The total number of workers in the 50 plants was 4,792, of whom 2,702, or 56.4 per cent, were women. In the 19 St. Louis factories there were 632 women, who constituted 65 per cent of the total working force, a larger proportion than was found in the 31 plants in Chicago, where 54.2 per cent of the employees were women. These figures, showing that women constituted over one-half of the workers. in the industry, are typical. The Bureau of the Census figures show that in 1914, 60 of every 100 confectionery workers were women,1 and according to an investigation of the candy industry in Philadel phia in 1919, women constituted 58.3 per cent of the working force in 25 factories. Women are in general more in demand for most of the occupations than are men. The more detailed figures show that in some of the individual establishments the proportion of men, however, was larger than the proportion of women. One Chicago plant with men constituting 87 per cent of its 108 employees showed the largest percentage of male workers. 5 OCCUPATIONS IN THE INDUSTRY. In factories manufacturing the variety of confections already enumerated, a diversity of occupations would be expected. The work was found, indeed, to be greatly subdivided into special processes, most of which were of a highly monotonous and repetitive nature, but for the purpose of discussion these have been classified under several main heads-foremanship, cooking and making, dipping, packing and wrapping, machine operating, and other occupations. Candy making has been reported upon frequently enough to make a detailed description of the various processes unnecessary in this discussion. It is of interest, however, to touch upon the types of work performed by the men and women in the plants inspected. On the whole, the jobs had been assigned according to sex, in the usual way. In a comparison of the occupations of the men and women it is apparent from Table 1 that men had a monopoly of the actual making, that is, the mixing of materials and the cooking. No women. were found in these occupations, which require skill and much physical strength. Only a comparatively small proportion of the men (13.6 per cent) were engaged in these processes. The great bulk of the men (73.1 per cent) were found in the "other occupations group. This was due largely to the fact that men and boys were employed in the maintenance of the plant, in shipping and in doing miscellaneous jobs connected with production. One kind of work usually performed by men, and only occasionally by women, was the rolling of stick candy. The job of foremanship was divided rather U. S. Bureau of the Census. Abstract of the census of manufactures, 1914, p. 445. The exact percentage is 59.7. U. S. Department of Labor. Woman in Industry Service. Wages of candy makers in Philadelphia in 1919. Bulletin 4, 1919, p. 14. equally between men and women, as there were 93 foremen and 108 forewomen reported in the plants investigated. There were no men engaged in hand dipping. Only a small proportion of men (2.4 per cent) were employed as packers and wrappers and a not much larger number (6.2 per cent) as machine operators. In the latter group were a few supervisors of enrobing machines and some operators of machines for mixing ingredients, molding candy, cutting caramels, and blowing off the starch used in the hardening process. The one operation performed exclusively by women and the one requiring more skill than any of the others done by women was hand dipping. This is divided into chocolate and bonbon dipping, the former requiring more dexterity and experience than the latter. One manager stated that a woman could become a bonbon dipper in a month, but that she required six months of practice to learn chocolate dipping. An even more expert job is that of two-hand dipping at which a girl must work for about a year and a half before attaining proficiency. In this process a roller works with the dipper, throwing the handmade centers into the chocolate. The dipper has two hands in the chocolate, using the left one as a sort of cup in which to dip the chocolate. The hand-rolled centers are more difficult to keep in shape than the centers made in the starch room. Altogether only 15.9 per cent of the women were found in all kinds of hand dipping the smallest proportion, with the exception of forewomen, in any of the occupational groups in the table. Not all of the dipping was done by hand. A great many chocolates, especially the cheaper grades, were machine dipped. The operation of these machines, designated as enrobers, was a simple process, usually performed by women. Four girls, as a rule, worked at an enrober, one being in charge and the rest feeding and taking off. Other automatic machines operated by women in some plants were those for molding, wrapping, blanching peanuts, and cutting such goods as caramels and chocolate and coconut bars. By far the largest number of women were engaged in packing and wrapping (45.3 per cent). These jobs, in the main, required speed rather than judgment or skill. Frequently the packers also did the wrapping and occasionally the weighing and tying. In many plants they were classified as fancy, plain, chocolate, and pail, or bulk, packers. Methods varied in the different establishments. In one, for example, the girls doing fancy packing, which probably requires more care than does any other sort, filled only one box at a time; whereas in another establishment the fancy packers worked on as many as a hundred boxes at once, moving from one to another where they were spread out on a table. In some places the girls remained seated and packed from a moving belt. In the making of so many different kinds of candy there were many miscellaneous jobs, for which women and girls were employed and which required little if any skill. Among these occupations was the "slab work," a term used for such processes as cutting and powdering fancy candies, making fancy centers, assorting nuts, preparing dates, hand decorating, and molding the last two requiring a little skill. Some of the workers were designated as helpers or floor girls, whose duty it was to facilitate the work in any way possible; sometimes they helped the dippers by bringing them the melted chocolate. 