THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES CONDITIONS OF WOMEN'S LABOR IN LOUISIANA NEW ORLEANS AND LOUISIANA INDUSTRIAL SURVEY "%:nt §£? REPORT BY Women in Industry Committee Council of National Defense New Orleans Division and Louisiana State Division NEW ORLEANS 19 19 Additional cofiies of this publication may be procured from F. E. Wood, State Commissioner of Labor, 626 Audubon Building, New Orleans, La. Postage jr cents per copy. WOMEN IN INDUSTRY COMMITTEE Mrs. Walter E. Garrey City Chairman Mrs. Joseph E. Friend State Chairman Mrs. Henry Alcus Mrs. Meigs O. Frost Mrs. Bessie Behan Lewis Mrs. Leon Pfeifer Mrs. Edward Wisner Janet R. Huntington Director of Investigation New Orleans 1919 X 00 FOREWORD The Women in Industry Committee, Council of National Defense, New Orleans Division, started its work as a volunteer organization with the sole purpose of patriotic service. It con- fined its activities during the war to assisting in adjusting labor conditions of women in the community, by conducting an Employ- ment Bureau. The Bureau was operated under the personal direction of the present chairman, Mrs. Walter E. Garrey, assisted by volunteer members of the committee and other workers whose services have been acknowledged elsewhere. • The endeavors at adjustment of labor to employment demanded an intimate knowledge of the labor situation as to hours, wages, and working conditions. No comprehensive report of these con- ditions was available, hence, surveys were necessary, and many £j industries were personally investigated by members of the bureau's staff who confined their efforts to gathering data imperatively £3 needed to meet the war emergency. - — The information obtained could not be statistical or exhaustive owing to the tax upon the time and energy of those directing the work of the bureau. So many questions arose concerning the 5» betterment of the mutual relations of the employer and employe tf> which could only be approached with a fuller knowledge of the g existing conditions, that it seemed fitting that the committee should consumate and conclude its work by conducting a complete statistical survey which would give needed data on which to base , future judgments and activities. It was deemed wise to extend the survey to include the State o of Louisiana as well as the City of New Orleans and this part of i the work was undertaken with the cooperation of Mrs. Joseph E. ! Friend, State Chairman of Women in Industry. The special and intricate character of the work made it nec- essary to employ a director of investigation trained to gather and compile data of the nature desired. The credit for the compre- hensiveness of the survey, as well as the entire responsibility for the accuracy of the data and for form of the report rests with the director of investigation, Mrs. Janet R. Huntington, and her survey staff. 448988 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Introduction — - 7 Section One. Summary and Conclusions 14 Section Two. Wages and Cost of Living. 27 Section Three. Hours and Industrial Fatigue.. 65 Section Four. Welfare Activities 89 Section Five. Safety in Women's Work 105 Section Six. Labor Turnover 116 Section Seven. Special Groups 127 Appendix - 138 INTRODUCTION. The New Orleans and Louisiana Industrial Survey was un- dertaken in December, 1918, under the direction of the Women in Industry Committee of the Women's Division of the Council of National Defense. Its objects were to discover the facts concerning women's labor, and to determine the meaning of these facts in needed reorganization or readjustment. A few general statements bearing on the work of this survey should be made here. A Problem of the White Worker. It may surprise the person unacquainted with Louisiana industry, even tho a resident of the city or state, to discover that the industrial problem is concerned almost entirely with white workers. At least 85 per cent of the women workers in this city (excluding domestics in homes) are white. Colored workers are found most frequently in laundries, the kitchens of hotels and restaurants, and a few miscellaneous shops such as nut and cotton pickeries. Even in these industries, however, they are generally outnumbered by the white workers. Scope of Survey. The New Orleans and Louisiana Industrial Survey was de- fined in its scope to form a comprehensive study of the woman in her work. No attempt was made to study (1) child labor, (2) domestic service in homes or boarding houses, (3) housing conditions, (4) home employment ("sweat shop"), or (5) the social evil among workers. The labor of minors has entered into the study in that girls of 14 to 18 were interviewed along with older workers, no special effort being made to study these more intensively. The social evil may have entered into the discussion of budgets (see page 41), but no attempt to define its extent or character has been made. These topics were omitted, some because they seemed out- side the functions of the Women in Industry Committee and others because it was felt that the laws at present were ade- 7 quate to insure good practice, and any study would be merely a check on the enforcement of the laws. Proportion of State Covered. Within New Orleans data were gathered from shops em- ploying an aggregate of 11,383 workers. The 1918 report of the factory inspector gives 13,536 as the total number of women employed in the city. A few department stores were omitted after a representative proportion had been studied, and a few employers refused to give information. It is felt, however, that the survey, covering, as it does, the great majority of employed women, is to be considered fairly representative. Outside New Orleans 1,805 employes were included. While there is no exact information on the total number employed in Louisiana outside of New Orleans, it is probable that the show- ing here, too, is complete enough to be representative. Sixteen cities and villages were visited — Baton Rouge, Alexandria, Monroe, Shreveport, Lake Charles, Sulphur, Lafayette, New Iberia, Crowley, Addis, Westwego, Chalmette, Harvey, Gretna, Algiers and Marrero. The survey, in addition to securing facts concerning all women in a given shop, interviewed a representative propor- tion of employes to secure additional facts not available in the firm's office. This field study includes 4,366 New Orleans working women and 836 outside New Orleans, or slightly less than half the total number for which facts were gathered. As not all cards, whether for shop or individual, included every piece of information requested, the totals in some of the chapters may be lower than those given here. In addition to these two general field studies, special stu- dies were made of fatigue, accidents, climate in its effect on production, causes for the shifting of labor, etc. These special studies are discussed in the various chapters of this report. Forms and Methods. It is not profitable to use space to describe in detail the procedure followed in making the survey. The forms used are reproduced in the appendix. Field workers were instructed to make no attempt to interview a worker unwilling to give the information desired, or, thru the expression of personal opinion, to influence the kind of information given. In special studies it was the attempt to isolate the particular subject of study from all other factors. Thus, in a study of climate and production, it was necessary to allow for seasonal differences in type of material used, in the extent of "rush" in production, etc. Every effort was made to make each study, general or special, scientific and accurate in every detail. Cooperation Found. Except in a very few instances, employers and employes were found willing to supply the survey with the required data. Chas. A. Kaufman Co., Ltd., department store, and a few cloth- ing manufacturers, notably Haspel Bros., Hirsch-Baar, Kauf- man & Monacher, Arthur A. Katten, Scherr Manufacturing Co. and Famous Manufacturing Co., refused information. Also Werkes Curled Hair Store, Mack's Trunk Co., Hitchler's Stu- dio, National Clothing Co. and the Novelty Shop (ready-made clothing). Outside New Orleans the only instances of lack of coopera- tion were The Bargain Store, a department store, in New Iberia; Philip's Shoe Store and Allen Garter's Jewelry Store, in Shreveport; D. P. Egan's General Merchandise Store in Crowley, and M. Heymann, department store, in Lafayette. In a few other instances employers refused to give out wage information. In the wage study, therefore, 10,556 New Orleans workers and 1,755 from the rest of the state are included. Classification of Workers. In analyzing the data gathered, records were grouped by industries, and within these industries by occupations follow- ing the U. S. Census classification. A list of industries studied, together with an explanation of all terms which might require it, follows: A. Bag Manufacturing. B. Banks and Agencies, including banks, sales offices, real estate, brokers, insurance, etc. C. Can Manufacturing ; does not include canning. D. Candy Manufacturing; includes no strictly retail stores. E. Cigars and Tobacco ; manufacturing only. F. Clothing Manufacturing. G. Cotton Mills ; includes cotton pickeries. H. Domestic and Personal Service ; includes beauty parlors, barbers and cleaning and dyeing. I. Department Stores. J. Food Manufacturing; bakeries, biscuit makers, nut picker- ies, canneries, coffee roasting, etc. K. Hotels. L. Laundries. M. Manufacturing and Mechanical ; cork manufacturing, broom manufacturing, box manufacturing, crockery works, etc. X. Mines. One sulphur mine inspected; women work only in office and restaurant. N. Printing and Publishing. 0. Professional Service ; doctors, lawyers, theaters, account- ants, etc. P. Restaurants. Q. Trade, Miscellaneous ; millinery, candy stores, groceries ; also drug stores, florists, etc. R. Transportation ; mainly telephone and telegraph companies ; also railroad and navigation offices. In each industry it was the aim to secure a representative showing. The following table shows numbers of employes in each for whom data were secured : Total Firms Total Employes Louisiana Outside INDUSTRY. Inspected. Studied. New Orleans. New Orleans. Total 380 13,188 11,383 1,805 A 6 359 359 B 42 332 230 102 C o 340 340 D 6 448 448 E 7 1,634 1,634 F 15 574 541 33 G 6 1,262 1,262 H 5 27 27 I 48 2,639 2,061 578 J 31 1,149 897 252 K 20 993 804 189 L 16 827 618 209 M 24 525 391 134 X 1 26 26 N 9 110 110 29 102 79 23 P 22 263 242 21 Q 79 483 394 89 R 12 1,095 946 149 10 Aii industry may include a number of occupations. Six occupation classifications have been made — manufacturing and mechanical, transportation, trade, professional service, domes- tic and personal service, and clerical. These occuptions might all be included in, for example, a cotton mill, in the following way: 1. Manufacturing and Mechanical : Machine operator. 2. Transportation : Telephone operator. 3. Trade : Sales girl in company store. 4. Professional Service : Welfare worker. 5. Domestic and Personal Service : Cleaners, cooks, etc. 6. Clerical : Office force. It must be emphasized that the "domestic and personal serv- ice" classification does not in this survey include any workers in homes, but includes workers in allied occupations (cleaning, cooking, laundering) in shops. No attempt whatever was made to study domestic and personal service within homes or private boarding houses. A cross classification of occupations was made, because standards in the same shop for various industries are often quite different. Clerical workers, for example, frequently have hours, wages and other conditions quite different from the operators, sales girls or cleaning women in the same estab- lishment. Standards for Judging Data. Few complete surveys of women in industry have been made in the Southern states. Comparison with Northern standards presents objections because of the different conditions which exist in the South. Where comparison with past studies made in Louisiana or elsewhere seemed profitable or significant, it has been made. For the most part, however, Louisiana facts have been com- pared with Louisiana needs and conditions, as this has seemed the fairest method. Thruout the attitude has been held that it was the func- tion of the survey, not only to find out what conditions exist, but to suggest means for their improvement by individuals, organizations, or the general public. It has not seemed ade- quate merely to report on facts. The essential factor of "what can be done about it?" must also be discussed. For example, a number of employers asked survey representatives to make suggestions for the welfare activities which they desired to install in their shops. So many such requests were received that it was decided to make the welfare section of the report an outline manual for employers to use in working out their own welfare systems. This, it is plain, is much more constructive than a mere report on welfare activities, present or omitted, in individual shops or industries. Few Tables Used. To work out this same principle of usefulness, few detailed tables have been used in this report. The analysis of the data made necessary the compilation of numerous large charts and tables. These have been boiled down and digested, and appear in this report largely in the form of percentages and total figures. It is hoped that all the salient figures have been given. If not, all detail charts are available for study by individuals at the office of the State Commissioner of Labor, 626 Audubon Building, New Orleans, with whom all survey material has been deposited. Thanks for Cooperation. The Women in Industry Committee wishes to extend its sincere thanks to its first chairman, Mrs. Gayle Aiken, Jr., under whose direction the New Orleans and Louisiana Indus- trial Survey was begun; to Mayor Martin Behrman and Gov- ernor R. G. Pleasant, whose interest made the survey financially possible thru the securing of funds from the City of New Orleans and the Louisiana State Council of Defense; to Mrs. Martha Gould, city factories inspector; and F. E. Wood, State Commissioner of Labor ; for invaluable advice and cooperation ; and for friendly interest and assistance, to a host of individuals and organizations, including particularly the members of its advisory board, Governor R. G. Pleasant, Mayor Martin Behr- man, Morton A. Aldrich, Wilbert Black, A. J. Boylan, Dr. Oscar Dowling, F. W. Evans, Charles Payne Fenner, John 12 Fletcher, Mrs. Martha Gould, Albert Kraemer, W. Loeber Landau, Miss Eleanor McMain, and Commissioner F. E. Wood. The committee wishes also to express appreciation of the splendid work done by the survey staff, which included Miss Lyda Belden, Miss Dorothe Johnson, Miss Mary Kearney, Mrs. Ada Weiner and Miss Lulie Westfeldt. This work was directed and the report compiled by Mrs. Janet R. Huntington, to whom also the committee wishes to extend thanks. COMMITTEE OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY, Mrs. Joseph Friend, State Chairman, Mrs. Walter E. Garrey, City Chairman, Mrs. Leon Pfeifer, Mrs. Meigs 0. Frost, Mrs. Henry Alcus, Mrs. Bessie Behan Lewis, Mrs. Edward Wisner. New Orleans, April, 1919. SECTION ONE. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. I. The working woman is no new phenomenon. Women have worked since the beginning of time. But it is comparatively recently that women have entered commercial industry in large numbers. It must be admitted that the woman in industry stood at first for cheap labor, in every sense of the word. She was un- skilled. She was apt to be willing to work for any wage, how- ever low. She lacked completely that education in work, and that sense of solidarity, which has made masculine labor a power capable of moulding its own conditions. So women got the sweepings and the leavings of the in- dustrial world. They were put in to break strikes ; they were given wages half what men would demand and receive; they were forced to work long hours, under conditions much worse than men would endure. Finally there was a gradual awakening. The employer awoke to the value of women's labor, and the desirability of better working conditions. The public awoke to the necessity of conserving the health and strength of its working women, many of whom were to be the mothers of the future. And the women themselves began to demand better pay, shorter hours, sanitation, etc. "Working men, it is said, often viewed such restrictions with satisfaction, as removing women somewhat from the field of direct competition. In reality, however, the low standards of women's labor had tended to lower standards for men as well. Before the world war the entrance of women into industry was fairly complete. The long struggle to raise wages, lower hours, and better Avorking conditions, had made much head- way. Investigations had been undertaken, laws passed, orders issued. Unionization of women had advanced, and many of the unions showed a progressive and sane spirit in their .de- mands. Women workers were being educated rapidly to a footing as individuals in the industrial world, on a plane not 14 so far beneath that of men. And yet wages remained low and the type of work performed the least skilled and the least at- tractive. The Effect of the War. Then came the war. Industry was suddenly confronted with a totally new situation. Workers, any workers, were in demand. Men were being drafted by thousands. Contracts called for doubled or tripled production. Women the country over stepped into the breach. They proved themselves equal to men at men's jobs. They proved it to the satisfaction of employers* and the public. Wages went up, as did also prices, but in general the in- crease in wages was real, — that is, more than enough to com- pensate for price advances. Standards in hours and "welfare" did not advance, but as these have been the strong points of pre-war progress, it was perhaps as well that wages should have been the main war profit to women in industry. Since the close of the war, the bottom has dropped out of the labor market. Unemployment, particularly among men, has been widespread. War industries have disappeared and with them the highest class of wages paid during the war. There is as yet not much evidence of falling wages; but un- questionably industrial unrest is spreading, and the curtail- ment of production means a grave problem for labor every- where. The south in general, not being highly developed in manu- facturing, has been outside the main current of these changes. And yet in New Orleans alone, the past five years have meant a 66 per cent increase in the number of women employed. For every three women working outside the home in 1913, there were five in 1918. Few distinctively war industries developed in the South. Most of the work was in the production of food and clothing necessities, the market for which would survive the war period. For this reason women were not called to take men's places in the South to as great an extent as elsewhere. And after *See Bulletin, The Wartime Employment of Women in the Metal Trades, Na- tional Industrial Conference Board, 1918. 