ose by about 9 percent on the average,3 with the najority of increases falling within a range of 6 o 15 percent. Increases of 15 percent or more vere most frequently reported in cities in the outheastern region and in Hartford, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and St. Louis. For the period from January 1945 to November 1947, vage increases averaged about 29 percent, typially ranging from 23 to 36 percent. In percentige terms, the greatest gains were generally registered for the less skilled occupations.

A scheduled workweek of 40 hours was reported by 5 out of 8 machinery establishments studied; 1 out of 9 worked 45 hours, and 1 in 12 reported a schedule of 50 hours or longer. Workweeks in excess of 40 hours were most common in New England cities, whereas in Pacific Coast cities, a 40-hour week was prevalent.

Paid holidays (typically, 6 a year) were provided for plant workers by 4 out of 7 establishments; however, the extent of this practice varied widely among regions. Such provisions were most common and most liberal in Middle Atlantic cities, where 3 out of 4 establishments provided paid holidays, with 1 out of 4 of these plants reporting more than 6 paid holidays a year. On the other hand, in Southeast and Southwest cities only about one-fifth and one-fourth of the establishments granted paid holidays; typically, establishments in these regions paid for no more than 5 holidays a year.

Formal paid vacation plans were in effect for plant workers in 9 out of 10 establishments studied. In most cases these workers received a 1-week paid vacation after a year's employment; after 5 years of service, paid vacations of 2 weeks were granted in five-eighths of all establishments studied. All but a few establishments in all regions had formal vacation provisions for office workers; more than half paid for 2-week vacations after 1 year of employment and 4 out of 5 provided 2-week periods after 5 years' service. The most liberal vacation plans for plant workers were found in Pacific Coast cities; on the other hand, office workers fared best in New England cities.

1 Refers to median change, considering all cities and occupations.

Wood and Upholstered Furniture: Earnings in September 1947 1

OCCUPATIONAL EARNINGS in wood furniture production in Los Angeles were typically higher in September 1947 than in 8 other leading production centers. Among the selected occupations, average hourly earnings in this city on a straight-time basis 2 ranged for men from $1.08 for machine offbearers to $1.58 for hand shaper operators; for 7 additional jobs the average wage amounted to $1.20 or more (table 1). In 5 comparable occupations, averages in Grand Rapids were at least $1.20, and all jobs except off-bearers averaged at least $1 in Grand Rapids, Chicago, and Jamestown (N. Y.). Occupational averages for men in the Winston-Salem-High Point area ranged from 71 cents for off-bearers to $1.01 for general utility maintenance men. Two additional southern areas, Morganton-Lenoir (N. C.) and Martinsville (Va.), had slightly higher pay levels, with 2 and 4 jobs, respectively, averaging above $1. Earnings of men hand sanders were only 1 cent an hour above those for women in both Los Angeles and Grand Rapids, whereas in the other area somewhat greater differences in favor of the men were reported. This information was secured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in a survey of average hourly earnings in selected occupations in wood and upholstered furniture manufacture for leading production centers, as part of the Bureau's program of occupational wage research. Nine areas were covered for wood furniture manufacture, and 4 for upholstered furniture.

Men's earnings in New York City upholstered furniture plants for the 6 jobs for which data were obtained ranged from $1.62 for gluers of rough stock to $2.27 for complete suite upholsterers. These jobs paid substantially less in the Winston-Salem-High Point area (table 2). Wo

1 Prepared in the Bureau's Division of Wage Analysis. Further data for each of the areas studied will be furnished upon request.

Establishments in the selected areas studied included only those primarily engaged in the manufacture of wood or upholstered furniture and employ. ing 8 or more workers.

The hourly averages include earnings under pay incentive systems, but exclude premium pay for overtime and night work.

94

Where no figures are given, data were insufficient to justify presentation of an average.

1945, the date of a previous Bureau of Labor Statistics survey. Expressed in hourly pay, the greatest gains occurred in Grand Rapids, where averages for most jobs advanced between 30 and 45 cents an hour. In the upholstered furniture branch, gains in hourly pay over October 1945 were comparable to those for similar jobs in wood furniture. The greatest variations in the extent to which earnings had increased were found among upholsterers, whose earnings in many cases were based on incentive pay plans.

