial
comparisons are possible. Do mature women or young girls predominate in the industries of the State? How large a proportion
of the women are married? Are the workers experienced or have
they been with the firms for short periods only? The answers to
these questions help to complete the picture of the employment of
women in Texas.
To obtain such information there were distributed to the women
in the plants cards bearing questions as to age, marital status, time
with the firm, and nativity. Not all the women returned the cards
and some cards were incompletely made out, but personal information was obtained for approximately 10,000 women. This group
does not coincide with the group for whom information on earnings
was secured, because in many cases considerable time had elapsed
between the date of the pay roll from which earnings were taken
and the date when the cards were circulated in the plant. Consequently some women are included in the wage tables who do not
appear in the personal-history tables and some women are included
in the personal-history tables whose names were not on the pay rolls
for the date recorded.
Because of the predominance of white women, the total for all races
has practically the same distribution. Such total is shown separately for the reader's information but is discussed in only a few
cases.
Age
About 9,600 women in the industries studied reported their ages.
Approximately four-fifths (79 percent) of this number were white,
one-eighth (12.6 percent) were Mexican, and one-twelfth (8.3 percent) were Negro.
TABLE
20.-Age, by race
All women
White women
Mexican women
Negro women
Age (years)
Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
---- ---- ----
-100.0
---- -- -- - -11.2
- - -Under 20 _____ __________ ______ 1,077
19. 0
820
J0.8
231
26
3.2
Tota l reporting ______ _
9,605
100. 0
7,590
100. 0
1,213
100. 0
802
20, under 25 __ ___ ___ ___ ______
25, under 30 ___ _____ _____ ____
30, under 40 ___ ___ ____ _______
40, under 50 __ _____ ___ __ ___ __
50 and over_ ______ ___ _____ __
2,493
1,868
2,358
1,294
515
26. 0
19. 4
24. 5
13. 5
5.4
1,964
1,427
1,857
1,069
453
25.9
18. 8
24. 5
14. 1
6. 0
389
244
223
93
33
32.1
20.1
18. 4
7. 7
2. 7
140
197
278
132
29
17. 5
24.6
34. 7
16. 5
3.6
Chiefly due to their occupations, the races had very different age
distributions. More than one-half of the Mexicans, in contrast to
only one-fifth of the Negroes, were under 25; the whites fell half
46
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
47
FART V.-THE WORKERS
way between.
'lhe proportions at 40 and over were alike for whites
and Negroes, but tlie figure for the Mexicans was only about one.half that of the other races. 0£ the 11 percent reporting their ages
as under 20, only 2 in 9 were under 18.
White women.-Though only about one-fifth of all the white
women were 40 years of agei or older, roughly one-third in men's
work clothing and in women's clothing establishments were so old .
.A.bout one-fourth in the department stores were in this age group.
Limited-price store and telephone exchanges had the smallest froportions (about 5 percent each) as old as 40. About one-tenth o the
hotel and restaurant workers were 40 or more.
Of the 15 industrial groups with 50 or more women reporting,
only 2-the manufacture of hats and of women's clothing-had 10
percent or more of their white women as much as 50 years of age.
Seven-tenths of the 804 women in telephone exchanges were 20 and
under 30; almost two-thirds of these were under 25.
Mexican women.-In 4 of the 7 industry groups in which 50 or
more Mexican women reported their ages-nut shelling, "other
food", infants' and children's clothing, and laundries- at least half
the workers .were under 25. In none of the 7 industries, moreover,
was t he percent less than 35. Half of the very young Mexican
workers-those less than 20-were employed in laundries and in the
factories making infants' and children's garments.
In no industry did the number of Mexicans who had reached 50
years exceed 5 percent, though white workers had more than that
proportion in 7 of the 15 cases.
N egro women..-Laundries, hotels and restaurants, and · cloth-bag
factories were the only industries having Negro women reporting
age in sufficient numbers for percent distribution. W ell over onehalf of these bag workers, but only one-sixth of the laundry workers,
were under 25. At the opposite extreme, 22.5 percent of the laundry
workers, in contrast to only 1.2 percent of the bag workers, were
as much as 40. One-fifth of the Negroes in hotels and restaurants
were at least 40.
Percent of women who wereNumber
ofwom- 1- - -- -- - - -- - - - -- -- -
Race
p~~J:g
U nder 20 120, under 125, under 130, under 140, under 150 years
years
25 years 30 years 40 years 50 years and over
CLOTH BA GS
'TotaL . .......... .... . .. .
323
14.9
27. 9
19. 2
23. 5
\Vhite ..... . -. -... .. . ... ..... . .
Mexican ..... .... . . . . . . ...... . .
Negro ....... .... · ····· c · ··. - - . -
196
18. 9
13. 3
82
12. 2
. 20. 4
31. 1
43. 9
25. 0
45
13. 8
24. 4
23. 2
19. 5
18. 4
27. 3
24. 4
0. 6
5. 0
14. 3
7. 7
4. 4
2. 2
1. 2 .•••..••••
LAUNDRIE S
TotaL . ...... . ........ -·
l, 803
10. 6
1 - - - 1 -- - - -
White ...... ·-·· ·--·• -- -. --- - -·
Mexican ... _. ___ .____
. __ __ __
Negro .. . ____ - ... . -. - - -. - -.. -..
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
23. 1
-
14. 9
5. 7
- - -- - - - - - - - --
980
294
12. 9
25. l
15. 8
14. 9
17. 3
529
2. 6
33. 0
14. 0
24. 5
17. 3
23. 8
19. 0
37. 1
17. 4
10. 5
6.8
2. 7
5. 1
48
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
The foregoing summary presents for hag factories and laundries
the age distribution of the .workers of eac_h race. . Considering all
races, women making bags were younger than the laundry workers,
42. 7 percent of the former and 33.7 percent of the latter being under
25 years.
Marital status
Of the 9,661 women reporting their marital status, fairly equal
proportions-38.5 percent and 35.9 percent, respectively-were single
and married; one-fourth (25.5 percent) were -widowed, separated, or
divorced.
TABLE
21.-Marital status, by raoe
Number and percent who were-
R ace
Number
ofwomen reporting
Single
Widowed
Married
Separated or
divorced
Num ber Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
- - - - - - -- - - - -
-- -9. 4
908
- - - - - - - - - - - -- -- -- - - - White ____ _________
1,173
7, 642
2,803
15. 3
647
8. 5
36. 7
3,019
39. 5
-
Total. ______
9,661
3, 723
38. 5
3,471
35. 9
1,559
16. 1
Mexican ___ __ ___ __
Negro ___ __________
1,208
811
774
146
64.1
18. 0
173
279
14. 3
34. 4
155
231
12. 8
28. 5
106
155
8. 8
19. 1
The outstanding fact in table. 21 is the high proportion of the
Mexicans who were sjngle. Almost two-thirds of these women were
single, in contrast to something over one-third of the white women
and less than one-fifth of the Negroes. The Negroes were much more
generally widowed or separated.
White wmnen.-Unpublished data correlating industry and marital status show that of the, various industrial groups having 50 or
more white women reporting, the limited-price stores had by far the
largest proportion of single workers ( 70.1 percent). This is not
surprising in view of the 1arge number of young girlg, in this industry-about 68 percent of the white workers in the limit-ed-price stores
were under 25 years, almost two-fifths of them being less than 20.
Telephone exchanges, with 58 percent of the women single, ranked
second. Again this would be expected, in view of the fact that
younger workers predominated.· Women's clothing plants had the
smallest proportion (21.1 percent) of single women, practica1ly half
of the workers reporting their status as married. Work clothing had
the next lowest proportion of single women workers, 23.7 percent,
and, with women's clothing, ranked among the :four highest industrial groups in the number of married women.
Mewican wornen.-In each of the 7 industrial groups having 50
or more Mexican women reporting marital status, over half of the
workers were single. Four-fifths of the workers in nut-shelling
plants we.re single, as were about seven-tenths of those in department and ready-to-wear stores and in establishments ma.king men's
work clothing, and two-thirds of those making infants' and children's garments.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
49
PART V.-THE WORKERS
Negro wonien.-The three industries in which a representative
number of Negro workers reported their marital status-hotels and
restaurants, laundries, and cloth-bag making-show that 50.8 percent, 47.4 percent, and 44.6 percent, respectively, were in the group
widowed, separated, or divorced.
Time with the firm
About 9,600 women reported how long they had been with the
present firm. The greatest irregularities are that only about onetwelfth of the Negroes, in contrast to about one-fifth of the whites
and Mexicans, had been with the employer less than a year, and that
only 5 percent of the Mexicans, in contrast to 11 or 12 percent of the
other races, had service records of 10 years and more. Four-fifths
of the N egTo women with rooords of 5 years and over were laundry
workers.
TABLE
22.-EaJperience, by race
All women
White women
Mexican women
Negro women
Time with the firm
Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
--- -- ------
-1,213
100. 0
802
7,592
100.0
100. 0
- ----- -1,846
- -19.-1,503
--19.-Less than 1 year _________ ___
2
8
273
22. 5
70
8. 7
Total reporting _______
9,607
100. 0
1, less than 3 years __________
3, less than 5 years __________
5, less than 10 years __ _______
10 years and more ____ _______
2,594
2,023
2, 159
985
27. 0
21.1
22. 5
10. 3
2,013
1,538
1,711
827
26. 5
20. 3
22. 5
10.9
350
277
252
61
28. 9
22.8
20.8
5. 0
231
208
196
97
28. 8
25. 9
24. 4
12. 1
To compare the experience of the three races in each of the industries a further tabulation is presented. The fact must be borne in
mind that the study was made at a time of much unemployment,
when the depression had affected large numbers of workers. Women
were among the first to lose their jobs; on the other hand, their
cheaper labor was substituted for more costly labor where this was
practicable. The comparatively high percentage of workers in the
present study whose time in the establishment was less than a year
( 19.2 percent) may be due partly to the substitution of one race for
another or of women for men.
The accompanying table shows the condition in those industries in
which as many as 50 women of a racial group reported the years
employed in the establishment in which they were working at time
of interview.
White wovwn.-Great proportions 0£ the white women were newcomers in the establishments where they were at work at the time
of survey. In 7 of the 15 industries with as many as 50 white
women reporting, more than one-fourth of the workers had been
less than a year with the establishment, and in 2 of the 7 the proportions of such workers exceeded 50 percent. Though 5 of the
15 groups had fewer than one-eighth 0£ their workers in this shortservice group, cotton manufacturing and telephone exchanges were
the only cases in which the proportions fell below 10 percent.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TABLE
23.-Time with the firm, by race
All women
Industry
Percent with experience
of-
White women
Mexican women
Negro women
Percent1 with experience
of-
Percent 1with experience
of-
P ercent 1with experience
of-
Number reporting
NumNumNumber reber reher reLess 5 years lOyears porting Less 5 years lOyears porting Less 5 years lOyears porting Less 5 years IO years
than 1 and
and
than 1 and
and
than 1 and
than 1 and
and
and
year
over
over
year
over
year
year
over
over
over
over
over
- - - - - - - - - - - -- -- -1-- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - Total-all industries __ ____ ___ _____ _ 9,607
19.2
32. 7
10. 3
7,592
19.8
12. l
33. 4
1,213
22. 5
25.8
02
8. 7
36. 5
10. 9
5.0
Factories:
Bag~, cloth _________________________ _
331
Boxes and crates, wooden ____ ___ ____ _
63
Clothing:
Men's work clothing ____ ___ ____ _ 1,305
Women's __________________ __ ____
656
Infants' and children's __________ _
334
Cotton textiles _____ _____________ ____ _
678
F ood:
Butter, eggs, and poultry _____ ___
161
Candy ___________ _______________ _
215
Nut shelling _______ ____ ____ _____ _
99
Other _____ __ ___________ ___ ______ _
439
Hats ___________ --- _____ -- ---- -- -- - --161
Miscellaneous manufacturing ______ . _
159
Stores:
Department and ready-to-wear _____ _ 1,412
Limited-price _____ __________________ _
392
Laundries ________________ _______ _______ _
Hotels and restaurants ______ ______ ___ __ _
Telephone exchanges ________________ ___ _
1
1,784
617
801
Percent not computed where base less than f.O.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
~
0
~
t_rj
19. 9
25. 4
21. 1
27.0
9.4
4. 8
18. 5
51. 2
42. 5
g_ 4
37. 1
7. 2
16. 2
52. 7
9.3
.6
.6
17. 4
62. 7
9.8
9.1
16. 4
49. 1
35. 8
3. 1
38. 1
46. 5
37. 4
11. 2
16. 4
12. 1
4. 0
13. 4
5. 0
2. 5
11. 2
28.8
43. 3
13. 0
17.1
2. 6
11.1
25. 3
2.1
34. 4
22. 0
45. 2
IO. 5
4. 5
16. 6
198
63
19. 7
25. 4
14. 6
29.8
27. 0
,1.s
50
28. 0
22. 0
4. 0
83
1,310
372
974
101
801
ll. 8
29. 0
15. 0
31. 2
2.1
42.1
12. 6
29. 4
19. 5
45. 2
I
z
H
18.7
39.7
9.4
122
16.4
ll.5
7.4
3
1,180
565
54. 9
5. 3
.4
85
28. 2
20. 0
2. 4
6
18 ---- --- - -------- ------ -316
40.8
16.8
.6 - - -----678
9. 4
52. 7
17. 4 ------- - -------- --- --- -- --- ----- ------ -63. 1
160
3. 1 ------- 10. 4
201
38. 8
12. 4
24 -------- -------- -------362
11. 3
42. 5
15. 5
15?
