1 Excludes premium pay for overtime and for work on weekends, holidays, and late shifts. Average weekly earnings were rounded to the nearest half dollar.

2 Average weekly hours were rounded to the nearest half hour. Includes data for States in addition to those shown separately. Alaska and Hawaii were not included in the study.

East Kentucky includes the following counties: Bell, Boyd, Breathitt,

As the following tabulation illustrates, the proportions of workers in union mines varied among the selected States in both branches of the industry.

87,510

$3.30

41.5

$137.50

72, 644

3.34

40.5

135.50

3,848

3. 19

39.5

126.00

3,985

3.58

42.0

151.00

9,881

2.90

40.5

117.50

workers in underground mines and to slightly more than a fourth in surface mines.

Workers in mines with 50 employees or more averaged more than those in smaller mines: $3.51 compared with $2.58 in underground mines and. $3.56 compared with $2.68 in surface mines. Larger mines accounted for four-fifths of the workers in underground mines, compared with a little more than one-half in surface mines.

Earnings of over nine-tenths of the production workers were within a range of $2 to $4 an hour. As indicated below, however, there were heavy clusters of workers within comparatively narrow earnings ranges, particularly in underground mines.

1

2 See footnote 3, table 1.

3 See footnote 4, table 1.

Data were tabulated for a number of occupational classifications, some of which are shown for underground mines in table 2. The highest average among these jobs ($3.71 an hour) was recorded for continuous-mining-machine operators and maintenance electricians (working above the ground). Inside electricians and maintenance mechanics averaged at or within a few cents of $3.70 an hour. Hand loaders, engaged in shoveling coal into mine cars or onto conveyors, were the lowest paid of the jobs studied with an average of $2.32 an hour; East Kentucky and Virginia accounted for about half of the workers in that job, but for only a fifth of the employment in underground mines. Shuttle-car operators, who drive electrically powered trucks that transport coal from the excavation point in the mine to a conveyor belt or mine car, had the highest employment level among the occupations studied separately and averaged $3.31 an hour. Among the occupations for which comparisons were possible in each of the States, hourly wages were usually highest in Illinois and lowest in Kentucky or Virginia. The spread in average earnings among the States varied considerably among the occupations. Roof bolters in Illinois, for example, averaged 9 percent more than those in Kentucky, whereas the corresponding spread was 18 percent for shuttle-car operators and 30 percent for machine drillers.

Hourly earnings of individuals performing similar tasks were usually concentrated within comparatively narrow earnings ranges. For example,

NOTE: Dashes indicate that no data reported or that data do not meet publication criteria.

between seven- and eight-tenths of the workers employed as boom conveyor operators, bratticemen, inside motormen, inside oilers and greasers, shuttle-car operators and inside trackmen earned between $3.40 and $3.50 an hour. Similarly, over eight-tenths of the continuous-mining-machine operators, inside maintenance electricians, and mechanics earned between $3.70 and $3.80 an hour. These heavy concentrations of workers reflect the extensive use of formal pay systems providing a single rate for specified occupations. Furthermore, UMWA contracts frequently specify the same rate for several occupations. Less than 5 percent of the workers in the industry (nearly all in underground mines) were paid on an incentive basis.

Establishment Practices

Work schedules of 40 hours a week were in effect in mines accounting for nine-tenths of the inside. workers in underground mines; 5 seven-tenths of the outside workers on noncontinuous operations, on the other hand, were on a 3614-hour schedule. Inside workers accounted for slightly more than four-fifths of the underground mine workers, and outside workers on noncontinuous operations, vir

The forthcoming comprehensive report will provide separate data for additional jobs studied separately in underground mines and for selected occupations in surface mines. Earnings information will be presented on a weekly and hourly basis.

Less than 1 percent of the employment in underground mines was accounted for by outside workers on continuous operations, such as engineers and hoistmen. Work schedules for these workers were generally similar to those for inside workers.

tually all of the remainder. Weekly work schedules in surface mines were quite varied-a fourth of the workers had schedules of 364 hours, a similar proportion 40 hours, and a slightly larger proportion 48 hours; most of the remainder were in mines having schedules in excess of 48 hours. Work schedules in underground and surface mines usually included 30-minute paid lunch periods. Time required by inside workers to travel from the mine opening to the working face and return in underground mines was also generally included in the work schedules.

