States, Population and Social Statistics, p. 663.
[18] June, 1893.
[19] The table is copied with minute care from that given in the last
census; and while it shows one or two deficiencies, the writer is in no
sense responsible for them, its accuracy, as a whole, not being affected
by the slight discrepancy referred to.
[20] The tables in this department of the census for 1890 are not yet
ready for the public; but the department states that the increase in
women wage-earners averages about ten per cent.
V.
LABOR BUREAUS AND THEIR WORK IN RELATION TO WOMEN.
The difficulties encountered by the enumerators of the United States
Census, and the growing conviction that much more minute and organized
effort must be given if the real status of women workers was to be
obtained, had already been matter of grave discussion. The labor
question pressed upon all who looked below the surface of affairs; and
very shortly after the census of 1860 a proposition was made in Boston
to establish there a formal bureau of labor, whose business should be to
fill in all the blanks that in the general work were passed over.
Many facts, all pointing to the necessity of some such organization, lay
before the men who pondered the matter,--factory abuses of many orders,
the startling increase of pauperism and crime, with other causes which
can find small space here. With difficulty consent was obtained to
establish a bureau which should inquire into the causes of all this; and
the first report was given to the public in 1870. It was descriptive
rather than statistical, and necessarily so. Methods were still a matter
of question and experiment. The public had small interest in the
project, and it was essential to outline, not only the work to be done,
but the reasons for its need.
Naturally, then, the volume touched upon many abuses,--children in
factories, and the factory system as a whole; the homes of workers, and
their needs in sanitary and other directions; and toward the end a few
pages of special comment on the hard lives of working-women as a whole.
The report for 1871 followed the same lines, giving more detail to each.
That for 1872 took up various phases of women's work,[21] with some of
the general conditions then existing. For the following year elaborate
tables of the cost of living were given, and are invaluable as matters
of reference; and in 1874 came a no less important contribution to
social science in the report on the "Homes of Working-People." Those of
working-women were of course included, but there was still no
description of many of the conditions known to hedge them about. Each
inquiry, however, turned attention more and more in this direction, and
emphasized the need of some work given exclusively to women workers.
In 1875 attention was directed to the health of working-women, and a
portion of the report was devoted to the special effects of certain
forms of employment upon the health of women,[22] the education of
children, the conditions of families, etc. That for 1876 discussed the
question of wives' earnings, and gave tables of what proportion they
made; and that for 1877 took up "Pauperism and Crime," in the growing
amount of which it was claimed by many that the worker had large share.
In 1878 large space was given to education and the work of the young,
for whom the half-time system was urged. The conjugal condition of wives
and mothers was also considered, and the bearing of their work upon the
home. The financial distress of the period had affected wages, and the
report for 1879 considered the effect of this, with the condition of
the "unemployed," the tramp question, and other phases of the problem.
With 1880 and the ending of the first decade of work in this direction
came a fuller report on the social life of workingmen and the divorces
in Massachusetts; 1881 made a plea for uniform hours, and 1882 was
devoted to wages, prices, and profits, and further details of the life
of operatives within their homes; and 1883 found reason again to go over
the question of wages and prices.
I have given this detail because, when one views the work of the bureau
as a whole, it will be seen that each year formed one step toward the
final result, which has been of most vital bearing upon all since
accomplished in the same direction for women. Until the appearance of
the report for 1884, on the "Working-Girls of Boston," there had been no
absolute and authoritative knowledge as to their lives, their earnings,
and their status as a whole. Their numbers were equally unknown, nor was
there interest in their condition, save here and there among special
students of social science. On the other hand there was a popular
impression that the ranks of prostitution were recruited from the
manufactory, and that a certain stigma necessarily rested upon the
factory-worker and indeed upon working-girls as a class.
Six divisions had been found essential to the thorough handling of the
subject; and these divisions have formed the basis of all work since
done in the same lines, whether in State bureaus or in that of the
United States, soon to find mention here. It was under the direction of
Colonel Carroll D. Wright that the Massachusetts Bureau did its careful
and scientific work; and he represents the most valuable labor in this
direction that the country has had, deserving to rank in this matter, as
Tench Coxe still does in the manufacturing system, as the "Father" of
the labor-bureau system.
The six divisions settled upon as essential to any general system of
reports were as follows:--
1. Social Condition.
2. Occupations, Places in which Employed.
3. Hours of Labor, Time Lost, etc.
4. Physical and Sanitary Condition.
5. Economic Condition.
6. Moral Condition.
The Tenth Census of the United States gave the number of women employed
in the city of Boston as 38,881, 20,000 of whom were in occupations
other than domestic service. Each year, as we have already seen, had
touched more and more nearly upon the facts bound up in their lives, but
it had become necessary to determine with an accuracy that could not be
brought in question precisely the facts given under the six headings. To
the surprise of the special agents detailed for this work, who had
anticipated disagreeables of every order, the girls themselves took the
liveliest interest in the matter, answered questions freely, and gave
every facility for the fullest searching into each phase involved.
