Related Practices and Supplementary Benefits A 40-hour workweek was scheduled for full-time employees in all establishments studied in Atlanta, Denver, Oakland, Seattle, and Toledo. Furthermore, this schedule was in effect in a majority of the stores studied in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington. Regular workweeks of more than 40 hours were scheduled in a majority of the stores in New Orleans, Portland, and St. Paul. In Boston, 7 stores had a 40-hour week, a similar number had shorter workweeks, scattered between 35 and 40 hours, and 4 others had workweeks exceeding 40 hours. Three Dallas stores had a 40-hour week, 3 were on a 45-hour basis, and 2 had a workweek of less than 40 hours. Half of the Providence stores observed a 40-hour week while the other half had weeks ranging from 37% to 39%1⁄2 hours. New York was the only city besides Boston and Providence in which a substantial proportion of the stores had workweeks of less than 40 hours. Of the 15 New York stores in this category, 11 had a 372-hour week. Full-time employees' regular working hours tended to be grouped into a fixed number of days per week in definite city patterns. All establishments studied in Providence and Washington, all except 1 in Oakland, all but 2 in New York, and a majority in Boston, observed a 5-day employee workweek. A 6-day week was reported in all Denver, St. Paul, and Seattle stores, all except 1 of the New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Portland stores, and a majority of the Chicago and Philadelphia stores. A 52-day week predominated in Atlanta and Toledo, and was observed in half of the Dallas stores. Discounts on merchandise purchased by employees were granted by all stores studied except 2 in New York. Generally, for full-time workers, these discounts ranged from 10 to 20 percent on all types of goods. In some cases, stores granting 20 percent on wearables allowed a smaller discount on nonwearables. New York was the only city in which a substantial number of stores reported discounts of more than 20 percent. Vacations with pay to full-time employees were provided by all stores except one in New Orleans. Many stores granted vacations after 6 months of service. All except one store in New Orleans and one in Dallas provided vacations after 1 year of service. One week of vacation after a year's period was predominant in most of the cities, although in all of them except St. Paul and Toledo some stores granted a 2-week vacation. A 2week vacation after 1 year of service was in effect in a majority of establishments in Boston and Providence. Most of the stores in all cities except St. Paul increased the vacation time to 2 weeks after 2 years of service, and some stores in a few cities provided longer vacations after more than 2 years of service. Paid holidays, varying in number among the individual stores, were provided for store and office workers in all establishments studied in 11 cities. In four cities, a majority of stores provided paid holidays, and, in one city, less than half of the stores had this feature. Most frequently, six or seven holidays were provided. Providence was the only city in which a majority of the stores provided more than seven holidays. Automobile Repair Shops: Straight-time average hourly earnings of class A mechanics in automobile repair shops ranged from $1.31 to $2.15 among 30 large cities surveyed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in July 1948.12 Average earnings in this job category exceeded $1.75 an hour in a third of the cities covered; averages of $2 an hour or more were recorded in San Francisco ($2), St. Louis ($2.08), and Detroit ($2.09), with a high of $2.15 in Cleveland. Class A mechanics averaged less than $1.40 an hour in Louisville, Atlanta, and Providence. The flat-rate system of payment, whereby the mechanic receives a percentage of the labor cost charged the customer, was found most commonly used in the high-average cities. Body repairmen, the highest-paid occupational group studied, averaged $1.75 or more an hour in 17 of the 30 cities studied. Their average hourly earnings exceeded by 10 cents or more 11 Prepared in the Bureau's Division of Wage Analysis. Greater detail on wages and wage practices for each city presented here is available on request. 12 This study included general automobile repair shops and repair departments of retail motor-vehicle dealers, and specifically excluded maintenance repair shops operated by trucking concerns, bus lines, and other establishments operating automotive equipment. In July 1948, about 80,000 workers were employed in automobile repair shops as defined for the purposes of this study, in the 30 cities, exclusive of employment in establishments with less than 5 employees, which were not studied. Information was collected by Bureau field representatives, who obtained information directly from establishment pay rolls and other records and classified the workers on the basis of uniform job descriptions. the average rate paid to class A mechanics, in two-thirds of the cities; they were also found to be higher than those of automotive electricians, in most of the areas studied. Greasers' earnings ranged, on a city-average basis, from 78 cents an hour in Richmond