For the male employees who worked full time in this industry the level of earnings was very much higher for piece-workers than for time-workers, 83.3 per cent of the piece-workers earning 30 cents and over an hour as compared with 43.8 per cent of the time-workers. Over one-third (37.6 per cent) of the time-workers earned less than 25 cents an hour and only 8.3 per cent of the piece-workers earned less than this amount. For the female employees who were employed full time there was but little difference in the earnings of the time-workers and piece-workers, 71.1 per cent of the time-workers and 65.7 per cent of the piece-workers earning less than 16 cents an hour, while 91.9 per cent of the time-workers and 92.0 per cent of the piece-workers earned less than 20 cents an hour. Less than one per cent both of time and piece-workers earned 30 cents and over an hour, the percentages being 0.4 and 0.5, respectively.

Other Paper Products. Of the 2,217 male employees, including both skilled and unskilled, employed in the manufacture of other paper products, 60.2 per cent earned less than 25 cents an hour. There was but little difference between the earnings of male time-workers and pieceworkers in this industry, 60.1 per cent of the former and 63.2 per cent of the latter earning less than 25 cents an hour. Nearly three-fourths (73.5 per cent) of the female employees earned less than 16 cents an hour, and 92.2 per cent earned less than 20 cents an hour. There was an appreciable difference in the earnings of the female time-workers and pieceworkers, 55.3 per cent of the piece-workers earning less than 16 cents an hour as compared with 85.1 per cent of the time-workers who earned less than this amount, and 86.6 per cent of the piece-workers earned less than 20 cents an hour as against 95.8 per cent of the time-workers who earned less than 20 cents an hour.

The level of hourly earnings of the male employees who worked full time in this industry was considerably higher for the time-workers, 25.0 per cent earning 30 cents or over, as compared with only 8.6 per cent of the piece-workers who earned 30 cents or over, while 60.5 per cent of the time-workers earned less than 25 cents an hour as compared with 74.3 per cent of the piece-workers who earned less than this amount. The hourly earnings of the female employees who worked full time were but slightly higher for the piece-workers than for the time-workers, 83.2 per cent of the time-workers earning less than 16 cents an hour and 95.7 per cent earning less than 20 cents an hour, the percentages of the piece-workers earning less than these two amounts being 69.7 and 89.5, respectively.

Closely related to the subject of earnings is that of working hours, for which reason a detailed study of the hours of labor of the workers in these industries was made. Facts relative to the customary working hours and the hours actually worked in the various establishments during the representative week covered by this inquiry are presented here for all wage-earners for whom such information was available from the payrolls of the manufacturers.

The data relative to customary working hours are here tabulated for 12,203 wage-earners in the three groups of industries studied, while tables of actual hours are shown for 10,975 employees, or 89.9 per cent, the difference, 1,228, representing the number of workers for whom no records of hours worked were kept at the mills.

2. CUSTOMARY WEEKLY WORKING HOURS.

The table which follows shows the number and percentage of employees of each sex classified by the customary number of full-time working hours per week in all occupations and in each of the three departmental branches of the several industries considered in this report.

Although the so-called 54-hour law is legally applicable only to the employment of women and minors in manufacturing and mercantile establishments, it has, nevertheless, effected a corresponding reduction in the hours of labor of men in many of the establishments in which both men and women are employed, thus establishing the 54-hour schedule as a standard working week for men as well as for women.

Of the 1,733 males engaged in paper box making, it was found that 43.5 per cent were customarily working 54 hours a week; for 44.1 per cent the full-time hours were over 54 a week; and for only 12.4 per cent were the working hours less than 54 a week. In the envelope making group 64.4 per cent of the 890 males customarily worked 54 hours a week, 31.6 per cent worked over 54 hours, when fully employed, and only 4.0 per cent worked less than 54 hours a week. The corresponding percentages for the 2,225 males employed in the manufacture of other paper products were 24.9 per cent customarily working 54 hours, 27.1 per cent working over 54 hours a week, and 48.0 per cent working less than 54 hours a week.

The customary hours of labor of nearly three-fourths (71.3 per cent) of the females employed in the paper box industry were found to be 54 a week. Only 0.5 per cent customarily worked 48 hours a week, while over one-fourth (28.2 per cent) had a full-time week of over 48 but under 54 hours. Practically all the females engaged in envelope making (95.6 per cent) worked customarily 54 hours a week, only 4.4 per cent working less than 54 hours when fully employed. Considering the female employees engaged in the manufacture of other paper products we find that somewhat over one-half (58.0 per cent) had a full-time week of 54 hours, 41.5 per cent customarily working over 48 but under 54 hours a week, and only 0.5 per cent working 48 hours or under.

TABLE 10. Number and Percentage of Employees Customarily Working Specified Number of Hours a Week, Classified by Sex and Industries.

1 The customary hours of labor were less than 48 a week for only one employee.

TABLE 10. Number and Percentage of Employees Customarily Working Specified Number of Hours a Week, Classified by Sex and Industries - Concluded.

3. ACTUAL HOURS WORKED IN A REPRESENTATIVE WEEK. The term "actual hours" means the number of hours actually worked by employees in the representative week for which pay-rolls were obtained in this inquiry. As already explained, a record of the actual hours spent at work was available for but 89.9 per cent of all the wage-earners considered in this report.

In all manufacturing establishments in Massachusetts the maximum number of hours which may be legally worked in a week (exclusive of meal periods) by women and minors under 18 years of age is 54. Since the data herein presented were obtained the working hours for minors under 16 years of age have been further reduced to 48 a week. In the case of males 18 years of age and over the hours of labor are not limited by statute.

Occasionally in the course of this inquiry pay-rolls indicated an excess over 54 hours of labor for female employees. This apparent violation of the law may, no doubt, be explained as due to the method of figuring pay for extra or special work. Credit for special work-such as cleaning of work-rooms or offices is often entered on pay-rolls, not at a higher rate of pay, but as time and one-half, double time, etc., although the actual number of hours worked may be well within the law. For a special grade of work it sometimes happens that a week of five and one-half days of

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nine hours each is paid for at the rate of one and one-quarter days for each of six days. This explanation will doubtless account for any apparent excessive number of working hours for women that may be shown in the following tables.

Facts as to the number of hours worked are brought out more forcibly when presented in tabular form. In the following table the average customary working time and the average hours actually worked in the representative week covered by this investigation are shown for each of the various classes of employees for whom weekly hours of labor were ascertained. We find in each of the three groups of industries that the average number of hours actually worked by nearly all of the important classes of employees during the week covered by this inquiry were somewhat less than their average customary full-time weekly hours. For the male time-workers in a few cases the average actual hours per employee showed an excess over the average regular hours for that class of workers.

TABLE 11. Average Customary Working Time and Average Hours Actually Worked in a Representative Week, Classified by Industries.