Union wages and hours in the bakery industry, June 1, 1940 - - - Union wages and hours of street-railway employees, June 1, 1940.. Residential construction, first 9 months of 1940_. Summary of building construction in principal cities, November 1940__ FOR JANUARY 1941 ENTRANCE WAGE RATES OF COMMON LABORERS, JULY 1940 1 THE average hourly entrance rate of pay of adult male common laborers in 20 industries in the United States was 50.6 cents in July 1940. This average was obtained from the data gathered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its fifteenth annual survey of the hiring rates for common labor. The study covered 202,929 common laborers working at entrance rates in 6,571 establishments. Of these establishments, 4,736 were in the 16 manufacturing industries surveyed, 731 were in 3 public-utility services, and 1,104 were in the buildingconstruction industry. As in 1939, the effect of the Fair Labor Standards Act is again reflected in the distribution of the hourly entrance rates. Oneseventh of all workers covered by this survey were reported as receiving exactly 30 cents an hour in July 1940, while less than 1 percent were reported as receiving lower rates. On October 24, 1939, a minimum wage of 30 cents an hour became effective for all employees engaged in interstate commerce, as defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act. This minimum wage represented an increase of 5 cents an hour over the 25-cent minimum rate in effect under the act during the previous year. Of the number of workers (12.6 percent) receiving less than 30 cents an hour in July 1939, three-fourths were previously reported as receiving an hourly rate of exactly 25 cents, the minimum prevailing at that time.2 Information supplied for the present study indicates that only 1 out of every 100 common laborers had an entrance rate of less than 30 cents an hour in 1940, but that 1 out of every 7 had an entrance rate of exactly 30 cents. Scope and Method of Study As in the Bureau's previous surveys of entrance rates, this study was conducted by the mail-questionnaire method. The questionnaire defined the term "common laborer" as meaning one "who performs 1 Prepared by Willis C. Quant and Edward K. Frazier of the Bureau's Division of Wage and Hour Statistics. 1 See Serial No. R. 1048: Entrance Rates of Common Laborers, July 1939. 1 physical or manual labor of a general character and simple nature, requiring no special training, judgment, or skill." The definition excluded machine operators or other workers performing specific duties which are designated by distinct occupational titles, even though they may be paid the same rate as common laborers. Neither apprentices nor learners fall within the scope of "common laborer" as thus defined. The earnings of women have been omitted from the study because very few of them perform common labor in the industries surveyed. The "entrance rate of pay" was defined as being the lowest rate paid to common laborers when newly hired. Previous studies revealed a practice in some plants of varying the rate paid, on the basis of the nature of the job and its surrounding environments, such as elements of danger, obnoxious odors, and heavy burdens involved, and therefore the questionnaire specified that each of these starting rates should be reported.3 In furnishing the information called for in the questionnaire it is quite possible that not all of the employers placed the same interpretation on the term "common laborer." Hence the figures in this report may cover some unskilled workers other than common laborers. This study is comparable with similar studies made during the preceding four years in that the same industries were covered, the data were obtained as of July 1, and reports were received from each of the 48 States and the District of Columbia. The present survey continues to distinguish three racial groups among the common laborers, namely white (other than Mexican), Negro, and Mexican. In the present study, as in the one for July 1939, it is believed that almost all of the establishments were engaged in interstate commerce. Thus, the data reported for common laborers receiving entrance rates of less than 30 cents an hour, the present legal minimum provided by the Fair Labor Standards Act for workers engaged in interstate commerce, do not reflect the rates paid in intrastate establishments. In the 1940 study, reports were received for a larger number of establishments than in 1939. The 1939 reports were received from 6,448 establishments employing 192,648 common laborers working at entrance rates, while the 1940 reports were received from 6,571 establishments employing 202,929 workers of this kind. The additional reports in 1940 were largely from manufacturing establishments, which averaged approximately 3 times as many common