to $1.65 in Toledo. Citywide average hourly earnings of automobile washers ranged from 64 cents to $1.50 an hour, at the time of the study. In 20 of 29 cities providing a wage comparison, earnings averaged at least 10 cents an hour less for washers than for greasers. Comparisons of job earnings in July 1948 with those reported for July 1947, the date of an earlier wage study of the industry,13 indicate that more than three-fifths of the city-occupational averages increased by 5 percent or more during the year. Average earnings of greasers and washers increased more, on a percentage basis, than those of body repairmen and mechanics. Although increases of 5 percent or more were noted in at least one job in each city except Buffalo, in only 7 cities (Cincinnati, Denver, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Providence, San Fran TABLE 7.-Straight-time average hourly earnings,1 selected occupations in automobile repair shops, in 30 large cities, July 1948 Wash ers, automobile .73 cisco, and Seattle) had each job increased by as much as 5 percent. Declines in occupational averages were found in some cities, probably because of lower earnings under the flat-rate system and of labor turn-over. A 44-hour workweek for shop workers was scheduled by a third of the establishments. Most of the remainder reported weekly hours in excess of 44. All or a majority of the shops in Cleveland, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Seattle had established a 40-hour schedule. Paid vacation leave was granted to shop and office workers by more than 90 percent of the establishments studied. With few exceptions, shop workers with a year of service qualified for a 1-week vacation. Policies relating to vacations of office employees were, on the whole, more liberal than those applying to shop workers. Fully a third of the employers granted 2 weeks to office employees who had a year of service. Paid holidays, most commonly six in number, were also provided to shop and office workers, by a great majority of the establishments. Hotel Wages in Large Cities, July 194811 Among 18 large cities of the United States, average earnings of men employed as hotel room clerks varied from 86 cents to $1.29 an hour in July 1948.15 A majority of the cities showed hourly averages amounting to $1 or more for these employees. In 8 out of 15 cities for which comparisons could be made, room clerks averaged at least 10 cents an hour more than desk clerks; in 6 cities, however, hourly averages for these 2 jobs varied by less than 5 cents. Desk clerks, commonly employed in smaller hotels, often perform a variety of duties; however, variations in type and size of hotel appear to influence earnings within each city. Among non-office jobs, the range in hourly pay by city was similar for men cleaners and housemen (46 cents to $1.03 and 43 .88 cents to $1.02, respectively) and somewhat lower (41 to 93 cents) for elevator operators, although Atlanta... $1.71 Baltimore. 1.71 $0.67 Boston.. 1.69 .89 1. 69 .93 1.08 .87 1.35 1.01 Detroit.. Indianapolis... Louisville. New York.. Richmond... 2.03 (1) 1.36 2.08 (1) 2.17 1.56 2.00 .76 .64 1.05 1.21 .74 .91 1.24 .64 1.00 St. Louis. San Francisco.. 2.20 Seattle.... 1.94 1.48 1.13 .83 1 Excludes premium pay for overtime and night work. • Insufficient number of workers to justify presentation of an average. 14 Prepared in the Bureau's Division of Wage Analysis. Data were collected by field representatives under the direction of the Bureau's regional wage analysts. Greater detail on wages and wage practices for each city represented in the study is available on request. "Earnings are exclusive of premium pay for overtime and night work, tips, uniforms, and cash equivalent of room and/or meals provided some employees. Hotels with less than 51 workers were excluded from the study. About 117,000 workers were employed in hotels with 51 or more workers in the 18 in some hotels elevator operators also carry baggage and receive supplementary compensation in the form of tips. In nearly all cities, the lowest rates for the selected jobs studied were reported for chambermaids, with averages by city ranging from 29 to 88 cents an hour. Earnings of women elevator operators equaled those of men employed in this job in 3 cities, but in the other cities were more often a few cents higher. Among hotel office occupations studied, women general stenographers usually averaged considerably more than clerktypists; switchboard operators generally had the lowest rates, with averages in the 18 cities ranging from 48 cents to $1.05 an hour. San Francisco and Seattle hotels reported the highest wage levels for the selected jobs. In these two cities, men desk clerks had the same averages ($1.23); in the other jobs for which information was available, earnings in half the jobs were from 8 to 10 cents higher in Seattle, and in half from 1 to 3 cents higher in San Francisco. The lowest levels reported were chiefly in New Orleans and Atlanta, particularly for nonoffice jobs. In two office jobs (men room clerks and women general stenographers), the averages in Atlanta ranked relatively high in comparison with a number of other cities. The typical workweek for office employees in over half the hotels studied was 48 hours; schedules of 40 to 45 hours were reported in most of the others. About three-fourths of these hotels had schedules of 48 hours for nonoffice employees. 