'Sample girls" was the name given to those who planned what candy was to be packed. Other employees were engaged in labeling, tying, checking, and helping with the shipping. In a number of plants the girls changed from one of these small jobs to another and were known as general workers. SUMMARY OF FACTS. 1. Date. This study of candy manufacturing in two large middle western cities deals largely with conditions in the industry in February to April, 1921. It includes, however, some information about wages throughout 1920, with definite data for a week in June of that It shows that the industry in a slack month in a prosperous year. period was more active and thriving than it was in a supposedly busy season during the industrial depression of 1921. 2. Scope. The study included 31° factories in Chicago and 19 in St. Louis, employing, respectively, 2,070 and 632 women. 3. Chicago versus St. Louis. In regard to hours, wages, and working conditions candy manufacturing was on a generally higher plane in Chicago than it was in St. Louis. The former city, however, is a more important candy center than is the latter. 4. Hours. Despite the curtailment of working schedules during the time of the investigation, normal scheduled hours were recorded. The 31 Chicago establishments showed much shorter scheduled hours and also much more lost time than did the 19 St. Louis plants-facts shown by the following summary: Daily hours.-An 8-hour day had been adopted by 11 factories in Chicago, employing 27.6 per cent of the women included in Chicago and by 3 factories in St. Louis, employing 2.8 per cent of the women included in St. Louis. A 9-hour day was found in slightly less than one-third of the Chicago factories employing somewhat over one-third of the women in the Chicago survey and in almost two-thirds of the St. Louis factories employing three-fourths of the women in the St. Louis survey. No establishment in either city had more than a 9-hour day. Weekly hours.-A weekly schedule of 48 hours or less was found in 22 Chicago factories employing almost two-thirds of the women included in Chicago (65.1 per cent) and in 4 St. Louis factories em'One other establishment was inspected, but no record was obtained for number of employees. ploying less than one-fifth of the women (17.6 per cent) included in St. Louis. None of the Chicago factories had more than a 50-hour week despite the State law permitting 70 hours for women in industry, whereas 7 of the St. Louis factories employing over one-half of the women included in that city had as much as a 54-hours week, the maximum hours of employment for women permitted by the State. Saturday hours.-A Saturday half holiday was customary in 26 of the 31 Chicago plants and in only 3 of the 19 St. Louis plants. Lost time.-Much lost time was reported for both cities, due largely to slackened production in the industry. Somewhat over one-half of the women included in each city had lost some time during the week recorded. The Chicago factories, on the whole, despite shorter scheduled hours, showed much more lost time than did the St. Louis plants. Of the women with a record for time lost, 46.9 per cent of those in Chicago as compared with 26.9 per cent in St. Louis had lost 15 hours or more during the week. 5. Wages. At the time of the investigation, earnings of women in candy factories had dropped noticeably below the 1920 peak and even below earnings in June, 1920, an admittedly dull season. This decline was the result of official wage cuts, discontinuance of bonuses, curtailed working schedules, and slackened production in the industry. The women in Chicago despite their much shorter hours received. considerably higher wages than did the women in St. Louis. Piece workers in both cities earned more than did time workers. Exclusive of foremanship, dipping-which is the most skilled work done by women and which employed 16 per cent of the women included in Chicago and 19 per cent of those in St. Louis-was by far the best paid occupation. The great bulk of the women in both Chicago and St. Louis (51 per cent and 46.1 per cent, respectively) were packers and wrappers. These constituted the lowest paid group in Chicago in the 1921 period, whereas in St. Louis the machine operators showed the lowest median earnings. In the 1920 period, however, exclusive of the unclassified, machine operators were the most poorly paid group in both cities. In the 1920 period there was but little variation between earnings and rates, whereas in the 1921 period median earnings were less than median rates in all cases, showing a decrease for dippers in St. Louis and Chicago of 15 and 16.3 per cent, respectively. Furthermore, rates for the 1920 pay-roll period were higher than for the 1921, except for forewomen and dippers. Although the increase in the median rates for the former was negligible, the increase in the median rates of dippers was considerable, although their median earnings showed practically no increase over the 1920 period In the matter of yearly earnings, as would be expected, a group of experienced and steady women workers in Chicago showed a much better record than did a similar group of women in St. Louis. In general the great majority of the St. Louis women received earnings which could scarcely be termed a living wage, in view of the exorbitantly high cost of living which prevailed throughout 1920 and which had declined only slightly at the time of the investigation. Even in Chicago where wages were generally higher a number of women were inadequately paid. The following summary of wage figures serves to substantiate the foregoing statements: Median weekly rates for dippers who were time workers: Chicago... St. Louis. 13.75 (Machine opera- 16.30 tors.) 10. 80 12.35 15.75 15.95 12.60 12. 80 26.30 25.90 20.90 20.65 Median yearly earnings: Chicago (237 women; no fore women included). St. Louis (88 women; no forewomen included). Median yearly earnings of dippers (best paid group): Chicago. St. Louis. Chicago. St. Louis.. Median yearly earnings of machine operators (lowest paid group): $891 697 988 742 825 625 600 800 earned 1,000 |