laborers at entrance rates as the average number reported by all the establishments covered in 1939 (84 as compared with 30 per establishment). Nevertheless, the average number of common laborers per The questionnaire called for the number of common laborers at each entrance rate. These employment figures were used as weights in computing average hourly rates and in compiling wage distributions shown in this report. establishment for all those which reported was almost the same in 1940 as in 1939. The establishments which reported in both 1940 and 1939 had lower average rates in 1939 than did all those which reported in that year, as will be shown subsequently. However, the establishments which reported in both years had a higher average in 1940 than did all the establishments which reported in the latter year. The volume of employment of common laborers in establishments which reported in both years increased by 2.4 percent from 1939 to 1940. Those which reported in 1938 and also in 1939 had shown an average increase of 10.4 percent in the employment of common laborers between these two earlier years. Entrance Rates for the Country as a Whole In July 1940, the hourly entrance rates paid to adult male common laborers in the 20 industries covered in this study, while averaging 50.6 cents, ranged from less than 25 cents to more than $1.10. This wide distribution suggests that the entrance wage rate for adult male common laborers (as is true also of the rates for other workers) is affected by such factors as geographical location, size of community, race of worker, hazards of the job, and type of industry. Study of the data in table 1 shows that relatively few common laborers are paid less than 30 cents or more than 67%1⁄2 cents an hour. More than nine-tenths (92.6 percent) of all the common laborers surveyed in 1940 had rates which fell within this 37%-cent range. In 1939, 80.6 percent of the common laborers surveyed received rates falling within this range. The heaviest concentrations appear at 30 cents and at various rates between 40 and 67%1⁄2 cents. The largest massing within any 5-cent range is between 62.5 and 67.5 cents. The common laborers in the iron and steel industry in the Great Lakes and Pittsburgh areas, who received an entrance rate of 62.5 cents an hour, formed a large portion of the 19.6 percent found in this group. The second largest concentration is between 30 and 35 cents and of these common laborers the overwhelming number were reported to earn exactly 30 cents; in fact, one-seventh (14.7 percent) of all the common laborers reported were earning the minimum of 30 cents an hour established by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The outstanding change in the entrance rates reported during the past two years has been the raising of rates which were formerly below 30 cents an hour to a rate of exactly 30 cents. This change reflects the results of the Fair Labor Standards Act. It may also reflect a reluctance to report rates which appear to be in violation of the 30-cent minimum under that act. In July 1938, prior to the application of this national minimum, 8 percent of all common laborers received less than 30 cents an hour and 3.3 percent received less than 25 cents. In July 1939, following the inauguration of the 25-cent minimum, 12.6 percent of the common laborers still received less than 30 cents an hour but rates of less than 25 cents had virtually disappeared from the reports and 9.6 percent were reported to be receiving exactly 25 cents. In the present survey, as of July 1940, fewer than 1 percent of the common laborers were reported at rates of less than 30 cents and 14.7 percent were reported at the statutory minimum of exactly 30 cents. The fact that rates of 30 cents or less were paid to 15.6 percent of the common laborers in 1940, as compared with 15.3 percent in 1939, indicates that the chief movement was from rates of less than 30 cents to the rate of exactly 30 cents. As in 1939, only about 5 percent of the common laborers were paid entrance rates of between 30 and 40 cents an hour and most of these workers were to be found at the 35-cent rate. In the range from 40 cents to 62%1⁄2 cents, which includes the rates paid to more than half the common laborers, the principal rates were to be found at each of the multiples of 5 cents, the 50-cent rate being the most important. The range from 62% to 67%1⁄2 cents included heavy concentrations at both 62% and 65 cents an hour. TABLE 1.-Distribution of Adult Male Common Laborers, by Hourly Entrance Rates in 20 Industries, July 1940 Geographical differences in average hourly entrance rates are shown in table 2, which presents the data by States and by two broad regions, one composed of the Northern and Western States, and the other of the Southern and Southwestern States. |