15 the war there was not the disorganization of industry which was found in other sections. Ordinarily, women in men's jobs made good. And where their work proved itself satisfactory, they were retained after the war in the same job. The expansion of industry and the discharge of incompetents, frequently made it possible for em- ployers to hire returned soldiers as well. It is to the credit of Louisiana employers that wages for women taking men's places were in general what the men's had been, so that wage standards were not lowered by the change. Knowledge of Facts Necessary. And yet the very influx of women workers, the very expan- sion of business, aroused the public to a desire to understand the conditions of women in industry and to better these condi- tions where possible. Few if any thoro surveys of women's work had been made in the South. Few individuals had any accurate knowledge of the facts concerning women's employment. To better con- ditions, it was vital to know what conditions were. Moreover, there was and is a real danger that standards may fall as war time pressure relaxes. As the supply of labor again comes to exceed the demand, it is less necessary for em- ployers to put forth any effort to make their shops attractive to employes. As industry struggles back to a peace footing, there is the chance that the woman worker may fail to hold the ground she has won. And surely it is fitting that the workers, who have made their sacrifices and done their part in helping the nation to victory, should be given special consideration at this time. Tf any manifest wrongs yet remain, patriotism and grati- tude alike called for their righting. All these reasons are be- hind the present survey. It was believed that only good could result from a determination of the facts concerning the employ- ment of women. Analysis of Facts. Six major divisions include all the facts gathered by the survey; these are wages, hours, "welfare", safety, turnover, and the special groups of minors and working mothers. Sug- gestions for further progress will be made in connection with each of these chapters. But there are certain general recommendations, cutting across the entire study, which should be made. These are the general provisions which should have a beneficial effect on in- dustrial problems of whatever nature. To avoid too much repetition, they will be considered in detail in this chapter only. The Shop Committee. First in importance comes the need of establishing confi- dence and good relations between the employer and employed. If there is frankness and fair dealing on both sides, most indus- trial troubles can be avoided. Moreover, the potentialities of employes have never been fully developed in most shops. Workers are seldom encour- aged to play the part which their experience might make pos- sible. In a large watch factory, for example, where the machin- ery used is delicate and complicated, most of the improvements and inventions come from the workmen. The company main- tains machine shops where inventions are worked out, and makes known that men will be paid for new ideas and improve- ments. In the coal mines there are shop committees, of workmen and company officials, who confer concerning the routine of work and the shop administration, and who are given power to carry out their system of management. These workers also act as spokesmen for the employes, who are thus assured of direct access to the management. Such activities lead the employe to look upon his work as something more than a routine drudgery ; they make it a prob- lem for solution by all concerned. They give play to the creat- ive impulse, and their establishment has more than justified i i self in better work, less shifting, and more efficient manage- ment. In England, such shop committees have reached their full- est development. Their formation has quieted labor trouble by providing a means for a full and fair discussion. And they have meant a real contribution to the efficiency of the shop. •Among women such quasi-managerial work is less frequent- ly found. It is felt that women are too uninterested in work as a permanent occupation, and perhaps also too unintelligent, to fit into such a plan. But the fact that such a plan will edu- cate women and tend to give them a more permanent viewpoint is ignored. In the North such'workers' committees frequently are given charge of the "welfare" activities, the lunch room, etc. This is a step on the road to entrusting them with discipline, with details of production, or selling, etc. When carefully super- vised, the development of executive power will be a source of much good to the shop as a whole. It is possible that such organization within a shop, where the rights of discussion are given and the creative ability of the worker utilized, will tend to make unionizing less probable and less attractive. The working women of New Orleans are practically unor- ganized, but it is certain that the union, in its best develop- ment, also possesses great potentialities for the betterment of labor conditions; like a good Association of Commerce it is a democratic method of group education which results in fair requests, and restrained but efficient methods for the obtain- ing of better industrial conditions. Legal Remedies. In each of the foregoing discussions the worker and the employer alone have been considered. When the third party — the public — enters, machinery for progress is in general legal in its nature. The public is interested in its capacity as consumer; but the state has a much more direct and immediate interest in conserving the health and well-being of its women citizens. Biological considerations demand woman's protection. Phys- ically she is the child-bearer, and it is on her well-being that the strength and virility of future generations depend. In the recent draft, analysis was made of the percentage of rejections from military service. It was of course noted that the manufacturing states, where women had been em- 18 ployed for generations, had the highest proportion of re- jections. But it Was noteworthy that Massachusetts, a pioneer in "hours for women" legislation, and a leader in industrial re- forms running back more than a generation, had a lower per- centage of rejections than the neighboring states where women had been equally industrialized but less protected by law. The connection between the health of the mothers and that of the descendants, while not absolutely proved in this in- stance, is, in reality, direct and close. When a woman is under- paid and overworked she cannot be a good citizen or a mother of healthy children. And more ; her children suffer immediate hardship, for often the working woman is a widowed mother, and must use her strength to support herself and her children. It behooves the state, therefore, as one of its most vital func- tions, to protect the welfare of its women in industry. How can the state best protect its working women 1 Legal standards in specific instances will be detailed in the various chapters. But the central machinery in the state gov- ernment which has worked best to safeguard the employment of women in industry is the Industrial Welfare Commission, working with the State Department of Labor and particularly the Women in Industry Division of that department. The Industrial Welfare Commission has been a part of the government in some states for many years. More recently its powers have been extended. Often such a commission takes over the entire duties of the State Department of Labor, but more frequently it works in co-operation with it. The Indus- trial Welfare Commission as developed in California, Oregon, and Massachusetts has reference to the work of women and children only. The California law, passed in 1913, creating the Industrial Welfare Commission is quoted at the close of the chapter on Wages. Its most important function probably is that of mak- ing wage investigations and issuing wage orders. Its func- tions, however, include establishing hour limits below the legal maximum for special trades, and legislating on 'all sorts of comfort and welfare provisions which will tend to increase the well-being of the woman at work without being unduly bur- densome to the employer. 19 Where any executive functions devolve upon an individual, or a group, they may be well or poorly carried out. No law is stronger than the officials who are to enforce it. No commis- sion is stronger than the individuals of which it is composed. For this reason many people look on all commissions with doubt. But if public interest follows the appointing and working of a commission, if it is composed of energetic, public-minded, unprejudiced individuals, if it is given sufficient funds to work with, then very great good may occur. It is superior to law making in its greater flexibility, its permanence, its ability to hear and weigh evidence more easily, and its possibility of ap- plication to individual industries. At least one member of such a commission, in addition to its executive secretary, should be a woman. The commission should be open to consultation with clubs and all employer and employe organizations, and should organize itself on a basis of energetic service to the community and state. It should work closely with the Department of Labor, which should be enlarged to include a woman member for the entire estate, as the representative of women in industry. It would seem that legal barriers to the inclusion of women in state gov- ernment can be circumvented here as they have been in the state department of health. The women in industry representative of the State Depart- ment of Labor should have charge of enforcing all existing state laws regarding the employment of women and minors. She should also make investigations in co-operation with the Industrial Welfare Commission, and work in harmony with this body. Such enlargement of the state functions should cost the state probaly $20,000 annually, $15,000 for the commission and its expenses, and $5,000 additional to the Department of Labor budget for the Women in Industry Division. This is about one dollar a year for each working woman employed in Louisiana. The education of children costs many times as much annually per child. Surely the state can afford to invest in the welfare of its working women to this extent. The Industrial Welfare Commission should study all the field covered by this survey, and should study more thoroly such questions as the employment of minors and home em- ployment. The U. S. Department of Labor standards (Women in In- dustry Division) of home employment are as follows : "No work shall be given out to be done in rooms used for living or sleeping purposes or in rooms directly connected with living or sleeping rooms in any dwelling or tenement." In Louisiana the concensus of opinion seems to be that sew- ing work given out to be done in homes is relatively harmless, and as a matter of fact goes into homes of comparative refine- ment and cleanliness. The facts on this ought, however, to be investigated. One case came to the survey 's notice where pecans were taken home for shelling by a crippled member of a family. "Whether home work with foods is common or not should be known. Wages for home work should also be studied. In the few cases which came to the survey's knowledge, wages were ex- cessively low, so as to justify the common title of sweat shop work. The employer's profit on this work must have been enormous. Whether goods are thoroly fumigated and made sanitary, whether the home worker needs protection — all these are matters needing study. On the subjects studied here — wages, hours, welfare, safe- ty, turnover, special groups — certain definite conclusions have been reached. It is the purpose here to make a summary of these conclusions. Details and supporting data will be found in the respective chapters. Wages. Wages have seen an increase in the past five years. This in- crease, due in the main to war conditions, has been more than sufficient to offset the increase in the cost of living, so that working women to-day average 20 per cent better off than they were five years ago. This increase, it is believed, will suffer little or no drop be- cause of the return of peace. But with a plentiful supply of labor it is possible that the progress towards higher wages may not continue, as it should, if all women are to receive a wage sufficient for living in minimum comfort, or even for the bare necessities of life. 21 Altho wages have advanced, one out of every eight, of all women employed, (i. e., 12 per cent), are still receiving less than enough to meet the bare requirements of life itself, for an independent worker ; while half are not receiving enough to provide for a minimum degree of comfort in permitting a small expenditure for recreation, doctor's bills, and the support of dependents. Moreover, in some industries there has been scarcely any in- crease in wages in five years, while in several the increase has been far from sufficient to meet increased living costs. A table giving facts for individual industries is presented in the Wage chapter. The state may fairly assume the responsibility of making sure that no employer is permitted to pay less than a living wage. Here again the state is in reality coercing employers to act to their own advantage ; for the most far-sighted men realize that it pays to pay good wages, and that underpaid labor is the most expensive of all. "While there are valid objections to a flat minimum wage, this should, if established, stand at a level which will enable the workers to provide for the quasi-necessities of recreation, sanitary surroundings, illness, or the support of dependents — in other words a minimum comfort level. The best legal solution, however, would seem to be the in- dustrial welfare commission with power by law to issue orders establishing minimum wage levels in individual industries or in special working groups. The question of wages is taken up first because it is of fun- damental importance. No welfare work can compensate for poor wages; no energy or good will on the part of the worker can produce efficient work unless she is enabled to live health- fully on her pay. The final measure of an industrial com- munity or system is the fairness with which it admits and fol- lows this principle. Hours. Next of importance comes the question of working hours. Shall the employer be allowed to "scrap*' employes thru over- work? If not, where shall the time limit be placed? 22 Labor says, 8 hours a day should be the limit of work. Capital would place no limit except that determined upon in individual shops. The employer insists that he can be trusted not to place hours at a length detrimental to health. And yet employers enforce long hours against their own health convictions. One said: "I know 10 hours a day is too long. No one, man or woman, ought to work over 8 hours. But what can I do? We are organized for profit, and I am working for profit." Several hundred women worked 10 hours a day for this man's profit, altho he frankly admitted the health of the workers would have been better served by an 8 hour day. In a discussion of hours there are two broad questions : What hours are so long as to be unduly fatiguing, and what effect will shorter hours have on industrial production? The 10 hour day is shown to be exceedingly fatiguing, so that a worker in some hours can produce less than two-thirds as much as in others. It is also shown that in the two instances where hours had been shortened and production records kept, the gross output was larger under the shortened hours than under the former long ones. This finding coincides with the conclusions reached in numerous other cases by other investigations. In fact, few employers care at present to work their women employes up to the maximum of hours, so that only one-third of firms and 40 per cent of employers are now working up to 60 hours weekly or 10 hours daily, while nearly half of Louisiana firms are now working the 8 hour day or the 48 hour week. The group of women working the longest hours has the poorest conditions in other respects. These are in general the poorly paid workers. A large proportion of them are working mothers. They are the people most in need of legal protection against overwork and underpay. All these considerations, as well as the progress which other states have made in limiting hours, lead to the recom- mendations of an 8, 'or at most a 9 hour day, to be established by law, with a weekly limit of 48, or at most 54. Such a regu- lation would merely bring all employers in Louisiana up to the present level of the most enlightened, and it would protect more fully the health and well-being of working women. 