49.1
11. 3
5. 0
3. 2
15. 1
126
31. 0
15. 7 -------- -------__ _______________ ______ _
-- ------ -------- --------
- ------- -------- - - ------
z
~
t_rj
-------- ---- -- -- ------- -
:><
1 --- -- --- -------- ----- --- -------- ---- -- -- ------ - - --- -----
U).
14
75
50. 7
4. 0 -------- --- ----- -------- --- - -- - 77
40. 3
13. 0
3. 9 ----- --- -------- --- ----- -------1 ---- --- - ---- -- -- -------1 -------- -- ------ --------
33
17. 3
2. 7
101
8. 4
4. 5
16. 6
285
33
3. 0
58. 4
17. 8
8.1
31. 9
6. 7
20
1 - ------ - ---- - --- -------525
183
5. 5
14. 2
15. 1
29. 0
16. 6
4. 4
i>
PART V.-THE WORKERS
51
The great majority-not far from three-fourths (73.2 percent)of the women in cotton mills had spent from 1 to 9 years in the
plant. Moreover, cotton ranks highest when an experience of 5 years
or more is considered, for it is the only industry in which as many
as 50 percent of the women had been with the firm as long as this.
The experience data reported by the 678 workers in the cotton
factories-all of them white-reveal that 52.7 percent of the women
had worked in the same mill 5 years or more. In the various other
groups, the proportions ranged from 3.1 percent in butter, eggs,
and poultry plants to 42 or 45 percent in department and ready-towear stores, " other food " factories, and telephone exchanges. In
addition to these three groups and to cotton mills, men's work clothing and candy manufacturing show that in each case somewhat more
than three-eighths of the women reporting had been 5 years or
more in the present establishment.
Six of the 15 industries show that from 12.4 to 17.4 percent of their
workers had been with the same employer 10 years or more; on the
other hand, 6 show 5 percent or less with such experience. Cotton
mills and department stores had the highest proportions (17.4 and
17.3 percent). Plants making women's clothing had practically no
workers, and butter, egg, and poultry plants or infants' and children's clothing establishments had actually none, who had been with
the firm for as much as a decade.
Mexican women.-In 14 of the 17 industries some Mexican women
reported on time with the firm. No Mexican employed in cotton
mills or in plants making wooden boxes and crates filled out a
personal-history card, and none were employed in telephone exchanges. Time with the firm, therefore, is not available for Mexicans in these industries.
In 6 cases in which some Mexican women reported, t he number
was so small that it could not be considered representative; in only
8 was it as high as 50. In " other food " and infants' and children's
clothing, 2 of every 5 women had been with the establishment less
than a year; at the other extreme are the department and readyto-wear stores, in which only 1 woman in 33 had so short a service
record.
Five years and over was reported by more than half the Mexicans in two industries-department and ready-to-wear stores and
nut-shelling plants. Each of these shows quite a bulking in the
5-and-under-10-year class-40.6 percent and 46.7 percent, respectively. It is noted, moreover, that department stores had a very
low percent of the workers reporting experience of less than a year
(3 percent) and nut-shelling shows no woman with so short a time
with the firm. With the exception of these two industries, employment with the present firm for as much as 5 years was1 not the
portion of many Mexicans. Less than one-third (32 percent/ of the
laundry workers to around one-ninth of the employees of mens-workclothing plants had a service period of such length.
Department and specialized stores ranked far ahead of other
industries in the proportion of Mexican women in the 10-years-andover group. More than one-sixth (17.8 percent) of the workers in
this industry reported such time with the firm. In no other industry did the proportion reach half of this. Men's work clothing
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
52
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
ranked second, and its percent is only 7.4. The lowest proportion
with such experience is in another branch o:f clothing; only about
one-half of 1 percent o:f the women· in infants'. and children's
clothing plants had been as much as 10 years with the firm.
Negro women.-Cloth bags, laundries, and hotels and restaurants
were the only industries in which Negro women reported in sufficiently large numbers to warrant analysis. The proportions of women
with the firm less than a year in cloth-bag :factories and in hotels
and restaurants were 15.7 and 14.2 percent, respectively, while only
5.5 percent of the laundry workers had such short service records.
Experience with the present firm of less than 3 years was reported by
69.9 percent of the bag makers, 49.2 percent of the hotel and restaurant workers, and 28.2 percent of the women in laundries. Though
no women making bags and only 29 percent of those in hotels and
restaurants reported as much as 5 years with the present firm, well
over two-fifths (45.1 percent) of the laundry workers had such
experience, and more than one-third o:f these- 16.6 percent of allhad been 10 years or more in one establishment.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Part VI.-WORKING CONDITIONS
A representative group of establishments in diff~ren~ parts o:f the
State were inspected by Women's Bureau agents m order to learn
under what conditions women in Texas were employed. Visits were
made to 268 establishments-79 stores, 52 laundries, and 137 factories, the last named making garments ( 53), food products (37),
cotton textiles (10), bags (8), ha.ts (8), boxes (7), paper products
( 5), and miscellaneous products ( 9).
The chief conditions inquired into were the following : V entilation, lighting, space and order, condition of floors and stairway ,
seating, hazards and strains, drinking facilities, w:ash rooms, toilet
rooms, cloak rooms, and lunch rooms. Not all were reported on
for each establishment, which makes some of the data of rather a
scattering nature.
Garment factories
The majority of the garment :factories ( 33) were making men's
work clothing. This industry is fairly widely scattered throughout
the State. Factories were visited in every section, but more were
in the north and south than elsewhere. Sixteen factories were
making women's dresses; 9 or these were in the south, the 7 others
in the north. The 4 factories making children's clothing were all
in the southern section.
Forty-five of the 53 :factories were in the five largest cities of the
State-Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio.
Only six were in towns of less than 50,000 population.
.
On the whole, the garment plants were small as far as the number
of employees is concerned, 41 of them having fewer than 100 workers. Five firms employed :from 200 to 350 workers. More than
3,800 women (3,840) were employed in the 53 factories. Threefourths of them (75.2 percent) were white, about one-fourth (24.3
percent) were Mexican, and less than 1 percent ( 0.4) were Negro.
In the four factories where children's clothing was made, all women
workers were Mexican.
The great majority of the buildings in which the factories were
housed were constructed of brick; only two frame buildings were
reported. The others were said to be fireproof. Buildings of only
one or two stories were in the majority, and in 37 establishments the
workrooms were on the first or second floor. Nine firms were in
buildings of four or more stories, and 7 had workrooms on their
upper floors. All factories four or more stories in height had elevator
service, and none were frame buildings.
Most of the workrooms-36, to be exact-had wooden floors. Seven
o:f them were reported to be in need of repair. In all but one of the
17 establishments with cement or concrete floors these were reported
in good repair.
53
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
54
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
"\¥here workroom floors are of cement or other hard substance,
platforms of wood should be provided :for employees who stand
at their work. This had been done in most plants, but in three establishments the pressers were reported as needing platforms, and in
another place mats were needed by all the workers at standing jobs.
The workrooms of the four establishments making children's
clothing were clean at time of inspection. All reported daily sweeping and weekly scrubbing. In each establishment this was done by
someone employed for the purpose. Some of the women's dress and
men's-work-clothing factories were reported as not having clean
workrooms. In 4 women's dress factories and in 10 making men's
work garments, cleaning was done by the workers ( in 3 cases a.
woman worker), an injustice to them and a method that does not
insure a thorough job.
Natural ventilation was reported to be adequate in the four factories where infants' and children's clothes were made and in the
great majority of those manufacturing women's apparel or men's
work clothing. However, in 3 firms making women's dresses and in
11 making men's work garments, natural ventilation was reported to
be inadequate, either for all or for part of the workers. In one
establishment, though there were large factory windows at opposite
ends of the room, the low ceiling made ventilation inadequate. · In
another there were windows on only one side of the building. The
heat from the presses in a third establishment raised the temperature
o:f the workroom unnecessarily high. Crowded workrooms with narrow aisles and stock piled high were another cause o:f bad ventilation; in one establishment the cutters who worked in the basement
had only one small window providing natural ventilation, but this
was supplemented by portable fans that could be operated continuously if desired. Six o:f the fourteen that had inadequate natural
ventilation had no means o:f artificial ventilation. Portable :fans
were the only artificial means in 12 o:f the 53 establishments, 10 used
paddle :fans exclusively, and 9 combined the latter with wall exhausts
or some other special system.
From the point of view of adequate lighting, which in this industry is especially important, the location of workrooms well above
street level is desirable, particularly when the factories are sur1·ounded by other buildings. With so many of the workrooms in
this study on the lower floors, there is no doubt that the adequacy of
lighting was affected.
Seven of the workrooms that had inadequate natural lighting also
had inadequate artificial lighting in at lea.st some of the working
positions. In many cases lights were hung at too great a distance
from the working surface; on the other hand, in one firm most of
the 75 women had to wear green eye shades because of the glare
caused by the unfrosted and un haded drop lights placed almost at
eye level. In 31 establi~hments at least some of the bulbs were un~
shaded, and in 12 of these they were unfrosted also. However, in
only nine was an actual glare reported, as the lights were hung above
the field of vision. Unshaded lights hanging even well above eye
level may cause extreme discomfort to the eyes, and this is especially
true when the eyes are subject to such constant strain as is involved
in garment making, especially the machine- and hand-sewing
processes.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART VI.-WORKING CONOITIONi:;
55
Both machine and hand operators sit at their work constantly and
should be. provided with adjustable chairs that permit the proper
posture. Hmvever, only 6 factories provided adjustable seats, only
2 of them £or all workers. The other firms furnished only the
ordinary kitchen-chair variety for workers at these positions. In
three establishments the number of seats was inadequate for persons
who stood at their work but who needed to be able to sit once in a
while. In one it was the pressers who had none; in another, the
inspectors ; and in the third, both the inspectors and the pressers1.
Twenty-three of the fifty-three garment factories had bubbling
drinking fountains, but only 5 of the 23 had bubblers that were sanitary.1 Fourteen of those with bubblers also had other types of facilities, such as tanks, coolers, or faucets. Individual cups were not provided in these cases; there were no cups at all in 13 plants and in 1
the common cup was found. Twenty-nine firms had no bubblers
but had tanks, coolers, or faucets instead, and only 3 of these provided individual cups. Common cups were in use in 6, and in the
remaining 20 no cups were :furnished.
