CARD ། གྲོ

WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR IN THE PAPER AND WOOD PULP INDUSTRY IN MASSACHUSETTS.

I.

INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL SUMMARY.

INTRODUCTORY.

This report shows earnings and hours of labor of employees in all of the paper mills in Massachusetts1 and is the result of an inquiry made by this Bureau under the law governing its general duties and in pursuance of a policy adopted several years ago of making an annual study of wages paid and hours worked by the wage-earners of Massachusetts. The paper and wood pulp industry was selected for the study because of its importance, it being one of the five principal industries of this Commonwealth.2

The information on which this report is based was secured, with but one exception, directly by our Special Agents who visited every paper mill in Massachusetts and in many cases personally copied the desired data from the pay-rolls. In a limited number of cases the pay-rolls were copied by the firm and verified chiefly by inspection of the books. The data here given represent, therefore, authentic information from original records.

The information as to wages and hours presented in this report represents the conditions existing in the first part of October, 1912, the data for time-workers and shift-workers being obtained for the pay-week ending between September 28 and October 5, while for piece-workers the hours worked and amount of actual earnings were obtained for three of the four weeks ending September 21, 28, October 5 or 12. In all cases where three weeks' earnings were secured, the individual earnings have. been divided by three in order to reduce them to a weekly basis for ready comparison. It is important, however, to understand that the data also

1 The report of this Bureau on the Statistics of Manufactures for 1912 shows 91 establishments engaged in this manufacture in Massachusetts. Three small establishments were not in operation at the time this inquiry was made (October, 1912) and two were engaged in the manufacture of articles composed of material other than paper. These latter mills manufacture a leatherboard composition and the United States Bureau of the Census has classified these establishments under the paper and wood pulp industry because of the similarity between this composition and cardboard. As there is absolutely no paper in the composition this Bureau decided to omit these mills from this inquiry.

The other four leading industries of Massachusetts are: Boots and Shoes, Woolen and Worsted Goods, Cotton Goods, and Leather - Tanned, Curried, and Finished.

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represent to a considerable degree the conditions existing in March, 1914, for the reason that the statistics were gathered as of October, 1912, or after the general increase in wages which took place in the industry in May, 1912, and that as the result of a supplementary inquiry (begun in January and completed in March, 1914) it was found that only 417 employees in 15 mills had received changes in weekly rates of wages - 309 receiving increases and 108 receiving decreases the average net increase per employee being 57 cents for a full-time week. Between October, 1912, and February, 1914, 514 employees in 12 mills received changes in weekly hours of labor, 430 men being granted reductions averaging 10.2 hours a week, 59 women being granted reductions averaging 3.3 hours a week, while 25 men had their weekly hours increased, the average amount of increase being 7.1 hours a week. During this same period six mills, employing 183 shift-workers, changed from the two-shift to the three-shift system, increasing the number of their shift-workers from 183 to 259, an increase of 76, or 41.5 per cent. The aggregate amount of the pay-rolls for these six mills for the representative week in October, 1912, was $11,657.29. Since the rates of wages of the day-workers in these six mills were not changed between October, 1912, and March, 1914, we may assume for purposes of comparison that the pay-roll for the day-workers was the same on both dates. Our supplementary inquiry of March, 1914, then shows that on account of the change from a two-shift to a three-shift basis the aggregate amount of the pay-rolls (computed on a full-time basis for the shift-workers) of these six mills had increased from $11,670 to $12,599, or 8.0 per cent.

It was found in the tabulation of the data obtained in our supplementary inquiry that the general changes in wages and hours of labor would affect but very little the general results shown in this report. The average full-time weekly earnings of those employees who received changes in weekly rates of wages during the period, October, 1912, to March, 1914, were $12.23 for males and $6.04 for females in October, 1912, and $12.66 for males and $6.94 for females in March, 1914. The average customary working time of the 430 men who received changes in hours of labor during the same period were 61.1 hours a week for males and 54.7 hours a week for females in October, 1912, and 52.0 hours for males and 51.4 hours for females in March, 1914.

The information obtained in the original inquiry as to earnings and hours of labor from the 86 paper and wood pulp mills in operation in Massachusetts in October, 1912, is presented in this report for 13,871 employees, of whom 9,331 were males and 4,540 were females. The average number of persons employed, according to this Bureau's Annual Report

on the Statistics of Manufactures for 1912, was 14,096, the number varying from 13,699 in January to 14,344 in December, while the average number employed in October, 1912 (the month for which the data for this report on earnings and hours was obtained) was 14,330.1

3

In a number of cases, especially for piece-workers, it was found impossible to utilize all the information for all of the inquiries, because of the fact that in many establishments no adequate record of the time worked during the period called for could be furnished. All data which for this or other causes could not be collected, were excluded from the tabulation, and in the case of the 1,028 employees whose hours could not be obtained, we have used the data, wherever possible, in showing weekly earnings. In this report, therefore, we have presented complete data for a representative week2 relating to weekly earnings, customary working hours, and the customary number of days worked per week, for 13,871 employees, while hourly earnings and actual 3 weekly hours and days worked in a representative week are presented for 12,843 employees. The reader should bear in mind that this presentation does not take account of the rates of wages, i.e., the amount of money paid to an employee for a specified period of time, if on time-work, or for a specified quantity of work, if on piece-work, but shows the actual earnings, that is, the sum actually received by the employees whether fully employed or not.

