week in response to fluctuations in the work-load of the various units.

The women production workers on the pay rolls of the 258 laundries were grouped in nine occupations; these women were markers, washers' helpers and tumblers, flatworkers, shirtline operators, other machine pressers, hand ironers, sorters, working supervisors, and general or miscellaneous production workers. A laundry employing 50 women production workers usually had about 14 flatworkers, 8 shirtline operatives, 7 other machine pressers, 6 markers, 7 sorters, and 8 other workers (hand ironers, working supervisors, etc.).

Flatworkers generally composed the largest single occupational group. Considerable differences were found, however, from laundry to laundry in the relative importance of this group. Two-fifths of the laundries employed 20 to 30 percent of their women production workers as flatworkers. But in about one-fifth of the establishments, flatworkers constituted less than 20 percent, and in one-sixth of the plants they were substantially more important, constituting 40 percent or more.

Differences from plant to plant in the occupational distribution of their women production workers, though most marked for the flatworkers, were not confined to this occupation. In almost twothirds of the laundries, shirtline operatives represented 10 to 20 percent of the woman productive force, but in most of the other plants the shirt crew was relatively more important. Other machine pressers, constituting 10 to 20 percent of women workers in almost threefifths of the laundries, were significantly less important in many.

Markers and sorters, combined, generally accounted for a fourth of the woman productive force. Several laundries, however, primarily in Chicago and Kansas City, were able to handle the marking and sorting operations with substantially smaller proportions of their

women.

The differences from plant to plant in the relative importance of each occupation can be traced, in part, to the types of service offered in each and the distribution of the laundry's business among those services offered.

In the war period some laundries had discontinued family-finish service, and these plants would obviously have little need for wearingapparel pressers. Other laundries, having discontinued hand "touchup," would not require hand ironers. Two Chicago laundries, for example, both employing about the same number of women workers, showed distinct differences in the occupational distribution of their work forces. One laundry, employing 52 women production workers and offering all the basic services, reported that one-fifth of the women were either machine pressers or hand ironers. The other laundry, employing 57 women and not offering the family-finish service, had neither machine pressers nor hand ironers.

There is no doubt, either, that the operating methods used in the plant affected the relative importance of each occupation. Differences from plant to plant can be caused by differences in marking methods, the extent to which labor-saving devices are used, the degree of specialization, plant efficiency, and flow of work through the plant.

1 Includes all hand ironers except those working on shirtline crews who are classed with shirtline operators.

CHAPTER III. EARNINGS1

INTRACITY VARIATIONS

AVERAGE FOR ALL OCCUPATIONS

Average hourly earnings among competing laundries within the same city were vastly different, demonstrating a conspicuous lack of wage standardization. In an overwhelming majority of the cities. surveyed, employees working in the city's highest-paying laundry earned 30 to over 50 percent more than those in the lowest-paying laundry.

Four or more establishments were visited in 27 of the 38 cities included in the survey. In these 27 cities, average hourly earnings in the top-wage plant exceeded those in the lowest-wage plant by an average of 12 cents. A 12-cent differential in a typically low-wage industry yields a substantial percent difference-it amounted to an average difference of as high as 39 percent. In some cities the difference was much greater. Birmingham was one of them. Here, employees in the highest-paying plant, averaging 36 cents an hour, came close to earning twice as much as those less fortunately employed in the lowest-paying plant where hourly earnings averaged only 19 cents. Norfolk was another. In this city, employees in one plant averaged 56 cents an hour, those in another only 30 cents.

Midwestern cities, though not having differences as high as 50 percent, such as were found in several southeastern cities, also showed a marked lack of uniformity in earnings within the same city. Chicago topped the list with a difference of 22 cents, or 43 percent, between the lowest- and highest-paying plant. Indianapolis, where the difference was 40 percent, was close behind.

That wage standardization within a city is possible is demonstrated by the earnings found in three of them-Kansas City, Terre Haute, and Raleigh, where average hourly earnings in different plants of each city differed by no more than 3 cents.

The fact that the laundries in a city were operating under a union. contract did not necessarily serve to standardize wages. In 4 of the 27 cities under consideration, all or most laundries were organized, and wage scales were set by union agreement. Two of them, Kansas City and Terre Haute, were among the three cities of striking wage uniformity. The other two, however, Chicago and Birmingham, showed marked differences from one establishment to another.

Table 2 shows the variation from one laundry to another within the same city.

