DEPARTMENT OF LABOR SPECIAL BULLETIN Issued Under the Direction of HENRY D. SAYER THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER No. 108 SICHNESS AMONG NEW YORK STATE FACTORY WORKERS IN 1919 Prepared by OFFICE OF THE CHIEF STATISTICIAN SICKNESS AMONG FACTORY WORKERS OF NEW YORK STATE PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF INVESTIGATION As the result of the introduction of health insurance bills at successive sessions of the State Legislature, an investigation of the amount of time loss caused by sickness among factory workers of the State that would be compensable under a compulsory health insurance law was undertaken in 1919. It should be kept in mind in considering the material contained in this bulletin that the purpose was to ascertain, not the total amount of sickness among all of the population of the localities covered by the investigation, but the actual amount of time for which compensation would be paid under such a law. The period covered by the survey varied slightly in different plants. In most cases records were kept for the last six months of 1919, but in some cases the work was not started until August, and in such cases the records were kept through January, 1920. The plan of the survey called for the investigation of each absence of three days or more from July 1, 1919, to December 31, 1919, by a special investigator or some employee designated to be responsible for the work. The usual health insurance plan provides for compensation after a three-day waiting period and not to exceed twenty-six weeks. Consequently the investigation covered approximately the amount of sickness that would be compensable in a period of six months. The investigation was conducted by the Associated Industries of New York State, Inc., and, with the approval of the former State Industrial Commission, the resulting records were turned over to the Bureau of Statistics and Information of the State Department of Labor in 1920 to be checked, analyzed and prepared for publication. Representatives of the Bureau visited each of the establishments in which sickness records were kept to ascertain the method used in keeping the records, and to check the cards on file in the offices of the Associated Industries with records at the factories. The original plan of the survey was to cover an exposure of 200,000 employees, but the actual number of employees covered was about 140,000. The Bureau discarded the records of all plants in which the records were not complete for the full six months, or in which the manner of keeping records was not considered satisfactory. In several cases the investigator employed by the factory left before the conclusion of the work; in other cases the work was obviously neglected before it was completed. No attempt was made to use any of the records in such cases. Consequently the exposure was reduced to an average of 76,559 employees for the six months. The material tabulated, then, represents records which were accepted by the Bureau as properly kept and complete. The records were kept on Hollerith cards, the form of which is reproduced on page 29. In general all figures were entered on the left side of the card. No tabulations of information as to number of dependents or payment of compensation will be found in this bulletin, due to the fact that this information was not obtained in all cases and it was considered impracticable to attempt to complete it after the close of the survey. Even if the information as to the number of dependents and wages received were secured for persons reported as absent on account of sickness, it would not be possible to compute sickness rates for persons in various income groups. For that purpose information on wages and number of dependents would have to be secured for the entire exposure. The representation of various localities of the State is shown in the table below. Such a slight representation was secured for New York City that the figures are not shown separately, but are included with Southern New York, and this survey may be considered practically a survey of the up-State districts. |