23 Welfare. Certain activities commonly classed as "welfare" should be included in every establishment where women are employed, and so may well be legally compulsory. The machinery for enforcing such regulations should be the State Department of Labor. Compulsory welfare provisions should include washing fa- cilities, toilet facilities, shop cleanliness, dressing rooms, ade- quate ventilation and light, drinking facilities, provision for rest at the noon hour, (advised) rest period in forenoon and afternoon, seats for all workers, and protective uniforms for dusty and dangerous work. Details of these will be found in the chapter on Welfare. In addition, a detailed welfare system is there described, for the benefit of employers who may wish to make this work a part of their shop system. Safety. Industrial accidents are alarmingly on the increase among Louisiana working women. The past year has seen three times as many accidents as took place five years ago, altho the num- ber of women employed has increased but 66 per cent. These accidents are permitted by the lack of safety regu- lation in the state. With the increase of Louisiana industry, it becomes essential that a carefully worked out safety code, applying to men's work as well as women's, be established, under the administration of the State Department of Labor. Analysis of accidents actually sustained shows that a large proportion of them are preventable under well-planned and well-enforced safety legislation. Turnover. The turnover, or annual shifting of labor, indicates the em- ploye's content or discontent in her job. This is not a question for legal action, but an indication by which employers may measure the attractiveness of their shops as seen thru the eyes of the worker. Labor shifting was first analyzed to determine its extent and distribution among various industries. Next it was at- 24 tempted to analyze reasons for leaving, as given to employers by girls leaving their jobs. Finally the reasons given by several thousand employes themselves were studied. It is recommended that employers study the causes of labor shifting with a view to removing remediable ones. Labor turnover is inevitably costly, and no industry can afford to ignore a high turnover. Shifting may be due in part to natural, or individual causes, but it can always be lessened by wise shop management. Special Groups. Two special groups were studied, — girls under 18 years of age, and the working mothers. Child labor legislation in Louisiana meets U. S. Government standards in all except one respect, — the number of hours of labor permitted. The U. S. Child Labor Law gives 8 hours per day as the maximum for boys and girls under 18 years of age, while Louisiana permits 10, or 60 weekly. The law in this state should be revised to conform to national standards. Wages for minor workers are very low. If all, or even a large proportion of minors were working for pin-money, this fact would not be open to criticism. But these minors are frequently forced into industry by low wages paid to other members of their families, and a large proportion of them must help support dependents on wages inadequate for themselves alone. This condition merely adds another argument to those already mentioned looking toward more adequate remunera- tion for the worker. The working mothers likewise form a group particularly in need of protection. These women are also forced into indus- try by financial lack, and are consequently even more depend- ent on their jobs than the average woman worker. They are found most in the least desirable industries, with the longest hours, lowest wages, and poorest working conditions. Altho practically all of them support or help support dependents, 15 per cent of all wages fall below a bare living minimum for an independent worker. These women form a powerful argument for general hour, wage, and welfare legislation. They likewise point to the ne- 25 eessity of a mothers pension law, a sample of which is given and discussed in the Special Groups chapter. The industrial progress which has been made urges that the surviving inequalities and injustices be done away with. The spirit of fairness and liberality, characteristic of the Louisiana business man gives hope that in the future, further necessary steps will be taken. 26 SECTION TWO. WAGES AND COST OF LIVING. I. Summary and Recommendations. The crux of the industrial problem is the question of wages. Other factors, such as hours, sanitation, welfare activities, and so forth, enter in as important issues, but in the final anal- ysis the question of wages must be given place as of first importance. If an employer is willing to pay liberal wages, other good conditions are apt to follow as a matter of course. Some employers seek, by giving good conditions in every other regard, to compensate for paying wages below a fair level. While such advantages do operate to modify the results of underpay, still they cannot avail to set the balance even. This survey has attempted to define a living wage with due regard to the financial burden upon the average employe, and in the light of that definition to evaluate the adequacy of wages at present paid. The facts supporting the survey's conclusions will be de- tailed in succeeding sections. In this section will be given a digest of facts on wages, and the conclusions arising from such facts. 1. The average employe is self-supporting or contributing to the support of others. Wages must therefore be based, not on the "home girl," but on the complete living needs of an independent worker. 2. A minimum amount to cover the bare necessities of life is $6 weekly. 3. If any expenditure for recreation, sanitary surround- ings, illness, or the support of dependents, be included, the minimum level is $9. 4. Emploj-es' budgets show that the primary items of food and shelter use up practically all their incomes, leaving little or nothing for comforts or recreation. 5. Money wages for New Orleans working women have advanced 60 per cent in the past five years, and real wages, or purchasing power, have increased 20 per cent, making the working woman one-fifth better off than she was five years ago. 6. This advance has been due in the main to war condi- tions and so may not continue in a peace economy. 7. This advance has not been sufficient to raise all wages to a bare subsistence level. Twelve per cent of New Orleans workers, and 9 per cent in Louisiana outside of New Orleans, receive today less than $6 weekly. 8. Forty-eight per cent of women workers still receive less than a minimum comfort wage ($9 weekly). 9. The advance in wages has been uneven, showing up best in bag factories and the transportation industry, and least in laundries, department stores and miscellaneous manufacturing. (Only six industries included in this comparison.) 10. Laundries and miscellaneous manufacturing in New Orleans, and clothing manufacturing, hotels and laundries in the remainder of the state, show up as the low-wage industries. 11. In the miscellaneous manufacturing group the increase of wages has been so slight that real wages have actually fallen, and in laundries and department stores it has been barely suffi- cient to meet the cost of living. 12. "Wages in general are slightly lower in New Orleans than in the rest of Louisiana. 13. The lowest paid occupations, that of domestic and per- sonal service outside of homes (laundresses, maids, cleaners, etc.), includes an excessively large proportion of working mothers and long-hour workers. 14. The group of workers earning under $6 weekly, while including a large proportion of workers under 18 years of age, includes also many working mothers, many women with de- pendents, and many long-hour workers. Every one of these findings is of vital importance in draw- ing conclusions on the wage situation today for Louisiana working women. The fact that real wages have increased is most cheering. To make this increase continuous, general and evenly distributed, should be the aim of every social-minded person. For the increase which has taken place is not enough. It has not eliminated the payment of less than a subsistence wage. It has not relieved all, or even the great majority, of working 28 mothers. Far less has it brought all workers to a wage level which would enable them to live with a minimum of comfort. If industry could be counted upon to make for itself a 20 per cent increase in real wages every five years, little of the problem would remain for solution. Still, however, we should consider the individual industries where wages are no better, or actually poorer, than five years ago. A 100 per cent increase in one shop will not compensate for a 20 per cent decrease in another. Finally, the time for further progress is now. Industry has been awakened to the possibility of change. The slackening of the industrial machine has caused a drop in standards in some places. This drop is not necessary. Even should the cost of living fall radically, wages should be main- tained, in order that the fringe of workers on starvation pay may not suffer still further. The better wages are ordinarily well maintained, while change affects the wages already too low for healthful living. In view of these facts, it is well to suggest what can be done. Recommendations and conclusions (given in more de- tailed form on pages 56 to 65) are as follows: 1. The individual employer, when he sees the need of his workers, can do much by seeing to it that the wages he pays meet or exceed a comfort level. 2. An inevitable process, now not even begun, is the organ- ization and subsequent education of women under intelligent leadership, possibly not itself of the working class, to under- stand and cope with their living and work problem more effectively. 3. The flat minimum wage by act of legislature, while a simple solution, is open to question because of its unfairness to specific industries, its lack of flexibility and the difficulty of revision. 4. If any flat minimum wage is established, it should not be less than $9 weekly, to meet the dependency needs of the worker and to allow for expenses over the bare living needs. 5. Wages should be determined in accordance with the principle laid down by the Women in Industry Service of the U. S. Department of Labor: "The minimum wage rate should 29 cover the cost of living for dependents and not merely for the individual."* 6. It is recommended that there be established by law an industrial welfare commission, charged with the duty of estab- lishing standards for industries or occupations in wages, hours (under a legal maximum) and other working conditions. This commission would apply to women and minors, and would be compelled by law to study and weigh evidence before making decision. Such a commission should be small, most carefully selected, and well supplied with public interest and support. Commis- sions of this character are already operative in a number of states, and the California law creating an industrial welfare commission, together with a sample order by such a commission regulating wages and hours, is quoted at the close of this section. As no commission can be stronger than its personnel, its support and its assistants, it is essential that the commission be formed of public-minded individuals, and that its executive secretary be the best trained and best fitted person possible to secure. This means an adequate appropriation and a continued interest on the part of sponsors of such a plan to see that its working out is worthy of its possibilities. There can be no complete and final solution for the wage problem. It, like most other industrial questions, is a matter of education of employer, employe and public opinion, and the creation of machinery whereby society may solve current phases of the problem as these may require action. *"Standard Governing Employment of Women in Industry," issued by the Women in Industry Service. U. S. Department of Labor, Dec. 12, 1918. 30 WAGES AND COST OF LIVING. H. The Standard Employe. It makes a great difference in evaluating wages what type of worker is regarded as the standard or average. Department store wage scales, for example, have always been justified on the basis that the workers were living at home, and so were not in actual need of the wage paid. Some stores have even given preference to the "home girl" for this reason. It must be determined to what extent this contention is true. We must find whether the average woman worker is sup- ported, self-supporting, or actually supporting herself and de- pendents. Is it unnecessary to pay women on the same basis as men, that of complete self-support? Do women workers live at home, and if so, does this mean an ordinary home in which the father is chief wage-earner, or a home, perhaps fatherless, in which the burden of support is borne by the women mem- bers? Women Are Chief Wage-Earners. Facts were gathered from 5,202 employed women, 4,366 in New Orleans and 836 in Louisiana outside New Orleans. These women gave information on whether they live at home or not. If not, the answer "boarding" was made. If the employe lived at home, title of the chief wage-earner was ascertained, whether ' ' father, " " brother, " " husband, " " mother/ ' ' ' self, ' ' etc. . Table Showing Chief Wage-Earner in Families of Working Women — Louisiana, 1919. Louisiana Outside Total Interviewed. New Orleans. New Orleans. Total 5,202 4,366 836 Number. Per Cent. Number. Per Cent. Number. Per Cent. Boarding 117 2 117 2 "Self" 2,357 45 1,838 42 519 62 "Mother" 251 5 225 5 26 3 "Sister" 221 4 216 5 5 1 "Father" 1,538 30 1,333 30 205 24 "Brother" 310 6 301 7 9 1 "Husband" 228 4 162 4 66 8 Other Relatives 172 3 166 4 6 1 Others 8 1 8 1 Only a negligible proportion of employed women in Louisi- ana are independent in the sense of living away from home or 31 immediate relatives. Yet of those living at home, only 30 per cent report "father" as the greatest wage earner, while 2,357, or 45 per cent, report "self." In fact, if a combination be made of the heads ("boarding," "mother," "self" and "sister") which show clearly that a woman is the chief wage-earner, they amount to 2,946, or 57 per cent. This means that in the clear majority of cases where she works at all, the working woman is the chief wage-earner for her family. The woman in industry in Louisiana outside New Orleans is even more often the chief earner of her family than is the case within the city (58 per cent for New Orleans, 66 per cent for the remainder of Louisiana). This is naturally to be ex- pected, since women in smaller cities are less apt to work out- side the home unless under the pressure of necessity. Industries Compared. How does the home status of the woman wage-earner vary with industries? Is it true that the department store girl is the home girl, needing little or none of her wage for subsist- ence? "What is the case in laundries, hotels, cotton mills? Table Showing Women as Chief Wage-Earners. Louisiana, 1919. Proportion of Cases Number Where Woman Is INDUSTRY. Interviewed. Chief Wage-Earner. Total 5,202 56% Bag Manufacturing 140 66% Banks and Agencies 162 51% Can Manufacturing 114 38% Candy Manufacturing 195 37% Cigars and Tobacco - 495 53% Clothing Manufacturing 227 58% Cotton Mills 299 64% fDomestic and Personal Service, Miscellaneous 24 88% Dry Goods 1,002 51% Food Manufacturing 498 60% Hotels 406 75% Laundries 439 75% Manufacturing and Mechanical, Miscellaneous 276 54% *Mines 20 55% Printing and Publishing 65 38% Professional Service 68 35% Restaurants 125 68% Trade, Miscellaneous 271 55% Transportation 376 44% tOutside of homes. *Clerical and restaurant work. 32 This table presents some very interesting facts. Industries where the highest proportion of self-supporting women are found are the "domestic and personal service'' industries, such as hotels, laundries, restaurants, cleaning and dyeing, and other miscellaneous establishments of this character. The department stores, which have been regarded as par- ticularly attractive to the home girl, have a fairly high propor- tion of self-supporting women, considerably higher than the can and candy manufacturies, the printing and publishing, or the professional service, which last includes offices of doctors, lawyers, photographers and the like. The telegraph and telephone industries (here grouped as "transportation," following the U. S. Census classification) seem fairly attractive to the girl in whose home income from women's labor does not form the chief source of support. In general, however, it is seen that 56 per cent of women workers are not at all in the pin-money class, but that their income is the chief source of family revenue. In the other 44 per cent of cases are to be found the workers who seek money for "extras" rather than necessities, as well as those who are self-supporting even to the extent of paying the family for room and board, altho the father, brother or other male mem- ber of the family is earning a higher wage. Dependency. The foregoing study to determine the home status of the employed woman does not completely cover the problem. For example, a girl and her brother may entirely support a family of six. The brother earns the larger wage, but the woman's earnings are none the less essential to the family maintenance. It is necessary to discover what proportion of employes have to carry a burden greater than that of their own support. The woman worker has frequently been regarded as free from the dependency problem which confronts the man worker. It is interesting to find how far this theory is based on fact. In 2,593 cases, or almost precisely half the total number studied, the working woman must not only support herself, but support, entirely or partially, dependents within her family. The extent of this dependency varies. One girl may be a member of a family of five, of which three are working to meet 33 the general family expenses. Another woman may be a widow, attempting on a wage of $8 weekly to support four small chil- dren. In such an instance, if the worker's pride prevents her from appealing to charity, her situation is indeed difficult. She is practically forced to place some of the children in an asylum, paying a small sum per month for their board. The others she places in a day nursery, and with what remains of her wage she struggles to pay for living quarters, food and other neces- sary expenses. Such cases as this are not infrequent. Survey workers discovered a number of women whose burden of de- pendency was equal to or oven greater than that just described. The woman who is the sole support of her family is not the average, and so will not serve as a standard for determining a subsistence wage. But neither will the girl who works for pin- money. Half the working women in Louisiana support or help support dependents. At least another 25 per cent support themselves entirely. Not more than one out of five working women in this city or state fits the "pin-money" theory. In fact, it is hard to see how any such idea could have been developed by people intimately acquainted with industrial con- ditions. The average job is not so well-paid, nor the average worker so energetic, that she will work for unnecessary income. The typical working woman is self-supporting. In a major- ity of cases she is the chief wage-earner of her family. In half the cases she must contribute to their support. Wages must be based on the complete living needs of a self-supporting worker. 