American girls were found to form but 22.3 per cent of the whole number
of working-women in Massachusetts, of whom but 58.4 per cent had been
born in that State.
The results reached in this report may be regarded as a summary, not
only of conditions for Boston, but for all the large manufacturing towns
of New England, later inquiry justifying this conclusion.
The average age of working-girls was found to be 24.81 years, and the
average at which they began work, 16.81; the average time actually at
work, 7.49 years, and the average number of occupations followed 178,
the time spent in each being 4.43 years. Of the whole, 85 per cent were
found to do their own housework and sewing, either wholly or in part.
But 22 per cent were allowed any vacation, and but 3.9 per cent received
pay during that time, the average vacation being 1.87 weeks. A little
over 26 per cent worked the full year without loss of time, while an
average of 12.32 weeks was lost by 73 per cent. The average time worked
by all during the year was 42.95 weeks. In personal service 26.5 per
cent worked more than ten hours a day; in trade, 19.5 per cent were so
employed, and in manufactures 5.6 per cent. In all occupations 8.9 per
cent worked more than ten hours a day, and 8.6 per cent more than sixty
hours a week.
In the matter of health 76.2 per cent of the whole number employed were
in good health.
The average weekly earnings for the average time employed, 42.95 weeks,
was $6.01, and the average weekly earnings of all the working-girls of
Boston for a whole year were $4.91. The average weekly income,
including earnings, assistance, and income from extra work done by many,
was $5.17 a year.
The average yearly income from all sources was $269.70, and the average
yearly expenses for positive needs $261.30, leaving but $7.77, on the
average, as a margin for books, amusements, etc. Those making savings
are 11 per cent of the whole, their average savings being $72.15 per
year. A few run in debt, the average debt being $36.60 for the less than
3 per cent incurring debt.
Of the total average yearly expenses, these percentages being based upon
the law laid down by Dr. Engels of Prussia, as to percentage of expenses
belonging to subsistence, 63 per cent must be expended for food and
lodging, and 25 per cent for clothing,--a total of 88 per cent of total
expenses for subsistence and clothing, leaving but 12 per cent of total
expense to be distributed to the other needs of living.
These are, briefly summed up, the results of the investigation, in which
the single workers constituted 88.9 of the whole, and the married but 6
per cent, widows making up the number. It is impossible in these limits
to give further detail on these points, all readers being referred to
the report itself.
The same questions that had first sought answer in New England were even
more pressing in New York. As in most subjects of deep popular or
scientific importance, the sense of need for more data by which to judge
seemed in the air; and already the Labor Bureau of the State of New
York, under the efficient guidance of Mr. Charles F. Peck, had begun a
course of inquiries of the same nature. For years, beginning with the
New York "Tribune," in the days when Margaret Fuller worked for it and
touched at times upon social questions,--always in the mind of Horace
Greeley, its founder,--there had been periodical stirs of feeling in
behalf of sewing-women. It was known that the enormous influx of foreign
labor naturally massed at this point, more than could ever be possible
elsewhere, had brought with it evils suspected, but still not yet
defined in any sense to be trusted. Indications on the surface were
seriously bad, but actual investigation had never tested their nature or
degree. The report of the bureau for 1885, which was given to the
public in 1886, met with a degree of interest and study not usually
accorded these volumes, and roused public feeling to an unexpected
extent.
Mr. Peck brought to the work much the same order of interest that had
marked that of Colonel Wright, and wrote in his introduction to the
report the summary of the situation for New York City:--
"By reason of its immense population, its numerous and extensive
manufactures, its wealth, its poverty, and general cosmopolitan
character, New York City presents a field for investigation into
the subject of 'Working-Women, their Trades, Wages, Home and Social
Conditions,' unequalled by any other centre of population in
America. It opens up a wider and more diversified field for
inquiry, study, and classification of the various industries in
which women seek employment, than can be found even in European
cities, with but few if any exceptions. It is for such reasons that
the inquiry of the bureau into this special subject has been
largely confined to the city named."
Two hundred and forty-seven trades are given in this report, in which
some two hundred thousand women were found to be engaged, this being
exclusive of domestic service. The divisions of the subject were
substantially those adopted by the Massachusetts Bureau; but the numbers
and complexity of conditions made the inquiry far more difficult. Its
results and their bearings will find place later on. It is sufficient
now to say that the two may be regarded as summarizing all phases of
work for women, and as an index to the difficulties at all other points
in the country.
The Bureau of Labor for Connecticut sent out its first report in the
same year (1885), and included investigations and statistics in the same
lines, though, for reasons specified, in much more limited degree. That
for 1886 for the same State took up in detail some points in regard to
the work of both women and children, which, for want of both time and
space, had been omitted in the first, their returns coinciding in all
important particulars with those of the other bureaus.
