LEGISLATION REGULATING THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN 16 YEARS OF AGE AND OVER, JAN. 1, 1915-Concluded. Barrooms and occupations All establishments 2. requiring constant stand ing.2 Coal mines and barrooms... Mercantile establishments... Mines, barrooms, messenger All establishments. Yes.. Yes... Yes. Manufacturing, mechanical, Yes. Manufacturing, mechanical, Yes... Yes... Yes. Manufacturing, mechanical, 3 For females under 19 in cities of the first class. 48 per day and 48 per week if any work is done between 8 p. m. and 6 a. m. CONDITIONS SURROUNDING STREET RAILWAY EMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES. The investigation of street railway employment which the bureau has been carrying on for the past year has been completed so far as the field work is concerned, and the tabulation of the data secured is now going on. The material collected relates to the wages, hours, and conditions of employment. The more detailed study covers 81 cities, with 98 different companies, while 375 cities have been covered with a shorter and less detailed schedule. The employees included in the inquiry are approximately 94,000 motormen and conductors. NEW INVESTIGATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. Among the new subjects upon which the bureau is now engaged are studies of profit sharing, administration of labor and compensation laws, employment bureaus of industrial and mercantile establishments, and labor conditions in Hawaii. The plans for studies relating to women in industry and several other subjects are under consideration, but have not yet been completed. The study of profit sharing is intended to cover the various forms of profit sharing proper (distribution among employees of a fixed proportion of net profits, determined in advance), as well as other forms of gain sharing, such as distribution of bonuses for long service or for other cause, premiums or dividends on wages, and sale of stock to employees on specially favorable terms. The study will include detailed descriptive as well as statistical analysis of the various schemes, together with their experience over as long a period as is possible. Investigation of the administration of labor laws in the various States has for its purpose the securing of detailed information in regard to the powers and duties of the various State agencies having to do with the administration of any of the labor laws, the way in which these agencies are organized, their methods of work, and what they are accomplishing. In studying this question the labor laws will be considered in the broadest sense, including the enforcement of labor laws, the making of labor investigations, the administration of public employment offices, the work of minimum wage commissions and of workmen's compensation commissions. The study is at present being carried on in the Pacific Coast States. Another investigation that promises to be of interest and of decided value is the study of the work of organized employment bureaus of industrial and mercantile establishments, or, as it might be termed, a study of organized methods of "hiring and firing." These bureaus have been organized in many establishments with the purpose of doing away with the old methods, so wasteful alike to employers and workers, where men were hired and dismissed according to the daily demands of one department, sometimes entirely without regard to the needs of the morrow in other departments. In some establishments where the work of these bureaus has been perfected, large savings have been reported because of the much greater stability of the force. Estimates have been made of the cost of hiring a man, ranging from $50 to several hundred dollars per man. It is obvious, even if the lowest figure is at all fair, that enormous savings are possible in the great establishments which hire several thousand men each year. The purpose of the study will be to learn in detail all the methods which have proved most successful and the results which have been secured, both as affecting the employer and the men. The investigation of labor conditions in Hawaii is the regular investigation required by law to be made once in five years. The study will, in general, cover the ground and follow the method of previous studies, the results of which were published in reports of the bureau in 1901, 1902, 1905, and 1910. OVERTIME IN THE FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CANNING AND PACKING INDUSTRY OF OREGON. The Oregon Industrial Welfare Commission, under date of May 26, 1915, published an order providing for the issuance of emergency overtime permits for fruit and vegetable canning and packing establishments. Provision is made that such overtime shall not be permitted for more than six calendar weeks, and that the working time, including overtime, shall not exceed 60 hours in any calendar week nor 10 hours in any one day. The order is quoted in full below. TAKE NOTICE: That pursuant to the authority granted by chapter 35, General Laws of Oregon, 1915, the industrial welfare commission has investigated the emergency overtime requirements of the fruit and vegetable canning and packing industry of Oregon and finds that for six (6) weeks of each year the aforesaid industry requires emergency overtime beyond the fifty-four (54) hours a week prescribed as maximum hours for women workers in such industry in Í. W. C. Orders No. 2 and No. 5. WHEREFORE, the industrial welfare commission authorizes and permits the employment of adult women in fruit and vegetable canning and packing establishments in the State of Oregon for more than fifty-four (54) hours a week under the following conditions and rules which the aforesaid commission hereby to-day determines and prescribes: 1. Such emergency overtime shall not be permitted for more than six (6) calendar weeks, from May 1 to December 1 in any year. 2. The emergency overtime shall not exceed the fifty-four (54) hours a week now prescribed by I. W. C. Orders No. 2 and No. 5 by more than six (6) hours for any calendar week. 3. Nothing in this permit or order shall be interpreted as authorizing the employment of any woman for more than ten (10) hours in any day. 4. Such emergency overtime shall be paid for at a rate of not less than twenty-five cents (25c) an hour; and the earnings for emergency overtime shall in no case be included in the weekly minimum wage prescribed by the rulings of the commission, but shall in every case be over and above the weekly minimum wage prescribed by I. W. C. Orders No. 2 and No. 5 for adult women workers. 