34 WAGES AND COST OF LIVING. III. What Is a Living Wage? A "common-sense" definition was given the survey by an employer, who said a living wage was whatever an employe would work for. On that same morning two men had sought employment in his plant, men who had been earning 75 cents an hour (about $45 for a full week) at the shipyard. They offered to work at any wage he chose to fix — 20 cents an hour if necessary. They must have work. This hour wage would have brought them $18 per week, or less than the standard fixed for family sub- sistence by New Orleans charities. The employer gave them work at his own standard rates, considerably more than their demand. This same employer has highly paid assistants, who demand and receive far more than sufficient for the bare necessities of living. It is fairly clear that in these instances the employes' wage requirements do not coincide with their subsistence necessities. Department store managers, like managers of factories, work in the darkness of ignorance of actual conditions, or at least in the dusk of conjecture and speculation. They believe that most of their employes are partially supported at home. They guess that a girl can live healthfully and do good work on what they are willing to pay. And their idea of a living wage is the lowest amount for which the worker will sell her services. Another employer took a different view of wages. "We want the best help, not the leavings and sweepings of the labor market," he said. "We don't know what a bare living wage is, but we know that our girls are every one of them earning far above it. And we know that it pays us to set good stan- dards in wages, hours and other conditions. We get the pick of workers. We never need to advertise for help. Our girls can and do produce enough to earn the higher rates we pay, and we save on overhead expenses." 35 The view of a living wage as determined by the demand of the worker of course contains a practical truth. The working woman does to a certain extent control wages thru her de- mand for more pay. In communities where wage standards are good, new establishments must pay standard rates, and in gen- eral production costs do not suffer. When labor is scarce in communities with low wage standards, the individual employe may and often does do much to raise her own standard of living. In practice it is difficult to define or establish a standard subsistence wage. Hours vary, the difficulty of the work varies — tho it is generally true that these vary directly with pay, so that the long-hour, hard-labor industries are the low-wage ones, while shops where the work and hours are light have good wage scales. Then also the ability of the employe to "manage" her financial affairs is exceedingly uneven. One woman may support life on half what another requires for bare necessities. A girl who is not capable of careful planning may suffer extreme hardship on a wage that her more intelligent neighbor finds sufficient. The burden on the employe varies from the widow with four or five small children to the daugh- ter of the family who works for money, for clothes, and "good times," altho this type of worker, as has been shown, is far less common than is often supposed. The girl living at home, even tho paying her full share of family expenses, can usually exist on less pay than the "in- dependent" worker. Charity helps out where need is dire, and endowed institutions, such as the Catherine Club, are formed to enable the employe to live for less than the market rates for board and room. It has been claimed that charitable and semi-charitable institutions are in essence subsidies, not to the worker, but to the employer, to relieve him of the necessity of paying higher wages. His wage scale is at a certain standard. Some, per- haps most, of his emploj^es exist in fairly good conditions. Others, with a greater subsistence burden, or with lower wages, would normally fall by the wayside. So institutions are en- dowed and maintained, boarding homes, nurseries, asylums, etc., which assist workers who could not otherwise exist on their wages. 36 It should be added that such a view has reference purely to the financial side of the service rendered by such organiza- tions, and not to the features of diversion, supervised compan- ionship, sanitation, good care, etc., which could be offered inde- pendently of lowered cost. Viewed from this light, these aids become the employer's return to the more burdened workers in lieu of increased pay. •Of course the connection is not direct, but most devious. And unhappily such aid often does not locate its most needy candi- dates. A club like the Catherine Club reaches the self-support- ing, independent group of employes. Few institutions reach the "home women," struggling to support dependents. Subsistence and Comfort. Two levels are usually indicated in budget studies — sub- sistence and minimum comfort. The first is regarded as the bare minimum at which life can be maintained at working effi- ciency. The second contemplates some variation in diet, some provision for sickness or accident, some expenditures for re- creation, some clothing for leisure activities as well as business. If any of these items are included in expenditures from a sub- sistence budget, it is at the cost of some of the necessities, and means that these fall below a health standard. Shall we figure on a minimum subsistence or a minimum comfort level? Is it fair to allow the worker to spend for amusements, to save a little, to provide for her own possible illness? An approximation of both standards is attempted in this section. In a subsequent section it will be discovered what proportion of wages at present paid are below a subsistence level or a minimum comfort level. Present Subsistence Standards. In attempting to determine a living wage for women in industry, two methods were used. The first was an analysis of standards already in use by charitable organizations, gov- ernment investigations and the like. The second was an analy- sis of workers' budgets to find what the average worker must actually pay for her various needs. 448988 The unit for all budget work is the standard family, con- sisting of husband, wife and three children. Variations from this standard are made in accordance with a scale referring living needs of women and children to those of the adult man. A woman, for example, is said to require nine-tenths as much as an adult man; a child, 11 to 14 years old, nine-tenths; a child, 7 to 10, 75 per cent; and so on. (Scale adopted by U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.) A study made in New Orleans in January, 1918, by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics found the cost of various items of living for the adult man, to be per week : Food $2.80 Light and fuel 45 Miscellaneous .„ 1.00 Clothing _ 1.00 $5.25 This budget excludes rent. If we give rent its average pro- portion in the budget (*17.65 per cent), we secure a total esti- mated expense per week of: Food $2.80 Light and fuel 45 Miscellaneous 1.00 Clothing _ 1.00 Kent _ — 1.13 $6.38 Nine-tenths of this sum will figure, for a woman, at a living expense per week of $5.74 in January, 1918. Of course this is an estimate for bare subsistence. Room at $1 per week, food at less than 40 cents daily, do not mean any luxuries. The miscellaneous item, about 13 cents a day, would barely cover car fare. A pair of shoes would use the entire clothing appropriation for several weeks. Moreover, we must remember that prices have risen since January, 1918, so that this budget would certainly not cover the living needs of a worker today. *P. 4. "Wartime Chances in the Cost of Living." National Industrial Conference Board, August, 1918. 38 Charity Standards. Two charitable organizations in New Orleans have worked out subsistence standards for the family of five, and for a widow with children. These standards are used in determining the need for charity assistance. One of these organizations stated that before the war its family standard was $16 per week, and that the war has raised this 40 per cent, making a present standard of $21 weekly. Families whose income fell below this standard were regarded as in need of assistance. The other organization had a higher standard — $22.50 weekly for a family of five. Both charities are concerned prac- tically exclusively with relief for white families, and as the proportion of colored women in industry is very small, are of direct bearing on the problem of establishing a subsistence standard. The two charities had the same standard for a widow with children. The minimum subsistence income for a mother and four dependent children was stated by both as $16 weekly. The "independent" working woman is seldom a candidate for charity, but both organizations concern themselves with securing jobs for working women, and both do some relief work where it may be necessary. The first organization reported $6 weekly as, in its opinion, the minimum subsistence wage for an independent working woman. The second reported $40 month- ly, or slightly over $9 per week, as the lowest wage on which a New Orleans working woman could live decently and health- fully. This would fit the following budget : Rent and 2 meals $20.00 Lunches 4.00 Carfare 3 .00 Clothing, doctor, incidentals 13.00 $40.00 Or, per week : Rent and 2 meals $4.62 Lunches 89 Carfare 72 Clothing, etc „ 3.00 $9.23 39 A comparison of weekly subsistence budgets, then, for the two charities and for the governmental bureau investigation is as follows : U. S. Bureau Labor Statistics, January, 1918. Charity A. Charity B. Standard Family, per week $21.00 $22.50 Widow, 4 Children 16.00 16.00 Independent Working Woman $5.74 6.00 9.23 There can be no question but that Charity A, like the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, adopted a bare subsistence as its standard, while Charity B adopted a minimum comfort level in allowing perhaps $1.50 weekly for rent, 50 cents daily for food and $13 monthly for clothing, recreation, illness and all the minor necessities to a fairly comfortable existence. Such an allowance does not seem unreasonable. No one would deny that if conditions in industry made it possible, it should be given. Living Wage Defined. A living wage, then, may be defined as $6 weekly. A mini- mum comfort wage is $9 per week. To check these standards it is necessary to analyze actual expenditure of workers themselves. A total of 692 budgets were studied, 544 from New Orleans and 148 from the remain- der of Louisiana. What Workers Spend. In the general field study, facts were gathered from em- ployes to show what they were compelled to pay for board, rent, clothes, etc., per month. Many women had almost no idea of "where the money goes." To several the idea of keeping track was a valuable suggestion, as it meant for them the pos- sibility of more careful planning to eke out meager funds. Many budgets were in some degree estimates, but in the major items of rent and food, at least, accuracy was possible. About one worker out of three turns over her entire earn- ings to her mother or some other member of the family, from whom she receives in return money for carfare, lunches and so forth. In many of these instances the wage is so meager that it could not cover living expenses at market rates; in other 40 instances the girl's contribution is a real help to the family finances. Where workers turned over their entire wages to the home- keeper no budget records could be taken. It was possible, however, to analyze 181 budgets where workers received par- tial support from their families and 511 where workers were entirely self-supporting. No budget from an income over $15 weekly was used. Other Sources of Income. In many -instances a girl would report expenditures total- ling 50 or 100 per cent more than her wage. When questioned she would smile and shrug her shoulders, or frankly admit that she could not live on her pay. In view of the impossibility of determining finally the pres- ence and extent of outside earnings of this character, no bud- gets were analyzed where expenditures clearly exceeded the possible shop income. It was inevitable that some such bud- gets, where outside earnings were small, should have entered the study. This probably explains part of the cases where little or nothing is reported to be spent for dress, as well as some of the budgets of women said to be receiving partial support. Rent. Expenditure for shelter is the most standardized feature of the average budget. It is easily possible for a girl to tell what she pays for room rent, when often she herself has small notion of the cost of food, clothing, or recreation in her budget. Roughly in two-thirds of instances rent and food were re- ported as a lump sum. These estimates will be considered in a separate section. They are nearly always lower than where food and rent are divided from each other in budgets. The New Orleans woman who is entirely supporting herself pays an average of $7.70 for rent each month. This is about $1.85 per week, or much more than she would be allowed under the subsistence wage of Charity A (see foregoing section). That the worker must meet this expense at a higher rate than a "living wage" would warrant, indicates that sanitation and decency cannot well be secured for a lower sum. 41 The separate rent figure is frequently for an entire family. "Working mothers themselves carry the rent expense. Older women supporting sisters or other relatives keep up the home financially. The worker who is partially supported seldom pays rent. When she does the average figure is lower — $5 monthly, or $1.10 weekly. The worker in Louisiana outside New Orleans, too, has a slightly easier rent problem. Her rent figures at an average of $7.42 monthly, or about 10 cents weekly less than the New Orleans woman. For New Orleans self-supporting workers an average of $20.44 is paid each month for food. This is equal to about 68 cents a day, or well above what the wage levels given by the charities would make possible. The size of this figure, which is practically the same for New Orleans and the remainder of Louisiana, is due to the fact that the women paying separately for food and rent are in most instances the heads of families, and as such must devote a larger proportion of their pay to the primary necessities of food and shelter. In many cases these women report no expenditures what- ever for clothes. They collect cast-offs, or make clothes from any available remnant of goods, old or new. Sometimes these people make clothing out of bags or other goods begged from the shop. Here is a budget for a widow working in a cotton mill, earning $8 weekly. Rent _ $ 4.00 Food 16.00 Fuel and Light 3.00 Insurance _ 1.00 Care 2 children in asylum 4.00 Day nursery for 2 children 5.00 $33.00 Instances of such privation as this are, happily, rare. Workers who are partially supported at home seldom pay any- thing for food. When they do, the average is about $9 monthly. 42 Rent and Food. Roughly two-thirds of working women pay for food and rent in a lump sum. This includes mainly women who are the chief earners in their families, and who turn over a lump sum to the administrator of the family budget. The average spent in this way is, for New Orleans, $20.90. Women who are par- tially supported spend, if anything, from $12 to $15 monthly on these items. As rent and food are the major items in the budget, it is advisable to correlate the facts concerning them at this point. 1. Rent and food form 60 per cent of the average budget. In the budget of the Louisiana working girl they take up 70 per cent. This means simply that, to meet the primary neces- sities, the items of clothing, medical care, savings, recreation, etc., are slighted or omitted altogether. 2. Taking into consideration the many budgets in which food and rent are undivided, we may indicate $9 monthly for rent and $16 for food as the average which the self-supporting woman worker must pay. 3. It is notable that this is almost exactly the estimate given by Charity B for the cost to women of board and rent per month. 4. On a $6 weekly, or bare subsistence wage, this expendi- ture would take up 85 per cent of the total income ,leaving but $4 monthly for all other items. 5. There is some variation between industries in this re- spect. The department store sales girl, for example, spends more for rent each month and less for food, than the average. But, on the other hand, her work is less physically fatiguing and so requires less food. Moreover several of the larger stores have low-price lunch-rooms where she can get good food at low cost. An average expenditure for food of 50 cents per day, however, undoubtedly means undernourishment for thost- spending less than the average. 6. Telephone operators and bank clerks show the highest standard of living, while at the other extreme are found work- ers in candy and food manufacturing, "cash girls'' and other clerical workers in department stores, and laundry employes. 43 All these report expenditures falling below a normal average for healthful living. 