Published by Harvard University Books, periodicals, and manuscript to be addressed, EDITORS of QUARTER JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS, Cambridge, Mass. Business letters to be addressed, HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2 U sity Hall, Cambridge, Mass. Subscription, $3.00 a year. II. DEPRECIATION AND RATE CONTROL III. Ultimate Results of Permitting and Regulating Combinations W. Z. Rip Allyn A. You E. Dana Dura Stuart Dagge Warren M. Perso VI. LATER DEVELOPMENTS IN THE UNION PACIFIC MERGER REVIEW: Books on Business Cycles: Mitchell, Aftalion, Bilgram NOTES AND MEMORANDA: "Unearned Increments," Land Taxes, and the Building Trade B. M. Anderson, J CONTENTS FOR NOVEMBER, 1914 I. HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND ECONOMICS: A SURVEY OF RE- . Wesley C. Mitchel II. THE CITY OF LONDON AND THE BANK OF ENGLAND, . III. THE TRUST LEGISLATION OF 1914 IV. WAGES BOARDS IN AUSTRALIA: I. VICTORIA V. SPECIFIC PRODUCTIVITY REVIEW: Hobson's Work and Wealth NOTES AND MEMORANDA: The War and the Financial Situation in the United States COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY HARVARD UNIVERSITY. . J. M. Keyne E. Dana Duran M.B. Hammoni Walter M. Adriance J. M. Clark O. M. W. Sprague Z. Clark Dickinson [Entered as Second-class Mail Matter THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS FEBRUARY, 1915 WOMEN'S WORK AND WAGES IN THE UNITED STATES SUMMARY I. Changes in women's work, 1900-1910. Trade and transportation, 203.-Manufactures; the continuance of the industrial revolution, 204.— Domestic and personal service workers, 206.-II. Wages of Women in the United States, 207.-Minimum wage means a living wage, 208.- Various investigations of actual wages, 209.-Effect of lost time and seasonal occupation, 210.-III. Causes of Low Wages, Lack of mobility, 212. -Youth, 213.-Race and immigration, 217.-Woman as a member of a family group, 222. — IV. Minimum wage legislation and the potential labor supply, 228.- Possible prolongation of the working years, 229. — Probable attraction of more women into industry, 230.—Part time workers may be transformed into full time, 230. — V. Conclusion, 232. — Needed measures of support for the minimum wage legislation, 234. I. CHANGES IN WOMEN'S WORK, 1900-1910 MINIMUM Wage legislation became an established fact in nine American states in 1913. In at least as many other states there exists an active propaganda for similar enactments. There is, in consequence, wide interest in questions relating to women's position in the industrial field. As a result we have an excellent and growing literature dealing with these questions of public interest and policy. The initial inquiry may well be: what is the field of women's work in the United States? with the subordinate question: is the nature of her work changing? 1 The census of 1910 shows a total of 7,608,000 1 female wage earners as compared with 5,319,000 in 1900. This is an increase of 43 per cent. In the same decade the number of females 10 years of age and over had increased but 22 per cent. The table following shows in column I the distribution in 1900 and in 1910 by percentages of women workers among the various occupational groups; in column II the percentages of all workers in the occupational groups who are females in these two census years; and in column III the increase in number and in percentage of women workers in 1910 as compared with 1900. The significance of the first column is to disclose which occupational groups are attracting a larger and which a smaller percentage of the total number of women workers; of the second column to show in which occupational group women are gaining, and in which losing ground, as compared with male workers; and of the third to allow a comparison of the increase of women workers in the occupational groups on a numerical and a percentage basis. 1 Vol. iv, Occupation Statistics. This is the corrected figure given on p. 28. * Ibid., pp. 41 and 57. I have used the corrected figure here also. Figures affected are indicated by an asterisk. The field of domestic service returned a smaller percentage of the women workers in 1910 than in 1900. The percentage of increase shows that an increase of a half million in the decade is about normal since the total number of women of working age increased 22 per cent. The only marked change shown here is in the increase in the percentage of domestic workers who are female, from 37.5 to 48.9. This clearly indicates a withdrawal of men from these occupations. As a con sequence women have a much stronger hold on this, their traditional occupation. Agriculture also claims fewer women in each thousand women at work in 1910 as compared with 1900. In each 1000 agricultural workers of all kinds, however, there were 106 women in 1910; and but 94 in 1900. Tho this increase in the proportion of women to men is considerable, the increase in absolute numbers of women is not striking, and the probability that closer enumeration in 1910 renders the comparison incorrect is great. There is no indication that women are finding a new field here. The gain of women in the professions has been nearly balanced by gains of men. Moreover, the increased number of female workers is nearly all accounted for by those listed as teachers, in the schools and of music and art. New departures here are negligible. The most striking change disclosed by the table is the enormous increase in the number of female workers in trade and transportation. In each 1000 women wage earners in 1910, 158 are in these occupations. No more than 95 were so engaged ten years earlier. Of each 1000 workers in this field in 1910, 158 were women; but 106, in 1900; and, finally, this group of female workers shows a gain in absolute numbers of nearly 700,000, or 139 per cent. No other occupational group shows so great a gain in numbers; none other approaches their |