5. The owner or manager of every fruit and vegetable cannery or packing establishment in Oregon employing women under this emergency overtime permit shall furnish the industrial welfare commission on or before the 5th day of each month a tran script, duly verified as hereinafter provided, of the weekly time and pay roll of each woman who has worked more than fifty-four (54) hours in any one week of the preceding month. Said transcript shall furnish the name and employee number of each woman employee. 6. Said transcript shall be verified by said owner or manager or some person in his behalf having knowledge of the facts by subscribing and swearing to a statement that said transcript is a full, true, and accurate statement of the overtime worked by and wages paid to each and every woman who has worked overtime. ADMINISTRATION OF THE CHILD-LABOR LAWS OF CONNECTICUT. The Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor has recently published a bulletin on the above subject, taking up specifically the effect of the employment certificate system as an enforcement agency. The bulletin contains 69 pages and presents the result of field work in text form, with copies of the laws, and graphs showing the administrative agencies provided for and the methods in use for procuring employment certificates. Forms of certificates and sample educational tests add to the completeness of this initial study by the bureau in this particular field. Studies of other States, taking up legislation of different types, are to follow. An outstanding feature of the law of Connecticut is the completeness with which the matter of the issue of employment certificates and the following up of employment under them is placed in the hands of the State board of education and worked as a part of the compulsory education law of the State, instead of connecting it with the work of factory inspection, thus securing a strong centralization of control, which makes for efficiency. The law permits no employment in mechanical, mercantile, or manufacturing establishments of children under the age of 14 years, and requires employment certificates until the age of 16. These certificates cover the points of age, education, and physical condition, and are issued only to children holding an employer's declaration of intention to employ the child if a certificate is issued to him or her. The employer retains the certificate and is required to report the child's entrance on employment and also the termination of such employment. On such termination the child is to return to school unless new employment is obtained, for which also a new certificate is required. Besides issuing certificates, the board of education, through its agents, inspects places where children are employed for the purpose of detecting violations of the law in regard to children under 14, children 14 to 16 without certificates, and children between those ages who are physically unfit for labor. Inspectors have the legal right of seeing the list of certificates on file, but not of going through the establishment, though employers generally permit this. Inspectors of the department of factory inspection have a right to go through the establishments, but not to inspect the register of children employed, though this is done occasionally. While, therefore, there is a disposition on the part of the two agencies to cooperate, and it is done to some extent, the amount of cooperation is much lessened by reason of these divergent powers. There is also a natural cooperation between the inspectors and local attendance officers and school authorities, a weakness in this respect being the lack of complete cooperation as regards parochial schools. A prime difficulty discovered was with reference to the return to school of children becoming unemployed after a time. They have lost their places in their classes and are often looked upon by their teachers as undesirables, both on account of thus becoming ungraded and because of loss of interest. So great and evident are the difficulties attendant upon the return to school of a child after a period of employment that efforts in this direction are found to be rather perfunctory, and the inspector's activities are frequently directed toward securing new places of employment rather than enforcing a probably fruitless school attendance, especially if the family is known to be in need of the child's earnings. In any case there is apt to be delay in getting results in any effort in this direction. This adds to the difficulties, since habits of idleness quickly develop during unemployment and the more or less active avoidance of the inspector by the child while the latter is perhaps nominally looking for a new position. With many excellencies both of substance and of administration, the above apparent weaknesses were noted, together with others, which are, in brief, allowing the reading and writing of any language instead of requiring English, and the acceptance of too low an educational standard generally, especially where school records were taken in lieu of examinations; inadequacy in the matter of physical examinations, which are apparently quite infrequently required; and the imperfection of any methods adopted to prevent the employment outside of school hours of children not legally employable. The issue of future studies in this field, which will afford a basis of comparison, will be awaited with interest, the avowed purpose of the undertaking as a whole being to bring out a standard method of administration in this important field. FOREIGN FOOD PRICES AS AFFECTED BY THE WAR. To show something of the effect of the European war upon cost of living following the outbreak of hostilities in August, 1914, the bureau has just issued Bulletin No. 170 under the title "Foreign food prices as affected by the war." Much of the information of the report was obtained through the consular service of the Department of State, and, in the main, covers the period from August to December, 1914. Prices are given for 18 countries and represented by reports from over 100 cities, towns, and consular districts. |