ACT AUTHORIZING MICHIGAN STATE COMMISSION

OF INQUIRY

PUBLIC ACTS 1913.

No. 290.

An Act to create a commission of inquiry to make the necessary investigation and

to prepare and submit a report to the next Legislature, or to any special session of the present Legislature, setting forth a comprehensive plan and recommending legislative action, providing for minimum wages for female employes; and to appropriate the necessary moneys for the expense thereof.

The People of the State of Michigan enact:

SECTION 1. There shall be a commission of inquiry to consist of three members to be appointed by the Governor from among the citizens of this State, to investigate conditions and problems involved in the question of wages paid to female employes with special reference to whether such wages paid are adequate for the necessary cost of living and to maintain the worker in health, and whether the conditions of labor are prejudicial to the health or morals of the workers in the several occupations, trades and industries in this State employing women.

SEC. 2. The members of said commission shall serve without pay and shall be allowed their actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their duties while traveling within this State.

Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of said commission to fully investigate matters mentioned in section one, and for the purpose of the investigation, said commission is hereby authorized to hold sessions in various parts of the State if necessary, to summon witnesses and require the production of books and papers relating to said subject, to administer oaths and to employ such clerical and other assistance as may be necessary to accomplish the purposes of this act.

SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of said commission to prepare and submit to the next Legislature, or to any special session of the present Legislature, a full report of their findings together with such proposed legislation as will in their opinion remedy such conditions as they may find.

Sec. 5. Said commission shall as soon as practicable after its appointment, meet at the capitol and organize by electing one of its members as chairman and shall have use of suitable quarters to be provided by the Board of State Auditors.

Sec. 6. Said commission shall have power to purchase books, stationery and other materials and the expenses incurred in the performance of their duties, including the cost of the publication of such a number of copies of their report as in their judgment shall be advisable, shall be audited and allowed by the Board of State Auditors upon vouchers and bills properly sworn to and duly certified by the chairman and shall be paid from the general fund of the State.

Sec. 7. It is hereby declared that this act is immediately necessary for the preservation of the public health and safety.

Approved May 13, 1913.

PARTS.

I.- Review, ('onclusions and Recommendations of the Commission

of Inquiry. II.--Tentative Minimum Wage Bill.

III. Secretary's Report and Tabulations of Information obtained from

Women Wage-Earners.

IV.--Tabulations of Wage Figures Supplied by Employers.

V:-Wage Showing from Investigation of Pay Rolls.
VI.--Estimates by Women's (lubs and Wage-Earning Women of ('ost

of Living

VII.-- Minimum Wage Legislation to Date.

VII. Court Decisions on Minimum Wage Legislation.

PART I.

REPORT OF THE MICHIGAN MINIMUM WAGE COMMISSION ON
THE ADVISABILITY OF ESTABLISHING A MINIMUM WAGE

FOR MICHIGAN WAGE-EARNING WOMEN.

TO THE Hon. WOODBRIDGE N. FERRIS,

Governor of Michigan.

The ('ommissioners, appointed by you as provided by Act 290 of the Public Acts of 1913, to investigate the conditions and wages of women wage earners, and to report upon the advisability of establishing a minimum wage for women, herewith respectfully submit to you, and through you to the legislature, their report.

The Commission appointed in October, 1913, immediately organized by selecting Commissioner Judson Grenell as Chairman, and Luella M. Burton, long connected with the Michigan Labor Bureau, as Secretary.

The subject of a minimum wage law was entirely new in Michigan, and largely new in the United States, and it became necessary for the Commission to make an original and independent investigation at first hand into the whole matter. To this end three different blanks were prepared with great care and used for the purpose of securing the facts as to wages paid and conditions of employment of women, their expenditures, and manner and cost of living in detail. A printed copy of each of these forms is contained in this report. Early in 1914 competent women investigators were employed to personally interview and obtain this data from women wage-earners themselves. This was a long and difficult, but the Commissioners believe, most important work.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION. Altogether the Commission has gathered information under oath from 1,348 employers in 200 different occupations in 159 localities employing a daily average of 50,351 women; from 8,512 women wage-earners in 18 different occupations, personally seen and interrogated by the (Commission's investigators, and working in 535 different establishments;

and from 62 women's clubs in almost as many different localities, representing hundreds of members. Round table discussions and meetings were also held with college professors and others interested in the problem both academically and practically.

Not all of those interrogated answered every question. The women wage-earners were asked how they spent their wages and in this and some other respects the questions were more personal than have heretofore been put by State investigators, at least in Michigan; but the Commission was of the opinion that this information would shed needed light on the life and needs of working women earning their own living in whole or in part. It is necessary to know how wages are spent, and the cost of living, as well as the wages received, before the real economic condition of this or any other class of wealth producers can be shown.

It is almost needless to say that few of the women interviewed had kept close track of their expenditures. Only a small number could state, offhand, how much wages they had received the past year, or even how much time they had lost through sickness, lack of work, or from other causes. Thus there was required on the part of the investigators much painstaking effort in order to discover the actual financial condition of these wage-earning women.

PAY ROLLS AND PUBLIC HEARINGS. In addition to the sources already stated, of the Commission's information, the pay rolls of seven establishments for an entire year were copied by the Commission's investigators. (See Part V.) These pay rolls alone ought to settle beyond dispute the question of wage rates, if there is any dispute to settle. They also disclose the large number who shift employment, a fact that has an important bearing on the yearly wage of the ordinary woman wage-earner.

Public hearings of the Commission were held in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Saginaw and Bay City. And the Commission, upon invitation, attended, in Bay City, the annual convention of the State Laundrymen's Association, and in Grand Rapids one session of the Conference of Corrections and Charities. This latter was addressed by Mrs. Florence Kelley, who later, in a private conference with the Commissioners, gave valuable advice drawn from her own experience as a state factory inspector and the active head of the National Consumers' League.

The labor organizations of Michigan were also asked for their opinion as to the advisability and practicability of a minimum wage for women. Finally the representatives of the economic departments of the colleges of the State were invited to Lansing to hold a round table discussion on the minimum wage, in the endeavor to discover if the academic and practical sides of the problem would harmonize.