16 3 years of contribution if unemployment is due to illness.

17 Reduced benefit payable with 26 to 49 weeks of paid or credited contributions.

18 Varies among individual employers; national average, 1.2 percent in 1954. 19 Date of Federal law. Information in this table commonly prevails in all States; for provisions of unemployment insurance laws, as of 1955, by individual State, see article on p. 34 of this issue.

20 Average for all funds; rates for employees vary among funds from 0.2 to 4.0 percent.

SOURCE: International Labor Office.

Earnings of Hotel Service Workers, Selected Jobs and Cities, Mid-1955

EARNINGS of hotel service workers varied widely among the 19 cities in which occupational earnings studies of the hotel industry were conducted by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics during the summer of 1955.1 Average hourly earnings generally were lowest in the southern cities; they were highest in San Francisco. Among the occupational groups studied, lowest and highest earnings were usually reported for chambermaids and men dinner cooks, respectively. Cooks, dishwashers, and pantry workers commonly received free meals in addition to their money wages. Such payments in kind were not commonly reported for other occupational groups studied. Work schedules of 40 hours per week were prevalent in most northern cities, whereas 48 hours a week were common in most southern cities. Vacation payments and insurance benefits were available to most workers in all cities.

Industry Characteristics

New York City (Manhattan) and Chicago, together, accounted for nearly half of the 92,000 hotel service workers employed by establishments within the scope of the survey. Considering total hotel service employment in the 19 cities, men employees outnumbered women employees by a ratio of about 5 to 4. Men accounted for about 60 percent of the work force in Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, and women outnumbered men 2 to 1 in Birmingham; in the other 14 cities the ratios of men and women employees were approximately equal.

The large majority of the elevator operators in Boston, New Orleans, New York City, and San Francisco were men; in most other cities, women employees in this classification either were predominate or were employed in about the same proportions as men. Men outnumbered women as dishwashers in most northern cities, whereas women predominated in these jobs in Atlanta, Birmingham, Houston, and New Orleans.

Hotels having union agreements covering a majority of their workers accounted for at least 80 percent of the hotel service employees in all of the cities surveyed except Atlanta, Birmingham, Houston, and New Orleans; none of the hotels in the four southern cities reported labor-management contracts covering a majority of their workers. Individual hotels in northern cities frequently united to negotiate the provisions of union contracts. The Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union (AFL) and the Building Service Employees International Union (AFL) are the largest unions in the industry.

Occupational Earnings

Hotel chambermaids, the largest and generally the lowest paid occupational category among the 8 jobs selected for study,' averaged less than $1 an hour in 14 of the 19 cities surveyed. Citywide averages for chambermaids ranged from 40 cents or less an hour in 4 southern cities to $1.27 in San Francisco. These workers averaged about 80 cents an hour in Philadelphia and Washington, D. C., about 90 cents in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Cleveland, and $1 in New York City.

Average hourly earnings of men and women dishwashers in most cities were within a few cents more or less of those received by chambermaids. Earnings of men and women elevator operators typically exceeded those of chambermaids by amounts ranging from 5 to 10 cents an hour; pantrywomen, with citywide averages ranging from 39 cents an hour in Birmingham to $1.68 in San Francisco, received wages similar to

1 The earnings information presented in this report relate to average straight-time hourly earnings, excluding premium pay for overtime and for work on weekends, holidays, and late shifts. Tips and the value of room and board, provided to some hotel workers, were also excluded.

The studies were limited to year-round hotels employing 51 or more workers. Areas of study were confined to city limits with the following exceptions: Los Angeles (downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood), New York City (borough of Manhattan), San Francisco (San Francisco County), Seattle (King County), and Springfield-Holyoke (Standard Metropolitan Area). Payroll periods covered were: June (Birmingham, Buffalo, Houston, Kansas City, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Seattle); July (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Springfield-Holyoke, San Francisco, and Washington, D. C.); and August (Los Angeles).

Occupations were selected on the basis of their numerical importance, their usefulness in collective bargaining, or their representativeness of the entire job scale in the industry. Bellmen and waiters were omitted because a large proportion of their earnings are derived from tips, thus making it difficult to secure accurate wage information.

those of elevator operators in many of the cities, but there were some notable exceptions (table 1). Among the men's jobs studied, dinner cooks (assistant chefs) were the highest paid, with

1

average earnings ranging from $1.02 an hour in Birmingham to $2.17 in Boston. Averages for these jobs were about $1.75 an hour in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati; nearly $2 an hour in

Dishwashers

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1 Excludes premium pay for overtime and for work on weekends, holidays, and late shifts, as well as the value of tips and perquisites (free meals and lodging) provided to some hotel employees.

An agreement signed Aug. 25, 1955, between the Hotel Association of New York City, Inc., and the New York Hotel Trades Council (AFL), provided that all union workers in New York City hotels were to receive a 5-cent-an-hour increase retroactive to June 1, 1955, and another 5 cents an hour on June 1, 1956. The retroactive increase is not reflected in the data presented for this city.

An agreement signed Sept. 16, 1955, between the Hotel Men's Association and the Washington, D. C. Joint Board of Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union (AFL), provided that union workers who customarily receive no tips, such as cooks, dishwashers, and elevator operators, were to receive an increase of 3 cents an hour as of that date. This increase is not reflected in the data presented for this city.

