only slightly above the Federal 75-cent minimum wage. studied-averaged from $1.59 in plants producing misses' and children's conventional-lasted cementprocess shoes to $1.92 in men's Goodyear-welt dress shoe plants. Janitors and floor boys-the lowest paid men among the selected occupationshad average earnings ranging by type of shoe from 86 cents to $1.04. Earnings of men exceeded those of women by 40 cents an hour, $1.53 compared with $1.13. In March 1953, two-fifths of the women and a sixth of the men earned less than $1 an hour. Earnings of $2 or more were received by nearly 20 percent of the men and by about 2 percent of the women. Among the production-worker occupations selected for study, average hourly earnings of men varied from 86 cents for janitors in the branch manufacturing misses' and children's cementprocess shoes by the conventional-lasted method to $2.30 for fancy stitchers producing women's shoes by the same method (table 2). Men edge trimmers were among the highest paid workers in the industry; their earnings, on the average, ranged from $1.63 in the misses' and children's cement branch to $2.04 in the women's shoes conventional-lasted cement-process branch. Earnings of machine cutters-a skilled group and numerically the most important men's occupation TABLE 3.-Percent distribution of all production workers in footwear manufacturing establishments by average straight-time hourly earnings,1 United States, by major types of shoes, March 1953 The majority of women in the shoe industry were employed as sewing machine operators. Among this group, hourly earnings of fancy stitchers, the most important numerically of the women's selected jobs studied, ranged from $1.09 in the manufacture of women's McKay shoes to $1.29 in women's conventional-lasted cementprocess shoes (table 2). Top stitchers, the second largest group, averaged from $1.16 an hour in women's Goodyear-welt plants to $1.38 in women's conventional cement-process plants. Earnings of vampers, a skilled sewing job employing a substantial number of women, varied from $1.18 an hour in the women's Goodyear-welt branch to $1.43 in the women's slip-lasted cement branch. Substantial numbers of women were also employed in such less skilled jobs as pasters, backers, or fitters, and as floor girls. Earnings in these occupations were generally the lowest among the women's jobs studied, ranging by type of shoe from 95 cents to $1.09 and to $1.07, respectively. Women accounted for about 10 percent of the machine cutters, typically a man's occupation. Their average earnings, by type of shoe, ranged from $1.22 to $1.49 an hour and were the highest among the women's jobs studied. By type of shoe manufactured, wage levels of production workers varied from $1.13 in plants primarily making misses' and children's cementprocess shoes (conventional-lasted) to $1.38 in plants producing women's shoes made by the same process (table 3). Relatively high wage levels were also recorded for workers engaged in producing Goodyear-welt shoes: $1.32 for men's dress, $1.29 for men's work, $1.25 for misses' and children's shoes, and $1.19 for women's shoes. Workers producing other major types of shoes averaged $1.27 for women's cement-process shoes (slip-lasted) and $1.20 for women's McKay and for misses', children's, and infants' stitchdown shoes. Minimum Rate Policies Minimum entrance and minimum job rates relate to established plant policies regarding the lowest rates paid to inexperienced and experienced workers (exclusive of watchmen), respectively. In many instances, advancement from the entrance rate to the job rate involves either a formal period of training or a progression of rates based on length of service or merit rating. Many plants, however, had no intervening steps between the minimum entrance and job rates reported, both rates being identical. A 75-cent entrance rate policy was reported by establishments employing four-fifths of the production workers studied in the footwear industry. On a regional basis, this minimum prevailed for establishments having about four-fifths of the workers in New England, a half in the Middle Atlantic States, seven-tenths in the Great Lakes, and substantially all workers in each of the other regions. A 75-cent minimum job rate for experienced workers was reported by establishments employing nearly half of the production workers in the foot wear industry. The Pacific Coast was the only region in which higher minimum job rates were reported by plants employing a majority of the workers, about 85 percent of the workers being employed in plants with a 90-cent minimum. In the other regions, establishments with a 75-cent minimum job-rate policy employed from about 40 percent of the workers in the Great Lakes region to almost 95 percent in the Southeast. Shoe firms with about two-fifths of the production workers had minimum job rates of from 80 to 95 cents. Related Wage Practices A 40-hour week in March 1953 was typical for first-shift production workers in footwear establishments employing 95 percent of both men and women workers. Late-shift work is uncommon in the shoe industry. Paid holiday provisions were common. Production workers generally received from 3 to 7 days a year. Six paid holidays were typical and applied to two-thirds of the plant labor force. Paid holiday provisions were more liberal for office workers, three-fifths of whom benefited from 6 paid holidays and another fourth, from 7 to 10 days a year. Paid vacations were provided for virtually all workers in the shoe industry. One week's vacation after 1 year's service was a policy of establishments employing nine-tenths of the production workers. Vacation provisions were more liberal for office workers, two-thirds receiving 1 week and the other third, 2 weeks after 1 year of employment. A 2-week vacation after 5 years' service was applicable to seven-tenths of the production workers and three-fourths of