1 Only the San Francisco and Seattle hotels studied, and a large majority of those in New York, reported schedules of 40 hours for all employees. Practically all hotels studied had paid vacation policies. After a year of service, nonoffice employees usually were allowed 1 week; office employees were allowed 2 weeks in approximately one-third of the hotels, and 1 week in most of the others. The policy in more than fourfifths of the hotels was to extend the vacation time for both groups to 2 weeks after more than 1 year's service, usually varying from 2 to 5 years. The highest proportion of hotels reporting no change in vacations for longer service were located in New Orleans, Dallas, and Atlanta. In addition to paid vacations, time off with pay on specified holidays was reported by almost four-fifths of the hotels for office employees and by slightly more than two-fifths for other employees. The number of holidays allowed with pay usually varied from 4 to 6, although 6 days were reported more frequently for office than for other employees. Power Laundries: Average wages of women power-laundry workers employed on flatwork finishing machines 16 Prepared in the Bureau's Division of Wage Analysis. Data for a limited number of occupations were collected by field representatives under the direction of the Bureau's regional wage analysts. Greater detail on wages and wage practices for each city in the current article is available en request. TABLE 8.-Straight-time average hourly earnings 1 for selected occupations in year-round hotels in 18 large cities, by sex, July 1948 1 Excludes premium pay for overtime and night work and tips. No allowance is made for room and/or meals provided some employees. • Insufficient number of workers to justify presentation of an average. * Earnings do not reflect wage increases granted subsequent to Aug. 1, 1948, and retroactive to July 1948. ranged from 37 to 91 cents an hour 17 among 33 large cities surveyed in July 1948.18 The hourly pay of these workers, who represented the largest occupational group in power laundries, averaged less than 65 cents in 17 cities. Laundry bundle wrappers in almost as many cities averaged less than 65 cents, and in 8 cities both these jobs were below the 50-cent level. In 24 of the 33 cities, the average hourly pay of markers, and in 22 and 19 cities, respectively, that of shirt pressers (machine) and retail receiving clerks amounted to 65 cents or more. Hourly rates of men workers in 3 jobs in which they were typically employed were seldom below 65 cents on a city-wide basis. Of these occupations, extractor operators, generally paid the lowest rates, averaged $1 an hour or more in only 8 cities; this level of rates was exceeded in 18 cities by machine washers and in 20 cities by firemen of stationary boilers. Highest earnings levels were reported in Pacific Coast cities. Among the 4 large cities studied in that region, flatwork finishers in Los Angeles, with an 83-cent average, were the only occupational group having an earnings level below 90 cents an hour. In Seattle and San Francisco, earnings of women markers, bundle wrappers, and retail receiving clerks equaled $1 or more. The highest job average for women was $1.08, reported for markers in San Francisco. Men, on the other hand, averaged at least $1.25 in Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle, in the 3 jobs studied. Firemen in San Francisco received the top average for men's jobs-$1.90. Cities in which earnings ranked next to those in the Pacific Coast region for one or more jobs (men's or women's) included Chicago, Detroit, New York, Newark, and Toledo. In contrast with the Pacific Coast region, all city job averages which were below 50 cents an hour for women and below 75 cents for men were found in either the Southeast or Southwest region. Atlanta, Birmingham, Jacksonville, and Memphis ranked lowest for one or more jobs, with variations in earnings levels of only a few cents among these cities. Comparisons of earnings in the July 1948 study 17 Exclusive of premium payments for overtime and night work. 18 Approximately 115,000 workers were employed in power laundries in the 33 cities in July 1948, exclusive of establishments with less than 21 workers, 1 Excludes premium pay for overtime and night work. • Insufficient number of workers to justify presentation of an average. with those reported the same month in 1947 19 revealed that increases had occurred in most job averages in nearly all cities. Women flatwork finishers (machine), and men extractor operators and washers (machine) showed increases, in approximately half of the cities, amounting to at least 5 percent, with more than four-fifths of the increases ranging from 5 to 15 percent. For women bundle wrappers and shirt pressers, the increases equaled or exceeded 5 percent in 22 and 26 of the cities, respectively, and more than twothirds of these increases ranged from 5 to 15 percent. Although earnings were relatively low in Birmingham, this was the only city in which the increases in all five of these jobs exceeded 10 percent. 