Slightly more than two-fifths of the workers in underground mines and a fourth of those in surface mines were employed on late shifts at the time of the survey. A large majority of these workers received extra pay, usually amounting to 8 cents an hour for second-shift work and 10 cents for work on third or other late shifts in addition to day-shift rates.

Paid holidays, nearly always 8 days a year, were provided by mines employing four-fifths of the

All beneficiaries of the fund were notified on August 30, 1965, that those over 65 years of age were required to enroll in the Federal Medicare program, since fund benefits would not be available for hospital or medical care benefits which were provided for under the 1965 social security amendments.

workers in underground mines and slightly more than one-half of those in surface mines. The new 212-year agreement between the UMWA and the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, effective April 1, 1966, included the first provision for pay on holidays on which miners do not work, and the addition of 1 holiday to the 7 formerly observed as unpaid holidays.

Paid vacations were provided by mines employing nearly seven-eighths of the workers in underground mines and slightly more than three-fourths of those in surface mines. UMWA contracts, which applied to approximately four-fifths of the workers in underground mines and to slightly more than one-half of those in surface mines, provide 2 weeks (10 times the employee's day wage rate) paid vacation after 1 year or more of service.

Hospital and medical care, benefits to widows and orphans, and retirement pensions were among the benefits provided by the UMWA Welfare and Retirement Fund. At the time of the survey, the Fund provided retirement pensions of $100 a month; the payment was raised to $115 effective July 1, 1967.6

-FREDERICK L. BAUER Division of Occupational Pay

Technical Note

Revision of the CPI Food Outlet Sample

HELEN M. MILLER*

SINCE THE ESTABLISHMENT of the revised reporter samples for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in 1964, numerous changes have taken place in the food retailing structure. Some of the changes are apparent from reports of Bureau of Labor Statistics agents concerning stores in the BLS sample.

Changes in Retailing

In some areas, individual chain organizations have more than doubled in size while some enterprises, which were a major factor in earlier years, have either declined in prominence or gone out of business. Mergers have been common and a number of major chains have started operations in new cities, especially in the West Coast region. For independent food stores, both the owner turnover rate and the number of store closings have been high. This is particularly true of small stores— both grocery and "specialty" (meat and produce) markets.

During this period, the "bantam" market, or "convenience goods" store, has emerged as an integral part of the overall food marketing picture, discount operations have been expanded, and the trend toward diversification has been continued as more food organizations entered the drug or department store fields.

In the 1964 revision of the CPI, a stratified random sample of stores was selected for the pricing of food items.' Pricing was distributed among

*Of the Office of Price and Living Conditions, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

1 The selection of the CPI sample is discussed in The Consumer Price Index: History and Techniques (BLS Bulletin 1517, 1966), pp. 58-65.

2 For comparative purposes, a retail food chain is defined as a group of four or more stores owned and operated by the same firm.

food stores of various types and sizes roughly in proportion to their importance in terms of sales. A further stratification was made to represent adequately stores located in both the city proper and the suburban areas. In adopting this type of sample, the Bureau recognized the need for periodic sample adjustments to assure that the proportional allocations would be maintained as accurately as possible. These adjustments were planned to follow the release of data obtained in future Censuses of Retail Trade.

In recognition of the significant changes in food retailing since 1964, a sample adjustment was made in the spring and summer months of 1967 to represent more adequately the current market structure. Ideally, such an adjustment should have been based on current data, but current information was not available. As the 1963 allocations had been based on data from the 1958 Census of Retail Trade, so the most recent adjustment was derived from the Census of Retail Trade for the year 1963-the latest comprehensive sales figures available. However, individual stores selected were classified according to more recent information from our sample reporters.