Only five of the clothing factories had separate lunch rooms and
only one of these was a cafeteria in which hot rood was prepared
for the workers. Five other firms had made some arrangement for
lunch facilities in the :form of tables and chairs in a corner of the
workroom (3 firms), in the rest room (1 firm), or in the cloak room
(1 firm). The remaining 43 firms had no lunch facilities of any
kind, the workers eating at their machines or work tables or going
out for lunch. Twenty-two of fifty-two factories reporting allowed
the workers 45 minutes or 1 hour :for lunch.
In most of the garment factories the washing facilities were
enamel bowls. The others had sinks or troughs with spigots. Nine
of the factories had facilities shared by men and women. Only
about one-third ( 18 oi the 53) were reported as not clean, though
bowls are hard to keep in a clean condition; several were reported
as very dirty. Only four provided hot water, but over one-half provided soap. Just about half (26 firms) :furnished individual towels;
6 firms had the insanitary common towel, 1 of these having only a
roller towel :for about 75 women. In 5 firms the employees furnished their own; in the remaining 16 no towels of any kind were
available.
Hazards and strains ( aside from those already noted :from faulty
lighting and inadequate ventilation) were reported in four firms.
In 3 of these the stairways constituted the hazard; 1 had no rail
or guard, 1 I.ad badly wo·rn treads, and the third was dangerously
steep. In a fourth firm the whole building was a veritable firetrap.
The majority of workers were on the third floor, and the stairways
and floors were of wood, the workrooms were crowded, and there
were very narrow spaces between the worktables.
It should be .noted that one firm had eliminated danger of strain
by installing an automatic bundle litter that raised the bundle from
the floor to the machine level.
1 For definition of a sanitary bubbler see Women's Bureau Bul. 87, Sanitary Drinking
Facilities with Special Reference to Drinkin g Fountains. J 931. p. 9, recommendation
no. 2.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
56
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
Cotton textile mills
Five of the 10 cotton mills were in towns of at least 50,000 population. Nine factories were of brick or concrete, and the other was of
both brick and wood-a dilapidated 1-story building badly in need
of repair.
·
One of the concrete factories consisted of a series of old, unkempt,
1-story buildings on the outskirts of the town. Conditions were so
bad in this plant that special attention is given to its description:
Broken, slippery, and wet floors--over half the weave room was
wet and muddy from rain leaks of the night before; unguarded
machine belts, poorly ventilated rooms, very crowded, with low
ceilings and much overhead shafting. The card, spin, spool, and
weave rooms were so covered with lint that investigator could hardly
see machines and operators. Heat and humidity seemed terriblewomen had perspiration streaming down their faces ( inspection was
in May). Washing facilities were shared by men, and no hot water,
soap, or towels were provided for the women, over 75 in number.
There was no lunchroom and no cloakroom.
Floors were entirely of wood in eight mills and part were of wood
and part of cement in the others. · Wooden floors of the dyehouse in
one plant, and cement floors in the card, spin, weave, and cloth
rooms in another plant, were rough and broken and in need of repair.
Because of cement floors, platforms or mats of some kind were
needed for spinners, inspectors, and beamers in one plant and for all
women except those in the cloth room of another.
It was reported that floors were swept frequently in all mills and
in some they were scrubbed at least once a week, but 7 mills had
dirty or oily floors in 1 or more departments. Very narrow and
crowded aisles were reported in 3 mills, and in 1 of these there were
many bobbin boxes around.
Boxes, benches, and stools were in common use in the weaving
and spinning rooms. In the sheet factory of one plant where the
gids sat at their work adjustable chairs had been provided.
In 8 mills the large amount of window space permitted adequate
natural ventilation, and in 6 of these the amount of daylight was
ample. In three mills both natural and artificial lighting were inadequate. No glare was reported in any of the 10 mills. In the two
mills where natural ventilation was poor, no artificial means had
been provided.
Adequate natural ventilation does not guarantee the comfort of the
workers. Humidifiers were in use in all the mills to .keep sufficient
moisture in the air for the yarn to run smoothly. When either heat
or moisture is too high, the comfort and efficiency of the workers are
affected. According to an . eminent authority, wet-bulb readings
should not exceed 70° and dry-bulb readings should not reach 85° .2
Temperature readings on both the wet bulb and the dry bulb we.r e
taken in 27 workrooms, mainly spinning, weaving, ana carding rooms.
In 15 of the workrooms wet-bulb readings exceeded 70°, and in 9
the dry-bulb readings registered 85° or more. In one· mill the 3
workrooms had dry-bulb readings of 90°, 91 °, and 94°, respectively,
with wet-bulb readings of 75<\ 76°, and 77°,
2 U . S. Department of Labor.
Women's Bureau Bul. 52.
over in Cotton Mills : A Study of Cause and Extent, p. 59.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Lost Time and Labor Turn-
PART VI.-WORKING CONDITIONS
57
Nine of the ten cotton mills had drinking fountains, but in only two
were they of the sanitary type. One had a faucet in addition, and
another had a faucet only. Cups ·were not provided in either of
these.
None of the mills had provided lunch rooms of any sort. All but
one mill allowed at least 40 minutes £or lunch.
In 2 mills there were cloak rooms, and 3 had cots or restful chairs.
In one of the latter a doctor was in attendance for an hour each day,
as was a woman welfare wo:r ker.
"'\,Vashing facilities were provided in all establishments; half were
enamel bowls, 4 were sinks, and 1 was a trough. Women had separate facilities in eight of the mills. Neither soap nor hot water was
furnished in any mill and only one supplied individual towels, the
others having no towels whatsoever.
Meat packing
Six meat-packing plants-all in the larger cities-were visited.
They had almost 700 workers; one-seventh of these were women,
employed largely in the sausage and bacon rooms.
Floors were concrete throughout in 3 plants:, of brick in 1, and of
wood in another. The remaining plant had cement floors except in
the sausage-packing room, where the floor was of wood. All were
reported as in good repair and clean. Certain operations tend to
make the floors wet or slippery, but this was not the condition in all
plants. In one, the floors throughout were clean and dry; in some of
the others, mats were. in use in some rooms.
Two of the five plants reporting on cleaning had the floors
scrubbed daily with hot water. One firm reported a weekly scrubbing with lye and hot water. All were cared for by employees
whose particular job was the maintenance of the building.
In each of the six plants one or more rooms were without natural
ventilation. Moreover, there was no system of artificial ventilation
in five of these plants except the cooling systems required in this
industry. In one plant the temperature required in the sausage
room was said to be 40° . In rooms where readings were taken the
temperatures varied from 40° to 56°. In one (bacon packing), where
the temperature was 48°, girls were wearing sweaters under their
canvas frocks, but even so they found it necessary to go to the office
of the plant frequently to get warm.
Natural lighting was entirely lacking also in most of the workrooms. In this industry, where not nearly such close use of the
eyes is required as in some others, lighting is not such a difficult
problem, and the lighting by artificial means was reported to be
adequate in all the plants.
Butter, eggs, and poultry
In the :four flants in this group visited, employing over 150
women, most o them were working on products that had to be
prepared in artificially cooled rooms. Egg breaking and egg candling were done by women in three plants ; in the :fourth plant the
women were breaking eggs, picking chickens, and cutting and
packing butter.
Floors were of cement or concrete in all the plants and repair was
good. All were reported as clean, though in one chicken-picking
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
58
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
room feathers were being thrown to the floor instead of being put in
the drain that had been provided. This room also was reported
as wet, and most 0£ the women were wearing rubber boots. Girls
stood on wet floors all day in the two egg-breaking rooms 0£ another plant. In the latter, platforms were needed and had not been
provided. In the other three plants they had been supplied :for the
girls who needed them.
.
.
Egg-breaking rooms and egg-candling rooms in 3 plants had no
outside windows, but in 2 0£ these there were wall exhausts. All
these rooms had artificial cooling systems. These rooms with no
outside windows were, 0£ course, without natural lighting, but in
all of them artificial lighting was reported to be adequate.
In one 0£ the plants women were standing at all jobs and no
chairs were provided. In another, though wooden stools had been
supplied, they evidently were not of a suitable type, as only 1 or 2
girls were sitting at their work. In the other two plants girls
doing similar work were sitting, and though the chairs were. not
adjustable they were fitted to the height of the girl and the height
of the table.
Hazards were reported as follows in the four plants : Wet and
slippery floors in passageways of one plant; in another the eggbreaking appa.ratus caused finger cuts to two girls, requiring firstaid treatment, in the short time the interviewer was present; while
in still another plant a person using the stairway could easily have
been pushed through an unprotected window on the second floor
landing.
Nut shelling
Of the 8 nut-shelling plants where working conditions were
inspected, 5 employed fewer than 100 women each and the other 3
together employed nearly 750. In 3 plants only Mexicans were
employed, and in 2 others part of the employees were Mexicans; in
1 factory there were a large number of Negro women, and in the
other 2 there were white workers only.
This is a seasonal industry and several of the plants reported closing down entirely for 4 months during the summer.
Nut shelling and picking were the principal operations performed
by the women. Work was carried on in various kinds of buildings.
Three plants were in separate 1-story brick buildings; four occupied
the first or second floor of a building; and the remaining firm used
the roar of a store.
Three establishments had cement floors that were in good repair
and clean, though in one workroom the floor was wet. Since the
work did not require standing, platforms were not needed in any of
these three. The floors were swept daily by someone employed for
the purpose, but scrubbing was not :frequent.
Four establishments had wooden floors, also in good repair, but
two we.re not clean. None were wet and nowhere were platforms
needed. The other had a cement floor in one workroom and wood
in the other two.
·
Window area was reported sufficient to give adequate natural
lighting in four establishments and fair lightmg in another. Three
were poorly lighted, and two of these also had poor artificial lighting.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART VI.-WORKING CO DITION
59
Glare was reported for only one firm, and here, though improvi ed
paper shades were in use, there was one droplight below eye level
that caused considerable glare for some of the women.
In 6 of the 8 establishments natural ventilation was inadequate,
and in 5 of these no artificial ventilation was provided. However,
three of these plants closed down entirely during the months when
this lack might have been felt seriously. In one of these, for the
N egTo pecan pickers, there was no natural ventilation whatsoever
except two fire doors, one of which opened only into an adjoining
room. Here also almost no natural light was reported and the adequacy of the artificial light was doubtful.
Practically all the work was done while sitting. Benches and
tools without backs were common; in two plants girls at back to
back on long pine benches-very awkward when someone had to get
in or out. In two factories kitchen chairs were provided and in
one other reed-bottom chairs with straight backs. In two plants
hazards were reported. In both cases the oiled floors were covered
with particle of nut meats and shells, and were very slippery.
Candy
Eleven candy factories were visited, all of them employing a comparatively mall number of workers, as many as 50 women in only
two cases. Only three employed any Mexican women and these
totaled but 16. Several plants were housed in modern buildings and
none of the old buildings were in need of repair. Most of them were
reported as having good housekeeping. Hard candies, chocolates,
and candy bars, candy of all kinds, as well as popcorn, were being
made, wrapped, and packed. One firm made its own boxes on the
sixth floor of the factory.
Most of the workroom floors were cement but three plants had
wooden floors throughout. The cement floors were all in good repair.
All but one reported cleaning the floors at least once a day and
scrubbing at least once a week. In six of the plants this was done by
a special employee. Platforms were not needed in any of these
workrooms, for most of the work in candy factories is done while
sitting. Stools without backs were the most common type of seat
provided.
Six factories had dipping and packing rooms that required artificial cooling. In all these rooms there was no natural ventilation and
four had no artificial system. Adequate natural ventilation was
reported in the majority of the other workrooms but most of them
had inadequate artificial systems.
