workers in Detroit and Worcester were in metalworking machinery and equipment plants. In Los Angeles-Long Beach and San Francisco-Oakland not even a fourth of the workers were employed in any one major product category.

Thirty-eight percent of the workers within the scope of the study were in establishments with fewer than 250 workers; 45 percent were in establishments with 250 to 2,499 workers; and 17 percent were in establishments employing 2,500 or more. A majority of the workers in New York, Portland, and San Francisco-Oakland and close to a majority of those in Detroit, Denver, and Los Angeles-Long Beach were in establishments with fewer than 250 workers. Among the other areas, the proportions of workers in the small establishment group ranged from one-sixth in Milwaukee to more than two-fifths in Boston. Establishments with 2,500 workers or more accounted for slightly more than two-fifths of the workers in Hartford and Milwaukee, approximately a third of those in Houston and Minneapolis-St. Paul, and yet smaller proportions in the seven other areas where establishments of this size were to be found.

Average Hourly Earnings

The study provides information on trends in earnings as well as data on hourly earnings of workers in selected occupations in the April-June 1965 period.

Trends. The 2.5-percent increase in average straight-time hourly earnings of production workers between March-May 1964 and April-June 1965 is slightly smaller than the increases in each of the 2 preceding years (table 1).2

Though increases between 1964 and 1965 were largest in San Francisco-Oakland (5.3 percent) and Portland (4 percent), increases of 3 percent or more were recorded in seven areas, and Milwaukee, Newark and Jersey City, New York, and Pittsburgh were the only areas in which the rate of increase was less than 2 percent. General wage changes usually account for much of the year-toyear movement in wages, although factors such as labor turnover, incentive earnings, and changes in employment within establishments with different pay levels also affect the trends.

In all areas combined, average hourly earnings of tool and die makers (other than jobbing) in

creased by 2.7 percent (9 cents) between 1964 and 1965, while earnings of material handling laborers rose 2 percent (5 cents). Since 1945, when the Bureau initiated the series of occupational wage relationship studies for the machinery industries, average earnings for tool and die makers and for material handling laborers have increased 153 percent and 200 percent, respectively, compared with a 169-percent increase for all production workers. As indicated in the following tabulation, the rates of increase for these two jobs, as well as for all production workers, were greater in the earlier periods.

Occupational Earnings. Tool and die makers generally had the highest average hourly earnings among the occupational groups studied in April-June 1965 (table 2). Average earnings of men who produce or maintain tools and dies used by the establishments in which these workers are employed (i.e., other than jobbing) ranged from $2.94 an hour in Dallas to $3.97 in San FranciscoOakland; in five other areas, their average hourly earnings exceeded $3.60. In 10 of the 13 areas for which data for tool and die makers producing tools and dies for sale (i.e., jobbing) are available, average hourly earnings of the two groups of tool and die makers differed by less than 5 percent.

Men machine tool operators (class A), who set up their own machines and perform a variety of operations to close tolerances, averaged from $2.66 an hour in Dallas to $3.58 in San FranciscoOakland and $3.61 in St. Louis. Area average earnings for the intermediate group of machine tool operators (class B) ranged from $2.16 to

2 The 1965 index for production workers (based on 1958-59 as 100) was 121.1, compared with 118.2 in 1964; the corresponding indexes for material handling laborers were 122.0 and 119.6, and for tool and die makers, 122.4 and 119.2.

The forthcoming bulletin for the machinery industries will include separate data for operators of various types of machine tools, such as engine lathes and grinding machines. Data will also be reported for the special dies and tools industry in Cleveland and the special dies and tools and machine tool accessories industries in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Hartford, Los AngelesLong Beach, Milwaukee, Newark and Jersey City, and New York. Separate information will be included for time and incentive workers in a few jobs and for women in some of the more routine occupations in several areas.

Earnings in Cigarette
Manufacturing

STRAIGHT-TIME EARNINGS of production and related workers in the cigarette manufacturing industry averaged $2.51 an hour in July-August 1965, up 25 percent from the May 1960 level, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey.1 Employment during this 5-year period remained at about the same level. Men, accounting for slightly more than three-fifths of the 31,507 workers covered by the study, averaged $2.58 an hour compared with $2.38 for women, who were chiefly employed as inspectors, packers, and catchers on cigarette machines. Among the occupations studied separately, averages ranged from well over $3 an hour for machine adjusters and maintenance carpenters, electricians, and machinists (all men) to $2.12 an hour for janitors (794 men and 185 women).

Earnings of all but about 2 percent of the workers were within a range of $1.70 to $3.50 an hourthe middle range for the total work force was $2.29-$2.68. Approximately 5 percent of the men and 4 percent of the women earned less than $2 an hour at the time of the study. Virtually all of the workers earning $3 or more (10 percent of the total) were men.