In 1886 the California Bureau of Labor touched the same points, but only
incidentally, in its general analysis of the labor question. In the
following year, however, the report covering the years 1887 and 1888
took up the question under the same aspects as those handled in the
special reports on this topic, and gave full treatment of the wages,
lives, and general conditions for working-women. It included, also, the
facts, so far as they could be ascertained, of the nature, wages, and
conditions of domestic service in California,--the first attempt at
treating this difficult subject with any accuracy. The apprentice
system, and an important chapter on manual training and its bearings
make this report one of the most valuable, from the social point of
view, that has been given, though where all are invaluable it is hard to
characterize one above another.
Mr. Tobin, for California, and Mr. Hutchins, for Iowa, seemed moved at
the same time in much the same way,--the Iowa report for 1887 treating
the many questions involved with that largeness which has thus far
distinguished work in this direction. Kansas, in the report for 1888,
gave general conditions, women being treated incidentally; and
Minnesota, in the report for the years 1887 and 1888, gave a chapter on
working-women, wages, etc.
Colorado followed, giving in the report for 1887 and 1888, under the
management of Commissioner Rice, a chapter on women wage-workers, in
which space is given to certified complaints of the women themselves, as
to what they consider the disabilities of their special trades. Domestic
service, with some of its abuses, was also considered, and is of much
value. These reports sum up the work so far done in the West, where
labor bureaus are of recent growth. The spirit of inquiry is, however,
equally alive; and each year will see minuter detail and a deeper
scientific spirit.
Maine, in the report for 1888, took up many questions of general
interest, with their incidental bearings on the work of women; and in
1889 came another report from Kansas, in which the labor commissioner,
Mr. Frank Betton, gave large space to an investigation conducted under
many difficulties, but covering the ground very fully. A very full
report from Michigan, under Commissioner Henry A. Robinson, was issued
in 1892, nearly two hundred pages being given to an exhaustive
examination into the conditions of women wage-earners in the State, its
methods owing much to the work which had preceded it.
With this background of admirable work always, no matter what might be
the limitations, making each report a little broader in purpose and
minuter in detail, the way was plain for something even more
comprehensive. This was furnished by the Bureau of Labor of the United
States, which had changed its name, and become, in June, 1887, the
Department of Labor, a part of the Department of the Interior. This
report--the fourth from the bureau, and issued in 1888--was entitled
"Working-Women in Large Cities," and included investigations made in
twenty-two cities, from Boston to San Francisco and San José.
All that long experience had demonstrated as most important in such work
was brought to bear. The investigation covered manual labor in cities,
excluding textile industries, save incidentally as these had already
been treated, as well as domestic service. Textile factories are usually
outside of large cities, and it was the object to discover the
opportunities of employment in the way of manual labor in cities
themselves.
Three hundred and forty-three distinct industries showed themselves, and
others were found which were not included, it being safe to say that
some four hundred may be considered open to women. As before stated,
many are simply subdivisions, made by the constantly increasing
complexity of machinery. The agents of the department carried their work
into the lowest and worst places in the cities named, because in such
places are to be found women who are struggling for a livelihood in most
respectable callings,--living in them as a matter of necessity, since
they cannot afford to live otherwise, but leaving them whenever wages
are sufficient to admit of change.
It is this report which forms the summary of all the work that has
preceded it, and that gives the truest exponent of all present
conditions. It is only necessary to add to it the summaries of the State
reports at other points, to see the aspect of the question as a whole;
and thus we are ready to consider by its aid the general rates of wages
and of the status of the trades of every nature in which women are now
engaged.
FOOTNOTES:
[21] Report for 1872, pp. 59-108.
[22] Report for 1875, pp. 67-112.
VI.
PRESENT WAGE-RATES IN THE UNITED STATES.
Under this heading it is proposed to include, not only the trades just
specified as coming under the investigations recorded in "Working-Women
in Large Cities," but also such data as can be gleaned from all the
labor reports which have given any attention to this phase of the labor
question. Naturally, then, we turn to the report of the Massachusetts
Bureau for 1881, the first statement of these points, and compare it
with the results obtained in the last report from Washington, as well as
with the returns from the various States where investigation of the
question has been made.
Exceptionally favorable conditions would seem to belong to the year in
which the report for 1884 appeared. The financial distress of 1877, with
its results, had passed. New industries of many orders had opened up for
women, and trade in all its forms called for workers and gave almost
constant employ, save in the few occupations which have a distinct
season, and oblige those engaged in them to divide their time between
two if a living is assured.