Natural light was adequate in all the workrooms except those
equipped with cooling systems that' had no windows at all. Artificial
lighting, on the whole, seemed adequate. I n only one firm was any
outstanding hazard reported and here the edges of all steps were
broken off and the outside stairway with no hand rail was open
against the windows.
Miscellaneous food
Of the eight establishments classed as miscellaneous food, one in
each case made crackers and candy; packed tea and soda, and canned
beans and peas; made cheese and mayonnaise; made macaroni•
packed coffee; made cakes and crackers; packed olives and mara~
23891°-36-5
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
60
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
schino cherries; and canned chili, spaghetti, etc. Six of the eight
employed fewer than 100 workers each.
All but one o:f the buildings in which these e tabli hments were
located were in good repair, with housekeeping good al o.
In most plants the floors were of cement. Practically all were in
good repair and were clean and dry. One was reported as in poor
repair, floors dirty and covered with debris and so wet in places tha.t
women were wearing galoshes. One case was noted where platforms
were needed :for girls standing at the conveyor. Scrubbing practices
varied. One plant that would seem to require daily scrubbing
reported doing it " occasionally "; here the girls were required to
clean the rooms every day before leaving.
Four of the eight firms were reported as having good natural ventilation; others had adequate openings to the outside air but ventilation was poor because of obstruction by boxes of stock and high machines. As to artificial ventilation, some workrooms had none, others
had fans in the summer season only. None had artificial ventilation
that was entirely adequate, and one that had inadequate natural
ventilation had no artificial system of any kind.
Natural lighting was adequate throughout in several but in others
some of the workers had too little daylight. Artificial lighting was
considered adequate in all the establishments.
On sitting jobs, stools without backs and not adjustable had been
provided in the majority of cases. In some instances women whose
work could be done just as well while sitting were standing at their
jobs, no chairs having been provided.
In one packing plant it was reported that workers frequently cut
their hands on the tin cans and in the other firm in which a hazard
was apparent the capping machines were said to cause several accidents a year. These unguarded machines had a foot control, and
the girls would forget to take away their hands, which sometimes
oaused the loss of the end of a finger.
Service facilities-all food industries
Drinking fountains of the bubbler type were all sanitary in 4
esoahlishmeints and were all insanitary in 13; in 1 plant both kinds
were in use. Nine establishments had other :facilities in addition to
bubblers and 19 had such other types only. 0£ the 28 establishments
with facilities that required cups, '6 .supplied individual cups, 5 had
common, cups, and 17 made no provision of any sort.
Only 11 establishments had any lunch-room arrangements. Four
of these-meat packing, coffee packing, cake and cracker making,
and candy . making-~upplied hot food and drinks. Twenty-one of
the 35 plants reportm;g allowed only hal:f an hour for lunch; all
but 3 of the remainder, however, had an hour.
Aside from the desirability of having adequate washing facilities
for the comfort of the workers, they are necessary in food-handling
establishments from the :()Oint of view of sanitation. All the food
plants visited had facilities for washing; in 22 the.re were enamel
fixtures throughout. In 17 of the 37 establishments men and women
shared the washing facilities. In 19 places no hot water at all was
furnished ,and in 5 others only part o£ the women were supplied
with hot water. Soap was supplied in all but 10 plants, a.nd indi-1
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART VI.-WORKING CONDITIONS
61
vidual towel were provided in 18. Unfortunately, common towels
were in u e in six establishments. In an especially clean and up-todate packing and oanning factory, three showers were provided and
were used daily by the girls. All but three firms reported some emergency equipment, generally a kit containing the usual simple
remedies.
In Texas a. complete medical examination of workers in foodhandling plants is required. An amendment in 1931 that made blood
tests no longer necessary was mentioned by one firm in the present
study as a decided step backward, since no check on certain very
serious di eases can be made without the blood test.
Twelve firms reported a. group-insurance plan :for their worker ,
and one of these also reported pensioning their old employee .
Bag factories
In 5 of the 8 bag factories, second-hand burlap and cloth bags were
being reconditioned. In the others the girls were working on new
bags. Old bags were reported as washed or vacuumed before employoos were allowed to work on them.
All but two factories had wooden floors. They were swept frequently ( in 2 plants by the women employee ) but in only 2 plants
were they scrubbed, the reason given being the danger of ruining the
ba~s, which in several places were stacked in piles on the floor.
ln one of the factories that ha.d cement floors, platforms we.re
needed for all women except a few machine operators.
Four factories had very good natural ventilation, with monitor
roofs or large windows. In another, though the window space
eemed sufficient, stock piled high in one of the rooms prevented
adequate circulation of air. Only 2 had any artificial ventilation,
and in 1 of these it was reported as inadequate. The other had
a hood with pipe to catch the dust from the bags as they were
cleaned.
Natural lighting was said to be adequate in a.11 but one factory
and no glare was reported :for any plant. Artificial lighting was
adequate, and glare was absent here also.
In 5 factories seats were reported as adequate; in 2 of these they
were adjustable. In three others, machine operators as well as other
workers stood while they worked, no seats being provided for them.
In one of these plants the reason :for this was said to be the fact
that they could work faster standing up, and since they were on
piecework this was necessary.
Three plants had bubbler~ throughout, but only one had the
sanitary type. Five had facilities th~t required the use of cups. In
3 of these the girls had to bring their own, and in 1 a common cup
was provided for over 100 workers. The remaining firm supplied
individual cups. All eight firms provided cooled water.
A cafeteria had been installed in one factory and a lunch room
with tables and chairs in another, but the other six had no lunch
facilities. In one of these plants (80 women) the girls said they sat
on the floor of the cloakroom and ate their lunches. No plant allowed
more than half an hour for lunch.
Enamel sinks were available for washing in all the factories. Hot
water and soap were provided in only two. One of these and another
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
62
WOME1,,. IN TEXAS I~DUSTRIES
also pro:v ided individual towels. Facilities were separate for men
and women.
In only one plant was any hazard or strain reported, and here
there was danger of falling over the pieces of wire tha.t were strewn
about the floor.
Wooden-box factories
Seven factories making baskets, boxes, or crates of the kind used as
containers for fruits, vegetables, and eggs were visited. Five were
in frame buildings and the other 2 were. of corrugated metal; 4 were
of 1 story and 3 were 2 stories in height.
Floors were of wood in all but one plant. Where the floor was
cement, rubber pads were needed for the women web makers. In all
:factories the floors were clean. All but one were swept daily, but
only one reported any scrubbing.
Six workrooms were reported as having an amount of window area
that insured good natural ventilation and lighting. One that had a
low ceiling and very few windows also had inadequate artificial lighting. Only two, both of which had adequate natural ventilation, had
artificial ventilation. of any sort.
Three plants had drinking fountains, though in only one were they
of a sanitary type. Two had other kinds of facilities in addition to
fountains and four had other kinds only. A common cup was furnished in one plant that had no bubbler; in four places individual
cups were provided.
In 3 of these factories, 1 employing over 100 workers ( 17 of
them women), a faucet with a pail below it was the only facility for
washing. Neither hot water nor soap was provided in any of the
:factories, and only one supplied individual towels. It was explained
that the wood was damp when worked on and so raised no dust, and
that as most workers went home for lunch they did their washing
there.
Six of the seven firms had no lunch rooms. One had tables and
chairs where the girls could eat their lunches. This was combined
with the cloakroom. Two of the six firms with no lunch room
allowed the workers only 30 minutes for lunch.
Practically none of the women were supplied with seats of any
kind, and the few that were provided were not adjustable. All firms
were said to have emergency kits for first aid. Two reported group
insurance.
Hat factories
Hats were made in eight factories visited for inspection, all but one
being in Dallas. The factories were small, only two employing as
many as 75 workers. Most of the women were white, but in one firm
all were Mexican. The plants were in brick buildings ( one called
fireproof) that were in good repair and with genera.I housekeeping
good.
Floors were entirely of cement in three plants, in good repair and
clean. Two women inspectors in one of these plants should have
been provided with platforms. Floors were swept daily, but scrubbing was reasonably frequent in only one plant. Four plants had
wooden floors throughout, in one of which they were dusty in spite
of daily sweeping.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART VI.-WORKING CONDITIONS
63
Natural v~ntilation was reported good in all 8 £actorie,s, and
7 of them had some form of artificial ventilation in addition.
Natural light was poor on the second floor of one factory because
of closely adjoining buildings. The same factory had inadequate
artificial light; shades were needed on some of the bulbs and the
ceiling being of a dark color permitted practically no reflection.
Five hat factories had drinking fountains but all were of the
insanitary type. These five also had drinking facilities requiring the
use of cups, but no cups were provided. Three places had no bubblers; in 2 of these no cups were supplied and in 1 a common
cup was the only thing available.
All plants had enamel bow ls ; in two places they were shared with
the men. Only one was reported as not clean. Five had no hot
water and 2 no soap, but individual towels were provided in 6.
One firm provided the insanitary common roller towel for about
50 women.
Chairs were- provided in the hat factorie , but not of a type adjustable to the individual.
No lunch facilities were reported, though four establishments
allowed but 30 minutes for the lunch period.
Paper factories
Five factories making paper products, such as boxes, wax paper,
shopping bags, towels, and cups, were inspected. They were small
factories as far as the number of workers is concerned, and they
employed white workers almost exclusively.
Workroom floors were of cement in three factories. All three
were in good repair and clean. Platforms . were needed in one of
them at all standing positions. One of the workrooms with a wooden
floor was very dirty, though all were swept daily. Two had weekly
scrubbing and two had no scrubbing at all. One of these reported
that when glue was spilled it was mopped up, but that more scrubbing than this would be injurious to the merchandise.
Four of these plants had larO'e factory windows on at least 3
sides, one of them on 4 sides. One had a monitor roof with side
openings. The other factory had a long narrow workroom with
windows at the two ends only, which very decidedly gave inadequate
ventilation. There was some artificial ventilation rn this workroom,
but it seemed insufficient. Naturally, in this case there was insufficient daylight also, but other plants had good natural light. Artificial lighting was adequate, though some bulbs, hanging high above
the working plane, were unshaded.
Most of the women in these factories sat at their work. In one
place the machine operators were provided with chairs that had
adjustable backs. Other workers in this plant (hand folders) and
all in the other factories had nonadjustable seats. Stools without
backs were provided more frequently than any other kind.
Of the 5 pa per plants, 3 had bubblers of the insanitary type. One
of the others provided individual cups.
Only one factory had a lunch room of any ort and it was combined
with a rest room and toilet that ventilated into it. In all five plants
only half an hour was allowed the employees for their lunch period.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
64
WOME . J
IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
All had enamel washing facilities. Hot water was provided in 2
cases, soap in 3, and individual towels in 3. Men and women sharedthe :facilities in three plants.
In one of the workrooms a girl assisting in cutting paper seemed
in danger of injury. The large, sharp knife was brought down with
great force by one girl while the other held the paper with her
hands.
Miscellaneous maJ.Jufacturing
A miscellaneous group of nine other factories visited were making,
respectively, cigars, tobacco, glass jars, caskets, boots and shoes, extracts and toilet preparations, linen handkerchiefs (hand-made),
and ( two firms) hosiery.
Floo'rs were in good repair and clean, but in one plant platforms
were needed for all girls who stood on the cement floor.
A1l mills but one (that one employing over 400 Mexican women)
were in buildings that had adequate window area for gqod ventilation
and sufficient light for ordinary operations. The second· floor of one
:factory, though provided with windows on three sides, was poorly ventilated because of the obstruction caused by many tall boxes on which
the product hung. A small packing room on the same floor, where six
or seven girls worked, was stuffy and had little daylight. In one a
special system of artificial lighting was provided for the knittingmachine operators.
The use of seats was not permitted for packing- and shipping-room
workers in one factory. In the other eight plants nonadjustable
chairs, mostly of the kitchen type, were provided.
Four factories had provided bubblers, but only one was of the sanitary type. Where cups were needed, four had supplied their employees with individual cups.