NOTE.-Dashes indicate no data or insufficient data to warrant presentation.

Los Angeles, Springfield-Holyoke (Mass.), New York City, and Seattle, and slightly more than $2 in Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

Occupational earnings differed, not only in terms of average pay levels, but also in the degree of dispersion of individual earnings. Within each of the cities, workers employed in the lower paid occupations such as chambermaids, elevator operators, and dishwashers were generally concentrated within a comparatively narrow earnings range. By contrast, pay rates for room clerks and dinner cooks varied widely.

Establishment Practices

In addition to their money wages, kitchen and dining room employees customarily receive free meals. Cooks, dishwashers, and pantry workers

in most of the hotels studied received two meals a day. Maids and elevator operators rarely received these perquisites and only a few hotels provided such wage supplements to room clerks. Free lodging for room clerks was reported by a few hotels, but the practice was not common.

Work schedules of 37%1⁄2 hours a week applied to the majority of the hotel workers in Minneapolis and San Francisco and to most women in Buffalo. All hotels in Cleveland reported a 44-hour workweek; and weekly schedules of 48 hours were common in Atlanta, Birmingham, Houston, Kansas City, New Orleans, and Washington, D. C. A majority of the workers in the other cities surveyed were employed by hotels maintaining a 40-hour workweek.

Vacations with pay were provided by virtually all of the hotels. A large majority of the workers

Paid vacations?

1 Supplementary benefits were treated on the basis that if formal provisions in an establishment were applicable to half or more of the workers, the benefit was considered applicable to all workers. Because of length-of-service and other eligibility requirements, the proportion of workers currently receiving the benefits may be smaller than estimated.

Vacation payments such as percent of annual earnings and flat-sum amounts were converted to an equivalent time basis.

3 Limited to full-day holidays provided annually.

Includes only those plans for which at least a part of the cost is borne by the employer and excludes legally required plans such as workmen's com

in nearly all cities were granted a week's vacation after 1 year of service and 2 weeks after 3 or more years of service (table 2).

Paid holiday provisions were common in 10 of the 19 cities. A majority of the workers in Buffalo, Cleveland, Minneapolis, New York City, and Philadelphia received 6 days a year; in San Francisco, 5 days; in Springfield-Holyoke (Mass.) and Washington, D. C., 3 days; and in Chicago and Seattle, 2 days.

A majority of the workers in all cities were employed by hotels providing at least a part of the

Earnings in Power Laundry and Dry Cleaning Industries, Mid-1955

EARNINGS of workers in the power laundry industry increased 4.1 percent between mid-1953 and mid-1955, according to a study made by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics in 25 major cities of the United States (table 1). This increase covering a 2-year period was less than the annual rate of increase of 5.2 percent between 1945 and 1955, during which earnings rose 66.6 percent. The Bureau's study of average straight-time earnings of production workers in the power laundry industry, as well as in dry-cleaning establishments in 29 areas, revealed wide variations.

An estimated half million workers were employed in both industries in mid-1955. Since 1947, employment in the power laundry industry has decreased 10 percent, while it has increased slightly in the dry-cleaning industry. The downward trend in employment in power laundries, which is contrary to the experience in most industries during recent years, has been attributed to the popular acceptance of improved home washing and drying machines and the comparatively recent innovation of self-service laundries (laundromats).

Labor-management contract provisions established wages and working conditions for a majority of the workers in both industries in most of the areas. Boston, Denver, Providence, and the

Southern areas (except Birmingham), were the only localities in which fewer than half the workers were employed by establishments having contract provisions covering a majority of their workers. In the power laundry industry, the Laundry Workers' International Union (AFL) has extensive coverage. The Amalgamated Clothing Workers (CIO) also has some agreements, principally in New York City. In the dry-cleaning industry, the International Association of Cleaning and Dye House Workers (AFL) represents groups of drycleaning workers in a number of cities.

Wage Trends

Increases in average straight-time hourly earnings of production workers in power laundries between 1945 and 1955 ranged from 43 percent in Cleveland 2 to 111 and 100 percent in Minneapolis-St. Paul and St. Louis, respectively. However, they were concentrated within a range of 60 to 80 percent in most of the other areas studied.

1 Studies conducted by the Bureau prior to 1955 were limited to establishments primarily engaged in operating mechanical laundries (Industry Code 7211 as defined in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual, 1949 edition, prepared by the Bureau of the Budget). Although the 1955 studies were extended to also include dry-cleaning establishments (Industry Code 7221), only the data relating to power laundries were used in the computation of the wage indexes. The indexes measure principally the effects of general wage changes, merit increases in pay, any variation in incentive earnings or the ratio of time and incentive workers on the same job, and personnel turnover. The methods of construction and the limitations of the indexes are described in Wage Trends in Power Laundries, 1945 to 1953, Monthly Labor Review, May 1954 (pp. 522–525).

2 The increase for laundry workers in this locality during the years 1945-47 was markedly below those in all other areas. Since 1947, the increase in Cleveland has averaged slightly above those for all areas combined.