7. If these budgets be compared with standards in North- ern states they will be found inadequate to cover the bare cost of living. This, however, has not been attempted in this report for the reason that the slightly lowered costs and radically lower living standards which are found among the laboring class in the South make a direct comparison valueless. It is more fruitful to compare budgets with charity and scientific standards which have been established for this specific locality. Clothing. About one-fifth of Louisiana women in industry report no part of their wage as spent on clothes. Part of these undoubt- edly belong to the class receiving outside earnings, as men- tioned above. Part belong to the very most destitute and burdened group of all, the workers in laundries and some fac- tories, the widows and other working mothers. For the rest the average spent is $6.80 for New Orleans and $7.68 for the rest of the state. Women receiving partial sup- port spend more. In these cases clothing often takes $13 or more of the monthly income. Probably a fair average for the state as a whole, taking into account those reporting no expenditures for this purpose, would be $7 monthly. Carfare and Incidentals. Carfare expense is found in about one-half of all of New Orleans budgets studied. This amounts to from $3 to $4 monthly. An average is $3.55. Next to carfare, the expense most commonly found is insur- ance, which is an item in about one-third of the budgets studied. This expense amounts to an average of $1.47 monthly for those carrying it. Curiously enough, it seems to be most frequently found in the lowest group of incomes, and here it means with- out question a real deprivation on the part of the worker. This insurance is membership in the "associations," so popular among colored workers of both sexes, and here shown to be popular among white workers as well. As indication of some degree of providence, it is commendable. As a means of 44 shrinking an already starved income, expenditure for insur- ance becomes of questionable advantage. About three-tenths of employes report something spent for "incidentals," including doctors' bills, washing, toilet necessi- ties, etc., etc. As might be expected, this item looms largest in the expenditures of partially supported workers, and of tele- phone operators, sales girls, and others of the higher class of workers ; it averages about $6 monthly. One worker out of four saves, and these savings were re- ported in the great majority of cases as payments for Liberty Bonds, War Savings Stamps, and Christmas savings clubs. Here again the expenditure of money for savings often means a direct deprivation of necessities, unless the worker disposes of her securities at a loss almost before she has paid for them fully. About one-third of partially supported workers save, and their average saving is $4.96 monthly, as against $3.30 for the self-supporting group. "Church and charity" is a more frequent source of expense than recreation. Three women out of 20 spend an average of $1.11 monthly on the former, and while only one woman out of 10 gives recreation any place in the budget, and then the average reported is only $1.66, or about 40 cents per week. Partially supported women are able to spend more frequently and abundantly for these two items. They report $1.28 (aver- age) for church and charity and $2.23 for recreation, and in this case about one-third of all workers report such expen- ditures. Other expense, such as "light and fuel," is reported but very seldom in any group. The average wage income is about $30 monthly, or about $7 weekly. For self-supporting women in Louisiana outside New Orleans it is slightly higher. From these figures it is possible to make up average budgets for working women, as follows : 45 Average Budgets, from Analysis of 692 Records of Actual Expenditures — Louisiana, 1919. Self-Supporting. Partially Supported. New Louisiana New Louisiana Orleans. Outside N. O. Orleans. Outside N. O. Rent $ 6.00 $ 6.00 $ 3.00 $ 3.00 Food 16.00 16.90 12.00 9.00 Clothing 5.10 7.00 9.00 12.00 All Other 2.30 4.45 6.00 5.00 Total $29.40 $34.35 $30.00 $29.00 It will be. noted these figures are higher than those permis- sible under the minimum subsistence level of $6 weekly, and lower than those possible under a $9 weekly minimum comfort wage. But it must be remembered that about half of all ex- penditures fall below this average, and that a large number of budgets show graphically how girls "get along" on less than a bare living wage. Under these budgets, the worker may spend but $1 a day for all the necessities of life. About 55 cents of this dollar goes for food, 20 cents for rent, 15 cents for clothing, and 10 cents for all other necessities. Conditions might be called commendable if the average budget were the minimum budget. But for every woman whose expenditures meet or exceed the above standard there is an- other whose expenditures fall below. In the next section will be shown what wages are actually paid and what proportion of workers fall below a minimum wage of $6, or a minimum comfort wage of $9 weekly. 46 WAGES AND COST OF LIVING. IV. Wages Actually Paid. In 1914 a wage study was made in New Orleans by the Con- sumer's League. This study analyzed wages actually being paid in a number of New Orleans industries. It did not figure dependency conditions or the cost of living, and so has not been of service in making comparisons in foregoing sections of this chapter. Thru the data on actual wages gathered by the 1914 study it is possible to determine how much women's wages have advanced in the past five years. We know that the cost of living has risen approximately 50 per cent in this period.* Have wages risen less, as much, or more? In all analysis of wages four groups were used — wages under $6 weekly, $6 and under $11, $11 and under $16, and $16 and over. Median wages were also calculated to show the "half-way point" in wages, or the point at which half employes are receiving more and half less than a standard. A few employers refused to give out wage information. All wages as stated by employers were checked by the statement of employes, except in a few shops where employe data was not secured. Real Wages 20 Per Cent Higher. Whereas in 1914, 56 per cent of all women employed were receiving under $6 weekly, in 1919 only 12 per cent are receiv- ing under $6. Whereas in 1914 only 8 per cent of employes (about 1 out of 12) received $11 or more, in 1919, 34 per cent (or 1 out of 3) received this amount or more. The median wage in 1914 was $5. In 1919 it is $9, or 80 per cent higher. The cost of living in this period has risen about 50 per cent. Had wages risen just enough to meet increased costs the median *National Industrial Conference Board Report No. 9 says 52.3 per cent. Charity A says 40 per cent. Charity B says 50 per cent. U. S. Labor Bureau of Labor Sta- tistics (index numbers) indicate 50 per cent. The figure which has been adopted is 50 per cent.. 47 today would be $7.50. The difference between $7.50 and $9, or the figure to which the median has actually risen, is 20 per cent. It may therefore be said that a 20 per cent gain in real wages has been made ; that the woman employed to-day is one- fifth better off than she was in 1914. The following table presents the facts as found : Scale of Wages for Women, From Employers' Records, 1914 and 1919. Louisiana New Orleans, New Orleans, Outside N. O., 1914. 1919. 1919. No. Per Cent. No. Per Cent. No. Per Cent. Total Workers Analyzed 5,365 100 10.556 100 1,755 100 No. Rec'g Under $6 Weekly 3,023 56 1,303 12 162 9 No. Rec'g $6 and Under $11 1,925 36 5,634 54 856 49 No. Rec'g $11 and Under $16 304 6 2,664 25 451 26 No. Rec'g $16 and Over 113 2 955 9 286 16 Median Wage $5 $9 $10 The progress revealed by these findings cannot be too highly commended. It is true that the employer has ordinarily been forced to increased wages by the scarcity of labor. Also, his profits have ordinarily more than compensated for an in- creased labor cost. Nevertheless, all credit must be given to emplo3 r ers who have had vision and fairness sufficient to raise wages even beyond the minimum demands of the worker. Thruout the country the rise in wages has been often more specious than actual. New industries have paid at very high rates, and on the close of the war such industries have gone out of existence, leaving women workers in general very little better off than before. But in New Orleans no strictly war industries have been developed. The increase in wages has been fairly steady. It is a credit to New Orleans and Louisiana employers that a real advance in the direction of living wages has been made. The war, however, has been a period of fluctuation, in which changes could be made more rapidly than formerly. It is pos- sible that the next five years will not see as great an increase in real wages, so that eventually more wages will fall below a subsistence level. Means of precluding this possibility should be taken. 48 New Orleans and the Rest of the State. A surprising fact is that wages of women in Louisiana out- side of New Orleans are on the average higher than those within New Orleans. This finding was contrary. to all expectations, as the cost of living tends to be lower in smaller cities and villages, and wages are ordinarily found correspondingly low. One explanation of this fact is that women thruout the state are found more frequently in banks and offices, where their work requires a good degree of training and education. Another possible explanation is found if, as is often asserted, the cost of living in certain of the smaller cities of Louisiana is actually higher than that of New Orleans. Whatever the explanation, it is a significant fact that em- ployers in the smaller communities of the state are finding it possible to pay wages in excess of those paid in the larger city. Wages by Industries. An analysis of median wages, and per cent receiving under $6 weekly, was made for various industries, to see where most progress had been made, and in what industries conditions were above or below normal. The 1914 study included as separate industries only bag factories, department stores, cigar and tobacco factories, laun- dries, and telephone exchanges. A complete comparison can- not therefore be made. 49 Comparison of Wages by Industries — Louisiana, 1919. (For explanation of heads see introduction.) Per Cent Receiving Less Than $6 Weekly. Median Wage- Louisiana Louisiana New New Outside New New Outside Orleans, Orleans, N. O., Orleans, Orleans, N. O., INDUSTRY. 1914. 1919. 1919. 1914. 1919. 1919. Total 56% 12% 9% $5 $9 $10 Bag Manufacturing 77% 1% 4 10 Banks and Agencies 2% 5% .... 12 18 Can Manufacturing 0% .... 9 Candy Manufacturing 26% .... 7 Cigars and Tobacco 52% 11% 5 10 Clothing Manufacturing 12% 53% .... 8 5 Cotton Mills 1% .... 10 fDomestics and Personal Service 0% .... 10 Dry Goods 52% 14% 7% 5 8 10 Food Manufacturing 15% 2% .... 7 10 Hotels 16% 30% .... 7 6 Laundries 81% 38% 13% 4 6 6 Manufacturing and Mechanical, Miscellaneous 61% 27% 1% 5 6 12 *Mine 0% .... .... 9 Printing and Publishing 13% .... 12 Professional Service 10% 9% .... 9 7 Restaurants 6% 5% .... 9 10 Trade, Miscellaneous 0% 7% .... 10 12 Transportation 26% 0% 1% 8 13 11 tOutside of homes. *Clerical and restaurant work. Four industries in New Orleans, and one in the rest of Louisiana, are listed as having no employes receiving less than $6 per week. These are can manufacturing, miscellaneous do- mestic and personal service (outside of homes), printing and publishing, and transportation, and for the state outside New Orleans, clerical and domestic service work in the single sulphur mine which was inspected. Three industries in New Orleans and two outside have over one-fourth of employes earning less than $6 weekly. These are (New Orleans) candy factories, miscellaneous manufactures, and laundries; and (Louisiana outside New Orleans) clothing manufactures, and hotels. Bag manufactories, banks and agencies, cotton mills, and "miscellaneous trade," including drug stores, florists, grocer- ies, etc., stand high in having a small proportion of extremely low-paid wage-earners. Industries which fall below standard 50 are clothing manufacturing, department stores, food manufac- turing (including biscuit firms, nut pickeries, coffee, tea and spice manufacture, etc.), hotels, and "professional service'' (doctors, lawyers, theaters, photographers, etc.) Roughly, the low-paid industries of five years ago are the lowest paid now. The laundries remain the worst offenders. The bag factories, formerly below average, are now above. The department stores are slightly better than average. The tele- phone exchanges, which were the best group studied in 1914, are at the head today. Median Wage Shows Variation. The median wage, which averages 80 per cent higher today than in 1914, shows considerable fluctuations between indus- tries, from the laundries and miscellaneous manufacturing pay- ing a median wage of $6 weekly, to the telephone companies paying $13, or over twice as much. Outside New Orleans the clothing industry holds last place, and banks and agencies the first. It will be noted that the increase in laundry median wage (50 per cent) has been barely sufficient to cover the increase in cost of living. In miscellaneous manufacturing it has been but 20 per cent. This means that there has actually been a decrease in real wages since 1914 in these establishments. The largest increase in real wages is found in the bag fac- tories, with a total increase of 150 per cent, or in real wages of 66 per cent. Outside of New Orleans the clothing, hotels and laundries pay poorly. A summary table shows the industries compared to one another and to conditions five years ago : 51 Summary Table — Wages by Industries. LOUISIANA OUTSIDE NEW ORLEANS. NEW ORLEANS. Bag Manufacturing Great increase since 1914. Slightly above average at present. Banks and Agencies Always above average Very well paid. Can Manufacturing Minimum wage higher than average. Average in median wage paid. Candy Manufacturing Low wages - -, Cigars and Tobacco Average 5 years ago; now well above average ; wages doubled in 5 years. Clothing Manufacturing Above average or slightly Very low wages. below. Cotton Mills Comparatively high wages fDomestic and Personal Comparatively high wages Service. Dry Goods Increase in 5 years only Wages are average to fair. barely sufficient to meet cost of living. Wages below average. Food Manufacturing Low wages Fairlv good wages. Hotels Low wages Much below average in wages paid. Laundries Very low wages. Small Very low wages. increase in 5 years. Manufacturing and Me- Very low; decrease in real Good wages; above average, chanical, Miscellaneous. wages since 1914. *Mine Wages slightly below a vera get Printing and Publishing! High wages: well above average. Professional Service Slightly below average Slightly below average. Restaurants Average or slightly above. ...Slightly above average. Trade, Miscellaneous Well above average Well above average. Transportation Increase in 5 years not high, but wages always above average. tOutside of homes. *Clerical and restaurant work. JFood free, so that real wages are average or above. As is indicated in the introduction, these findings do not include every establishment in a given industry. It is felt, however, that the showing in each group is representative. The introduction gives figures to show what proportion of employes are included in this study. Wages by Occupations. Within a given establishment there may be workers in any sort of occupation. A department store, for example, contains manufacturers, or trimmers of hats ; transportation clerks, or telephone and telegraph operators ; trades people, or sales girls ; 52 professionals, such as nurses, accountants, etc. ; domestic and personal servants, cleaners, cooks and waitresses (outside of homes) ; and clerical workers in office and cash girls. An industry includes all occupations which may be found within it. But the clerical workers, the operators, and the cleaning women are ordinarily paid on entirely different scales. Workers have therefore been regrouped according to occupa- tions, to see how occupations compare in remuneration : Comparison of Wages by Occupations — Louisiana, 1919. Per Cent Receiving Under $6 Weekly. Median Wage Louisiana Louisiana New Orleans. Outside N. O. New Orleans. Outside N. O. Total 12% 5% $9 $10 Manufacturing and Mech'cal.. 11% 2% 8 10 Transportation 1% 7% 12 13 Trade 9% 10% 8 10 Professional Service 12% 24% 10 7 Domestic and Personal Service 24% 7% 7 6 Clerical 10% 11% 11 15 The clerical workers and the telephone and telegraph opera- tors stand at the top of the list, with median wages of $11 and $12 respectively ($13 and $15 in Louisiana outside of New Orleans). Next, for New Orleans, comes the professional serv- ice, with a median wage slightly above average. Here, as in specific industries, it is seen that the forms of work most allied to housework are the poorest paid. With the exception of waitresses receiving tips, these people are under- paid to the extent that one-fourth of them receive actually less than a bare living wage. Yet this occupation contains also the greatest proportion of working mothers (29 per cent; average for all groups, 14 per cent) ; its members carry the burden of dependents to a degree higher than that in other groups, and the hours are notably longer for "domestic and personal service" workers, so that in fact most of the working weeks of an undue length fall within this group. Here, as in so many other instances, we see that the workers who have the heaviest burden in one thing are in the worst position in all other respects. The workers in the poorest paid occupations suffer also under most overwork and the greatest burden of motherhood and dependency. It is a fact that about half of these low-wage workers are colored, and so subject to lower standards and poorer condi- 53 tions than the average white worker. But apart from the ques- tion of justice to workers of whatever race, there is the ques- tion whether the white workers in this group should be made to meet the lower standards of colored labor. The Lowest Paid Workers. It has been seen that 1,303, or 12 per cent, of the New Orleans women workers from whom records were obtained are paid less than a subsistence wage, and nearly half (48 per cent) receive less than a minimum comfort income. It is interesting to note the conditions among employes receiving under $6 weekly. Are these the girls under 18 whose services are not "worth" any more to the employer? Are these the "home girls," receiving partial support from their families? Are these in the main short-hour workers, where type of employment