One of these establishments had provided a place to eat lunches
that was combined with the cloakroom. Another, allowing but half
an hour for lunch, had supplied tables and benches in the basement
but admitted that it wa unhealthy, due to the dampness and total
lack of ventilation. This was a very large factory, employing more
than 400 women, and the manage.r planned to rent a vacant house and
provide suitable lunch facilities. Four of the establishments allowed '
an hour for lunch but all the remainder allowed only 30 minutes.
Washing :facilities had been provided in all the factories of this
group and in all but one case they were reported as clean. Five
of the 9 provided oap, 5 furnished individual towels, but only 2
had hot water.
No specific hazards were reported, but in two mills it was said
that the strain on the women inspectors was great, with hours long
and speed important.
Toilet facilities-all factories
Inside toilet facilities were installed in all but 4 factories, but
in 52 of the 137 the number of seats was inadequate. In three cases
the facilities were shared by men and women. All but two were
of the hand-flu h type and none were automatic. About one-third
were not clean, and in about the same proportion entrances had not
been designated at all or not clearly. In 39 cases the toilet rooms
were not ceiled, and in 41 the seats were not enclosed to insure
privacy.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART VI.-WORKI
G CONDITIONS
65
In 37 plants the toilets had no natural ventilation. In only one
of these was there artificial ventilation, the others ventilating into
ome other room.
In 18 of these 37 firms toilet rooms were not clean, a situation
doubly bad with no ventilation; in 1 food plant, where the toilet
ventilated directly into the workroom, conditions were reported as
being very offensive.
In 31 other plants toilets were not clean, the largest number in
any one industry being 11.
Laundries
Laundrie were visited in 18 cities and towns in all parts of the
State. Half of them were in the five largest cities. Seven of the
52 were connected with hotels.
.
The largest laundry had 212 employee . One had as few as eight.
Forty-four of the total had fewer than 100 employees, and 28 had
fewer than 50. The 8 with 100 or more workers all were in the
larger cities. The 7 hotel laundries averaged about 40 employees.
A total of 2,385 women were employed in the places visited, half 0£
whom wer~ white and one-fourth each Negro and Mexican. In one
laundry Mexicans only were emJ?loyed.
The laundry occupied the entire building in most instances. All
but 2 of 45 reported on were only 1 to 2 .stories high, these 2 havino3 stories. A number of buildings were new, the majority being of
brick. One structure was frame and 2 were of corrugated iron.
All but one of the laundries connected with hotels were in basements. The one exception had its own separate building-a one-story
brick plant that covered almost a city block.
In the wash room of a laundry a cement floor is desirable, but in
the press and flat-ironing departments, where there is no problem
of wet floors except around the starching table, the use of cement is
open to question. It is likely to wear better, needing le s repair, but
if satisfactory mats are not provided the hardness and lack of resilience make it exceedingly :fatiguing to the worker. Practically all
laundry work requires constant standing, and when this is done on
cement floors without mats or wooden platform tired and aching
:feet are the result. 3
Thirty of the fifty-two establishments ha,d cem.eint floors throughout and 5 had wooden floors. In 17, part of the floors were cement
and part wood; in 2 of these all standing jobs were on wooden floors.
Of the 46 laund.ries where women were standing on cement floors, 11
needed mats or platforms for all women, and 26 needoo them :for
some. Fla.t-work ironers, hand finishers, and pre ers all stood on
cement floors without mats to lessen the strain.
In all but 4 plants the rooms were reported as clean, though in 9
cases the wash- or starch-room floors were said to be wet.
All but 10 of the 27 one-story buildings were constructed with
monitor roofs; 3 had skyliihts, 1 had only ceiling ventilators, and 6
had no roof ventilation. uf the 18 two-story and three-story buildings, 7 had monitor roofs.
Of the 6 hotel laundries that were in basements, 1 had no direct
opening to the outside air, another had 4 small gratings, another had
8
See W<>men's Bureau Bui. 78, A Survey of Laundri~s and Their ·w omen Worker
23 Cities. 1930. p. 24.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
in
66
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
.6 small ventilato,rs opening to the street, 2 had a few windows, and 1
had casement windows. All 6 were reported as having poor natural
ventilation. Five had unsatisfactory artificial ventilation also. In
1 only was the system in use adequate.
Of the 46 other laundries, 11 were reported as having inadequate
natural ventilation. Three of these were at fault in part of the workrooms only. One had insufficient natural ventilation where the
pressers were working, windows being of the store-window type that
do not open; cross ventilation was poor in the wash room of the
second; and in the third the linen-supply room was poorly ventilated
:for winter. Natural ventilation in the other 35 laundries was reported as adequate, cross ventilation being possible in all of them.
Natural ventilation alone, however, is quite inadequate for the
proper ventilation of a laundry.4 Omitting the 6 laundries in hotel
basements, 32 had some form of artificial ventilation, though in 3 of
these it was provided in the summer only. Twenty-four had wall
exhausts, 15 having portable or paddle fans in addition. One laundry had no artificial ventilation but wall exhausts near the flatwork ironers, used in summer only. Two others had hoods over
most of the machines but had no exhausts. This absence of exhausts with the hoods probably would throw the steam down, and
though it might improve the air in the rest of the room it would
concentrate the heat and steam on the operator. 5 Of the total 52
firms, hoods with exhausts were provided in 9 laundries-2 had them
:for all machines, 4 only for flat-work ironers, 2 for tumblers, and 1
supplied them for various machines but had omitted them for flatwork ironers.
To provide conditions in which laundry operatives can work comfortably and efficiently, it is desirable that the a.ir be fairly cool, in
gentle motion, moderately moist, and lightly variable in temperature, an effort being made to koop the air temperature between 66°
and 68° F.6
In the present study, 152 temperature readings were made in 47
laundries near the flat-work ironers, the presses, and hand ironers,
as well as near workers doing the checking and sorting, those operating the tumblers, and so :forth. In this discussion by occupation, readings total 174, as the same reading frequently has been
given to 2 occupations. Both dry-bulb and wet-bulb readings
were made in each department of the laundry; very o:£ten readings
were taken at 2 or 3 positions in the same department.
Near the flat-work ironers, 50 0£ the 52 dry-bulb readings were
75° and over, 39 were 85° or more, and 7 were from 95° to 99°.
Sixty-two of the 64 dry-bulb readings made near the presses were 75°
and over and 54 were 85 ° or more, 2 readings being as high as 100°.
Near the hand ironers, all but 1 of the 34 readings were 75° and
over and more than three-fifths were at least 85°. The 116 combined dry-bulb readings o:f the flat-work ironers and presses showed
that 96 percent were 75° and over, 80 percent were 85° and over,
and more than 40 percent were 90° or more. These temperatures
are very much too high when compared with what is considered de4
5
6
I bid., p. 22.
Ibid., pp. 22, 23.
I bid., p. 1 8.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART VI.-WORKI
G CONDITION
67
sirable-68° F. on the dry bulb and 58° on the wet bulb. 7
Ohly
2 of the 152 dry-bulb readings were lower than 70°.
The readings of the wet bulb near the flat-work ironers and the
presses were exceedingly high. Over 96 percent at the flat-work
ironers were 60° and over, and almost one-half were 70° to 80°.
Only two readings were below 60°. Of the readings taken near
the presses, about three-fifths were 70° and over and almost onefourth were 75° or more. Readings at hand-ironing positions also
showed too large a proportion with temperatures much higher than
is considered desirable. Of the 34 readings, 30 were 60° or more, 8
being at least 75°. It has been stat.ed that the endurable limit of
wet-bulb temperature is about 78°, if a moderate amount of mechanical work is being done,8 yet 13 of the 174 wet-bulb readings (in 8
laundries) we.re at least 78°, and laundry work is more than moderate labor.
The combined readings for all other laundry workers ( 25 women),
including a few sorters, checkers, operators of tumblers, and so
forth, showed similar proportions :with temperatures that were too
high for comfort. The temperature in which these women were
working was affected considerably by their proximity to the presses
and ironers. Of 24 dry-bulb readings 22 were 75° and over, 20 were
85° or more, and 10 were at least 90°. Wet-bulb readings showed 22
of the 24 to be 60° and over, 19 to be 70° or more, and 6 to be 75 °
to 79°.
The correlation of dry-bulb and wet-bulb readings is far more
important thain, either considered separately. In a total of 13
dry-bulb readings that registered 80° or more, 60 percent registered
70° and more on the wet bulb and 23 percent of them registered at
least 75°.
Outside dry-bulb reading for 47 laundries ranged from 51 ° to
91 °. Only 4 were below 70°. The effect of outside temperature on
inside temperature is shown by the fact that where the outside drybulb reading registered 70° or more, 97 percent of the inside readings
were at least 80°, and 44 percent were at least 90°. With the
outside temperature at only 51 °, three inside readings of one laundry
were, respectively, 76° for hand finishers, 89° :for press operator ,
and 95° :for worker at the flat-work ironers.
Outside wet-bulb readings ranged from 39° to 77°, all but one being
at least 50°. When the outside wet-bulb reading was at this point,
95 percent of the inside readings-were 60° and over. ·when it was
60° or more, 75 percent of th inside readings were at least 70°
and 28 percent were 75° or more.
In one laundry, though the outside dry-bulb reading was 88°, inside
readings were over 100° for most of the workers, while in another
it was 91 ° outside but went no higher than 96° inside. This latter
firm had very good artificial ventilation.
None of the six hotel laundries that were in basement workroom
had adequate natural light, one of them having inadequate artificial
lighting also. Wholly or partly inadequate lighting was reported for
seven other laundries.
7
8
Ibid., p. 19.
Ibid., p. 19.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
68
WOMEN I N TEXAS INDU STR.IES
Most of the work in a laundry is done while standing, therefore
it is not so important that chairs be adjustable as when doing work
that requires sitting constantly, but it is important that a fairly
comfortable seat be provided each operator to use when she can
sit down for a minut e or two. In 28 laundries the supply of chairs
was inadequate. Where they were provided, the kitchen-chair type
was most commonly in evidence. Five firms had no provisions whatsoever :for seating.
Bubblers were p rovided in 27 laundries and in 10 of them they
were of a sanit ary type. Seventeen laundrie had, in addition, either
t anks, coolers, or faucets. I n 13 of these no cups were furnished; in
2 only a common cup was available. T wo firms p rovided individual
cups.
In 25 plants all t he facilities required the use of cups. In 9 of
t hese laundr ies no cups whatsoever wer e provided, and in 8 only a
common cup. Eight of the 25 supplied individual cups.
Four-fifths of the laundries; had n o lunch roms. No hot food or
drink was obtainable in any of the 10 that had made some provision
of lunch facilities. I n eight of these, lunch rooms were combined
with the cloakroom, rest room, or workroom. Of the 2 others, 1 was
a basement lunch room where sandwiches only could be purchased.
Half of the laundries allowed but 30 minutes for lunch.
Bowls or sinks, the major ity of them enamel, were provided in all
but seven of the laundries. I n the seven exceptions, employees used
the tubs wher e the clothe were washed. I n 18 cases washing facilities were not separate for men and women. The equipment was
reported as clean in all but 11 cases.
Hot water was provided in only 13 of the 52 plants that had regular
washing facilities, but due1to the industry it pr obably was obt ainable
in all cases. Soap wa provided in only about half of t hem, and
towels in about half, though in a number it was st ated that laundr y
towels were available for t he use of the workers. In 20 laundries
individual towel were provided.
Inside toilets were provided in all but one laundry, an establishment in one of the smaller towns and employing nine women. The
inside toilets were all of the hand-flush type.
The Women's Bureau standard of adequacy, 1 seat to each 15 women,
was upheld in almost t wo-thirds of the laundries, but in the other
third the accommodations were too few £or the women workers, who
numbered in some cases as many as 24, 25, 27, and even 31 and
36 for whom only one facility wa provided. In 34 of the laundries
the toilets had no natural ventilation, and in a good many of these
there was no artificial means either. In more than half there were
toilets that ventilated only through some other room, frequently the
workroom itself. A few had neither windows for light nor artificial
means of lighting, but because the rooms were unceiled they got some
light from the rooms that they adjoined.