The material in regard to hours of labor and weekly earnings in the mills investigated, as secured from the pay-rolls, has been tabulated in detail and in summary form in a series of general tables presented at the end of this report. This material has also been summarized for use in connection with the following text discussion.

1 Data relative to earnings and hours of labor were secured from pay-rolls for 274 employees (making a total of 14,145) which were not used in this report. Of these 274 employees, 174 (123 males and 51 females) were office clerks, stenographers, bookkeepers, superintendents, etc.; 35 (six males and 29 females) were paper-box makers; 48 (males) were paper coaters; 13 (males) were Saturday night or Sunday watchmen and were paid for only one day's work; two (males) were employed in connection with welfare work; and for two (males) the data were incomplete.

? The term "representative week" as used in this report means the week covered by this inquiry, i.e., the week for which the data were taken from the pay-rolls of the paper mill by the agents of this Bureau.

The terms" customary working time" and "customary hours" as used in this report mean the regular full-time hours, while the term "actual hours" means the number of hours actually worked in the representative week for which pay-rolls were obtained in this inquiry.

I. SUMMARY OF RESULTS OF INQUIRY.

During the representative week in October, 1912, i.e., the week for which the pay-roll data were obtained by this Bureau, over one-sixth (17.1 per cent) of all the paper-mill workers worked over 60 hours a week; nearly one-fourth (23.5 per cent) of the male employees worked over 60 hours a week; 40.3 per cent of all employees worked over 54 hours; and 55.3 per cent of the male employees worked over 54 hours. In October, 1912, there were 1,254 male employees who customarily worked two shifts, or an average of 12 hours a day.

Our supplementary inquiry, made in March, 1914, showed that the total number working on the two-shift system had been reduced to 1,071, and several of those mills which still continued on the two-shift system were already endeavoring to make a change to the three-shift system. Men on the two-shift system usually work from 7 A.M. to 6 P.M. when on the day-shift and from 6 P.M. to 7 A M. when on the night-shift, and every week change from the day-shift to the night-shift, or vice versa, which consequently requires them to accustom themselves to the changed conditions of eating and sleeping. It is also to be noted that unless sufficient provision be made by the mills for additional help, shift-workers may be called upon at the end of their shift to work for several hours until some repair job is completed or to work in the place of absent workmen, and thus be obliged to remain on duty for an excessive number of hours beyond a normal day.

During the inquiry, those in charge of the mills, in their discussions with the representatives of the Bureau, frequently emphasized the fact that the men working these long hours are not kept busy all the time. To a considerable extent this may be true, although the opinions of the workers and the employers do not always agree on this subject. At any rate, the employees in question are on duty and subject to orders during the entire period, and they are not (except in rare instances1) allowed to leave the plant. It is not, therefore, simply the character or the continuity of the work, but the fact that in the case of the 12-hour-a-day-man, one-half of each working day is spent on duty in the mills, which is of significance to the worker and his family. Occasional extended periods of overtime serve to increase these customary full-time hours, 260, or 20.7 per cent of the two-shift workers, having worked overtime in a representative week, their average customary full-time hours being 64.9, while their average hours actually worked were 75.6.

1 Machine tenders are sometimes held responsible for their product, even though they may be allowed to leave the mill.

For years past the general tendency in manufacturing industries, as well as in other groups of trades or business, has been toward a shorter working,day. Years ago the 10-hour day became almost a standard; since that time further reductions have brought the working day to nine, and in many cases to eight hours, and this reduction has been accompanied by a part-holiday on Saturday. In the paper mills of Massachusetts it was found by our inquiry that 23.5 per cent of the male employees actually worked over 60 hours a week; also, that 55.3 per cent actually worked over 54 hours a week; on the other hand it should be noted that the customary working time of 28.2 per cent of the male employees was 48 hours and under, while 27.4 per cent actually worked 48 hours and under.

In this connection, and indeed with respect to the facts presented in general in this report, an important consideration to be borne in mind is the peculiar character of the paper industry which differentiates it from nearly every other industry in Massachusetts, namely, the necessity of continuous operation of machinery due to inherent difficulties in the nature of the work; that is, the stock or pulp must be run off into the finished paper, if possible, before shutting down the machinery, since to allow the latter to become cold would necessitate often from two hours to half a day before the plant could be got under way again; i.e., before the paper made could be matched for thickness and weight per pound with paper made at the time preceding the shut-down. For this reason the mill must be kept constantly running without shutting down at night, as may be done in practically every other large industry without any effect upon the output except to limit the quantity. In other words, the running of the paper mill continuously and the consequent employment of the workers day and night is not generally, at least, attributable to unusual market demands or to a desire to turn out the greatest possible product in the shortest possible time for the purpose of enhancing profits, as may be the case in other industries where this is done, but to the fact that paper can not be made in any other way. But while this condition, inseparable from the industry, necessitates the organization of the working force into. shifts or "tours," that fact can of itself scarcely be cited in justification of the custom hitherto quite generally prevailing in the industry of dividing the 24-hour day into two periods of 12 working hours each; and it is hardly a candid answer to criticisms of this custom to say that the men working these long hours are not necessarily kept actually busy all the time. Surely the three-shift system, as already adopted by 53 of the 79 paper mills of Massachusetts, which are in continuous operation for six