compensates for poverty of pay ? Forty-one per cent of workers receiving under $6 per week are under 18 years old, where only 18 per cent of the total number of workers studied are under 18 years of age. The first two wage groups (under $6, $6 and under $11) account for 95 per cent of all workers of less than 18 years old. It is therefore plain that youth is a factor in swelling the ranks of those receiving less than sufficient for healthful sub- sistence. But what of the 59 per cent in this wage group who are over 18? There are estimated to be 780 workers among the 10,556 studied who are over 18 and who receive less than a living wage. Is it fair that these older women should not re- ceive sufficient for bare subsistence? In this group we find that 14 per cent are working mothers. Forty-three per cent are contributing to the support of, or actually supporting, dependents. One out of each three is the chief wage-earner in her family. And 23 per cent, or almost one out of four, work ten hours a day or longer. It is readily seen that the low-wage worker is not the child, is not exempt from the burden of dependency, long hours and other untoward conditions. In Louisiana outside of New Orleans, conditions in the group of workers receiving under $6 a week are even worse. Here 26 per cent are under 18 years old. Nineteen per cent are working mothers. Thirty-six per cent support, or help support, dependents; and 69 per cent work 10 hours a day. 54 WAGES AND COST OF LIVING. V. Remedies. The mere fact that more under-paid workers were found five years ago, while it excuses present conditions to some ex- tent, does not palliate or deny them. Progress has been made, under abnormal conditions of labor supply and production necessity. Now peace has come, with a plentitude of labor and a temporarily decreased demand for the products of industry, progress should not cease. The Employer's Side. There can be no doubt of the burden on the employer which a minimum wage of $9 weekly would impose. Many will say that their shops would be forced to close ; others, that prices to the public (as for dry goods, laundry service, etc.) would have to go up to impossible heights. A few employers do at present meet this standard. It is not generally recognized how many "minimum wages" are at pres- ent in use in New Orleans in individual shops. A girl going into the large cotton mill, candy or bag factories, is given a wage of from $1 to $1.75 daily in various shops, even tho she would earn far less than this at piece rates, even tho she is not "worth" that much to the employer. This is done largely because of the employer's desire to attract labor, but it also indicates his recognition of the fact that a starved girl cannot learn to become an efficient operative. It does not seem to interfere seriously with business economy. The employer, on the whole, will pay his workers what he has to pay. If the necessity rises he will pay more, and if this leads to bankruptcy or the reduction of profits he will suffer. But do increased wages in practice mean business priva- tions? In the state of "Washington a minimum wage of $13.20 weekly, for women over 18, has recently been fixed by the Industrial Welfare Commission. No harvest of business fail- ures has been reaped. And yet $13.20 weekly certainly means to Washington as much of a readjustment as $9 weekly would mean here. 55 The question of the effect on business of a general change in wages is a proper one. So is the question of a change in the economic status of the hundreds of inarticulate working moth- ers and widows who are to be found in our city and state. Business men have been making great profits out of the war. Working women have also profited in a higher standard of living. It would seem that the time to make further progress is the present, before inertia has slackened industrial progress. How Shall Wages Be Raised? There are in general three possible agencies for raising wages; the employer, the employe, and the public. The employer has an inevitable reluctance to raise wages. A very small individual increase means a very much larger production cost. Donations to charity appear in the lump. But wage increases are insidiously small individually and large collectively, and may lead the employe to make further, more exorbitant demands. Individual employers may do much. One of the pleasantest features of the present survey was its discovery of employers who were modern-minded, advanced, cognizant of the economic advantage of good conditions, even with regard to wages. But in many cases these employers were deterred by loyalty to their group, by fear of the future, by any of numerous consid- erations, from making a non-compulsory step in the direction of higher wages. The war wage advance has been forced by conditions, and enlightened employers have met it gladly. It is a fact that the enlightened employers are already pay- ing fair wages, while the others whose wage scales most need raising are the least modern-minded and progressive. Can the employe do more ? Much has been accomplished by the increase in individual demands for pay, or, perhaps more truly, by the scarcity of labor in shops where increased pay was not forthcoming. Yet on the return to "normal" labor conditions, of supply far exceeding the demand, the individual can do little. Organized labor is in a better position to make and enforce demands, just or unjust. But women in New Orleans are prac- tically unorganized. A Women's Trade Union League, such as 56 that which, sponsored in its beginning by Mrs. Raymond Rob- ins, is not in existence here. The organization of workers is a long but probably inevita- ble process. It is perhaps the only democratic means of edu- cating the worker herself to an efficient point of view, to an understanding of labor conditions and needs. Thru this means she will learn to see her own and the employer's view- point intelligently, and will be able to take her place as an effective factor in determining her own living and working conditions. Under wise leadership, organization would educate the em- ploye to present her case more clearly and intelligently. And one of the inevitable effects would be to continue the process of increasing wages. It remains to consider what the public can or should do to see to it that no wage falls below a subsistence level, or a level of minimum comfort. The first impulse is toward the flat minimum wage, estab- lishing a fixed standard for all working women. No doubt such a solution is the quickest and simplest. It cuts the gor- dian knot. But there are a number of objections to the fixed minimum wage. In the first place, it offers difficulties of enforcement. In the second place, it does not take into consideration special features of individual industries, and so may work undue hard- ship to a small or large group. In the third place, it quickly becomes antiquated, and, with a legislature which meets only once in two years, it is not flexible between sessions. There seems to be a real need for a permanent, impartial body, vested with some executive powers to study conditions scientifically and to establish standards for an industry, occu- pation, or group of industries, in regard to wages, hours, or other conditions of labor. Such commissions have been tried in several states, notably California and Washington. Other states have established commissions to consider wages alone, but there seems no good reason for separating wage adjustments from other questions touching labor. The advantages of such a commission are its permanency, its smallness, and its quickness of response to need for action. 57 The legislature, meeting an over-crowded program once in two years, finds it hard to study conditions carefully and provide for their permanent solution. Moreover, it is difficult to leg- islate for all industries together without discrimination against some which may be laboring under peculiar conditions. A leg- islature, even a legislative committee, is unwieldy and unscien- tific compared to a small permanent commission, established with good support and sufficient powers. Before such a commission workers and employers alike re- ceive a fair hearing. It has the opportunity for careful study and well-considered action. Minimum wage laws now exist in twelve states besides the District of Columbia. These states are : Arkansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Washington, Oregon, Nebraska, Massa- chusetts, Colorado, Ohio, Utah, and Kansas. Minimum wage laws have been found most effective when they have followed the commission plan. Just as no minimum wage law is stronger than its agencies of enforcement, so no wage commission is stronger than its membership and its public support. Every effort should be made to see to it that an Industrial Welfare Commission, if formed, is composed of constructive, public-minded individuals, and that it receives from the press and public publicity, sym- pathy, and co-operation. The California law, which seems the most comprehensive and scientific, is quoted here. Points for discussion are : 1. Law denotes five commission members. Three might be better, with one of the three a woman. 2. If a commission of five, the State Commissioner of La- bor should perhaps be a member ex-officio. Equal representa- tion of capital and labor might also be provided for. 3. Note that the commission has power to reduce legal maximum of hours (48 weekly for women), but not to increase them. 58 California Statute Establishing Industrial Welfare Commission — 1913. Section 1. There is hereby established a commission to be known as the Indus- trial Welfare Commission, hereinafter called the commission. Said commission shall be composed of five persons, at least one of whom shall be a woman, and all of whom shall be appointed by the Governor as follows : two for the term of one year, one for the term of two years, one for the term of three years, and one for the term of four years; provided, however, that at the expiration of their respective terms, their suc- cessors shall be appointed to serve a full term of four years. Any vacancies shall be similarly filled for the unexpired portion of the term in which vacancy shall occur. Three members of the commission shall constitute a quorum. A vacancy on the com- mission shall not impair the right of the remaining members to perform all the duties and exercise all the powers and authority of the commission. Sec. 2. The members of said commission shall draw no salaries, but all of said members shall be allowed ten dollars per diem while engaged in the performance of their official duties. The commission may employ a secretary, and such expert, clerical and other assistants as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this act, and shall fix the compensation of such employes, and may, also, to carry out such purposes, incur reasonable and necessary office and other expenses, including the necessary trav- eling expenses of the members of the commission, of its secretary, of its experts, and of its clerks and other assistants and employes. All employes of the commission shall hold office at the pleasure of the commission. Sec. 3. (a) It shall be the duty of the commission to ascertain the wages paid, the hours and conditions of labor and employment in the various occupations, trades, and industries in which women and minors are employed in the State of California, and to make investigations into the comfort, health, safety and welfare of such women and minors. (b) It shall be the duty of every person, firm or corporation employing labor in this state: 1. To furnish to the commission, at its request, any and all reports or informa- tion which the commission may require to carry out the purposes of this act, such reports and information to be verified by the oath of the person, or a member of the firm, or the president, secretary, or manager of the corporation furnishing the same, if and when so requested by the commission or any member thereof. 2. To allow any member of the commission, or its secretary, or any of its duly authorized experts or employes, free access to the place of business or employment of such person, firm, or corporation, for the purpose of making any investiagtion author- ized by this act, or to make inspection of, or excerpts from, all books, reports, con- tracts, pay rolls, documents, or papers, of such person, firm or corporation relating to the employment of labor and payment therefor by such person, firm or corporation. 3. To keep a register of the names, ages, and residence addresses of all women and minors employed. (c) For the purposes of this act, a minor is defined to be a person of either sex under the age of eighteen years. Sec. 4. The commission may specify times to hold public hearings, at which times, employers, employes, or other interested persons, may appear and give testi- mony as to the matter under consideration. The commission or any member thereof shall have power to subpoena witnesses and to administer oaths. All witnesses sub- poenaed by the commission shall be paid the fees and mileage fixed by law in civil cases. In case of failure on the part of any person to comply with any order of the commission or any member thereof, or any subpoena, or upon the refusal of any wit- ness to testify to any matter regarding which he may lawfully be interrogated before any wage board or the commission, it shall be the duty of the superior court or the judge thereof, on the application of a member of the commission, to compel obedience in the same manner, by contempt proceedings or otherwise ,that such obedience would be compelled in a proceeding pending before said coiirt. The commission shall have 59 power to make and enforce reasonable and proper rules of practice and procedure and shall not be bound by the technical rules of evidence. Sec. 5. If, after investigation, the commission is of the opinion that, in any occupation, trade, or industry, the wages paid to women and minors are inadequate to supply the cost of proper living, or the hours or conditions of labor are prejudicial to the health, morals or welfare of the workers, the commission may call a conference, hereinafter called "wage board," composed of an equal number of representatives of employers and employes in the occupation, trade, or industry in question, and a repre- sentative of the commission to be designated by it, who shall act as the chairman of the wage board. The members of such wage board shall be allowed five dollars per diem and necessary traveling expenses while engaged in such conferences. The com- mission shall make rules and regulations governing the number and selection of the members and the mode of procedure of such wage board, and shall exercise exclusive jurisdiction over all questions arising as to the validity of the procedure and of the recommendations of such wage board. The proceedings and deliberation of such wage board shall be made a matter of record for the use of the commission, and shall be admissible as evidence in any proceedings before the commission. On request of the commission, it shall be the duty of such wage board to report to the commission its findings, including therein : 1. An estimate of the minimum wage adequate to supply to women and minors engaged in the occupation, trade or industry in question, the necessary cost of proper living and to maintain the health and welfare of such women and minors. 2. The number of hours of work per day in the occupation, trade or industry in question, consistent with the health and welfare of such women and minors. 3. The standard conditions of labor in the occupation, trade or industry in question, demanded by the health and welfare of such women and minors. Sec. 6. (a) The commission shall have further power after a public hearing had upon its own motion or upon petition, to fix: 1. A minimum wage to be paid to women and minors engaged in any occupation, trade or industry in this state, which shall not be less than a wage adequate to supply to such women and minors the necessary cost of proper living and to maintain the health and welfare of such women and minors. 2. The maximum hours of work consistent with the health and welfare of women and minors engaged in any occupation, trade or industry in this state; pro- vided, that the hours so fixed shall not be more than the maximum now or hereafter fixed by law. 3. The standard conditions of labor demanded by the health and welfare of the women and minors engaged in any occupation, trade or industry in this state. (ft) Upon the fixing of a time and place for the holding of a hearing for the purpose of considering and acting up any matters referred to in subsection (a) hereof, the commission shall give public notice by advertisement in at least one news- paper published in each of tne cities of Los Angeles and Sacramento and in the city and county of San Francisco, and by mailing a copy of said notice to the county recorder of each county in the state, of such hearing and purpose thereof, which notice shall state the time and placed fixed for such hearing, which shall not be earlier than fourteen days from the date of publication and mailing of such notices. (<■) After such public hearing, the commission may, in its discretion, make a mandatory order to be effective in sixty days from the making of such order, specify- ing the minimum wage for women or minors in the occupation in question, the maxi- mum hours; provided, that the hours specified shall not be more than the maximum for women or minors in California, and the standard conditions of labor for said women or minors; provided, however, that no such order shall become effective until atfer April 1, 1914. Such order shall be published in at least one newspaper in each of the cities of Los Angeles and Sacramento and in the city and county of San Fran- cisco, and a copy thereof be mailed to the county recorder of each county in the state, and such copy shall be recorded without charge, and to the labor commissioner who shall send by mail, so far as practicable, to each employer in the occupation in ques- tion, a copy of the order, and each employer shall be required to post a copy of such order in the building in which women or minors affected by the order are employed. Failure to mail notice to the employer shall not relieve the employer from the duty to 60 comply with such order. Finding by the commission that there has been such publica- tion and mailing to county recorders shall be conclusive as to service. Sec. 7. Whenever wages, or hours, or conditions of labor have been so made mandatory in any occupation, trade, or industry, the commission may at any time in its discretion, upon its own motion or upon petition of either employers or employes, after a public hearing held upon the notice prescribed for an original hearing, rescind, alter or amend any prior order. Any order rescinding a prior order shall have the same effect as herein provided for in an original order. Sec. 8 [a* amended, Stats. 