BUREAU OF STATISTICS CHARLES F. GETTEMY, Director EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT ON UNION SCALE OF WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR IN MASSACHUSETTS 1917 LABOR BULLETIN No. 124 (Being Part II of the Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor for 1918) JUNE 1, 1918 BOSTON WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING COMPANY STATE PRINTERS UNION SCALE OF WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR IN MASSACHUSETTS, 1917. INTRODUCTION. This report is the eighth of a series of annual reports issued by this Bureau relative to the time-rates of wages and hours of labor prevailing in the organized industries and trades in Massachusetts.1 The data herein presented were obtained principally as of the date July 1, 1917, at which time schedules of inquiry were sent, with few exceptions, to all of the local trade unions in the Commonwealth whose members were known to be working under a time-rate system. In certain industries and trades, such as the boot and shoe industry, the textile industry, the metal trades, and the clothing trades, wages are paid on a piece-rate basis, but the piece-rates quoted are so numerous and the units of payment are so diverse that it has not seemed advisable to include them in this report. In those instances where organized workmen have endeavored to establish in an industry or trade a union scale of wages and hours of labor, but without any fair degree of success, such proposed scales have been omitted from this report. On the other hand, wherever, in any locality, a definite scale of wages and hours of labor has actually become effective in a strongly organized industry or trade, although it may not have been the subject of a formal, signed agreement between employers and employees, such scale has been included in this report. The term "time-rates of wages", as used in this report, signifies the wages agreed upon in return for services for a specified period, e.g., an hour, day, week, etc., and should not be confounded with actual earnings, since the earnings of employees depend both upon the rates of wages paid them and upon the continuity of their employment. The rates of wages 1 Previous reports relative to time-rates of wages and hours of labor effective in the organized industries and trades in Massachusetts on the several dates specified were issued by this Bureau as follows: Part I of the Forty-first Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor. Labor Bulletin No. 91. 1910 (October 1). 1911 (October 1). 1912 (October 1). Labor Bulletin No. 96. |