the office workers. Insurance or pension plans, financed in whole or in part by the employer, were in effect in footwear establishments employing approximately 80 percent of the workers in the industry. Approximately 50 percent of the shoe workers were covered by life insurance and over 65 percent by hospitalization plans; about 40 percent benefited from surgical plans and sickness and accident insurance. Retirement plans are relatively new to the footwear industry. By March 1953, such plans had been put into effect by shoe plants with slightly less than 10 percent of the total employment in the industry. JAMES P. CORKERY Division of Wages and Industrial Relations Earnings in Ferrous Foundries, Mid-1953 HOURLY EARNINGS averaged $2 or more for molders, coremakers, and patternmakers in most of the 20 areas in which the Bureau of Labor Statistics conducted occupational wage surveys in the ferrous foundry industry during the summer months of 1953. Highest averages for the 8 jobs studied were distributed among 7 labor markets, with highs for patternmakers ($2.79) and laborers ($1.75) found in the San Francisco Bay area. Averages in Detroit ranked among the three highest for most of the jobs. Pay levels for the occupations included in the current surveys were generally from 5 to 20 percent higher than those recorded in similar studies conducted 2 years earlier.2 Nearly half the area job averages had increased by 10 to 15 percent, a third were less than 10 percent higher, and the remainder had advanced by more than 15 percent. Unskilled jobs showed the greatest increases measured percentagewise. Average pay levels for laborers, for example, had increased by more than 15 percent in 5 of 13 areas permitting comparison; among the same areas, averages for machine molders had increased by a similar amount in only one area. However, machine molders more than maintained their cents-per-hour advantage in wages over laborers. More than 220,000 of the Nation's production workers were engaged in the manufacture of gray iron, malleable-iron, and steel castings at the time of these surveys. A third of this employment was concentrated in the 20 labor-market areas covered by the Bureau. The production work force in the industry in each area was composed almost entirely of men. Women, who accounted for less than 2 percent of the total employment, were primarily employed in specialized core-room jobs and were excluded from the study. Labor-management contracts covered a majority of the production workers in each area. The lowest porportionsless than four-fifths-were recorded in Birmingham, Hartford, Milwaukee, and Portland (Oreg.). A majority of the workers in nearly all areas were paid hourly rates. Slightly more than half the workers in Buffalo and Cleveland were employed under incentive systems of wage payment. In eight other cities-Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Hartford, Houston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and St. Louis-the proportion of incentive workers ranged from 30 to 45 percent. Among the occupations studied, incentive pay was most common in machine-molding work. Occupational Earnings Wood patternmakers were the highest paid among the workers studied. Averages for this job generally exceeded $2 an hour and amounted to 1 These studies were limited to independent foundries, employing 21 or more workers, primarily engaged in manufacturing gray-iron, malleable-iron, and steel castings. See Earnings in Ferrous Foundries, June 1951, Monthly Labor Review, December 1951 (p. 702). TABLE 1.-Straight-time average hourly earnings 1 for men in selected occupations in ferrous foundries in 20 areas, 1953 $2.60 or more in Cleveland, Los Angeles, Portland (Oreg.), and the San Francisco Bay area (table 1). Workers performing molding operations were classified in three groups: Machine molders, bench molders, and floor molders. Machine molding involves the use of one of several types of machines used to compact sand in the molds or to facilitate turning of mold sections. Bench and floor molding refer to hand processes, small or medium-size molds usually being prepared on a bench whereas large molds or mold sections are constructed on the floor. Machine molders, numerically more important than hand molders, were generally paid on an incentive basis, whereas most floor and bench molders were paid on a time basis. Machine molders averaged about $2.40 an hour in Buffalo, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, and Newark-Jersey City; averages below $2 were recorded in only 3 areas: New York City ($1.96), Denver ($1.79), and Birmingham ($1.52). Although relative pay positions were by no means consistent in all areas, machine molders generally averaged somewhat higher pay than floor molders, and the latter group typically earned a few cents per hour more than bench molders. Hand coremakers, a majority of whom were paid on an hourly rate basis, averaged $2 or more in 14 of the 20 areas or about the same as floor molders. Material-handling laborers averaged $1.72 to $1.75 in Detroit, Portland (Oreg.), and San Francisco-Oakland, $1.66 in Buffalo, and $1.56 or less in the other areas. Averages for shakeout men and chippers and grinders usually fell between those of laborers and bench molders, with chippers and grinders averaging more than shakeout men in about three-fourths of the areas. Related Wage Practices Most of the foundries scheduled a 40-hour workweek at the time these studies were made. Although work schedules of 44 hours or more were found in some foundries in most of the areas, such schedules applied to as many as a fourth of the workers in only 5 areas. Extra-shift operations were reported in nearly all of the areas. The proportion of the total work force employed on second shifts exceeded a tenth in 14 areas but as many as a fifth were reported on second shifts in only a few of these areas. Nearly all workers on nightwork received differential payments, usually expressed as a cents-per-hour addition to TABLE 2.