In 24 laundries one or more hazards or stra.ins were reported. In
10 the heat was a distinct hazard. Nine had unguarded machinerychiefly old-style foot presses. In one of these several accidents had
occurred on the presses, and in another very narrow aisles between
formed an additional danger. In the wash room 0£ another laundry
two women worked with their hands in water all day long. Elevator
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART VI.-WORKING
O Dl'.fIONS ,
69
doors were unguanlcd in 2 plant a Hr fl.oo
ere slippery in 4.
In five laundrie. . stairways constitute t
li' .z rd. In three, open
or partly open stairways were a menace, in a fourth, treads were
.broken and worn, and in the fifth there were large open windows
along the stairs through which a person easily could be pushed.
In one laundry, though all machinery was guarded, a woman had
recently caught her hand under the guard. A Negro press operator
in another plant had but one leg, with which she operatoo a footpress. All day long she leaned on her crutch and worked. No chair
was nearby to relieve this strain.
In two laundries there was no first-aid equipment of any kind; one
of these was an old laundry with all machinery unguarded.
Sixteen laundries allowed reduced rates of one-fourth to one-half
off for the laundry of employees, and five others gave free service.
Thirteen laundries had a group-insurance policy of ..,ome kind for
their employ es.
Stores
Though about half 0£ the 46 department stores visited were in the
larger cities, only 12 of the 44 reporting numbers employed as many
as 100 persons. Two stores had over 300 employees and 22 had fewer
than 25. Almost 3,000 employees in all (2,991) were reported, 2,216
of whom were women.
.
The 33 limited-price stores had 962 employees, 826 of whom were
women.
Fifteen department stores used their basements as salesrooms.
Nine of these were without natural ventilation, though all were
equipped with some artificial means. Systems that forced the air
in had been in talled in 11 of these basements; in others, £ans of
the paddle type were the only artificial device in use, but all basements were reported a well ventilated. Most of the salesrooms
above the basement seemed to be adequately ventilated; if not with
natural ventilation by means of windows and doors, artificial devices were used, most of which were fans of the paddle type. Three
had special cooling systems.
Only 4 of the 33 limited-price stores visited were using basements
as salesrooms at the time of inspection. All were well ventilated,
1 by natural and 3 by artificial mean . In 2 stores natural ventila.t ion was poor in part or all of the other salesrooms, and in 1 of
these there· was no artificial ventilation. Fans, chiefly of the paddle
type, had been installed in the main salesrooms of 22 stores. Five
of the firms had workrooms, in two of which natural ventilation
was reported to be poor.
In workrooms where good lighting is particularly important because of the kind of work being done ( sewing largely), four department stores had inadequate natural light, but all had artificial
lighting. In 20 of these workrooms artificial lights were unshaded
at one or more work positions. An unshaded bulb at a sewing
machine is a distinct hazard.
Natural lighting wa inadequate in the workroom o:f 2 limitedprice stores and lights were not shaded in 3.
There were only two department stores in which the women had
no seats whatsoever. In some, however, they were not provided
with chairs for their own special use bu~ were permitted when not
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
70
WOME " IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
busy to use the chairs provided for cu tomers. Others had flop
seats behind the counters. Thirty-three of the stores had workrooms of one sort or another; some were separate, and others were
partitioned off from a larger room, sometimes very crowded. Of
the 31 stores reporting as to workroom seats, all had them, but
they were almost entirely of the kitchen-chair type. None were
adjustable.
In only one limited-price store were no seats provided. Flop
seats were the type most commonly in use. In the five tores with
workrooms the chairs were not adjustable.
In 48 of the 79 department and limited-price stores, bubblers had
been installed. Fountains were of the anitary type in 15 stores
and were insanitary in 31 ;9 in 2 others, bubblers were of both types.
Thirty-five of the 48 stores provided other types of drinking facilities in addition to bubblers, but in only 6 of these were individual
cups furnished. Twenty-seven had only tanks, coolers, or faucets,
and 16 of these had provided individual cups. Three supplied only
the common cup and 8 none at all.
In only 3 of the 22 department stores with fewer than 25 workers
had a lunch room been provided. In the other 24, only 10 had
lunch rooms. Three of the department stores allowed three-quarters
of an hour for lunch, all the others allowing an hour.
In 21 of the limited--price stores no room had been set aside as
a lunch room. Of the 12 that had lunch-room facilities, 11 were
combined with the rest room or cloakroom. All the employees in
limited-price stores were allowed at least an hour for lunch.
All department stores had washing facilities of the enamel-bowl
type. In 27' stores they were used by the public as well as by the
employees. Hot water was provided in only 9 cases, but nearly all
provided soap and 30 supplied individual towels. Eleven provided
only common towels, and four of these were stores where :facilities
were shared by the public.
All stores of the limited-price group had washing facilitie, for the
exclusive use of employees in all but five cases, where the public was
permitted to use them. Hot water was furnished in only 11 of them,
but in 25 soap and individual towels were provided.
The adequacy of toilet equipment depends on the number of seats
provided in relation to the number of workers. The Texas law
establishes a ratio of 1 seat to every 25 men and 1 to every 20 women
workers. This is considered inadequate by the Women' Bureau
which sets as a standard of a.dequacy 1 seat to every 15 wome~
workers. 10
Toilet facilities in stores very often are shared with the public.
which generally results in unsatisfactory conditions for employees'.
The pub;li~ sha_red toilets _used by employees in 25 of the department
stores v1s1ted m Texas; m 2 of these men also used them, and in
another store men and women shared facilities. In a much smaller
proportion of the limited-price stores-only 3 of the 33-was the
public allowed to share the facilities. In 2 of these men also used
them, and in 2 others men and women shared facilities.
0
See Women's Bureau BuL 87. Sanitary Drinking Facilities, with Special Reference to
Drinking Fountains. 1931. p. 9, recommendation no. 2.
10
U. S. Department of Labor. Women's Bureau Bul. 99, The Installation and :Maintenance of Toilet Facilities in Places of Employment. 1933. p. 6.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
EXTERIOR OF ONE-ROOM HOUSE OF A MEXICAN HOME WORKER AND HER SIX CHILDREN.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Part VII.-INDUSTRIAL HOME WORK IN TEXAS
The making and embroidering of handkerchiefs and infants' and
children's garments is an important industry in Texas, and much
of the fine needlework produced in the State is done in the homes of
the workers. The women, mostly Mexicans, are highly skilled in
this line of work, and the little dresses and slips that they make
so exquisitely sell in the stores at a price per garment far exceeding
the amount paid these women for making a dozen of them.
In the Women's Bureau investigation home workers were interviewed in San Antonio and La.redo, cities in which there were
hundreds of Mexican women doing hand sewing at home compared to the few Americans so employed. From reports of the
Bureau of the Census it appears that in 1930 more than half ( 51.3
percent) of all Mexican women 10 years of age or over in the United
States lived in Texas.1
Most of the home work covered in the present study was done by
Mexican women; in fact, all but 1'7 of the 123 women interviewed
as home workers were Mexicans. In addition to the persons interviewed, a number of the homes visited had 2, 3, or 4 members sewing
for wa.ges. Information obtained in this study in regard to the
earnings of women sewing at home on infants' and children's garments may apply to the amounts paid a group of workers rather
than an individual, so an exact comparison of the week's earnings
of the factory worker with those of the home worker is not possible.
Though it was disclosed that the Mexican women interviewed had
been in the United States from 3 to 48 years, only a few of them
had a sufficient knowledge of English to give the facts necessary
for the present study. In practically all the interviews an interpreter was required. Sometimes a child or a younger sister or
brother was pressed into service, sometimes the husband o:£ the
worker, and in a few cases a husband and wife together were able
to contribute in piecemeal fashion the information desired. More
often the facts were secured through an interpreter who accompanied the investigator on her rounds.
In the interview with the home worker facts about the woman,
her work, and her family were ascertained, and the agent added
statements about the conditions under which the work was done,
the size of the house, the degree of cleanliness, type and sufficiency
of lighting equipment, amount of natural light, and location and
other uses of the workroom.
The cleanliness of the homes and the neat attire of the women were
points stressed again and again by the investigators. In only a
few instances was it stated that the dress of the worker was not
really clean. In many cases it was patched or mended but nearly
1 U. S. Bureau of the Census.
pp. 86-87.
Fifteenth Census, 1930: Population, vol. V, Occupations,
71
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
72
WOMEN IN TEXA"S INDUSTRIES
always it was spotlessly clean. In spite of the £act that the visits
of the Women's Bureau agents sometimes were made as early as
8: 30 in the morning, it was usual to find the house straightened up,
the beds made, the dishes washed.
Type of work
The 123 home workers included in thi study, employees of 7
firms, were engaged on two kinds of work-handkerchiefs and infants' and children's garments. Only nine were handkerchief
makers, ancl. their work consisted of rolling hems, hemming, embroidering, or appliqueing :fancy handkerchiefs. The 114 women
employed on infants' and children's garments were making dresses,
slips, gowns, sun suits, play suits, rompers, and so :forth. They
were doing machine sewing, hand sewing, embroidering, hemstitching, fagotmg, smocking, drawn work, French knots, lace trimming,
and appliqueing. The articles usually were of so fine and delicate
a texture that the utmost care was required in handling so as to
preserve their freshness and daintiness.
Some of the women showed the agent the pa per patterns from
which they copied the design. Though many of the patterns were·
intricate, they were not stamped on the material, and their transfer
to the garment was not feasible because of the daintiness and delicacy
of the work. . Artistic sense as well as skill in needlework was demanded of these women, for it was their task to copy the design on
the tiny garment from the paper pattern furnished.
The neckbands and set-in sleeves often were so tiny that to anyone
not an expert in attaching them to the little garment such work
seemed almost impossible, yet the least variation in measurement or
design was sufficient to have the garment rejected by the contractor
or branch office. ,vhen this happened the woman received no pay
for the time she had put on the job.
The women made many comments in regard to the delicacy of the
work and the care and skill required in this fine sewing. A few of the
more interesting have been selected and are presented here.
The design is very tiny- and the work has to be done perfectly.
It is such very close, fine work and it must be done neatly or they won't
accept it.
The work is very fine and it has to be done perfectly.
All the work is close and fine.
It's very hard, such fine work, and it has to be done neatly.
The work isn't easy. Very, very fine and close. It's not every family that
can do the very fine work.
A woman who had not been long with her present employer displayed a dress she ha.d made that had been rejected by the examiner.
It had to be ripped because the smocking was too loose and too wide.
She remarked pathetically," I will not get pay for that."
One worker had used the wrong thread on some dresses given her
and because of this she could not collect pay for the work. The
company wanted the threads taken out, but in the woman's opinion
the stitches were too fine for that. She said that the error was not
hers as she had used the thread supplied in the bundle, and she felt
that she should have been paid for the job. She had not gone again
to that plant and at the time of the interview was doing work for
another factory.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART VIL-INDUSTRIAL HOME WORK IN TEXAS
73
With the exception of one very experienced worker, who did rush
orders and samples for a factory, the women had to call :for and
deliver the work. Many complained of the time lost in going to and
from the plant and in waiting there while their work was inspected
and a new order made up for them. Again and again the women
stated that they had to sit for 2 or 3 hours at the plant " while they
examine your work." This enforced idleness wa.s resented by mo t
women because it meant a loss in earnings or a wa te of time that
might have been spent on household ta ks.
A few of t he comments made b~ the workers follow :
Lose 2 or 3 hours every time I get work.
I wait sometimes the whole morning. Alway wait.
Often wait half a day. It depends on how many are ·ahead of you ; you
have to take your turn.
Sometimes. I wait all day for work.
We often have to wait a long time. They examine the work and you have
to fix any defects before they will pay you.