1 Information obtained on earnings was based, for the most part, on the week ended July 15, 1945. This information may no longer represent current conditions. Among other changes which have taken place since July 1945, it is known, for example, that the St. Louis laundries have since been organized and are operating under a union contract calling for a 40-cent minimum rate. Similarly, under a renegotiated union contract in Birmingham, rates are higher than those reported at the time of survey.

Table 2.-Intracity Differences Between Plants in Average Hourly Earnings of Women Production Workers, by City 1

Lists only those cities in which 4 or more laundries were visited. City averages take into account the number of plants in each city but not the number of women production workers in each plant. 3 This represents the percent by which earnings in the highest-paying plant exceed those in the lowestpaying plant.

Although the power-laundry industry has long been among the lowest-paying fields of employment for women, wage practices of many employers themselves prove that it need not be a depressedwage industry. In most cities there was one and often there were a few establishments where women earned substantially more than in other establishments of the same city. Moreover, as will develop in subsequent chapters, these higher wage-standard laundries did not necessarily charge higher prices than others in the city, and often their productive labor-cost ratios were lower than in other low-wage plants. In Louisville, for example, women's hourly earnings in four plants averaged 55 or 54 cents, but in the other four plants earnings lagged behind at averages of 47 cents or less and as low as 41 cents.

Indianapolis showed a similar picture. Two laundries where women averaged 63 and 61 cents an hour stood out as wage leaders, but in all other plants average earnings were 55 cents or less. Even in the unusually low-wage cities in the Southeast, some laundry owners found it possible to pay wages high enough to enable their employees to earn considerably more than employees of other laundries. In Wilmington, for example, where average earnings for all plants was at the conspicuously low level of 34 cents and where women in one establishment averaged only 24 cents, one plant stood above all others in that hourly earnings there averaged 40 cents. In the very low-wage city of Columbia, too, where average earnings in most plants hit lows of 25-28 cents, women in one plant averaged 34 cents hardly an adequate wage level but nevertheless much higher than in other laundries of the city.

SELECTED OCCUPATIONS

Flatworkers, constituting numerically the most important occupation, were also generally the lowest paid in the five basic women's production occupations. The highest-paid workers were usually the markers and sorters. Earnings of shirtline operatives and of other machine pressers generally fell at some point between those of flatworkers and of markers and sorters. Only a few cities varied from this pattern. Shirtline operatives, rather than markers and sorters, took top place in average earnings in four localities-Chicago, Kansas City, Louisville, and small Missouri cities. Other machine pressers averaged highest earnings in two cities, Indianapolis and Memphis. Because earnings differed from one occupation to another, plant to plant differences in occupational composition may account for the great variety in average earnings within each city. But such differences are obviously only a partial explanation. The observation on lack of wage standardization within a city, made in the first section, was reinforced by the marked differences found from plant to plant in earnings in the same occupation. This was outstandingly true of shirtline operatives who, in many cities, earned over 70 percent more in the highest-paying plant than those working in the lowest-paying plant. Intracity differences were so great that in two cities shirt operatives in one plant averaged almost twice as much as those in another, and in two other cities the difference was even greater. In Chicago, for example, where the city average for shirt operatives was 69 cents, the average in three plants was as high as 90 cents, compared to a low in three other plants of 55 or 52 cents. Similarly, shirt operatives in one Birmingham plant averaged 45 cents, those in two others only 21 cents. As table 3 shows, the greatest difference was found in Norfolk, the least in Terre Haute. Moreover, as will be discussed in a subsequent chapter, differences in productivity were not necessarily reflected in differences in earnings.

Table 3.-Intracity Differences Between Plants in Average Hourly Earnings of Women Shirtline Operatives, by City 1

1 Lists only those cities in which 4 or more laundries were visited. 2 City averages take into account the number of women shirtline operatives in each plant. This represents the percent by which earnings in the highest-paying plant exceed those in the lowestpaying plant.

Earnings of flatworkers, the least skilled workers and probably those whose occupation is most comparable from one plant to another, also showed marked variations within each city, though not as wide as for shirt operatives. In nearly two-thirds of the cities, flatworkers in one plant earned 40 percent or more above those in another plant. Because flatworkers were the lowest-paid workers, differences from plant to plant in several southeastern cities meant the difference between meager earnings of 17-22 cents and those over 30 cents. Table 4 shows the differences between one plant and another within each city.

Comparison of average earnings in each of the other occupations among laundries in the same city also revealed the same lack of wage standardization found among the numerically more important groups of flatworkers and of shirt operatives.