1915, Chap. 571]. (a) For any occupation in which a minimum wage has been established, the commission may issue to a woman physically defective by age or otherwise, a special license authorizing the employment of such licensee, for a period of six months, for a wage less than such legal minimum wage; and the commission shall fix a special minimum wage for such person. Any such license may be renewed for like periods of six months. (b) For any occupation in which a minimum wage has been established, the com- mission may issue to an apprentice or learner, a special license authorizing the employ- ment of such apprentice or learner, for such time and under such conditions as the commission may determine, at a wage less than such legal minimum wage; and the commission shall fix a special wage for such apprentice or learner. (c) The commission may fix the maximum number of women, and minors under eighteen years of age, to be employed under the licenses provided for in subdivisions (a) and (6) of this section in any occupation, trade, industry or establishment in which a minimum wage has been established. Sec. 9. Upon the request of the commission, the labor commissioner shall cause such statistics and other data and information to be gathered, and investigations made, as the commission may require. The cost thereof shall be paid out of the appropria- tions made for the expenses of the commission. Sec. 10. Any employer who discharges, or threatens to discharge, or in any manner discriminates against any employe because such employe has testified or is about to testify, or because such employer believes that said employe may testify in any investigation or proceedings relative to the enforcement of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. Sec. 11 [as amended, Stats. 1915, Chap. 571]. The minimum wage for women and minors fixed by said commission as in this act provided, shall be the minimum wage to be paid to such employes, and the payment to such employes of a less wage than the minimum so fixed shall be unlawful, and every employer or other person who, either individually or as an officer, agent, or employe of a corporation or other person, pays or causes to be paid to any such employe a wage less than such minimum, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars, or by imprisonment for not less than thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment; and every employer or other person who, either individually or as an officer, agent or employe of a corporation, or other persons, violates or refuses- or neglects to comply with the provisions of this act, or any orders or rulings of this commission, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars, or by imprisonment for not less than thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Sec. 12 [as amended, Stats. 1915, Chap. 571]. In every prosecution for viola- tion of any provision of this act, the minimum wage, the maximum hours of work and the standard conditions of labor fixed by the commission as herein provided, shall be prima facie presumed to be reasonable and lawful, and to be the living wage, the maximum hours of work and standard conditions of labor required herein. The find- ings of fact made by the commission acting within its powers shall, in the absence of fraud, be conclusive; and the determination made by the commission shall be subject to review only in a manner and upon the grounds following: within twenty days from the date of the determination, any party aggrieved thereby may commence in the superior court in and for the city and county of San Francisco, or in and for the counties of Los Angeles or Sacramneto, an action against the commission for review of such determination. In such action a complaint, which shall state the grounds upon which a review is sought, shall be served with the summons. Service upon the secretary of the commission, or any member of the commission, shall be deemed a 61 complete service. The commission shall serve its answer within twenty days after the service of the complaint. With its answer, the commission shall make a return to the court of all documents and papers on file in the matter, and of all testimony and evidence which may have been taken before it, and of its findings and the determina- tion. The action may thereupon be brought on for hearing before the court upon such record by either party on ten days' notice of the other. Upon such hearing, the court may confirm or set aside such determination ; but the same shall be set aside only upon the following grounds: (1) That the commission acted without or in excess of its powers. (2) That the determination was procured by fraud. Upon the setting aside of any determination the court may recommit the contro- versy and remand the record in the case to the commission for further proceedings. The commission, or any party aggrieved, by a decree entered upon the review of a determination, may appeal therefrom within the time and in the manner provided for an appeal from the orders of the said superior court. Sec. 13. Any employe receiving less than the legal minimum wage applicable to such employee shall be entitled to recover in a civil action the unpaid balance of the full amount of such minimum wage, together with costs of suit, notwithstanding any agreement to work for such lesser wage. Sec. 14. Any person may register with the commission a complaint that the wages paid to an employe for whom a living rate has been established, are less than that rate, and the commission shall investigate the matter and take all proceedings necessary to enforce the payment of a wage not less than the living wage. Sec. 15. The commission shall biennially make a report to the Governor and the State Legislature of its investigations and proceedings. Sec. 16. There is hereby appropriated annually out of the moneys of the state treasury, not otherwise appropriated, the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, to be used by the commission in carrying out the provisions of this act, and the controller is hereby directed from time to time to draw his warrants on the general fund in favor of the commission for the amounts expended under its direction, and the treasurer is hereby authorized and directed to pay the same. Sec. 17. The commission shall not act as a board of arbitration during a strike or lock-out. Sec. 18. (a) Whenever this act, or any part or section thereof, is interpreted by a court, it shall be liberally construed by such court. (6) If any section, subsection, or subdivision of this act is for any reason held to be unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining por- tions of this act. The Legislature hereby declares that it would have passed this act, and each section, subsection, subdivision, sentence, clause and phrase thereof, irre- spective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, subdivisions, sentences, clauses or phrases is declared unconstitutional. Sec. 19. The provisions of this act shall apply to and include women and minors employed in any occupation, trade or industry, and whose compensation for labor is measured by time, piece or otherwise. NOTE: The Executive Officer of the California Industrial Welfare Commission was requested to suggest changes in this law which might be advisable in other states. The suggestions are as follows: (1) Omit the non-salary regulation for Commission members. (2) Provide for summoning of employers or witnesses to the Commission office, under subpoena, to give evidence concerning the law, or to show cause for violation of the orders of the Commission. 62 Sample of Order Issued by Minimum Wage Commission. Olympia, Washington, September 19, 1918. To Whom It May Concern: Pursuant to the authority vested in it by Chapter 174, Session Laws of Wash- ington for 1913, the Industrial Welfare Commission, after due investigation of wages and conditions of labor of minors employed in the industries hereinafter mentioned, and due determination of wages and conditions of labor suitable for such minors, hereby ORDERS: (1) (n) That the word "person" is used in this order to include corporations, copartnerships and associations as well as individuals. (b) That the term "welfare" shall mean and include reasonable comfort, reason- able physical well-being, decency, and moral well-being. (c) Under the minimum wage act a minor is a person of either sex under the age of eighteen years. (2) That no person shall employ any minor in or in connection wtih any mer- cantile, manufacturing, printing, laundering, or dye works establishment, sign-paint- ing, machine or repair shop, or parcel delivery service, at a weekly wage rate of less than $9.00 for minors under eighteen years of age; nor shall such minor be employed or permitted to work in any such industry more than eight hours in any day, or more than six days in any week, or after the hour of 7 P. M. or before the hour of 6 A. M. Provided, however, if after investigation, the conditions are found not to be detri- mental to the welfare of said minors, permits may be issued by the Industrial Welfare Commission authorizing the employment of minors over sixteen years of age to a later hour. (See paragraph (7) below.) (3) That no person shall employ any minor in, or in connection with, any tele- phone or telegraph establishment, at a weekly wage rate of less than $9.00 for minors under eighteen years of age; provided, that this order shall not apply to messengers in rural communities and cities of less than three thousand population, who are not continuously employed and who are paid by piece rate for their services ; nor shall any minor be employed in such occupation before 6 A. M. or after 10 P. M. ; and it is further provided, that if after investigation by the Commission of any particular establishment, conditions are found not to be detrimental to the welfare of minors, permits may be issued by the Commission to minors over sixteen years of age author- izing night employment. (See paragraph (7) below.) (4) That no person shall employ any minor in the occupation of stenographer, bookkeeper, typist, billing clerk, filing clerk, cashier, checker, invoicer, comptometer operator, or any clerical office work whatsoever, including assistants and helpers in doctors' and dentists' offices, at a weekly wage rate of less than $9.00 for minors under eighteen years of age. (See paragraph (7) below.) (5) That no person shall employ any minor in any hotel, lodging house, restau- rant or lunch room occupation, at a weekly wage rate of less than $9.00 for minors under eighteen years of age; provided, that where lodging is furnished by the em- ployer to any minor employed in such occupation as part payment of wages, not more than $2.00 per week may be deducted therefor from the weekly minimum wage of such employe, and if a room be furnished for such lodging it must be properly heated and ventilated and of size and condition conforming to the general standard of rooms in the locality which are rented for the amount thus deducted from the wages ; and it is further provided, that where board or meals are furnished by the employer to such minor employe as part payment of wages, not more than $4.50 per week may be deducted from the weekly minimum wage of such employe for a full week's board of twenty-one meals, or a proportionate amount for less than a weeks' board. (6) That no person shall employ any minor under the age of eighteen years in any occupation, trade or industry, not mentioned in any of the above paragraphs, at a weekly wage rate of less than $9.00 ; nor shall any minor be employed more than eight hours in any day; nor more than six days per week. (See paragraph (7) below.) 63 (7) That no person shall employ any minor under eighteen years of age in any occupation, whatsoever, without increasing the weekly wages of such minor by one dollar per week after every six months of service, or until the minimum wage of $13.20 per week is paid. (8) That no person shall employ any female under the age of eighteen years as 'shaker" in a laundry: nor as clerk in selling cigars or tobacco; nor as messenger or delivery girl in out-door messenger or delivery service; nor as a bootblack; nor in certain phases of railroading, as section work; nor certain work in shipbuilding plants: nor certain work in lumber and in shingle mills; nor certain work in hotels, as "bell hops"; nor certain work in metal working plants, as with molten metals; nor in any work underground; nor in any work in bowling alleys, shooting galleries, penny arcades, 'and the like; nor shall any person employ any minor on a shift over six hours without a rest period of fifteen minutes; nor shall any person employ any minor less than full time without posting in advance, not later than. noon of the pre- ceding day, the schedule of hours to be observed : nor shall any minor boy under sixteen years of age be employed in any bowling alley; such occupations being hereby declared injurious to the welfare of minors. (9) That this order shall become effective sixty days from the date hereof, to-wit, on November 20, 1918. and shall supersede, during the period of the war, the Mini- mum Wage Orders for Minors, dated September 14, 1917, and effective November 14, 1917. INDUSTRIAL WELFARE COMMISSION FOR THE STATE OF WASHINGTON. 64 SECTION THREE. HOURS AND INDUSTRIAL FATIGUE. I. Summary and Conclusions. Second only to wages in importance, comes the question of the length of time for which the employer may keep the employe at work. The principle of limiting hours is universally conceded. No one believes that women workers should be allowed to work twelve or fifteen hours a day, even if their necessities might make them willing to do so. All recognize that it is a special duty to prevent the crippling of women thru over-work. The principle of hour legislation being conceded, the next question that arises is the precise length of a fair working day. Shall it be 11 or 10 hours, or shall it be 8 hours? Shall the 6 day week be established by law? Shall we regulate the length of the noon hour and of rest periods? On the side of longer hours are ordinarily to be found most employers, some employes who believe that shortened hours would mean lowered pay, and some portion of the "general public". On the side of shorter hours are to be found the bulk of social workers, employes, and industrial physicians. On this side, also, are to be found a considerable proportion of employers. These are the men who have tested shorter hours in their own plants, and who have realized the advan- tages of a short working day. Not all, in fact not many, of these employers stand for short hour legislation. They see the advantage of lowered hours but they want to establish them voluntarily. The short hours in their shops are attractive to new workers. Were these hours established by law these men would compete with other em- ployers for labor on an equal basis. In Chicago, an investigation brought out the fact that altho the law permitted 10 working hours daily, 62.9 per cent of firms, and 70.8 per cent of employes, actually worked less than 9 hours daily, which means a week of 48 hours, with 65 Saturday half holiday. Yet these very employers opposed legislation to establish hours such as their practice showed to be best for their shops. A Scientific Question. Of course, the question of hours is not purely controversial, but scientific. It is possible to evaluate working days of various lengths, and to arrive at a tentative or fixed standard. A well known firm of efficiency engineers, for example, declares itself in favor of 471^ hours per week as the best time unit for industry. This firm has proved this point over &nd over again in individual instances. Many public investigations of hours have been made, the most famous being that of the Munitions Commission in Eng- land during the war. This commission found women, under the plea of patriotism, being compelled to work often 14 hours daily. It found these women so exhausted from their toil that they actually failed to do as much in 14 hours as they had been able to do in 10. It made very definite recommendations for limiting the hours of women workers, with a view both to their well-being and to industrial efficiency. Many investigations more or less scientific in their nature have been made in this country. These have generally resulted in short hour recommendations. "The ease for the Shorter Work Day", a document having reference to men -as well as women workers, brings this material together in fairly com- plete form, as a brief before the Supreme Court. The "Women in Industry Division of the Department of Labor has taken its stand as follows: "No woman shall be employed or permitted to work more than 8 hours in any one day or 48 hours in any one week. The time when the work of women employes shall begin and end and the time allowed for meals shall be posted in a conspicious place in each workroom, and a record shall be kept of the overtime of each woman worker. ' ' Observance of the half holiday on Saturday should be the custom. 