19 The 1947 study included establishments with 8 or more workers. Since the estimated employment in establishments with 8 to 20 workers accounted for less than 4 percent of the total power-laundry employment in the 33 cities, their exclusion from the 1948 study would have little if any influence upon Wholesale Groceries: Wages in Large Cities, July 1948 20 In 16 large cities of the United States, straighttime hourly earnings of local-delivery truck drivers in wholesale grocery establishments ranged from $1 to $1.70 in July 1948; in 13 of these cities, their earnings equaled or exceeded $1.25.21 For order fillers, earnings levels generally were somewhat lower, with a range from $1.10 to $1.46, and for stockmen or stock helpers they were considerably lower with averages from 96 cents to $1.44. Earnings of fork-lift and other power truckers, who are usually employed only by large establishments, were 1 cent below earnings of stockmen in 2 cities, but in the 6 other cities for which comparisons were possible they were from 6 to 12 cents higher. Earnings levels, for the most part, were highest in San Francisco and New York. Truck drivers had the highest earnings in San Francisco ($1.70), while in New York top averages for order fillers and stockmen ($1.46 and $1.44) were reported. In these 2 cities, as well as in Los Angeles and Chicago, truck drivers averaged $1.50 an hour or more, and stockmen and order fillers equaled or exceeded $1.30. For the latter 2 jobs, earnings averaged as much as $1.30 in Pittsburgh, but only the order fillers attained this level in Detroit and Philadelphia. Lowest earnings levels among all cities included in the study were found in Baltimore and Washington, where the averages for the 3 jobs ranged from 96 cents to $1.15 an hour. Wages increased generally during the year preceding the current study; there were wide variations by city, however, for each occupational group. The most substantial gains were made by order fillers, whose typical increases ranged from 10 to 15 percent in a majority of the cities, compared to increases for stockmen ranging from 5 to 10 percent in half the cities. Averages for truck drivers had changed less than 5 percent over the 1-year period in about half the cities, though 20 Prepared in the Bureau's Division of Wage Analysis. Greater detail on wages and wage practices for each city included in the study is available on request. 11 The wage information here summarized refers to average hourly earnings (excluding premium pay for overtime and night work) in selected jobs. The study, made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, included general-line wholesale grocery establishments and grocery chain-store warehouses engaged in wholesale distribution of merchandise to retail outlets, and employing 8 or more workers. The Southeast and Southwest regions were not represented among the 16 cities covered by the study. in 5 others the increases ranged from 11 percent to about 34 percent. Average increases of at least 10 percent for all 3 jobs were reported in Boston, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. In contrast, earnings in the selected jobs on a city-wide basis in Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York did not increase as much as 10 percent. Slight decreases occurred for stockmen in Los Angeles and for local-delivery truck drivers in New York; however, these declines in earnings probably resulted from factors such as increases in labor force and turn-over in employment rather than from actual downward adjustments in basic rates. Women's Dress Manufacture: Women sewing-machine operators employed on the single-hand (tailor) system of dress manufacture 23 averaged $1.70 or more an hour in TABLE 10.—Straight-time average hourly earnings 1 of men, selected occupations in wholesale grocery establishments in 16 cities, July of 1947 and 1948 Cities 1 Baltimore..___ $1. 11 $1. 01 Detroit. 1.30 1.20 Los Angeles... (3) 1.27 Milwaukee. 1.24 1.06 Minneapolis St. Paul.... 1.11 1.07 New York.... 1.46 1.36 Philadelphia.. 1.45 1. 18 Pittsburgh. 1.37 1.24 St. Louis. 1.24 1.10 San Francisco 1.38 1.28 Washington.. 1.10 .99 0 $1.15 $1.10 12.3 1.35 (3) 9.5 1.25 1.16 7.8 8.9 1.51 1.44 4.9 11.3 1.30 1.08 20.4 9.3 1.44 1.35 6.7 (1) 9.3 1.40 1.28 -1.4 1.53 1.47 16.5 1.26 1.11 2.9 1.17 1.14 8.3 1.56 1.57 5.8 1.29 1.29 11.0 1.49 1.34 17.3 1.35 1.01 33.7 8.6 1.70 1.46 16.4 9.0 1.00 3.1 .97 1 Excludes premium pay for overtime and night work. This occupation was not included in the July 1947 study. • Insufficient number of workers to justify presentation of an average. "Prepared by Toivo P. Kanninen of the Bureau's Division of Wage Analysis. Data were collected by field representatives under the direction of the Bureau's regional wage analysts. More detailed information on wages and related practices for each of the cities studied is available on request. "Excluding those establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing aprons, smocks, hoovers, and nurses' and maids' uniforms, and those establishments with fewer than 8 workers, which were not covered in the study. Approximately 117,000 workers were employed in the industry in the 11 cities studied in August 1948, exclusive of establishments with fewer than 8 employees. |