TABLE 11. — Percentage of Employees whose Hourly Earnings fell within Certain Specified Wage Groups.

Comparing first the male and female employees, wide differences are seen to exist in the general level and range of earnings as was the case in the matter of weekly earnings. Over three-fourths (76.5 per cent) of the female employees earned less than 16 cents an hour and 95.1 per cent earned less than 20 cents an hour. These two rates of earnings are cited here because they are the prevailing rates paid to day-workers in unskilled domestic service for washing (15 cents an hour) and for cleaning (20 cents an hour). The prevailing minimum rate for unskilled manual labor for males in Boston and vicinity is 25 cents an hour and we find that among the 9,301 men, skilled and unskilled, employed in the paper mills of Massachusetts, 71.6 per cent earned less than 25 cents an hour. In comparing these rates it must be understood, however, that employees in paper mills are employed regularly throughout the year and many live in localities where the cost of living is not so great as in the larger cities.

The level of hourly earnings for males was higher in the power, mechanical, and yard occupations than in either the productive occupations or the general occupations, producing departments, and was higher in the productive occupations than in the general occupations.

The following table shows, in summary form, the hourly earnings of all the paper-mill employees for whom hours of labor were reported, and gives the number of male and female employees, classified according to

their hourly earnings in a representative week. The facts are shown for all occupations and separately for productive occupations, general occupations in the producing departments and for power, mechanical, and yard occupations.

TABLE 12. Number and Percentage of Employees Earning Each Classified Amount an Hour: By Sex.

Considering the employees in paper mills, regardless of occupations, we find that 7,178, or 77.2 per cent of the male workers, earned 16 cents but less than 30 cents an hour, and that 3,094, or 87.4 per cent of the female employees, earned 10 cents but less than 18 cents an hour. The employees engaged in productive occupations show earnings in similar proportions -77.5 per cent for males and 87.4 per cent for females. Among the employees in general occupations, producing departments, 74.2 per cent of the males earned 16 but less than 25 cents an hour, and 73.5 per cent of the females earned 10 but less than 16 cents an hour. Hourly earnings were somewhat higher in the power, mechanical, and yard occupations, 78.2 per cent earning 18 but less than 40 cents an hour.

The following summary table shows the distribution of the employees by classified hourly earnings.

TABLE 13.-Number, Percentage Distribution, and Percentage of Total Number of Employees of Each Sex and Age Group Earning Each Classified Amount an Hour.

Over one-fourth of the 12,843 wage-earners (28.2 per cent) were paid at least 20 cents but less than 25 cents an hour. The next largest group (13.4 per cent) received from 16 to 18 cents an hour; and 11.3 per cent received from 18 to 20 cents an hour. These three groups comprised over one-half (52.9 per cent) of the total number of employees considered.

The 777 employees who received less than 12 cents an hour formed 6.0 per cent of the total number, and the 421 employees who received at least 40 cents an hour formed 3.3 per cent; the two classes receiving these extremes in wages formed 9.3 per cent of all the employees.

Three-fourths of the female employees (75.0 per cent) received 10 cents but less than 16 cents an hour, and over one-third (36.9 per cent) of the female wage-earners were concentrated in the group earning 12 cents but less than 14 cents an hour.

The discussion in the preceding pages has been concerned with the employees in the paper industry without reference to whether operatives worked the customary hours, overtime, or undertime. The hourly earnings of the male employees who worked overtime were greater than the hourly earnings of those who worked full time, while in the case of the female employees the hourly earnings of those who worked undertime were greater than of those who worked full time or overtime.

The following table shows, for time-workers, two-shift workers, threeshift workers, and piece-workers of each sex, regardless of age, in all occupations and in productive and non-productive occupations, regardless of time worked, and for those working full time, the proportions of the total number whose hourly earnings in a representative week fell within certain specified limits.

TABLE 14.- Percentage of Employees whose Hourly Earnings in a Representative Week fell within Specified Limits.

Among the employees who worked full time, it will be seen that of the male employees, 71.7 per cent of the piece-workers earned 25 cents and over an hour as compared with 39.4 per cent of the three-shift workers, 22.8 per cent of the time-workers, and 20.1 per cent of the two-shift workers. Over one-half (51.0 per cent) of the two-shift workers earned less than 18 cents an hour, while only 0.5 per cent of the three-shift workers earned less than this amount. Among the female workers the level of earnings was greater for the piece-workers than for the timeworkers.

The hourly earnings of piece-workers were greater in the case of both male and female employees than were the hourly earnings of either timeworkers or shift-workers, 69.0 per cent of the male piece-workers receiving 25 cents and over an hour as compared with 39.2 per cent of the threeshift workers, 18.6 per cent of the two-shift workers, and 24.2 per cent of the time-workers, while among the female workers the difference was not so great.