Supplementary Wage Practices

Upholstered furniture establishments, with few exceptions, had workweek schedules of 35 hours in New York and 40 hours in the other 3 areas surveyed. A 40-hour schedule was also generally reported in wood furniture establishments located in the Los Angeles, Martinsville, and Winston Salem-High Point areas, whereas schedules of 44 or more hours were found in the majority of the establishments in the 6 additional areas cov ered. Establishments with schedules exceeding 40 hours for men often had shorter workweeks for women plant workers.

Paid vacation policies allowing 1 week after year of service were customary in both branches of the industry in most areas. Exceptions, with

A majority of the plants reporting no formal policies for plant workers, were the WinstonSalem-High Point area in both industry branches, and the Morganton-Lenoir area in wood furniture; n New York City upholstered furniture plants, 2-week vacations were provided in a majority of the plants. Many plants allowing 1 week after a year of service increased the time to 2 weeks after longer service, usually after 5 years. Most of these plants were located in Chicago, Los Angeles,, Fitchburg (Mass.), Grand Rapids, and Jasper-Tell City (Ind.).

In addition to paid vacations, New York City establishments allowed both plant and office workers from 6 to 10 paid holidays. Establishments in other areas usually allowed 6 days for office workers. Both types of establishments in most cases also reported 6 days allowed to plant workers in Chicago; 2 days in Los Angeles; and in wood furniture, 1 to 2 days in MorgantonLenoir. In other areas few firms reported paid holidays for plant workers.

1

Paint and Varnish Manufacture:

Earnings in August 19471

2

AVERAGE HOURLY EARNINGS were, for the most part, highest in San Francisco and Detroit and lowest in Philadelphia and Louisville, according to a study made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 12 cities in August 1947.3 Earnings in the 9 occupations studied generally varied by about 40 cents between the highest and lowest paying areas. The numerically important group of mixers had average wage rates of $1.25 or more an hour in cities in the Pacific and Great Lakes States, although in other areas their earnings ranged as low as $1.01. Earnings of men labelers and pack

1 Prepared in the Bureau's Wage Analysis Division. Greater detail on wages and wage practices for each city presented here is available on request. * The 12 cities studied employed about 25,000 workers-Three-fourths of all workers in the paint and varnish industry at the time of the survey. Establishments with fewer than 8 workers were not studied. Data were obtained from company pay-roll records by Bureau field representatives. Uniform job descriptions were used.

Hourly wage averages are straight-time earnings and exclude overtime and shift premium pay but include earnings under incentive systems.

ers ranged from 89 cents in Philadelphia to $1.30 in San Francisco, while those for women varied from 79 cents to $1.19 in the same cities.

Wages increased generally during the year preceding the study in all but 1 of the 9 occupations studied. Such increases typically ranged from 11 to 20 percent, although there was wide variation within each city and each occupational group. The most substantial gains were reported for varnish makers, particularly in New York, St. Louis, and Philadelphia, who earned at least a third more in August 1947 than in July 1946. In contrast, probably because of turn-over, 1947 earnings of technicians in 8 of the 12 cities studied ranged from 5 to 15 percent below 1946. In most cities, the wage gains of clerical workers compared favorably with those of plant workers. In 6 cities, earnings of clerk-typists increased at least 16 percent.

Paid Vacations and Holidays

Nearly all establishments engaged in the manufacture of paints and varnishes granted paid vacations to plant workers, according to the Bureau's study in August 1947. Such vacations are typically 1 week in length after 1 year's employment, although nearly a sixth of the establishments studied provide for 2-week vacations. Vacation policies for workers with greater length of service are more liberal; about half the plants provide 2-week vacations after 3 years' employment, and three-fourths grant 2 weeks or more after 5 years' employment. In addition, nearly all establishments provide paid holidays, typically 6 a year. About a third grant more than 6 days; most of these establishments are located in the New York City, Newark, and Boston wage areas.

first 6 months' operation of the new Federal sickness compensation program which went into effect July 1, 1947, under the 1946 amendments to the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. These benefits amounted to more than 10.7 million dollars. In addition, 2,050 women railroad employees received about $624,000 in maternity benefits.