66 "Every woman worker shall have one day of rest in every seven days. "At least three-quarters of an hour shall be allowed for a meal. "A rest period of 10 minutes should be allowed in the middle of each working period without thereby increasing the length of the working day. "No woman shall be employed between the hours of 10 p. m. and 6 a.m." Opposition to Shorter Hours. Investigations unfavorable to the economic aspect of shorter hours as production units, have been made by the National Industrial Conference Board, an association of employers in various fields of industry. These investigations have been declared unscientific by advocates of shorter hours. The chief reasons in the minds of employers for objecting to a limitation of hours seem to be : 1. A fear of the limitation of profits. 2. A belief that the workers prefer long hours. 3. A dislike of any legal limitation of freedom of con- tract. 4. A denial that hours affect the health of workers. 5. A wish to see separate industries treated separately. The second reason listed is based on the alleged opposition of many groups of employes to shortened hours. In these cases it is not the hours which cause the objection; it is the fear of reduced pay. This, however, is a frame of mind flourishing only during legislative fights on hours. When hours have been reduced, there have seldom if ever been instances of lowered pay as a result. Employe outbreaks in favor of long hours must be regarded as campaign propaganda on the part of long hour advocates. Reason 3 may also be disposed of, since the principle of limiting hours has already been conceded, not only in Louisi- ana, but in practically every other state in the Union. Reason 5 is undoubtedly reasonable. Work in a cotton mill or a laundry is indubitably more fatiguing than work in a bank 67 or a department store. It might even be said that 6 hours at some work would be as tiring as 8 at others. But the facts show that the fatiguing industries, instead of being the short hour ones, have the longest hours of all. The industries which from the easy character of their work might be permitted longer hours are the ones in which the hours are short already. To establish a flat maximum would not work hardship to "easy" trades. It would simply regulate the laborious trades to present standards in the easy ones. This leaves reasons 1 and 4 unanswered. Reason 4 is dealt with by any one of numberless treatises on fatigue, industrial or other. Reason 1 deals with the fear of the reduction of profits. One employer said, and believed, that a 20 per cent reduction in hours in his shop would cut his profit 70 per cent. Experiments in this man's shop were made, and are reported in detail later in this chapter. In Illinois, before the ten-hour law was passed in 1911, it was claimed that the entire glass industry would have to leave :he state, if hours were limited to ten. Afterwards, not a glass factory left. This industry grew and made profits under the ten hour day. In every other state where laws regulating hours have been passed, similar prophecies have been made. The courts have yet to hear of a single case of bankruptcy due to shortened hours. The industrial fabric seems sufficiently tough and can easily withstand the safe guarding of its women workers by forbidding them to work hours clearly detrimental to health. Reasons for Short Hours. The advocates of shorter hours have based their claims on the demonstrated detrimental effects of fatigue; on the health and recreation rights of the worker ; and on the benefits to employer and employe observed to follow shortened hours. In this study it has been attempted to discover the facts relating to hours of labor for women in industry in Louisiana. The degree of fatigue produced under the ten-hour day has been analyzed, and recommendations have been formulated for the betterment of existing conditions. 68 Conclusions. 1. Only one third of Louisiana employers are at present requiring women to work the legal maximum of hours per day and per week. 2. Nearly half of all establishments and about one-third of all employes, are now using the eight-hour day or the 48 hour week. 3. Long hours accompany other bad conditions. Wages are low and other conditions are poor for the ten-hour workers. 4. The highest proportion of working mothers is to be found in the ten-hour group. 5. Thirty states regulate weekly working hours to a lower maximum than Louisiana, 10 as long and 4 longer. 6. If hours per day are considered, 22 states permit fewer hours than Louisiana, 18 as long and 4 longer. 7. Reduced hours were found to increase output and reduce cost of production in a Louisiana firm employing over 200 women. 8. Analysis of the ten-hour day shows a considerable fatigue element. 9. The effect of climate on production is not clearly marked. 10. Night work is found but seldom in Louisiana establish- ments. The conclusions bearing on hours lead directly to a recom- mendation for a law limiting hours of labor to a shorter maxi- mum than is allowed at present. Accordingly the following suggestions are made. Recommendations. 1. Employers will derive much benefit from studying pro- duction within their own plants to determine cumulative fatigue daily, fatigue in summer, etc. Records of production should be made more complete and should be analyzed more closely. 2. Employers would do well to experiment with shorter hours, keeping track of output for some time before and after the change to determine whether shorter hours make for efficiency in their own plants. 69 3. A law on hours should be passed, regulating the working day for women, and minors of both sexes under 18, to eight hours daily and 48 hours weekly. 4. This law should set a noon hour of not less than 45 minutes. All machinery should stop at this time. 5. It should prohibit work for women between 1 p. m. and 6 a. m. and for minors between 7 p. m. and 6 a. m. 6. "Working hours should be legally required to be posted in each work room, and the presence there of workers outside these hours shall be deemed prima facie evidence of a violation of the law. 7. The provisions of this law may well be extended to cover public institutions, hospitals, and all places of amuse- ment. 8. Enforcement of this law should be in the hands of the State Department of Labor (for Louisiana outside of New Orleans) and the city factory inspector for New Orleans. Penalty may well be made greater for second and third viola- tions. 9. Such a law will meet the standards of the U. S. Depart- ment of Labor, Women in Industry Division. 10. An Industrial Welfare Commission such as that recommended in the foregoing chapter, should have power to regulate hours to less than the legal maximum in specific in- dustries deemed particularly fatiguing. 11. The laws of California, Oregon, or the District of Columbia are recommended as models for a law regulating hours, with added provisions as herein mentioned. 70 HOURS AND INDUSTRIAL FATIGUE. II. Present Standards. If current tendency can be accepted as any indication of right, the short working day needs no other argument. It has come, for men, largely as a result of unionization, and for women, thru legislation. Individual employers, also, have shortened hours for one reason or another. The southern states are admittedly behindhand in legisla- tion and practice regulating hours. Yet in Louisiana only about one-third of all employers avail themselves of the legal maxi- mum permitted for the working day. Of 380 firms studied, only 124, or 33 per cent, have a working day of 10 hours in length. This group, however, includes a number of the larger firms, so that 5,318, or 40 per cent of all employes are working 10 hours a day. A clear majority, both of firms and employes, work less than the legal maximum of hours. Forty per cent of firms, including 32 per cent of employes, work less than a 9 hour day, which in most cases means a 48 hour week. Thus it may be seen how far practice outstrips legislation. The reasons impelling employers to use the 8 hour day may not have regard to health benefits to the employes. Desire to attract labor is probably one of the most operative causes. In a few cases, hours have been shortened because of the employer's realization that shorter hours increased efficiency. So rapid is the progress toward reduced hours, that between The collection of survey data and the publication of this report, a number of hour reductions were made in large shops, so that even the following table presents longer hours than those actually in use today. 71 Hours of Labor. Employes. Louisiana 1919. Number Employed Total 13,188 Bag Manufacturing 359 Banks and Agencies 332 Can Manufacturing 340 Candy Manufacturing 448 Cigars and Tobacco 1,634 Clothing Manufacturing 574 Cotton Mills 1,262 tDomestic and Personal Service.. 27 Dry Goods 2,639 Food Manufacturing 1,149 Hotels 993 Laundries 827 Manufacturing and Mechanical.... 525 *Mines 26 Printing and Publishing 110 Professional Service 102 Restaurants 263 Trade 483 Transportation 1,095 Under 43 hours 3 1 33 -Percenta 43 and under 49 hours 29 10 32 ge Working- 49 and under 55 hours 28 81 16 100 55 hours and over 40 19 3 45 52 3 20 77 45 45 10 100 19 81 8 33 5 8 15 72 6 5 2 34 54 61 28 21 22 79 12 53 15 58 58 31 27 12 8 66 28 42 6 t Outside of homes. *Clerical and restaurant work. The cotton mills stand out as the worst offenders. Every one works a 10 hour day or a 60 hour week. Next to these, industries having high proportions of 10 hour workers are hotels, cigar and tobacco factories, restaurants, candy manu- factures, and miscellaneous trades. This last group includes the little stores which remain open evenings, the drug stores etc. The department stores have a good showing, due to the prepondrance among them of New Orleans firms. In Louisiana outside New Orleans, the hours worked in department stores are much longer. It is most interesting to note how long hours coincide with low wages and otherwise poor conditions. The highly-paid industries, banks and agencies, transportation, and the like, show very small proportions of long hour workers ; while the laundries, candy factories, etc., show just the opposite. 72 Hours in Louisiana outside New Orleans are slightly in excess of those worked in the larger city, but the difference is surprisingly small. Industries where a majority of all women are at present working the 8 hour day are banks and agencies, department stores, printing and publishing, professional service, and trans- portation. Meaning of These Facts. These facts mean that practice has already gone a great deal further than legislation to establish a short working day ; that legislation would merely bring all establishments to the level of the better ones; that the advantage of shorter hours, as a practical proposition, is being proved to-day in Louisiana. All hour statements were checked by data gathered from 5,202 employes. From these records it was found that the "domestic and personal service" occupation (outside of homes; includes cleaners, maids, cooks, laundresses, etc.) has the worst hour conditions ; that next comes the manufacturing and mechanical occupation ; while telephone and telegraph workers have the easiest hours of all. Hours Above Legal Maximum. Curiously enough, a number of employers reported hours totaling in excess of 60 weekly, the legal maximum. Employers reported the starting and stopping time, recess periods, and number of days worked, from which data the working hours were calculated. In some instances, where the hours exceeded 60, it was said that the employe was allowed some time off when she liked during the week ; in other instances no explana- tion was given. Among the employes interviewed, 161 reported hours per week as 61 or more. These were almost universally "domestic and personal service" workers, found mainly in hotels and restaurants ; but the group also included a large proportion from the small stores of a miscellaneous nature. To these last the 60 hour law does not apply, since on Saturday nights the working time in mercantile establishments is not limited by law. 73 The survey made no attempt in itself to enforce the law in these cases, the information was given to the legal authorities. In the seven day industries, hours are difficult to check, and restaurant hours form a particularly hard problem. Here the woman is often made to work from 6 a. m. to 8 p. m., but ia given two or three-hour rest periods, so that her total hours come within the law. Many states have made provision that working hours must come within a specified period of time; but in Louisiana this is not done. Conditions Within Hour Groups. For convenience in reference hour groups will be designated here as follows : Group A — Under 43 hours weekly. Group B — 43 and under 49 hours weekly. Group C — 49 and under 55 hours weekly. Group D — 55 hours weekly or over. The long hour groups contain, as might be expected, the largest proportion of colored workers, altho these are in a very small minority in any group. Group D contains the highest proportion of working mothers. Half of all working mothers fall within this hour group. These are the women with little training who are at the same time most entirely dependent on their wage; it is therefore, possible to enforce longer hours upon them, altho at the same time they are the class most definitely needing legislative protection. Only 4 per cent of the members of Group D receive $16 weekly or over, where 25 per cent of the members of Group B are in the highest wage class... Here again is shown the con- centration of conditions, either good or bad, upon one particu- lar group. Group D includes the workers most in need of good condi- tions and to the least extent recipients of them. It may be argued that a 10 hour day is not necessarily a bad condition. Ten working hours a day mean work from 7 to 12 and 1 to 6, every day of the week excepting Sunday. It means hours that only one-third of employers care to enforce upon their em- ployes. Its efficiency or lack of it will be discussed later. Here we have seen what hours actually exist in Louisiana industries, and what the conditions are among the long hour workers. It remains to check Louisiana standards against laws in other states, to see how far this state is measuring up to accepted standards. Laws in Other States. In 1918, 45 states (including Alaska and the District of Columbia) regulated the length of the working day for women. Of these, eight had an 8 hour day ; 14 had a nine hour day ; 19, including Louisiana, permitted a working day of ten hours, and 4 over ten hours. Thirty states regulated the working week to a lower maximum than Louisiana. States having eight hour laws are: Alaska, Arizona, Cali- fornia, Colorado, District of Columbia, Montana, Nevada, and Washington. Nine hours is the legal limit in : Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, and Utah. Ten hours is permitted in Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina,* South Dakota, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. New Hampshire permits ten and one-quarter hours daily; Tennessee and Vermont ten and one-half; and North Carolina eleven. All these four states, however, regulate the working week to 60 hours or, in three cases, fewer than 60. Louisiana thus stands in the lower rank of states in per- mitting a ten hour working day. Moreover, the foregoing analysis omits the labor legislation of 1919, so that by the time of the next legislative session in Louisiana, she will be even more behind in the progress toward shortened hours. Legislative possibilities will be discussed in another chapter. It is desired here to call attention to the good progress which has so far been made, the extent of ground still to cover, and the state standards by which Louisiana may measure her progress. *12 iii mercantile establishments; 60 hour week. 75 HOURS AND INDUSTRIAL FATIGUE. III. Effect of Reducing- Hours. One of the moot points in the discussion of hours is the relation between hours and production. Opinion varies from the manufacturer who stated that a 20 per cent reduction in hours would mean a 70 per cent reduction in his profits, to the social enthusiast who believes that a reduction of hours necessarily means an increase of output, on the basis of greater energy in the worker. This veiw, that short hours ordinarily mean better produc- tion, is not confined to social workers. It is held by many efficiency engineers. It has been substantiated by hundreds of individual instances. It was proved in the Munition Studies in England. It was demonstrated in an industrial survey made in Illinois in 1918, dealing with hours of labor for women only. Figures to substantiate this claim are easily available to any one. Strangely enough, employers frequently do not realize that they have had an increase in individual output, even when this has been the case. In Illinois, it was found that their own figures frequently contradicted the employers testimony on the productiveness of long and short hour schedules. It is this fact which proves unscientific hour studies such as those recently made by the National Industrial Conference Board. These studies were "opinion surveys" and as such, inconclusive. Employers were asked to give data on the effect of reduced hours, and answers varied from frank admissions of ignorance to all sorts of estimates, and a very few reliable production sheets. The effect of hours on output can be measured only by a careful statistical comparison of the productivity of individual experienced workers under the two schedules. The astonishing fact about "opinion surveys" such as those of the National Industrial Conference Board, is not that so little maintenance of output is reported, but that so many employers are ready to report increased or maintained production. . It has always been the case that employers fear the indus- trial effect of reduced hours. It has seldom, if ever, been the case that these fears were justified. Machines Not a Determining Factor. Some emloyers may state that the machines limit produc- tion in their shops. One most interesting instance of this was found by the New Orleans and Louisiana Industrial Survey. The employer stated that the girl was only a slight factor in production, and that the machine was the determining p actor. Of course if this were so, all machines would produce about the same thru the day, and an hour reduction in time would mean an equal reduction in output. But all the girls operating these machines were on piece work and some of them earned 30 to 40 per cent more than others! Obviously the machine could produce no variation, so