-Percent of production (plant) workers employed in ferrous foundries with formal provisions for selected supplementary wage benefits, 20 areas, 1953 1 Based on predominant provisions in reporting establishments. * Paid vacation benefits are tabulated according to the two most common methods employed in determining payments: (a) Regular pay for a specified period of time (1 or 2 weeks), and (b) percent of annual earnings. Assuming a full year's employment, benefits computed on the basis of 2 and 4 percent of annual earnings are roughly equivalent to regular pay of 1 and 2 weeks, respectively. "Total" columns include data for provisions in addition to those shown separately, if any 3 Paid holiday provisions are limited to full days. Insurance and pension plans tabulated are limited to those for which at least a part of the cost is borne by the employer and, in addition, exclude plans required by law. Predominantly 2 percent after 1 year's service, and 4 percent after 5 years' service. 6 Over 1 but less than 2 weeks. day rates. Differentials of 5 cents an hour were most commonly reported for second-shift work. Comparatively few workers were employed on a third shift. Vacations with pay and paid holidays were provided to all or most foundry workers in each area (table 2). Vacation benefits were generally based on the worker's regular earnings for a specified length of time in all except 4 areas. Plans of this type almost always provided a week's regular pay after a year of service and 2 weeks after 5 years' service. Provisions for vacation payments of 3 weeks after 15 years' service applied to a majority of the workers in 4 of the areas. In several areas, vacation pay was commonly based on the employee's annual earnings. Such arrangements covered a majority of the workers in Birmingham, Detroit, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. Benefits under these plans nearly always amounted to 2 percent of annual earnings after a year of service and 4 percent after 5 years. Six paid holidays a year were granted to a majority of the workers in all areas except Birmingham, where 3 days were most prevalent, and Newark-Jersey City, New York, Portland (Oreg.), and San Francisco-Oakland, in which 7 days or more were typically provided. Insurance benefits of one or more types (other than those required by law), for which at least a part of the cost was paid by the employer, were widespread in most of the areas studied. Among these, life insurance benefits were most common, applying to three-fourths or more of the workers in all areas except Birmingham, Boston, and New York. Hospitalization insurance benefits were available to most of the workers in all except a few areas. Monetary payments in the event of loss of pay through accident or sickness were also provided a majority of the workers in about twothirds of the areas. Pension benefits exceeding those provided under social security were available to a majority of the workers only in Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Such pension benefits were available to nearly half the production workers in five other areas and to smaller proportions in some of the remaining areas studied. -L. EARL LEWIS Division of Wages and Industrial Relations Earnings in the PRODUCTION EMPLOYEES in the Nation's workclothing industry averaged 96 cents an hour in July 1953, nearly 25 percent more than the average recorded in a similar study conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics 4 years earlier.1 Women constituted seven-eighths of the total production work force. They earned 94 cents an hour, whereas men averaged $1.15. Earnings levels among the different branches of the industry ranged from 92 cents an hour in the manufacture of work pants and work shirts to $1.07 in the washable-service-apparel branch. In establishments manufacturing overalls-the largest branch of the industry-the average was 98 cents an hour. Regionally, straight-time hourly earnings were highest on the Pacific Coast ($1.28). Hourly earnings in the southern regions, where nearly 70 percent of the industry employment is concentrated, averaged 88 cents in the Southeast, 91 cents in the Southwest, and 93 cents in the Border States. (See table 1.) Manufacturers of overalls accounted for slightly more than half of the 66,000 production and related workers covered by the Bureau's study. The proportions employed in work-pants and work-shirt establishments were roughly 30 and 15 percent, respectively. The Southeast accounted for large segments of the employment in these three industry branches, ranging from two-fifths in both overalls and work pants to three-fifths in work shirts. The manufacture of washable service apparel (hospital, professional, barber, and other service-type garments) accounted for only about 5 percent of the total industry employment. This 1 The current study included all establishments with 21 or more workers primarily engaged in manufacturing work pants, work shirts, washable service apparel, and overalls and other industrial garments. For results of the earlier study, see Cotton-Garment Industries: Wage Structure, August 1949, Monthly Labor Review, March 1950 (p. 293). The regions used in this study include: New England-Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont; Middle Atlantic-New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania; BorderDelaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia; Southeast-Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee; Great Lakes-Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin; Middle West-Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota; Southwest-Arkansas, Louisi ana, Oklahoma, and Texas; Mountain-Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming; and Pacific-California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. |