Sometimes there is no work ready, ha'rn to wait and wait, then work hard
that night to make up.
I wait at factory a very long time. The examiner examines your work and
then fixes your bundle.
·
The worst part is standing, waiting for work. They examine your work
before t hey pay you ; you wait till they do that.
It t akes a long time; I have to sit and wait. I bring work borne, make a
sample, and take that back for them to see before I do more.
The woman last quoted had been wor.king for the firm a short
time only, and the low rate of pay evidently made her cautiou , as
she could not afford to have her work rejected and get no pay.
Car fare was an expense that these home workers could ill afford
and some lived so far from the; factory that they felt it was necessary to ride. Others walked even though it was quite a distance.
Delay in getting pay for their work al o was a source of worry.
Several women complained of weeks elapsing between the turning
in of their bundles and their being paid for the work. This delay
was accounted :for by the :fact that an agent, rather than the firm,
distributed these needlework jobs. The women could not be paid
until a check for the order was received :from the main office, a
matter of a week's delay. Often it was 2 weeks before the women
got their pay.
When work could not be obtained from the company that usually
supplied them, several of the women said it was their practice to
apply at another plant in the locality; "Can't nlways get work
then sew for another factory."
Age of women
The Mexic3in home workers were an olc1er group than the rnx1can
women in factories, stores, laundries, and hotel and restaurants,
more than one-fourth of the former, in contra,_t. to only one-tenth of
the latter, being at least 40 years of age.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
74
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDU TRIES
T A BLE
24.-Age of
women mnployed on indwstr•ial h,ome w ork
Women reporting
Age group (years)
TotaL __________ ______________ ________
Number
Percent
120
100. 0
1 - - - - r - - - --
Under 20 ______ ---------------------------- - 20, under 25 __ ___ ---------------------------25, under30 _____ ___________ ____________ ...,_ ___
30, under35 _____ ____________________________
35, under40 __ ___ ________ ______ 1_ ________ ___ _
40, under 50 _ ____ ____ _____ ___ __ __________ __ __
50 and over______ _____ ____ ____ ______________ _
15
19
16
15
22
19
14
1
12. 5
15. 8
13. 3
12. 5
18. 3
15. 8
11. 7
With only 120 women reporting, the number in each age group
naturally is small. Not :far :from one-half o:f the women (56) were
in the groups o:f 30 and under 50 years. Fifteen were under 20,
and about hal:f o:f these had not reached their eighteenth birthday
at the time of the study. Practically the same number were. at
least 50.
Marital status
Three of every 10 o:f the home workers interviewed were single
and all but· two of these were less than 40 years o:f age. Four of
every nine were married and the majority of them were 30 and under
45. One-fourth of the women were widowed, separated, or divorced
and well over half of these were 40 or more. In fact, more than half
of the group who were 40 or more were widowed, separated, or
divorced. Practically all the workers who had reached 30 were or
had been married.
Only four of the home workers reported that they were living
independently. Their ages ranged from 22 to 58 years. One of the
4 was an American.
Average hourly earnings
To the great majority of the women home work was their job, and
they worked steadily. Many whose home duties prevented their
givmg hour after hour of the day to fine sewing stated that they
often worked late into the night to make up for that. Many worked
steadily for 10 or more hours a day. " Morning at the needle, noon
at the needle, nLght still at the needle", said one woman who reported a workday of 15 hours.
In spite of the fact that home work was the sole source of wage in
approximately 1 in every 3 of the 119 households, an analysis of the
women's earnings shows that 63 of the 98 women for whom an estimate o:f hourly earnings could be made averaged less than 5 cents
an hour. This intolerable condition was due to the fact, already
mentioned, that the women were paid less for making a dozen or
more of these exquisite articles than a single garment or handkerchief
sold £or at retail.
At the time of the survey a woman was making by hand a particularly exquisite infant's dress and adorning it with very fine smocking, lace, and a small flower design. She commented: "It takes a
lot of time to make a dress ; some dresses pay very little; all prices
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
MEXICAN INDUSTRIAL HOME WORKER MAKING INFANTS' FINE GARMENTS .
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
MEXICAN FAMILY OF INDUSTRIAL HOME WORKERS SMOCKING INFANTS' DRESSES .
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART VII.-INDUSTRIAL HOME WORK IN TEXAS
75
have been cut." These little garments later were seen on sale in an
eastern city at $8 each, but the rate paid to the woman who made
them was $5 a dozen. By sewing steadily she could finish one garment in 12 hours, receiving about 42 cents for her long day's work.
A sister helped regularly on the home-work jobs and the two women
considered themselves fort unate if they could make $2.50 a week.
In many cases investigated other members of the household besides
the interviewed woman were engaged regularly on the home-work
job. The 119 families visited reported 175 women doing home sewmg. As an example of team work is the case of three sisters, each
of whom did a specific part of the job. On the little dresses they
made, the first seam was put in by machine. There was a yoke effect
of fine tucks, French knots, and so forth, besides fancy stitching
around the hem. The three sewed from early morning until late at
night on 5 days of the week, letting their housework go until Saturday. Working together in this way it was possible to make almost
4 dozen dresses a week, for which they received earnings that averaged from $7 to $8. · The sisfor interviewed stated that in 1930 a
style less elaborate than the present model paid $3.50 a dozen.
Though the 1932 rate ($2.20) was less than that of 1930 by almost
two-fifths, some of the present patterns required almost twice as
much work.
When the agent of the Women's Bureau called at one home the
worker was remodeling a number of infants' dresses of a style
that had not sold well. The firm had given her 3½ dozen and she
and her mother were embroidering a small intricate design on the
belt of each garment and making loops to keep the belt in place.
Each garment required about 15 minutes of one person's time nnd
for this the rate was just over 2 cents. The mother helped all she
could on sewing jobs but together they could not make more than
$4 or $4.50 a week. " We get terrible prices. They require more
work now but have lowered the rates."
Another woman, so expert that she often made samples for the
firm, had been given 15 dozen dresses to remodel. She found the
work slow but hoped to gain speed as she went along. The work
was" not hard but tiresome." It bored her. Though an experienced
sewer it took her 40 minutes to remodel one of these dresses, and
at the rate she received-50 cents a dozen-this would pay her
4¼ cents, or 6¼ cents an hour. "That's a lot of work for a little
money. If I don't take that I'll have nothing. I have to take what
they give me."
Table 25 shows in detail the estimated hourly earnings of the 89
workers on infants' and children's garments and the 9 making
handkerchiefs from whom definite enough information was obtained
to make an estimate of hourly earnings possible. For workers on
garments the amounts range from less than 1 cent to not quite 12
cents an hour. Only 15 women got as much as 7 cents, while for
39 the average was less than 4 cents. The handkerchief workers
had hourly earnings of from less than 3 cents to 6% cents.
Well over half ( 53) of the women reporting had hourly earnings
of 2 and under 5 cents. These were not, as might be expected,
only young and inexperienced girls, for 26 of them reported their
ages as at least 35; 9 of them were 50 or over.
23891 °- 36--6
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
76
T A BLE
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
25. -Estimated hourly earnings of home workers on infa nts' and
children 's garments and, on handk erchief s
Num ber working onNumber 1 - - - - - - -.
of home
workers Infants' and Handker•
reporting children's
chiefs
garments
Estimated hourly earnings (cen ts)
'l'otaL .. . . .. ..... ......... ...... ......
98
89
1- - - - 1- -- - 1- - - - 1
Less than 2. · - · · ······ .......... . . ...... .. ..
2, less than 3.... . ............. . .. .. . . .. . ....
3, less than4... . . . ...... .. .... . .............
4, less than 5................. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5, less than6......... . ............ ..........
6, less than 7................. . .............. 1.
7, less than8 ............ •········· ·· · ····- ··
8, less than 9.. ...... ........ ........ .. .... ..
10, less than ll .. ...................... .... ..
11 less than 12.. ........ ....... .. . . . . . . .. . ..
10
17
17
19
9
11
3
7
2
3
10
16
13
19
7
9
3
7
2
3
1
4
2
2
i
Only five women had hourly ea.rnings as high as 10 cents. Two of
these were 20 and under 25 years old.
The median of the hourly earnings of these 98 women is 4¼
cents; that is, half of them received less and half received more than
4¼ cents an hour. About 3 in 8 received 3 and under 5 cents. No
one averaged so much as 12 cents.
The handkerchiefs that a few of the women were making were
the st.yles that retail at 50 cents to a dollar or more each, yet all
the women were receiving less than 7 cents an hour for their work.
" Can't live on what I make; the prices are lower each time I get
a bundle. "What can I do~" This worker, a girl of 19 years, was
living with her mother and sister. The mother was confined to bed
with tuberculosis and the sister was unemployed. The girl was the
only wage earner in the family, and her weekly earnings were $1.25,
an average of not quite 3 cents an hour.
A 55-year-old widow and her two daughters together could make
two dresses by working steadily throughout a _9-hour day. At the
rate paid for the style of dress they were makmg-$1.50 a dozen~
the three women made 25 cents a day, which is less than 1 cent an
hour :for the 27 hours spent jointly on the job.
One worker, a widow of 29 years, was doing smocking on infants'
dresses. She stated that she used to make the entire dress, but since
selling her ma.chine to get food she had been doing hand work only.
Table 26 shows the number of wage-earners and non-wage-earners
in the households visited, according to size of family.
Leaving out of consideration the 4 women living alone, the 115
families averaged 5 persons each, 2.8 wage-earners and 2.2 non-wageearners.
Seventy-five had children, their number ranging from 1 child in
each of 25 families to 8 children in 1 family. The small number of
children (an average of 1.7 each for the 115 families) is influenced·
by the fact that about 30 percent of the home workers interviewed
were single and that about 37 percent of those not single were 40
years old or more. The 15 families of 8 to 10 members had 57
·c hildren, half of them under 6 years.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
77
PART VII.-INDUSTRJAL HOME WORK IN TEXAS
TABLE
26.-Number and status of wage-earners and number and age group of
oon--wage-earners, by size of family
Number of wage-earners
Number
of
persons
in family
Num- Total
ber of numfamiberof
lies
persons
Total
With
fulltime
work
With
parttime
work
Out of
employment
Number of non-wage-earners
Doing
home
work
Tot al
6and 16years
Under under
of age
6years 16years
and
of age of age
over
-------------------Total reporting.
L . . . . . ....
2 . ... . ... ..
3... ... . . . .
4. . . . . . . . . .
5•.. . . ..•..
~ ····· ·····
8 .... ··· ·· ·
9 .... .. . . ..
10 ... ... .. .
11. •... .• . .
12.. .. . .. ..
14. .. ......
119
582
- -4
4
17
20
:.
19
17
13
11
7
5
3
1
1
1
34
60
76
85
78
77
56
45
30
11
12
14
329
73
4 ----- - -28
4
50
13
50
11
12
49
32
10
40
11
28
6
18
3
11 -------·
4 -------2
5
10
1
34
47
-- -----2- -------2
3
6
5
5
5
3
-- ---- 2--
6
6
4
3
4
8
6
3
1 ---- --- 1
1
5
175
253
- -- -
4 ------ -20
6
28
10
27
26
36
28
46
14
20
37
28
11
27
9
19
6
3
7
2
7
3
4
77
115
61
4
3
5
12
7
- -- - - ---- -- ---------------1
1
4
3
10
10
14
7
12
11
6
1
1
1
11
14
25
20
7
13
8
5
5
2
10
9
3
6
1
1
1
In the 115 families only 73 persons had full-time work outside
the home; even part-time jobs were held by only 34. Comments
on some of these part-time Jobs follow:
Husband does odd jobs, cleaning yards, etc.
He gets 10, 15, 20, or 50 cents
a day.
Son sells papers on Sundays.
For months and months husband bad work on only 2 days a week.
$2 a day.
Fifteen-year-old boy sells papers after school.
Gets
Home workers averaged about 1.5 per family. The largest families
had 2 or 3.