First claims for sickness and injury, which require a 7-day waiting period, and which cover a 2-week benefit period as do all claims, averaged $29.44; daily benefits averaged $4.46; and benefit duration, 6.6 days. Subsequent claims, which require only a 4-day waiting period, averaged $42.15; the daily benefit, $4.40; and the benefit duration, 9.6 days. Under the provisions of the law, sickness benefits, which may be paid for a maximum of 130 days or 26 weeks during a benefit year, range from $1.75 a day or $8.75 a week (based on a 5-day week), to $5 a day or $25 a week, according to base-year earnings in railroading of $150 to $2,500 and over. Maternity benefits, which are paid for a maximum of 116 days, and require no waiting period, averaged $54.46 for a 2-week payment in December 1947.

Although there were more than 10,000 new beneficiaries (exclusive of those receiving maternity benefits) in each month from August to December 1947, the number in any one month did not exceed 35,753.

The law permits the payment of sickness benefits for injury or illness in advance of the settlement of damages for which an employer may be liable; but such benefits are subject to future collection-in total if the settlement exceeds the sums paid, or up to the amount of the settlement if less than such payments. Recoveries of sickness benefits approximated $85,000 during the first 6 months of the new program, and involved primarily 1,969 cases of full recovery of funds. The sums obtained, for the most part, were from settlements or damage payments which the railroads made to their employees for work-connected disabilities.

To test the effectiveness of administrative safeguards, field visits were made to 2,115 selected benefit claimants, and to their physicians and employers. The study disclosed only negligible numbers of cases of potential fraud or malingering.

• Sickness benefits are paid to those railroad employees who are covered against wage loss from unemployment, and should be distinguished from railroad disability annuity payments, involving retirement.

Neurosis Among
British Factory Workers

DISABLING NEUROTIC ILLNESS affected a tenth, and minor forms of neurosis another fifth of over 3,000 adult workers employed by 13 British light or medium engineering firms during 1942-44. The incidence of neurotic illness was greater among women than among men-13.0 percent compared with 9.1 percent for the definite and disabling forms and 23.0 percent as against 19.2 percent for the minor forms. Neurosis was responsible for between a quarter and a third of all absence from work caused by illness; it was the reason for annual absences of 3 working days (1.1 percent of possible working time) by every man surveyed and 6 days (2.4 percent of possible working time) for each such woman. The more skilled workers had neurotic illness as frequently as the less skilled, and those in the highest range of earnings were as much affected as those earning less, according to the findings of the Industrial Health Research Board in this survey.1

In commenting on the study the Board stated: "Eighty percent of the originally chosen random sample were available for study; therefore, the corresponding incidence figures for the whole random sample could not have been less than 8 percent for definite neurosis and 16 percent for minor neurosis, even if the uninvestigated residue had been completely fit." A detailed study made in wartime cannot be expected, however, to indicate with certainty the conditions that exist in peacetime. Although the factories investigated represented only part of the engineering industry, and 80 percent of the random sample were actually studied, the Board listed factors affecting the general applicability of the findings as follows: "during the period of the survey (1942-44) few of the conditions notably peculiar to wartime were operative; the areas studied had

1 Information is from Great Britain: Medical Research Council, Industrial Health Research Board Report No. 90, The Incidence of Neurosis Among Factory Workers, by Russell Fraser and others, London, 1947; and Ministry of Labor Gazette, August 1947 (p. 261). The engineering industry has no equivalent in United States usage but consists of the fabrication of metals. Neurosis covers any disability for which there was apparently a psychological cause or partial cause.

Over 30,000 workers were employed in the 13 light or medium engineering factories studied. The plants covered were situated in the Birmingham area with the exception of one factory in Lancashire and three in London. Health and circumstances were surveyed during a series of 6-month periods between September 1942 and December 1944.

Both the constitutional factors-as indicated by past health, age, physique, personality, employment record, and intelligence and the environment were observed by the physicians of the Board who made the study. However, from the standpoint of preventive medicine, the environmental causes were stressed as being the more remediable of the two. In this connection, it was found that workers who had changed their residence or work (often under compulsion) had no more illness than others. Workers who had considerable domestic responsibility without "excessive" hours of different kinds of work (under 75 a week). those having a wide range of human