Continuation of Trend

2

A comparison of census data for 1958 and 1963 shows that the changes were a continuation of a trend present in the previous 5 years. During the 1958-63 period, the relative importance of chain grocery organizations increased in all but a few of the larger metropolitan areas, whereas the importance of independent grocery and "specialty” stores declined. Chain growth was greater in the west coast cities than in other areas; for example, the relationship of chain grocery organization sales to total food store sales in the San Francisco area increased from 33 percent in 1958 to 49 percent in 1963, and in San Diego, from 47 percent to 63 percent. In contrast, the relative importance of chain stores showed little change in the New Yorknorthern New Jersey and Philadelphia areas but declined slightly in Pittsburgh and Buffalo. As in 1958, chain organizations with the highest proportion of sales were found in Washington, where they accounted for 77 percent of the city's 1963 food sales.

Within the independent grocery store category, the sales decline in the "small" store grouping was

most evident. Decreases in relative importance were reflected for the stores with annual sales volume of less than $100,000 in all larger areas. Since the small grocery store is most prevalent on the east coast, the amount of decrease was greatest in these areas. In Philadelphia, for example, the stores of this size accounted for 51 percent of independent grocery store sales in 1958 but for only 38 percent 5 years later. Significantly, the largest increases in the relative proportion of sales occurred in the $1,000,000-or-more size grouping, with a few exceptions.

Meat and Produce Markets

During the period of 1958 to 1963, meat and produce markets decreased considerably in importance, both in sales volume and in the number of outlets. For the United States as a whole, meat market sales decreased some 34 percent and the number of outlets about 31 percent; produce market sales declined by approximately 18 percent and the number of produce markets by some 30 percent. In a number of cities, sales of these two types of outlets were only about half as important in 1963 as they had been in 1958.

The distribution of meat sales between grocery stores and meat markets, as estimated by BLS from confidential reports, verifies the decline in the importance of meat markets. For example, in 1958, it was estimated that meat sales in Philadelphia were equally divided between grocery stores and meat markets; the 1963 data indicate that 70 percent of that city's meat sales were made in grocery stores and only 30 percent in meat markets. Similar patterns are shown for other cities, such as New York, Buffalo, Detroit, and Chicago, where meat markets had traditionally been a significant factor in the food retailing structure.

Suburban grocery store sales (both chain and independent) were more important in 1963 than in 1958, as was anticipated with the continuation of population shifts to these areas and the growth of suburban shopping centers. All types of stores, however, did not share equally in this increase in business. For example, although the distribution of independent grocery store sales between city proper and suburbs showed no change in the Washington and St. Louis areas, the ratio of suburban chain store sales to total chain store sales increased

in both areas 6 and 15 percent, respectively. Generally, the amount of increase in suburban sales was greater for chain stores than for independent grocery stores. In the suburbs of Chicago, Honolulu, and Houston, sales of chain stores increased, but those of independent store sales actually decreased.

The sampling design used for the collection of CPI food prices provides for the inclusion of the universe of chain grocery organizations in each city, and for the representation of other types of food store-independent grocery stores, meat markets, and produce markets-in different proportions for three main commodity groups: meats, produce, and dry groceries.

Chain Organizations

In 1963, no explicit restriction had been made on the number of chain organizations. In all but two CPI cities, at least one outlet of each food chain had been chosen to represent stores with different pricing policies, such as discount division or suburban outlets, or both. All largest chains for New York and Los Angeles were included, but cost made it necessary to sample the smaller organizations (with fewer than 10 outlets in the area). Following the establishment of pricing in 1963, no changes were made in the designation of a particular store as a chain, even though it might no longer meet the BLS criterion-"an organization of four stores or more owned and operated by the same firm." Similarly, no additions were made to this segment of the sample even though an independent store, through purchase or merger, might qualify as a chain organization.

By 1967, changes in organizational structure became so pronounced that an adjustment of this component was needed to represent adequately the current chain universe in various cities. Since most of the changes affected the smaller chain organizations, an attempt was made to stabilize this category of the sample by using a more limited definition of a chain organization. That is, the guideline for inclusion in the sample was changed to take in only those organizations of four stores or more whose sales represented at least 1 percent of the total grocery sales in the respective standard metropolitan statistical area or city. Consid