Make-up of larger families
It is evident that the women covered in the survey oa.rried heavy
:family responsibilities. This fact is emphasized in the following
analysis of the make-up and classification of the households having
:from 10 to 14 persons each. These 6 -families had in all 30 wageearners and 37 non-wage-earners. In addition to the 14 women doing
industrial home work, only 8 of the persons usually employed had
jobs at the time of the interview, and 5 of these were not working
full time. Expressed in another way, in spite of the large size of
these households, only two had wage-earners with full-time jobs
outside the home at the time of the study. None-not even the
family of 12 member~had more than 2 members with full-time
work.
One of the largest households in the study, having 12 members,
had two women doing home work. Two of the men had full-time
work clerking in stores, though one had boon out of work for 5
months until the past week. A 17-year-old son of the interviewed
woman worked on Saturdays and a niece assumed responsibility for
the routine housework. The six other members were all under 16
vears. By applying themselves steadily these two home workers
could make 20 dresses in a week of 51 hours, the equivalent of one
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
78
WOMEN IN TEXAS INDUSTRIES
person working 102 hours. After sewing the dresses the women
copied from a paper pattern a design of fagoting on yoke and sleeves.
The pattern could not be stamped on the material, and the worker
had to copy the design on the fine material with needle and thread.
For the 102 hours of skilled needlework these two women together
averaged $3.30, or a little over 3 cents -an hour.
Two of the families having 10 members had no other wage income than the meager earnings of the home workers. In one of
these cases a Mexican woman and her three daughters worked
steadily on the job as long as 14 hours a day. On the 5 days of
the week that they worked it was their endeavor to make at least
$10. " Work every minute trying to make a living. When rates
were better we didn't have to work so hard." The woman interviewed stated that they owned their home and had not sought outside financial assistance. " We feel more comfortable when we
have regular work. It's very hard now; no money and no jobs."
In the second family of 10 persons there was no regular wage
earner other than the woman who did home work, though a bo:y of
14 did shine shoes after school. This woman said that her earmngs
did not amount to $2 a week. When she worked steadily for 10
hours a day she could hemstitch and embroider a dozen dresses, and
for the dozen she received 30 cents. Her father and brother sent
her money ( father now out of work), otherwise the family could not
have got along. A married sister lived with her and paid half the
rent. Living in an unpainted rough frame house of one room and
a small kitchen, at the rear of some poor cottages, cost them $4 a
month. The court or yard of the house was described on the schedule as cluttered with rubbish. Living conditions were reported as
deplorable. Boards nailed on upright supports formed the side
walls of the room in which they lived, and the tin of the roof was
visible from the inside, the room having no ceiling. Two beds and
one chair comprised the furniture for the 10 people.
Throughout this investigation it was so unusual to find a home
that was other than clean and neat that special reference was made
to the exception in this case. A striking point noted in the survey
was the cleanliness and neatness of both the workers and the homes.
In the 6 families of 10 or more persons, 37 of the 67 members were
non-wage-earners. Children comprised 29 of this group, but only
9 of them were less than 6 years of age.
There were 36 households in which home work was the only
source of wage reported for a family of two or more members. As
1 in 3 of the 36 households consisted of at least 5 persons, it is hard
to see how living expenses could be met on the meager and irregular pay reported for these home-work jobs. Twenty-one of the 36
households had but 1 woma.n on home work. Seven had 3 or 4.
When a household of 9 or 10 persons has no other wage income
than the J>altry amount ,Paid home workers, the problem of providing a decent living' becomes indeed a serious one. The following summary shows the weekly earnings re:ported for the home
workers in the four households of this size havmg no outside wage
earners. In three of the cases the worker interviewed reported that
the family had no outside financial assistance at all.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
PART VII.-INDUSTRIAL HOME WORK IN TEXAS
Number in family
9 . . ·- ---- ---- ---- -- ------ ---- -- ---- -9_ -- _-- __ ---- --------- - ---------- ---10 ___ -- -- -- --- _-- ---- ----- ----- _-- ___
10 ___ ---------- ----------------- -----
Number
of home•
workers
1
3
4
1
79
Estimated
weekly
earnings
$1.60
10. 50
10. 00
2. 00
Again and again the women interviewed spoke of rents due but
unpaid and of grocery bills running over a long period of time; some
few told of help by relatives who contributed something toward the
upkeep of the family.
Contract work on pecan shelling
Pecan shelling is another type of work in which Mexican labor
fares ill. A manufacturer operating a legitimate confectionery establishment stated that the home shelling business had so demoralized his factory that he could profit more by selling pecans to home
workers, who were willing, the entire family, to work all hours for
almost nothing. Another who complained that the com.petition
from home shellers was too keen for legitimate manufacturers to
meet admitted that he had been obliged to cut his rates to a point
where employees could not live on them.
In San Antonio pecan shelling was widespread, and though it was
prohibited in living rooms it was common knowledge in the Mexican
quarter that individual families were preparing pecan meats in their
homes. However, most of the work was done in contract shops, 15
of which were visited. These were licensed and the workers had
health certificates in accordance with the requirements of the city.
Though some of the rooms and wooden shacks used for shelling
appeared to be clean, others were dark and dirty, and the workers
themselves presented a most uncared-for appearance. In a number
of cases shelling was a family affair and no effort was made to keep
out the children, who fingered the nuts as they worked or played
about the premises. Though the peak of the season was over at
the time of the survey and the contractors visited were operating
with greatly reduced forces, ranging from about 20 to 80 employees,
conditions in three shops were decidedly congested. The women
were crowded together, elbow touching elbow. There must have been
oongestion in most shops during the height of the season. On the
whole, there was but little consideration of sanitation or of the
comfort of the workers.
·
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIX
TABLE
00
0
!.-Week's earnings of women in factories, stores, and laundries, by race-1932
All races
Week's earnings
Total3 industrial
groups
Tot al.. .... 12, 757
Median earnings. $7. 65
Less t h an $2 . ....
$2, less t han $3. __
$3, less than $4 ...
$4, less t h an $5 . . _
F aetor•
ies
---
-
7,900 2,510 1,987
$6. 70 $12. 10 $12. 75
-
553
618
734
925
511
564
648
746
$5, less t h an $6 .. _ 1,196
- -10
- -
181
174
273
180
90
93
31
16
25
18
$7 _. _
$8 ...
$9. __
$10. .
1,351
1,310
1,248
1,015
$10, less t h an $11.
$11, less t h a n $12.
$12, less tha n $13.
$13, less than $14.
$14, less tha n $15.
837
541
654
447
261
431
281
297
204
137
274
2(15
289
205
108
$15, less than $16.
$16, less than $17 _
$17, less than $18.
$18, less than $19.
$19, less than $20.
332
197
133
143
52
99
70
56
33
18
209
200
107
65
99
28
103
56
96
28
$20, less than $25.
$25, less than $30.
$30, less t han $35.
$35 and more • . __
167
33
6
4
27
3
130
30
6
4
128
29
6
4
1
-------------
Not computed; base less than 50.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- -
18
27
30
80
135
52
92
109
173
243
894
839
798
696
548
$6, less than
$7, less t h a n
$8, less tha n
$9, less than
523
$9. 65
34
65
79
93
108
8
14
23
15
'l'otal
-- -- -- -- -2
8
3
9
22
26
24
TotalLaun- 3 in- Faetor•
dries dusies
trial
groups
9
4
2,347
$7. 25
- -
32
32
ToToDeDetaltalpartpartLaun- 3 in- Fae3
in• FaeLauntor•
ment Limment Lim- dries
tordusdries dusies
itedTotal
ies
and
and itedtrial
trial
readyprice
ready- price
groups
groups
totowear
wear
-- -- -- -- - -
5, 731; 2,281 1,826
455
$7. 45 $12. 35 $12. 90 $9. 70
----303
- -277
9
8
155
361
443
542
329
403
475
19
20
16
12
17
7
1
7
3
9
250
420
403
379
224
661
763
831
888
843
570
562
574
542
467
34
67
84
151
207
20
48
59
80
94
14
19
25
71
113
132
55
68
38
16
737
483
608
422
251
395
257
276
192
130
248
189
276
196
105
160
165
264
172
88
24
315
192
126
137
50
91
69
52
32
16
203
105
63
95
28
194
101
54
92
28
161
32
6
4
24
127
29
6
4
125
28
6
4
60
g
20
12
3
11
2
1
10
-------
9,159
$8. 75
6
------------- ----------- -- ·-- ----
3
-------------
Negro women
Stores
Stores
Department Lim•
Total and
ited•
ready- price
towear
-- -- -
Mexican women
White women
Stores
- - -- -- -
2, 748
$5.85
17
13
20
51
216
186
247
322
202
168
212
252
1
3
6
8
57
134
173
195
169
468
403
334
310
249
205
139
68
18
25
25
21
35
------
222
128
-
606
158
1, 916
68
226
$5.40 $9.15 $9. 00 $9. 25 $6. 35
1, 142
$8. 55
--
Storesdepartment Laun•
dries
and
ready•
towear
-- - - - -
850
248
$5. 95 $3. 75
(1)
3
- -13 - - - - ----34
32
1
-----2
1
6 -----8 ------
14
17
20
12
13
4
8
5
9
22
15
29
62
44
61
67
33
19
140
129
104
62
25
67
185
145
138
44
14
28
19
15
13
71
------------------------------- ---------- --- -----1
1
-
599
$7. 2fi
-2
4
11
42
53
157
126
122
30
23
------------1
12
2
10
3 -------3
1 -------7
------ ------- ------ --- --- -- --- -·3
3 --- --- ---- ---14
6 ------ -----21
6
8
9
1
1
1 ------ ---- ---2 -----2
4
18
1
4
1 ---- --- ------ -------- -----2 -----2
11
4
7
9
1 ------- ------ -------- -----4 -----10
4
6
1
3
2
2 ------ ------ ------ ------ ------- ------ -------- . ...........
6
-----2 -------- -----2
3 _.,. ____ ...... ..........
3
4
10
1
2
1 ------ ------ ------- ------ -------- -----1
1 ------1 ----- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------- ------ -------- ----------- ------- ------ - ------- ------ ------ ------ -----· ------· ------ -------- -·-- -88
24
12
24
17
94
37
56
34
16
77
43
33
21
10
36
22
18
11
26
15
13
9
3
21
8
9
8
2
5
7
4
1
1
15
6
2
1
23
15
13
4
81
APPENDIX
TABLE
II.-Week's earnd.ngs of women in hotels and resta,urants and in teleplwne emohanges, by race-1932
Week's earnings
Hotels and restaurants
Telephone
1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - i e x changeswhite
Total-all
White
Mexican
Negro
women !
races
women
women
women
Total ____________________ ____ --- - -- Median ________________ __________________ _
1,014
$7.35
than
$2_$3------ ---------- --------__- --Less
$2,
less
than
___ ____________________
__ _
$3, less than $4 ___________________________ _
$4, less than $5 __ ____ ___ _________________ __
51
34
23
50
41 ------------
---------- ·-
3
7
11
$5, less than $6 __________________________ __
119
196
93
104 -- --------- 27
9
27
68
35
2
25
92
67
107
11
$6, les'l
$7, less
$8, less
$9, Jess
than
----- - ---------------------than $7
$8 __ _________________________ _
than $9 ____ _______________________ _
than $10 _______________ __ _________ _
$10, less than $1L ____ _____ ______ _________ _
m:
~~:~ m
==========================_
$13, less than
$14 _________________________
i::
$14, less than $15 _______________ __ ________ _
631
$6. 95
29
16
38
103
202
48
44
(2)
2
$15.10
10
3
2
63
21 -------- ---- ---- --- ----36
16
64
21
37
16
6
846
339
$7. 30
6
1
4
5
2
10
11
25
34
59
79
89
86
105
80
39
37
34
41
26
22
21
2
1
No Mexican nor Negro women employed.
0
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1
Not computed; base less than 50.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
@FedFRASER