Practically all workers were in establishments providing 7 paid holidays a year, as much as 4 weeks of vacation pay for those with qualifying service, retirement pension benefits, and at least partial payment of various health and insurance benefits.

Industry Characteristics

At the time of the survey, the cigarette manufacturing industry was composed of 15 establishments located in three States-North Carolina (53) percent of the workers); Virginia (26 percent); and Kentucky (21 percent). Five of the establishments each employed more than 2,500 workers; eight employed between 1,000 and 2,500; and the other two employed a substantially smaller number. One company employed more than half the cigarette workers in one State. Because of this and Bureau policy to avoid disclosure of information provided by an individual firm, separate State

data on occupational earnings or supplementary wage benefits cannot be given.

Cigarette manufacturing is a highly mecha nized industry. Approximately three-tenths of the production workers were cigarette-making ma chine operators and catchers; nearly one-tenth were machine packers of cigarettes.

Virtually all workers were paid on a time basis under formally established wage systems. Wage systems providing a range of rates for specific occupations applied to three-fourths of the work ers; nearly all the remainder were under singlerate systems.

Establishments with collective bargaining agreements covering a majority of their workers employed seven-tenths of the work force. The Tobacco Workers International Union was the principal union in each establishment operating under such agreements.

Earnings

In

The industrywide average of $2.51 an hour compared with $2.56 in Kentucky and $2.49 in both North Carolina and Virginia. Earnings averaged $2.58 an hour for men and $2.38 for women. all three States, average hourly earnings of women were about the same; for men the averages were $2.54 in North Carolina, $2.57 in Virginia, and $2.69 in Kentucky. Pay differences for men and women may have resulted from several factors. including variations in the distribution of the sexes among establishments and jobs with disparate pay levels. For example, slightly more

1 See Monthly Labor Review, November 1960, pp. 1193-1196, for an account of the earlier survey.

The current survey covered establishments engaged primarily in manufacturing cigarettes (industry 2111 as defined in the 1957 edition of the Standard Industrial Classification Manual and 1963 Supplement, U.S. Bureau of the Budget). Separate auxil iary units such as central offices and research laboratories were excluded.

Averages referred to in the text of this article are means; medians, however, are also provided in the accompanying table. Earnings information developed in this study excluded premium pay for overtime and for work on weekends, holidays, and late shifts and, thus, is not comparable with the gross average hourly earnings published in the Bureau's monthly hours and earnings series.

The forthcoming BLS bulletin, a more comprehensive account of the survey, will contain an explanation of the differences between the earnings and employment estimates provided by the study and those contained in the Bureau's monthly hours and earnings series. A release providing information on earnings and supplementary benefits was issued earlier; copies are available upon request to the Bureau or any of its regional offices.

Establishment Practices

Work schedules of 371⁄2 hours a week applied to slightly more than half the production workers. Nearly two-fifths were scheduled to work 40 hours a week and less than a tenth were scheduled for 32 hours. Second-shift operations accounted for three-tenths of the workers in July-August 1965. Differentials for these workers varied-a third received 8 percent, another third received 16 cents, and the remainder received either 15 or 10 cents above first-shift rates. Only about 1 percent were employed on third-shift operations.

Paid holidays nearly always 7—and paid vacations were provided by all establishments. Vacation payments for slightly more than seven-tenths of the workers were determined on the basis of the worker's regular pay for a specified length of time (e.g., 1 week, 2 weeks); the remaining workers received a percentage of their annual earnings.3 All establishments provided 2 weeks' pay to production workers after 1 year of service, and 3 weeks' after 10 years. One-fourth of the work force could receive 4 weeks of pay after 20 years of service; the remainder were eligible after 25 years.

Life, hospitalization, and surgical insurance, for which employers paid at least part of the cost, were available to all of the production workers.

3 Such payments were converted to an equivalent time basis for discussion purposes.

Provisions for either sickness and accident insurance or sick leave (partial pay or waiting period) applied to all workers; medical insurance, to seventenths; accidental death and dismemberment insurance, to about two-fifths; and catastrophe insurance, to a sixth. Pension plans, providing regular payments upon retirement for the remainder of the worker's life (in addition to those under the Federal social security program) were universally provided in the industry. Except for the employees paying part of the cost of hospitalization, surgical, medical, and sickness and accident insurance in one establishment, the abovementioned benefits were financed wholly by the employers.

Formalized profit-sharing plans, independent of retirement pension plans, were in effect in estab lishments employing seven-tenths of the work force, with participation contingent upon a specified length of employment. Company contributions were allocated to the accounts of participating employees on the basis of their earnings: and distribution of the profit shares to employees was deferred for a specified number of years or until retirement.

Jury duty leave pay was provided in establishments employing nearly all of the workers and funeral leave pay was provided in those employ ing seven-tenths of the workers.

-CHARLES M. O'CONNOR Division of Occupational Pay