A distinction must at once be made in the definition of earnings. In
speaking of them, there are necessarily three designations,--wages,
earnings, and income. Wages represent the actual pay per week at the
time employed, with no reference to the number of weeks' employment
during the year. Earnings are the total receipts for any year from
wages. Thus, for example, a girl is paid $5 a week wages, and works
forty weeks of her year. Her earnings would then be for the year $200,
though her wages of $5 per week would indicate that she earned $260 a
year; while in fact her average weekly earnings would be for the whole
year $3.84. Income is her total receipts for the year from all sources:
wages, extra work, help from friends or from investments; in fact, any
receipts from which expenses can be paid.
In preparing the tables of these reports, the highest, the lowest, the
average, and the general average were brought into a final comparison.
Often but one wage is given, and it then becomes naturally both highest
and lowest; but all figures are made to indicate an entire occupation or
branch of industry, and not a few high or low paid employees in that
branch. It is only with the final comparison that we are able to deal,
the reader being referred to the reports themselves for the invaluable
details given at full length and including many hundred pages.
The divisions of occupations are the same as those of the tenth census,
and the tables are made on the same system. To determine the general
conditions for the twenty thousand at work, it was necessary to have
accurate detail as to one thousand; and, in fact, 1,032 were
interviewed. Directly after the work in this direction had ended, and
before the report was ready for publication, a general reduction of ten
per cent in wages took place, and this must be kept in mind in dealing
with the returns recorded. In this, recapitulation is given in full,
and, as will be seen, includes all occupations open to women.
RECAPITULATION.
========================================================================
| BOSTON. |OTHER PARTS OF MASS.| OTHER STATES.
|----------------+--------------------+----------------
| Number|Average | Number | Average | Number| Average
| | Weekly | | Weekly | | Weekly
| |Earnings| | Earnings | |Earnings
|-------+--------+---------+----------+-------+--------
Government and | | | | | |
professional | 7 | $5 57 | 5 | $6 40 | 10 | $6 28
Domestic and | | | | | |
personal office | 178 | 5 94 | 27 | 5 33 | 21 | 4 69
Trade and | | | | | |
transportation | 221 | 5 00 | 4 | 9 25 | 4 | 7 25
Manufactures and | | | | | |
mechanical | | | | | |
industries | 1,293 | 6 22 | 72 | 7 06 | 49 | 7 58
|-------+--------+---------+----------+-------+--------
All occupations | 1,699 | $6 03 | 108 | $6 68 | 84 | $6 69
========================================================================
The commissioners of the New York State Bureau of Labor followed a
slightly different method. The returns are no less minute, but are given
under the heading of each trade, two hundred and forty-seven of which
were investigated. The wages of workwomen for the entire year run from
$3.50 to $4 a week, the general average not being given, though later
returns make it $5.85. This is, however, for skilled labor; and as a
vast proportion of women workers in New York City are engaged in sewing,
the poorest paid of all industries, we must accept the first figures as
nearer the truth. An expert on shirts receives as high as $12 a week,
in some cases $15; but in slop work, and under the sweating-system,
wages fall to $2.50 or $3 per week, and at times less. Mr. Peck found
cloakmakers working on the most expensive and perfectly finished
garments for 40 cents a day, a full day's pay being from 50 to 60
cents.[23] In other cases a day's work brought in but 25 cents, and
seventeen overalls of blue denim gave a return of 75 cents. Two and a
half cents each is paid for the making of boys' gingham waists, with
trimming on neck and sleeves, including the button-holes; and the women
who made these sat sixteen hours at the sewing-machine, with a result of
25 cents.[24]
This was for irregular work. Women employed on clothing in general,
working for reputable firms, receive from $4.50 to $6 per week. In the
tobacco manufacture, in which great numbers are employed, $9 is the
lowest actual earnings, and $20 the highest per week. In cigarettes, the
pay ranges from $4 to $15 per week. In dry-goods, with ten divisions of
employment,--cashiers, bundle-girls, saleswomen, floor-walkers,
seamstresses, cloakmakers, cash-girls, stock-girls, milliners, and
sewing-girls,--the lowest sum per week is $1.50, paid to cash-girls, and
the highest paid to floor-walkers, $16. On the east side of the city,
shop girls receive often as low as $3 per week; in a few cases
specified, $2.50 per week.[25]
In laundry-work, which includes several divisions, wages weekly range
from $7.50 to $10, though ironers of special excellence sometimes make
from $12 to $15 per week. In millinery the wages are from $6 to $7 per
week. In preserving and fruit-canning wages are from $3.50 to $10, the
average worker earning about $5 per week. Mr. Peck states that in
fashion trades the two distinct seasons bring the year's earnings to
about six months. "Learners" in the trades coming under this head
receive $1.50 per week. Saleswomen suffer also from season trade, as it
necessitates reduction of force. The better class of workers receive
from $8 to $15 per week, while heads of departments range from $25 to
$50, or even higher, for exceptional merit. These cases are of the
rarest, however, the wage as an average falling below that of Boston.